Celebration 2024 - Friday

 Marie, Diane and I just took a little walk out to the St. Ignace Lighthouse this morning. Since my program was this afternoon, I couldn't take a chance on going on a scheduled hike and not getting back in time.

I know this is nothing but the rip-rap along the pier, but I liked the play of the light on the water.

My program went great. After mine was done, I managed to slip into the end of a geology workshop that I wanted to attend, but the time conflicted with mine. One of the places we got to see is called St. Anthony's Rock. It's a sea stack- a conglomeration of rocks from collapsed underwater caves of the last glacial lake before the current Great Lakes (Lake Nippising). If you are from Michigan, you will probably recognize the name of the most famous one, which is Castle Rock.

The evening speaker was dynamic and funny, but all my pictures are out of focus. I did get my picture with one of the remaining charter members of the NCTA. This is Ken Gackler. In fact, his membership number is #2!

That doesn't sound like a busy day, but it was... lots of talking and running around. I'm crashing for the night. See you tomorrow.

Miles hiked so far in 2024: 367.3.

various places in St. Ignace, 1.5 miles

See Celebration 2024- thursday

Water You Thinking?

  Today had a lot of potential. It was really nice outside. But I had a hard time getting myself into gear. Nevertheless, I did take a 3-mile walk. Yesterday we did wood. Today we'll do water.

If chevrons aren't your thing, how about vertical stripes?

In one way, I liked how amorphous this one is. Is it out of focus, or just a fuzzy pattern? I'm not sure!

But this is probably my favorite of this group. Nothing spectacular, but maybe a little mysterious.

In other news: I did manage to accomplish a few things. I wrote all of chapter 11, 1284 words. I did one more tub of cement in the well pit. I took care of one large annoying object. Well, OK, it's not REALLY where it belongs. But I started to clean it up and moved it closer to where it is going to live.

And Josh is fine. He has some kind of infection in the leg- the medicine they gave him is an antibiotic. He says he feels a lot better and the swelling is down.

See More Patterns

Philadelphia - Longer Riverwalk

 
We walked Rachel to work again this morning and bought groceries on the way home. Good weight-bearing exercise, haha. Then I wrote another chapter of The Lonely Donkey.

After lunch, the weather was gorgeous- just what I needed to perk me up (it's going to be hard to come home to 30 degrees)- and Marie and I took a much longer walk. In fact, David suggested we walk as far as we wanted and then he could pick us up so we didn't have to do a return walk.

Marie and I started by going back down to the Schuylkill River. We walked past where we did the other day. This far north, it's less urban and there is plenty of park space.



The nearby universities all have rowing clubs, and they were out practicing today. By the time we were finished walking, the river was covered with them.



I always seem to forget how much farther south Philadelphia is from where I live. This mockingbird was just checking out the scenery.



Philadelphia is filled with sculptures. I didn't take too many pictures today because I was intent on hiking. But I caught a few. I think I've seen pictures of this one and it's companion piece. This is "Settling of the Eastern Seaboard." You could keep a blog alive for a long, long time just covering all the sculptures.



Most of the time we were walking between the river and Fairmount Park. This is a 2000-acre park with portions on both sides of the river. It was really interesting to see former entrances, places where one could presumably park and then walk up the hill into the park, when the traffic on the road at the base of the hill was much less. I liked this one. I think you could still walk up into the park here.



Of course, I'm always trying to capture a really perfect water ripple pattern picture. I do like this one a lot.



The layers of bridges are fascinating. This was my best picture.



And finally, after David retrieved us, we cooked dinner. Marie had suggested stuffed zucchini boats. They were SO yummy! David brought home ice cream, too, so we had a great meal!



Talk about a perfect day with friends. The girls are doing their homework, and we hope to play a card game after that. We've managed one each evening. These are good times!

Oh, yeah. We walked about 9 miles today. We can feel it- not quite in shape for that yet, but we sure will be soon.

See Philadelphia Riverwalk

Primary Patterns

 
Bright colors, intriguing shapes. All high on my list. Can you figure this one out?



Back to Dow Gardens- those red railings were purposefully designed to have interesting lines to carry the eye.


One of these days, I'm going to manage to get a really good picture like this. Meanwhile, this one isn't too shabby.



I thought I was going to have some good pictures of my hawk for you, but not a single one is in focus.

In other news: I worked at Shagway all afternoon, and did some things for Writers' Rendezvous.

	See Dow Gardens Paterns
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Patterns Disguised?

 
You know I love finding patterns and interesting textures, sometimes more than what the object or surface actually is. Here are three from the last few days. Can you tell what they are? I'm hoping it won't be instantly obvious.







The first two I think are the most beautiful, and yet in the raw they were the least attractive. The first one is muddy water in a swampy area that was being riffled by the breeze just a little bit.

The second one was even "worse." It's scum in a roadside ditch, but here it looks like marble.

The third one I'll confess to playing with a little because I wanted to emphasize the pattern rather than what you would instantly see if I left it alone.

It's part of the clouds above last night's sunset.



Sometimes the prettiest things can be found in the least likely places.

In other news: the three children's books are 100% ready to be released on all the seller sites tomorrow. That's satisfying- to have met that goal. Of course, I worked earlier today and go back again tonight. Am contemplating which writing project will be next.

	See More Patterns
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Bright and Smiling

 
The day was bright and I am smiling. Spent almost all of the time I was awake working on book formatting. That accomplishment report is over at the author blog. But I took a nice walk in the middle to stretch my muscles.

There's a little pond at the corner of First Street and Gordon Road. Sun on water sure looks good even if the water is small.





Found one plant trying to get with the springtime program. This is Vinca, myrtle, periwinkle.... whatever you call it.



Just a closeup of some bark on a Scots pine.



I caught this sight out of the corner of an eye and then worked to save it with the camera. The sunlight was making some of the twigs glow if you looked at it just right. They look like ice! I always like something a tiny bit different.


And then, there are always the beech leaves that hang on throughout the winter. I love how they are so pale and papery. I just find them attractive.


Fairly productive for a Saturday. I think I'm taking the party to bed really soon.

	See Another Gorgeous Day
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Small Stuff

 
Took a little walk today in the cemetery. Looking for anything that isn't brown and gray. March is my least favorite month, as you know!

The moss is making an effort to continue its existence.



Yucca plants have a curly tale to tell. This really should have been in the curlique post, but I wasn't willing to ski through the cemetery to get the picture.



Patterns on the water are always interesting.



Saw the first robins of the year, and caught a shot of a happy little chickadee.



I'm working as hard as I can on book formatting. Still a long way to go on The ABZ Affair. Work at the paper tonight of course.

	See The Cute and the Sad See Curlique
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10:20 am - Gurgling Commenced

 
I'm sitting in bed writing, and I hear this odd sound. What is that? I thought. Sort of like running water, but there's not even a pump attached to the well shaft, right?

So I went to the bathroom and the tank is filling!



I went to the window and the pump man's truck is in the driveway. Pretty soon, he (one of the young whippersnappers that do the work now, not the owner) comes to the house with a bill. It's a whole new pump. More on that in a bit.

Not long after that the water was running clear.



I washed dishes.



I cleaned the bathroom (you don't need the before or after shot of that).

I did laundry.

Running water is so convenient. I confess that I don't mind too much when it's not working, but I am quite happy when it is.

Later, the pump man (owner) called to tell me he was unhappy I was putting hay on for insulation. He wanted straw, because the deer and rabbits will eat the hay. You know what? I can't help it. Hay is what I have.

OK. The bill. I had been told what this would cost, so the sticker shock had already happened. Let's just say that my little misadventure in not getting on top of this problem sooner is having consequences. It's my own dumb fault, but this certainly makes it highly unlikely I'll make my savings goal before I quit the mailroom job.

However, in better news, the Ludington bookstore owner called, and as a result of the newspaper article on Thursday, they have sold out of my books. I'm taking him more tomorrow, and I ordered more. Lots more of this needs to happen for me to be able to write, eat, and drive. So far, I'm doing better than breaking even, but I need for the sales to outpace the expenses a little whole lot better. It will come. I'm sure glad I decided to start trying to build momentum BEFORE I quit the other job.

In other news: I wrote my monthly column. I made some decisions about pre-orders of the children's series. I wrote chapter 6- CANTEENS in The Hitchhiker. Now I'm working on chapter 7.

	See Thankful for Water
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