Search This Blog

Wednesday, July 8, 2026

Old Barns and Tools

 

Historic barn on M-22 between Leland and Glen Arbor

An open house in a newly restored old barn tempted us south on Sunday afternoon. This was the old Shalda farm. I remember when their little store stood across the highway on the southeast corner. 

Mr. and Mrs. Shalda in the old days (not my photo) --

New paint job for the country's 250th birthday --


Lumber neatly sorted and stacked --


This ladder was useful when hay was stacked nearly to the roof.



Many old things found in the barn could be seen...


...but the vintage and the modern were at times strangely juxtaposed.


Milk cows would have come and gone by this downstairs door.


This old apple tree caught my eye as we were leaving.

Old and weather-beaten, it is still bearing apples. 


Back at my own barn, where Tree Guy is at work cleaning and organizing things, he turned up a mysterious object. We were puzzled.

What could it be?

The patent number was the clue we needed.

An online searched turned up information. The patent expired long ago on this antique chimney cleaning device!




Thursday, June 25, 2026

Friday, June 19, 2026

Poppies

Their petals are dropping now, but only days ago they were at their vivid peak.




 

Wednesday, June 10, 2026

Doors

 

Stage door


Barn door



Saturday, June 6, 2026

Friday Evening, June 5, Solon Township

The light was magical.

 

Friday, May 29, 2026

My Porch These Days

 


What a lovely time of year! Now, if ever, come perfect days! Porch life is underway!

Wednesday, May 27, 2026

Sunday, May 24, 2026

Trees and flowers as May winds down

 

A volunteer flowering crab in my backyard meadow


Another volunteer, this one a young red pine


Old black cherry at the edge of the woods


In the woods, leaves drip with gentle rain.


Toothwort is good in salads, leaves and flowers both.


The downy violet is one of my favorites.


Blue cohosh is not yet blooming.



Saturday, May 16, 2026

My Home Welcomes Me

 

Outdoors

Indoors


Friday, May 15, 2026

I can't stay out of the woods in May!


The woods are magical at this time of year before the canopy fills in, sunlight dappled and the ground thick with wild leeks and spring ephemerals. Notice the love affair of trillium and bellwort, loving woodland companions.


Trillium blooms are at their peak this week, the beautiful grandiflora species especially bountiful. 
A few weeks ago I was puzzled by something mysterious. What is this strange flower?

The mystery was revealed when I spied a trillium clearly infected with a parasitic mycoplasma or phytoplasma (latter is the newer nomenclature). Compare the photo below to the one above with its flower sporting bacterial green.


As for other wildflowers, Dutchman's breeches are just about finished blooming, with Solomon's seal yet to come. Violets are flowering both in the woods and the garden both, deep purple ones around my house and the lovely little yellow downy violets in the woods. But we never tire of trillium, do we? Its season is all too brief.





Look up through the tops of the trees, too, and see how much light comes in before the canopy fills with summer leaves. 


Back on the ground are beauties other than flowers, such as this charming group of mossy rocks hidden deep among the trees. 


And oh, those lovely, luscious ferns!


Saturday, May 9, 2026

Wednesday Morning Light

 

May 6, 2026

The morning light on budding trees against a dark, cloudy sky looked almost like autumn. No, please no!

Thursday, April 16, 2026

Monday, April 13, 2026

The Last of the Ice?

 


(On North Lake Leelanau, that is.)

Monday, March 30, 2026

Saturday, March 14, 2026

The Sun was Out