“the sky broke like an egg into full sunset and the water caught fire.”
-pamela hansford johnson
—
summer on glen lake, empire/glen arbor, michigan, usa
Jul26
Category Archives: michigan
Sep10
ghost forest.
another try at hiking on the sleeping bear dunes point trail
this time not the long forced dune march like in the spring
instead
some dune, beautiful views, waving grass, soft forest paths
and a real trail.
and then
the ghost forest.
—
“the ultimate luxury in life remains nature. “
-robert rabensteiner
—
a “Ghost Forest” in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
These forests were covered and uncovered by the shifting sands of Lake Michigan’s dunes,
leaving behind these ghostly trees.
—
glen arbor, michigan, usa, summer 2023
Aug9
pasty olympics.
Historic U.P. town hosting world’s first Pasty Olympics with pasty relay, ‘pasty pull’
no competition is too quirky for pasty fest
The annual summer festival, a celebration of the Upper Peninsula’s quintessential cultural cuisine held in the Keweenaw Peninsula village of Calumet, Michigan, is hosting a Pasty Olympics on Aug. 19 from noon to 4 p.m. The zany new competitive event is “probably a world’s first,” according to its website
In addition to the long-running festival’s traditional bake off and pasty eating contest, this year people can vie to win “eternal pasty glory” through an array of Olympic-style competitions that add a strongman-style element to Pasty Fest, “speaking to the history and culture of pasties and the Keweenaw’s copper mining history,” organizers said.
“Expect opening and closing ceremonies and the spirit of competition to prevail!” said Leah Polzien, Main Street Calumet executive director.
One of the new events, the Pasty Relay, involves teams racing to craft a giant pasty — using pool noodles for rolling pins and mops to apply egg wash — with awards for fastest time, most appetizing and best team costumes.
Meanwhile, contestants in the new Pasty Pull are challenged to “harness pure pasty power” in an attempt to pull a truck as fast as possible down a 100-foot track along one of Calumet’s historic streets.
A new Pasty Fest Art Prize competition, featuring two dozen pasty-themed works of art, is already underway. The art includes pasties immortalized in paintings, mixed media, crochet, and even a tiny copper pasty sculpture. Anyone can view the art in the online virtual gallery and vote for their favorites through August 18.
—
“the pasty is the yooper burrito of the upper peninsula.”
-daily mining gazette (said by a naval recruiter in the u..p. in the early 90s)
—
Apr29
going north.
headed straight north
—
“you got to head north. it’s always about going north, you know?
-aaron bruno
s
Feb12
*yoopers.
I
It took a month to make some of the incredible snow sculptures that were part of the annual Michigan Technological University Winter Carnival. Phi Kappa Tau extended its winning streak to five years with a huge rendition of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. (Photo: Daniel Staelgraeve | Michigan Technological University)
—
what you do in the winter (and sometimes in may),
when you go to college in the upper peninsula of michigan
* yooper – a native or inhabitant of the upper peninsula of michigan
—
“i wrote, and sometimes, when i was stuck, i hit the road.
i ate pasties in the upper peninsula and hush puppies in cairo.
i did my best not to write about any place i had not been.”
– neil gaiman
Jan26
naliqqaittuq.
snow day yesterday at last
a really good day to stay home from school
—
Inuit in Canada’s North have their own unique names for the months of the year. Aseena Mablick, an announcer for CBC Nunavut’s Inuktitut-language radio program Tausunni, has been collecting information on the names of the months in Inuktitut for years.
Mablick says one of the reasons she’s sharing this now is to “keep the language.”The names in Inuktitut are interconnected with the environment and wildlife surrounding the Inuit in Canada’s North.”It’s a truthful and honest calendar for people who are living over here, everyday, like us,” she says. “We just follow mother nature’s ways for naming the calendar.”
Each region in Nunavut has its own unique names for the calendar, and Mablick shared with us just two of the regions she’s looked into — Baffin region (also known as the Qikiqtaaluk Region) and Nunavik (northern Quebec).
January In Nunavik, January is “Naliqqaittuq”, literally meaning “nobody’s able to compete with it,” says Mablick. “It has to do with the coldest weather in that month.”
January is called “Qaummagiaq” in the Baffin region. It means “bright day coming back.”
meanwhile in ann arbor…
==
credits: cbc news (north), aseena mablick, deadline detroit
Oct30
go blue day.
a go blue day in michigan:
morning- governor whitmer and obama (blue state rally)
evening- university of michigan vs. michigan state rivalry football game (go blue!)
“on a good day everybody can beat everybody.”
-chris hughton
—
photo credit: michigan stadium, fox sports
Oct10
gichi-gami.
Ojibwe entering the gichi-gami
(artist unknown)
In honor of Indigenous Peoples Day
City of Ann Arbor Land Acknowledgment:
Equity and justice are at the center of our city’s critical principles. In that light, we’d like to take a moment to honor the geographic and historic space we share. We acknowledge that the land the City of Ann Arbor occupies is the ancestral, traditional, and contemporary lands of the Anishinaabeg – (including Odawa, Ojibwe and Boodewadomi) and Wyandot peoples. We further acknowledge that our City stands, like almost all property in the United States, on lands obtained, generally in unconscionable ways, from indigenous peoples. The taking of this land was formalized by the Treaty of Detroit in 1807. Knowing where we live, work, study, and recreate does not change the past, but a thorough understanding of the ongoing consequences of this past can empower us in our work to create a future that supports human flourishing and justice for all individuals.
Lake Michigan is named after the Ojibwe word “mishigami” which means “large water” or “large lake.”
Also known as Michigamme/”mishigamaa” meaning “great water“, also etymology for state of Michigan.
The Great Lakes were called “gichi-gami” (from Ojibwe gichi “big, large, great”; gami “water, lake, sea”).
—
“man belongs to the earth, the earth does not belong to man.”
-ojibwe saying
—
credits: project.geo.msu.ed, city of ann arbor, ann arbor public libraries
Sep10
perfect face.
full moon rising and floating
on grand traverse bay
==
“the moon was but a chin of gold a day or two ago,
and now she turns her perfect face upon the world below.”-
-emily dickinson
—
traverse bay, traverse city, michigan, usa
september 2022
Aug27
on the water.
beautiful and enlightening experience
kayaking through detroit’s canals
that i never knew existed
with detroit river sports
then paddling into the detroit river
bounded on either side by the united states and canada
learning history and tales of
bootlegging, river islands, mansions, auto barons, inventors, and boatmen
finishing with a lovely relaxed dinner
canal side
at coriander kitchen and farm
fresh farm to table fare
all in the heart of the city.
—
“if there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water.”
-loren eiseley
I didn't have my glasses on.... 