Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Category Archives: fun stuff


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Photo assignment: Autumn

Scott, over at  Views Infinitum, has given out another photography assignment; to share some of the autumn photos we’ve all inevitably taken these past couple of months.  Before we give way to winter it’s an opportunity to remember those last days of precious warmth.

I could fill this blog post with photos of colored trees and blue skies, but I decided to go back to my Lake Huron shots and look for more subtle signs of autumn.  You’ll see golden grass and empty beaches, the low angle of the sun and places already waiting for spring.  Here are some photos you haven’t seen from our October weekend adventure along the shores of Lake Huron; a place enjoyed by many in the hot days of summer but overlooked as the air chills.

We enjoyed morning light along the shore…

…and an adventure walking on a trail through the wetlands…

…which brought us out to the lake…and got our shoes soaking wet.

We walked along the shore or Lake Huron at the state park in Tawas, enjoying the views of the lighthouse in the crisp fall air…

…wandered past the picnic area waiting patiently for those first families of spring to arrive…

…and the beach, wistful for the shouts of children running for the water.

We walked through many wildlife refuges, where the grass has turned golden but still glowed in the sun.

There is so much more to show you, wide open wetlands, the views from the bluffs of the AuSable river…but I’ll end by giving you an image taken at home.  Just to remind myself that I don’t have to travel to see beautiful sights.  Sometimes they’re right outside my own window.


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Last day of Indian Summer?

This afternoon, on what might be the last absolutely beautiful day of fall, Katie and I went out to play Frisbee in the back yard.  What a glorious day!  The forsythia is blooming!  Does this mean it won’t bloom next spring?

The burning bush has a few leaves left, shining in the last light of fall.

Katie had a blast.  She brought the Frisbee back to me most of the time.

Though sometimes she took it off with her for a personal adventure that didn’t include me.

After so much running around it was time to take a quick break.

Then it was back to the fun.  Come ON Mom, throw it!

OK Katie-girl….here you go!


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Katie and the hose.

Husband and I were working in the yard last weekend moving some plants around and keeping them watered as we went.  Apparently there was a small  pinprick leak in the hose.  And of course Katie noticed right away.

It just had to be investigated.  Such fun to pounce on that little spray of water!

Surely a smart Sheltie can get that water to stop spraying…just one more pounce…Game ending score?  Sheltie zero.  Hose 10.


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Lost in the music

Tonight was my first concert in a very long time.  The first time in years that I was sitting in the band rather than out in the audience.  It’s heaven.  I wish everyone could have the experience of being in the music; to hear the sounds as they’re being created before the notes head out over the heads of the audience.

This was our “Spooktacular” concert filled with scary music about snakes and magic and phantoms.  In fact we had our very own phantom, a tenor with a beautifully powerful voice, who sang music from Phantom of the Opera while we accompanied him.  He was singing about 18 inches from where I sat, and on a couple of occasions during the long piece of music I actually stopped playing, mesmerized by the power of his voice.

I didn’t want that piece of music to end, because when again will I be surrounded by sounds so exquisite, be so close to a voice like that?  I was treasuring it while it was happening, enjoying the full-up feeling of being totally happy, glad to be in the moment.

I said before that if everyone could play music, either alone, or with large groups, if everyone could get that special high from making something beautiful, if everyone in the world could create something, something so elusive, so transparent, so temporary, but so solid and powerful, if everyone could make music the world would be better.  I still believe that.

Wishing each of you days filled with wonder, music and art.  It can’t hurt.


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Katie and the weave poles

I think some of you need a Katie fix.  Just because you haven’t seen her in a week doesn’t mean she hasn’t been doing her homework.

We’re working on weaves out in the backyard.

She’s got the general idea, the weaving in and out.

It’s just those darn entries that are difficult.  So hard to remember where to start Mom!

I’m using her frisbee as the “treat” at the end of the weaves.  Sometimes she gets so excited getting ready to run that she pops out one weave too early.

We’re working on it.


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Grindstone City

I bet you all know that Michigan is shaped like a mitten, but did you know there is a grindstone cemetery of sorts at the tip of the thumb?  Grindstone City was named in 1870 for the large grindstones that were mined and shaped there, then shipped throughout the country.  You can read more about the city in this short historical essay. (The picture above was borrowed from this website)

As a youngster I stood with my Dad along the shore of Lake Huron at the tip of Michigan’s thumb among huge grindstones that had been dumped there years and years ago.  I’ve held this vague memory for decades, and last weekend I stood in the same place again, feeling Dad with me, as my husband and I explored  the shoreline until we found the grindstones.

It amazed me that the grindstones were still resting on the shore much the way I remembered.  To think they’ve been there all these years…that I didn’t know exactly where we’d been more than 40 years ago and yet here I was again feeling the same sense of history and wonder I’d had as a kid.

I walked among the grindstones, touching the rough surfaces, the square holes in the centers, thinking about the people who had made these stones, and wondering about the reasons these particular stones had ended up as defects on the shores of the big lake.

The sun was warm on our shoulders, the water lapped peacefully near our feet, the stones offered up their stories silently.  I could easily have sat on the warm stones imagining history and remembering that trip with my Dad all afternoon.

Just another place that holds a piece of my heart.


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And the answer is…

You’ve all been very patiently waiting to find out what that metal thing was.  I know you’re sitting around at home just aching to find out.  Really you are.

We began our weekend trip in Port Huron, a town on the Eastern coast of Michigan across the river from Canada.  The Blue Water bridge connects the two countries.

Port Huron is also the boyhood home of Thomas Jefferson, something they are very proud of. You can read all about his exploits as a boy in the museum at the train depot under the bridge.

And the thing I found most interesting in the park below the bridge was a lighthouse boat.

The boat was built in 1921 and went out on the Great Lakes to help ships in trouble.  It had a lighthouse on board and the beam could be seen for miles.  It’s a museum now, though we didn’t get to board because it wasn’t open when we were there.

What fascinated me was that there was a small, outboard motor boat sitting on the deck, the little boat so similar in size and shape to the first family boat we had years ago.  I tried to imagine a boat that small out on the big lake, and I just couldn’t imagine it.

So now you know the rest of the story…at least about Port Huron.  There’s much more to show you from our trip last weekend.  And here it’s almost the weekend again!

Stay tuned.