A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

What an absolutely glorious day! Temps in the 70s with a light breeze. And I have flowers blooming to prove it.

The Corydalis 'Blackberry Wine' is pretty much in full bloom, and I now have at least 3 clumps. Maybe a couple of other spots of it. I'll be happy to have this spread because the leaves die back in summer so there is plenty of space for other things to fill in.

Just to complete the report, this is as good as that one lonely regular hyacinth is going to get. However, I see that there are a couple of other clumps of leaves. Maybe they will do something. I keep hoping for that, but in all honesty, they never do. They probably don't like sand. I also moved the three crocus that were in the yard to this flower bed.

The rock garden is starting to come alive! There are blue grape hyacinth all over the place. Also an OK thing because those leaves also die back.

A few violets are starting to open. I pretty much let them bloom and fill in wherever. They self seed all over, but they are easily ripped out if they get too aggressive.

The 'Kaydee' daffodils are in full bloom. Yes, the trumpets are sort of a salmon color. These are medium size- not miniature, but not full size, either.

And finally, the first photo shot of trying to show off mixed colors. The white grape hyacinth, violets in the middle and the 'Gold Nugget' Sempervivum behind that.

I worked on most projects, did errands, fixed the nylon screen door for the deck (ahh- a nice breeze), put out the bird bath

The front garden bed is pretty much cleaned up for the spring. It was amazingly easier than other years because I got it in good shape last year. I also started through the rock garden. I'm starting later than last year, but everything seems to be about a week later.

Of course, I see that some plants lived and some didn't. I'll post the body count as it becomes certain.

See Festival in Yellow

Railroads at Tustin

Glen and I have put our heads together, and here are our conclusions- he knew most of this already.

This is the station sign for Tustin station on the Grand Rapids & Indiana railroad. This north-south line was the first through the area, reaching Tustin about 1872. At it's height, it extended from Indianapolis to Mackinaw City and was the longest north-south rail line in the country.

In 1889, a group of Ludington and Manistee businessmen, in the lumber and salt industries, set out to create an east-west line from Manistee to Grand Rapids, and that is what the railroad was named (later becoming the Michigan East & West). In 1893 the track ended at Tustin, meeting the GR&I. Here's where it gets speculative.

I found this map which shows a wye at Tustin, which makes some sense because where a railroad stops, it has to have a way to turn the train around. However, neither Glen nor I can find any other record of this wye. Anyway, the M&GR is the gray dotted line, with the WYE (which may not have existed, I suppose). The strong blue dotted line is the GR&I which is now the multi-use White Pine Trail.

See the purple dotted line that I added? Glen is pretty sure that is the location of the spur that was added to bring cars from the main M&GR up to the station. The spur needs to be about that long, or there is too much of a grade.

Eventually, the M&GR was extended a little farther east to Marion where it connected with the Ann Arbor Railroad

Here's where it gets interesting.

In order for the train to continue east, the M&GR had to pass under the GR&I because the grades were not at the same elevation. Glen showed me where that overpass was. They had to raise the GR&I some, so there was room to do this. In this picture, we are standing on the berm of the GR&I where the White Pine Trail now passes. The edge is marked with the orange line. The higher berm was built so there was enough clearance for the overpass. And it was built beside the old berm, not on top of it.

The yellow line is the old GR&I berm which was lower. When the M&GR was extended the lower berm was cut out to allow passage.

You can also see a large stone at the left of the picture.

That is one of the stones that formed the walls of the overpass.

The passage is all filled in now, but part of the header can be seen on the west side.

But more of the massive stones are obvious on the east side.

In 1913, the Michigan and Grand Rapids Railroad was insolvent, and was sold, becoming the Michigan East & West Railway. By 1919, that track was all gone. One of the surprising things is that it was standard gauge track, which was not always the case with these old railroads. You've seen some other pictures of this grade on my blog before (link below). It was a well-built track, but it eventually could not compete with the Pere Marquette and Flint, which is now Marquette Rail that runs in back of my house.

Gosh, I love figuring this stuff out!

I worked some on almost all my projects today. Pat me on the back!

See Michigan East and West Railroad

An Ethical Dilemma

Yesterday, one of the yellow plants in my garden that I showed you is "Fig Buttercup," more correctly known as Lesser Celandine, Ficaria verna.

I've had this in my garden for over 25 years. It has never spread anywhere else, and it is reliable yellow color in the spring between the daffodils. Then the foliage dies back.

But now Michigan has listed it as an invasive species and wants instances of it reported to them. So far there is no penalty for having it, but...

I am thinking about digging up that whole bed and putting the daffodils back, with allium for summer blooms and autumn crocus (Colchicum) for later in the year. These are all bulbs. I could still put in marigolds and or Coleus for in between.

My Drumstick Alliums in August:

Colchicum seen in Ludington- it does come in other colors too:

I could also put Naked Lilies in for fall- I have quite a few bulbs, but those don't reliably bloom for me and they are very tall.

Then I'd get rid of the Celandine. But, dang. I hate to destroy them because they've done so well for me and haven't escaped.

In other news: I did laundry, errands, bell choir, editing, and took a walk.

Miles walked in 2026: 144.7

Methodist Church Trails: 1.8 miles

See An Allium Solution

Festival in Yellow

I have daffodils everywhere!

And other things in yellow too. The Donkeytail, Euphorbia myrsinites, is starting to bloom in the rock garden.

More dafs. These are in the driveway bed. I just moved these bulbs here in the fall of 2024, and quite a few are blooming. (You can see some iris leaves looking healthy, and a bunch of grape hyacinth starting to bloom in the front).

The forsythia is just about perfect.

The "big bed" that I've been sort of trying to reclaim is full of daffodils- several kinds.

And here is fig buttercup. More on that another day.

There are even more clumps of daffodils in bloom in various other places. It's quite lovely. In fact, I need to get some of these patches split up and give a bunch of bulbs away.

It's been a few years since I did a "daffodil tour" to show all the varieties. Would you like to see that again? Some bloom earlier and some later.

I worked quite a lot on Confidence Camp today and did a few errands

See A Riot of Daffodils

Bell Choir- April 2026

Today was bell choir Sunday. The first song we did is one of my favorites. It's "Spirit Song."



And I like the second one a lot too. It's "Shout to the Lord."



Hope you enjoy!

Most of the rest of the day I spent working on things for Confidence Camp. There were lots of other things I should be doing too. But at least I didn't goof off. It was cold and windy outside. Expect flowers tomorrow!

See Bell Choir- February 2026

Tustin and Potatoes

What does the village of Tustin have to do with potatoes, you ask? The Pine River Museum is located in Tustin, in a former potato warehouse. The building is 200 feet long, but narrow so that it had multiple bays that fronted on the railroad.

And surprisingly, it has a basement that was also filled with potatoes at harvest time. They cut through the floor in one place and added crates and fake potatoes to show how that would have been used.

The primary agricultural product of the area was potatoes. Actually, there still are a lot of potatoes grown in the area. This is a field of them in blossom just a little south from there. (another year, another month)

This is one display of hand tools used in the ag business of 100 years ago. there are potato and corn planters on the left, along with a number of itmes that were used in other farm pursuits- a fruit picking bag, shearing scissors for sheep, wooden grain shovels, corn knife, hay rake, hay knife, and more.

I was especially surprised at this. These are hand-carved yokes for carrying two buckets. I have one of these that belonged to my grandfather. I guess I sort of thought these were an eastern thing. But, nope! Here are four more. Mine is most like the second one down. I'll show you some day.

I worked on various projects today including starting to get materials collected for Confidence Camp. It was cold outside, and I was a little sore from yesterday, but I did stuff.

See When I first saw the museum building

I Kidnapped Chris

Very little went the way I expected it to today, but it was all great!

I'd just gotten started on my morning work routine when hiker Chris contacted me. His plans had changed too, and he needed to get to Cadillac. So, I went to get him off the trail.

But then, I decided to kidnap him and bring him back to my house.

I worked him so hard that when I took him back to Cadillac we needed the hanidicap spot!

I'm just kidding. Sort of. Actually, I did ask him if he'd help me with some heavy work. Here was the result.

It doesn't look like much except a bare spot, right? That's good. There was still an awful lot of earth to move where the snowplow had scraped up rolls of dirt on the grass. I really wasn't thinking I could get that all cleaned up alone before the grass got too long, but the two of us together got everything smoothed down enough that I'll be able to run the mower without scalping all that dirt.

Meanwhile, I was trying to get Chris a ride from Cadillac to Kalkaska tomorrow. Due to all the flooding he's going to have to skip a whole section of trail. Glen, from our Spirit of the Woods Chapter, is on the Trail Angel list, and he doesn't live too far from Cadillac. So he agreed to do that.

Then, Glen reminded me that we'd been talking for quite a while about about him giving me a tour of the little museum in Tustin where he lives. So after I dropped Chris off at the motel, I went to the musuem. You'll see a lot more of that another day because it was very nice.

But then Glen and Diana invited me to their house for dinner. I said yes.

Glen is the President of their historical society. He's also now our chapter Vice-President. And his hobby is carving birds and fans from a single piece of wood. I had no idea you could make really large ones! I saw quite a few he's made over the years, and one his father made (you'll see that another day). But here is one of his large ones. (His grandfather also made them, and Glen's teaching his grandchildren!)

Also, since I was driving up north, I scooted around and got the plastic recycling collected to drop off on the way.

I'm happy, full of good food, and beat!

See Loren, Loda, Hardcore Hiker

Foliage from Adams Flower Show

There may be two posts with foliage. But these will surely be enough for today. As some of you know, I really like colored or textured foliage because it is interesting all season long. None of these would grow in my outside gardens (well, maybe one of the trees), but they all grab my attention.

This is a Dieffenbachia or dumb cane, but it's a cultivar with white leaves. Maybe 'Star Bright.'

Here's one that was completely new to me. It's called Japanese Umbrella Pine, Sciadopitys verticillata. This one MIGHT grow here, but it's pretty fussy. Probably why I've never seen it before. It's a "fossil" plant, the only one remaining from the Sciadopityaceae family since the Pliocene period. It is a conifer, but not really a pine.

I had one of these as a houseplant long ago, but as you can probably guess, it died. This is Firestick Cactus, really a euphorbia, Euphorbia tirucalii. I like quirky things like this.

Here is one I wish would be hardy here, but not quite. It would be great in the rock garden (well, unless it turned out to be too aggressive). This is actually a bindweed, so it gets white flowers like a small morningglory. It's called Silverbush or Shrubby Bindweed, Convolvulus cneorum.

This is another tropical houseplant, fairly common, but it's still very cool. Rattlesnake Plant, Goeppertia insignis (formerly a Calathea).

Finally for today, this one might grow here. The Dow Gardens had a stunning one (even better pic at the link). This is a Korean Fir, Abies koreana, and it's the same cultivar as at Dow: 'Horstman's Silberlocke.' Supposedly it has bright purple cones. I could easily covet one of these.

Yeah, there will be more foliage. But not today.

I got some stuff done, but had a little tummyache this afternoon, so the accomplishments weren't stellar.

See Colors from Adams Flower Show

Colors from Adams Flower Show

I told you I'd share some more from the Adams Flower Show in New York, and I want to do at least two more posts. Here's one of them with lots of color. That's one of the things they do best is pile on the color, which is just what we all need in March!

I'll start with this 'Stewartstonian' Azalea. This is the variety that Sue gave me for my birthday a couple of years ago, but mine did not live. I'm sorry about that, because it's beautiful!

A plant you can always count on seeing at Adams is spoon mums. They are called that because of the little "spoons" at the ends of the petals.

Here are some more, paired nicely with tulips. Of course, in the real world, tulips bloom in spring and chrysanthemums in late summer to fall. But hey...

This could only be a houseplant where we live. It was in the tropical section. Popular name: Flamingo Flower. It's Anthurium andraeanum.

This one would do all right a little bit south of me. It's a cultivar of a mountain laurel, possibly 'Starburst'.

On another day, I still want to share some beautiful foliage plants.

I worked a little bit on most of my projects today. Best completion was that I got the lawn leveled from snowplow damage up near the house. There is still a bunch to do down by the road. That's hard work, and I can only do a little at a time.

I'm glad I shared the buds yesterday. The crocus did not survive the night. The hyacinth is still hanging in there, and I found two more patches of the corydalis! It's about to become daffodil festival here. Stay tuned.

See Adams Flower Show 2026