night slowly arrives
warmly wraps around the lake
color fades away.
—
“of all the paths you take in life make some lead to the lake.”
– unknown
—
on glen lake, empire, michigan, usa – summer 2024
Jul25
Tag Archives: michigan
Jan12
michigan medicine.
as michiganders
we grew up with detroit’s famous vernors ginger ale
not only was is good to drink and make floats and shakes out of it
but we used it as at least 80% of our medicine
if you felt
nauseous, had a virus, flu, unexplained itching, headache, were sore, tired, dizzy
or suffered from an unlimited litany of ailments
you were put to bed
and given cold vernors to sip on
but when the hot vernors showed up
on your bedroom tray
you knew your prognosis was much worse
and your days possibly numbered.
—
“there is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great,
and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something better tomorrow.”
-orison swett marden
Oct14
game day.
early morning ann arbor
outside of washtenaw dairy
on a home game day
calm before the storm
go blue.
—
“you don’t show up on game day and expect to be great.
greatness happens in practice.
you have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.”
-michael jordan
—
photo credit: washtenaw dairy
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)
—
May12
in the wild.
imagine my delight
when discovering this spring baby giraffe
in the woods near my home
i had no idea that they were native to michigan.
—
“however much you know giraffes, to see one in the wild for the first time feels prehistoric.”
-jane goodall
Apr30
rising.
morning has broken.
—
“the sun himself is weak when he first rises,
and gathers strength and courage as the day gets on.”
– charles dickens
—
on glen lake, empire, michigan, usa – april 2023
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
I didn't have my glasses on.... 