Get busy!

Have you ever looked closely at sumac flowers? The bees caught my attention and drew it to the hundreds of tiny flowers.

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 Morning After the Rain

 

Poppies

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

 

Doors

 

Stage door

Barn door

Friday Evening, June 5, Solon Township

The light was magical.

 

My Porch These Days

 

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

Beautiful Girl!

 

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.

My Home Welcomes Me

 

Outdoors

Indoors

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!

Wednesday Morning Light

 

May 6, 2026

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

Small Local Flood

 

The Last of the Ice?

 

(On North Lake Leelanau, that is.)

Beeches, Dead and Alive