SMB Drumline

I didn't have enough pockets in the clothes that I wore to last Friday night's Michigan State vs. Youngstown State football game. The new rule at the stadium prohibits any kind of handbag or backpack. Everything has to be hanging from one's neck (binoculars, cameras -- no cases) or tucked into a pocket (cellphones, tissues, money, ID).

So, when the Spartan Marching Band's Drumline headed toward their Grand River Avenue pregame percussion crowd warmup, I didn't have the camera that I usually carry. I did have my new cellphone, a Blackberry Bold, with the right convenience button programmed (as usual) to the camera in the phone. That's when I snapped this photo. 

Think evening light filtering through trees that have seen years of students crisscross the campus. Think the sound of precise, even percussion. Think measured cadences and excited freshmen and seasoned upperclassmen. Think first football game on a Big Ten campus. Think "Go Green" and your heart will beat a little faster as you snap the photo right along with me.

Copyright 2011

Wanda Hayes Eichler 

Goldenrod

The bane of allergy sufferers this time of the year, goldenrod is a lovely-to-look-at plant. My field guide list 62 varieties and, while didn't take the time to identify this specimen, it is a common weed in the this part of Michigan.

In Michigan's Thumb, the drifts of goldenrod enhance the yellow and green color scheme of the ripening dry bean fields. Red and orange are yet to come in the fall color palette.

The weather has turned cool and windy in the Thumb. It's as if Labor Day stepped to the front of the weather queue and said, "My turn!"

Blackberry Bold cellphone photo

Copyright 2011

Wanda Hayes Eichler

Rainy Holiday Morning

All the excitement of the Sunday birthday party and picnic is over. It's Monday morning on Labor Day and time to curl up under a quilt with Mom and Nic The Dog on the sofa. Finny, now officially four years old, leans his head against Mom while Max tells a tale to Mom who listens admiringly.

It's a quiet moment on a rainy morning before the bustling start of another week and another school year.

Copyright 2011

Wanda Hayes Eichler

A&W Time

The A&W Drive-in Resturant in Lexington serves root beer in mugs. Grandpa Ed, Max, and Finny enjoy their beers while Grandma is behind the cellphone camera. Finny's birthday comes around Labor Day each year, so the stop at the A&W was a special fueling time on the way to the Lakehouse.

We forgot to ask if A&W still has the little baby mugs. Remember them? I'm old enough to remember rolling into the A&W as a family and having most of the mugs on the carhop's tray be baby mugs!

Copyright 2011

Wanda Hayes Eichler



Golden Moon

The waxing crescent moon glowed golden in the late summer sky on Thursday night. The air was heavy. A humid fog hovered over fields and roads and Lake Huron.

Camera used: Sony Cyber-shot, twilight setting, mounted on tripod.

Copyright 2011

Wanda Hayes Eichler

HarJo's Window Album

Window painting at HarJo's Ben Franklin
 in downtown Pigeon, Michigan.
Artist Malea Gascho spent 18 hours creating this image using the
theme from this summer's Pigeon Farmers' Festival, Homegrown, Proud.

Detail of  HarJo's Corner --notice the painting within the painting
and the Cooperative Elevator in the background.
HarJo's is named in honor of
Annie Walker Eichler's parents, Josephine and Harley Walker.

Detail of windfarm -- the turbines look like springtime trilliums.
Malea Gascho, the artist, is a graduate of Laker High School and
Eastern Mennonite University.
She is the daughter of Lee and Lana Gascho.

Elodie and Heidi are planting a garden.
Heidi is one of the proprietors of HarJo's and is my niece.

Here's Gretchen (also my niece) driving a tractor in the painting.

Gretchen and Heidi are the proprietors of

The Thumb's one and only dime store, HarJo's, and are the daughters

of Neal and Annie Eichler.

Photography by Wanda Hayes Eichler

Artwork by Malea Gascho

Painting is located at HarJo's Ben Franklin, 9 South Main Street, Pigeon, Michigan



September Song

Where, oh where, is this year going? The summer is soaring away and autumn has its nose poked into my daily routine.

Prune the roses? No, don't bother now. Deadhead the petunias? Well, soon they'll be gone anyway. Make some chili? With cold nights ahead, that sounds good.

This maple leaf block reminds me of the colors of autumn -- rusty reds, dulled golds, blunted greens. Soon the autumn palette will envelop the northland into a wonderland of fall color. There will be apple cider at Leipprandt's orchard, football Saturdays in East Lansing, raspberries from Ed's garden. Ah, I can hear September's song and it tastes good.

Runner pieced by Danielle Damen and quilted by Wanda Eichler
Cellphone photo -- Blackberry Bold 3.2 mp autofocus

Copyright 2011
Wanda Hayes Eichler