Friday, May 23, 2025

Ooooooh, Crafty


We stopped at the old Traverse City State Hospital while we were in Traverse since I hadn't been there in ages. It's now the Village at Grand Traverse Commons and full of high-end apartments, restaurants, and shops. We had a lovely time exploring the grounds, but I had to stop and snap a picture of this tire cover because it made me giggle. Nothing says cottage-core-crafty more than an apparently homemade, multi-colored, crocheted spare tire cover. On a jeep with a well worn hitch, which makes me wonder - just what is that crafty girl towing?

Tuesday, May 20, 2025

Um......... No

Allen and I spent a recent weekend in Traverse City to celebrate my birthday. Since shopping is his favorite thing to do, we spent Saturday walking around the downtown area. As we wandered, we discovered Rocket Fizz: Soda Pop and Candy Company. Once inside, we both immediately noticed the bottle of ranch flavored pop, which we had to buy for my ranch-loving daughter. Since we couldn't just take one home for her, we picked up a small selection of flavors to try: ranch, peanut butter, mango, and honey. Let's just say our taste test was an adventure; one that can be summed up in a single photo:


For the record - the honey flavored pop was tasty.

The smell of the ranch soda was indistinguishable from real ranch dressing, but it tasted awful. Imagine drinking watered down, sweetened, carbonated ranch dressing - disgusting! It was horrible, mostly because it was sweet. Just thinking about it makes me want to gag all over again. The peanut butter was marginally better, and the mango slightly better than the peanut butter.

Then Allen decided to mix the peanut butter and the ranch, which just created an abomination that, of course, we all had to try. Please, take my word for it, peanut butter ranch is a flavor you can live your entire life without ever knowing exists. Trust me...

Friday, May 16, 2025

Spring has Sprung

I've been eyeing the tulips every morning on my walk to school, just waiting for them to burst into color.


This morning I finally felt they were ready to be photographed.

Tuesday, May 13, 2025

Only on Mackinac

Just another normal sight on Mackinac - someone leading a horse while riding a bike. Sorry for the blurry pictures, but I was also on my bike and trying not to kill myself.


 

Thursday, May 1, 2025

Well Hello There


As I walked to work this morning I noticed this seemingly happy fellow in a stone walkway near Grand Hotel. He looked so friendly I couldn't bear to step on his little face...

Tuesday, April 29, 2025

Happy Worm Day

Happy Worm Day, 2025! 

A little later than usual,
but still a sure sign of spring.

Thursday, April 24, 2025

Good Morning


I love walking to school in the wee hours of the morning. No one else is out and about and it's just me and my thoughts. There's just something about being up before the sun; something special about seeing it rise while virtually everyone else is still asleep. It is the perfect way to start the day.


Saturday, April 12, 2025

I'm Crying Over Here


OK, I might not be literally crying, but I am sad about Joanns* closing. I sew and craft often, and I'm not really sure where I can shop instead. Other than Hobby Lobby (of which I am not a fan) there are no other options even remotely close to me. I don't mind getting some things via mail order, but fabric quality varies widely and I like to feel it before I buy it. Is anyone familiar with any mail order fabric shops that sell quality fabric? If you know of one, please share!

*It's a Michigan thing. We have a tendency to add an "s" to the end of store names. Kroger becomes Krogers, Meijer becomes Meijers - my mom even calls Costco Costcos, (which does sound odd to me.) It's weird, but for some reason it's what Michiganders do, and it drives my Hoosier-husband crazy.

Monday, April 7, 2025

Ice Storm!


I'm sorry it has taken me so long to share these pictures, but we've been busy cleaning up after the ice storm. (We have to get all of our broken branches and trees put out by the road by April 20. Starting on the 21st, the people hired by the city are coming through with a woodchipper to get rid of all of it.)

Thankfully Mackinac is in pretty good shape!


As you can see, a lot of ice built up during the storm causing numerous trees to fall and knocking out power to much of northern Michigan - including Mackinac Island. All night long it sounded like a warzone. We heard near-constant popping, bullet-like sounds as small branches broke off the trees all around us. Every few minutes there were loud cracking noises as larger trees broke under the weight of the ice and collapsed. It sounded like buildings disintegrating as the trees, encased in ice, snapped and tumbled to the ground. We have a number of large trees growing around our house, so at any moment one of them could have hit us. Neither Allen or I slept very well that night.


By morning, the ice covered everything,


and I mean everything; an inch thick in some places.



Allen and I were very lucky. 

  
A large branch took out the corner of our chicken yard, but the house came through unscathed and the chickens were fine, too.) We lost lots of smaller branches, but nothing bigger around than my thigh.


Many of our neighbors weren't so lucky. 


All in all, Mackinac Island fared pretty well. We did lose power, but only for a few days. (I have friends in Petoskey and Gaylord who were out for over a week.) Our fire, police, and state park staff were out constantly cutting trees to keep the roads open for emergency vehicles, and the boat line even ran a special boat to get the electric linemen and women over to the island. 


The city opened the Mackinac Island Community Hall as a warming center and charging station for anyone who needed it. Allen kept us going at home by breaking out the camp stove so I could have a hot cup of coffee every morning. The house got a little chilly - I think it got down to about 57 (about 14 C,) but we managed. We crawled under my mom's house and shut her water off, just to be safe.


School was cancelled on Monday and Tuesday due to a lack of power at the school, and again on Wednesday due to safety concerns over students traveling on ice-covered roads. In my 32 years of teaching on Mackinac Island, we've never cancelled three days in a row! But we've also not had a storm like this in my years here.



The days after the storm were beautiful, with bright sunny skies. The ice sparkled like crystals in the trees. When the wind blew, it cracked and shattered, and then clinked to the ground like cacophony of  shattering glass. It was an eerily beautiful sound. 


Thank you to everyone who has reached out to see how we're doing. Mackinac is recovering. This summer the lilacs probably won't be as spectacular as in years past, but they are hard to kill. (Allen refers to them as the zombies of the plant world.) In a year or two, they be as beautiful as ever. We're cleaning up, and the island will be open for business as usual this summer.






 

Thursday, March 20, 2025

Happy Spring


First day of spring you say?

Thankfully, Mackinac is beautiful

in any season.