Sunday Reflections

In honor of the flakes that were falling on Thursday, I have one final snow photo for the season.

All is well in the Keweenaw.

(Mis)quoting Shakespeare

Now is the winter of her discontent

Made glorious by this season of spring;

And all the clouds (and snow) that lowered upon her house

In the deep bosom of the sunshine buried.

Forgive me for misquoting Shakespeare, but Cocoa is the picture of contentment lately. She's spending her time sunbathing by the birch trees and sniffing the perimeter of the yard. All is right in Cocoa's world.

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Accurate Forecast

Mark this day on the calendar - the weatherman was correct! He predicted snow, and this is what we saw this morning when we looked out the front door.

 

What's that on the BBQ grill?

On the roof?

And covering most of the grass?

 

Relax. It's all gone now, but that was still a pretty amazing sight on May 16th.

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Green Ribs

Maybe I should have entitled this post "Green and Ribs," but I liked the shock appeal of "Green Ribs" better! 

First, the GREEN:

Most of our snow is gone. We do still have snow on the ground in the woods and you can find the occasional pile around town, but the majority has melted. It's quite amazing how rapidly things changed in just 2-1/2 weeks. The view of our backyard is a perfect illustration.

April 25th:

May 8th:

May 10th:

May 13th:

Everything looks so clean and beautiful all winter, then the meltdown reveals the brown yards and bare trees. As you can see that "ugly in-between-time" doesn't last too long. We're already beginning to experience the greening of the grass. Of course, the S-word is in the forecast for tonight, but we're not expecting much.

Now, the RIBS:

Steve's birthday (halfway to 122) was on April 27th - a Sunday this year. He chose to have his FREE birthday meal at The Hut after the Sunday evening service at church, so he changed into his comfortable clothes before heading to the restaurant.

I ordered the nachos.

He chose the delicious full rack of ribs.

       
He even accepted the FREE ice cream for dessert.

(See, he will have ice cream occasionally when Marty isn't visiting!)

Steve fought valiantly, but he wasn't able to finish the full rack of ribs. Once again, we took home a nice doggie box with ribs for Steve and bones for Cocoa.

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Special Sunday Reflections

A special message for Steve's mom, my mom, Steve's daughter and daughter-in-law:

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Melting & Falling!

I have strong, reliable WiFi again! We arrived home safely about 12:30 a.m. Thursday after 5 days in Saginaw. Our Traverse was still in the shop for some warranty work, and Steve had to shoot a commercial, so we got a late start for home on Wednesday afternoon. Yes, I said Steve had to shoot a commercial. More on that in a future post!

Our friends, Marty & Donna, are up here now for a long weekend, but I wanted to give you a brief update on the melting and falling activity in the Keweenaw. First, the melting: We lost A LOT of snow when we were in lower Michigan. Then, we had 2 inches of rain between Wednesday night and early Friday morning. That left things wet. I'm not sure Cocoa even recognized the backyard when she arrived home from the doggie motel. (She received a good report card, though.) 

This is how our backyard looked on Friday, April 25th.

This is how it looked on Thursday afternoon - 13 days later.

Here's how it looks today.

 

When we left Calumet last Saturday morning, the grass in the backyard was completely snow covered with the exception of some small areas under a few of the trees.

Secondly, the falling: We took a drive with Marty & Donna yesterday. The local waterfalls are really falling now! Here's how Jacob's Falls looked on April 21st.

This is how it looked yesterday.

The falls in Eagle River back on April 21st.

The same falls - yesterday.

Thunderous is the word that came to mind. Definitely loud and very lovely. I know I included an Eagle River waterfall video in a previous post, but I thought you might want to see and hear these waterfalls as they were yesterday.

First, Jacob's Falls (just outside of Eagle River). The water travels under the road and continues on to Lake Superior.

Next, the large falls in Eagle River. I'm standing on a bridge while shooting the video. The water travels under the bridges and just a short distance further to Lake Superior.

Cool, huh? By the way, almost all the deer have left their winter yard in Eagle River and are now wandering the other roadsides of the Keweenaw looking for vegetation. Drivers need to be extremely cautious at this time of year.

That'll do it for today. Heading out to eat with Marty & Donna shortly. It's so good to be home!

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Gifts

People often ask me how I'm going to decorate our new house. Since we're building in the middle of the woods in the Keweenaw Peninsula, some might expect us to have a pure northwoods cabin theme. Nope. I have plans to talk more about that in upcoming posts, but I do prefer a somewhat eclectic style - with some newer pieces that lean traditional, some pieces that are rustic and some pieces that have a history - things collected over time - things with a story attached to them.  

With that in mind, I saw a project I liked on the Internet a while ago. As you've probably noticed, the use of phrases, words, letters and numbers is very popular in decorating right now. I took the general idea of that project and played around with it a bit - modifying it into something I liked better. I made one for us for the new house and was pleased with how it turned out. It has our last name and 2005 - the year we were married. The size is 11x14, and Steve is going to make a barnwood frame for it.

That gave me the idea to make one for Carrie and Shawn's upcoming wedding, as I thought it would fit into their style. I wasn't sure how they felt about barnwood, though, so I used a black frame.

I also took a chance and made one for Mark & Monica's wedding gift. I'm not sure of Monica's taste, but I hope they'll like it. They haven't opened it yet, but they don't read my blog, so I think it's OK to share it now.

Now you know what was wrapped in rustic red rosin paper and burlap bows.

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Sunday Reflections

Sorry, I had an Internet problem yesterday, so this is Monday Reflections this week!

All is well in the Keweenaw.