Monday, Monday

Can't trust that day!

Which Way is Down From Here?

Perfectly Beautiful November Day

My son came for a long weekend visit. Saturday we spent the day at the bookstore, and my idea was that we would hike the dunes on Sunday, but Sunday was so grey and dreary we stayed indoors, reading, watching movies, cooking and eating. It was a very cozy day. No complaints. I was counting on sunshine for Monday, and sunshine we got. First came errands in Suttons Bay, Lake Leelanau and Leland, and then--outdoors with Sarah for our adventure!


We took in the sights from the sublime to the quirky (both of us noticed this odd two-pronged stump), exploring new trail loops recently added that we were both hiking for the first time.





Birches are the stand-out trees in this preserve. This one looks as if the dunes half-buried it many years ago. And who started piling small birch sticks against another trunk? Why? I added one to the arrangement, for no particular reason.



Hunting is allowed on this land, so Sarah had to be on her leash, but we'd arranged for her to have a chance to run and jump and let off steam before taking to the trails with her, and she handled it all very well.


Wildlife, of course, is not restricted to the trails. These tracks across the sand almost look like tracks in snow.


We had a good, long, wonderful walk through the woods, up and down and around and through, and our timing was perfect, too, because as we were leaving the parking area we could see a huge, dark cloud moving in from the west.




The cloud divided our view in half. To the west were dark cloud-covered skies, while to the east the sky was blue, sun bright, life still colorful.



We got home before the last sunshine disappeared, happy and tired in the pleasantest of ways, our minds turning toward the coziness of dinner in front of the fire on a November evening.

Golden Floor

Does This Look Like a Painting?

November Orchards Beautiful Again This Year

These are photographs from November 2010. The orchards are just as beautiful this year, but they don't look all that different, so I've been giving myself a break from obsessive picture-snapping. I'll only add that these images are not "full strength" but reduced in size and pixels, as I had originally posted them last year on "Books in Northport." The color, however, should come through fine.

November Sunshine, November Color

Where the Red Is

These maples along Mill Street still have green leaves in October, when many other maples are gold and orange and scarlet, but by Election Day their color is brilliant, as seen above. Look closely at the red below, however, and you will see tiny streaks of something white. Yes, there have been snow flurries this week, and we will be seeing a lot of white in the weeks and months ahead.

At the Orchard's Edge

Nature's Artistry at Work This Morning

This was a real frost, a hard frost, the kind that means a lot of scraping of car windows with cold hands. It also means each blade of grass and leaf is outlined in ephemeral lace. Whole fields were white and shimmering in the morning sun, too, but I'm down to a very small-storage memory card in my camera and can only take a few shots before reformatting.

Where Am I?

Be specific! "Michigan" is not a good enough answer. There is no prize for being right, no forfeit for being wrong.

One Last Round: Yellow, Green, Gold, Orange, Scarlet

All these images of fall color ard hardly creative or original. I can't help myself. November is here today, the colors are fading, the leaves thinning on the trees, and I am hoarding color for the long, cold months ahead. I'll stop now. Promise. Well, probably. But what an October we had this year, right up to the very last gorgeous weekend!