Drippy Halloween

The rain gauge was at eight tenths when I went for a short, wet walk on Halloween afternoon. Rain just kept coming, not hard and not a lot at once, but it rained all day.

I pulled the summer begonias and coleus plants out of the beds at the driveway turn earlier this week and planted some of the kale from the garden. This kale plant, nibbled down by the deer, just might stand a chance out in front of the house where the deer are less likely to graze.

Then again, maybe the deer will like the big pumpkins, once they begin to soften. It has been a beautiful autumn with warm weather and lovely colors. One cannot complain about the rain, right?

Every Day The Same

In some ways this view never changes. The horizon stays level. The sky is up. The water is wide.

Yet everyday there is a new aspect to this eastern view. This morning there was a northern cloud that moved like a wedge and streaked the sky with navy and ultramarine. For a moment, captured in this image, the sunrise was a golden warmth that spread across the marbled surface of Lake Huron.

Still, the water was wide and the sky was up. But it all signaled a brand new day.

How can anything that stays so much the same still be new every morning? This question is one of those timeless questions that go unanswered. It is a paradox to live with, this sameness and newness, all wrapped up in a moment before the rising of the sun.

Every day is the same, yet each day is filled with new promise and possibility. When you think about it too hard. . . Well, maybe the best part is the warmth of the sun and a new day. That's enough.

Garden Cleanup

I picked another full basket of eggplant and peppers today, even as we pulled and dug the plants and vines from the garden. The frost that tinged the garden last week didn't touch some of the larger plants. Ed and I cleared away tomato vines, peppers, eggplants, squash vines, and the morning glory tower. Then Ed tilled the whole garden, leaving behind the kale and basil (still growing a tad bit) and raspberries, of course. Next spring I'm going to plan for more autumn crops since we appear to have a micro climate here along Lake Huron.

A woolly caterpillar was making his way across the lawn when I walked to the compost pile. Just after this image was taken, he rolled into a fuzz ball, frightened into a protective mode.

The ginkgo grove is golden green. I have every intention of filling the Treegators just one more time. Notice how long the shadows are. I'm looking north and this photo was taken midday, so those shadows form the long arms of winter light from the sun staying low in the sky. I count about seven plus weeks until winter solstice, so the long shadows are just beginning. It's good that Daylight Time ends this weekend. The shift in light will be welcome.

Chevy Volt Approaches 45,000 Mile Mark

Packing up after another football weekend

My Chevy Volt will soon be at the 45,000 mile mark. The Volt has taken us on lots of football weekend jaunts to East Lansing to follow the Spartan Marching Band and the MSU Spartans this fall.

I receive a monthly diagnostics email from Chevrolet that gives stats for the Volt. Here are some of the stats from an email received today.

Fuel economy: 58 mpg
Electric consumption: 33 kW-hr/100 miles

Electric Miles: 839
Gas Miles : 1729

Total Miles: 2,568
Percentage on Electric: 33%

Estimated Gallons of Fuel Saved: 67 gallons
Estimated CO2 Avoided: 1,306 lbs

I would guess that someone has walked up to us about three times in the last month just to ask how we like the car. I try not to let that conversation get too long, but I am really, really pleased with the performance of my Chevy Volt.

Today I realized that I haven't kept the "CO2 Avoided" figure in my head. That number in today's email -- 1306 pounds for the last month -- is amazing. That's over half a ton of junk NOT put into the air. Considering what the photos of Harbin, China, the city that has been in the news because of thick smog, look like, the realization that these PEVs (plug in electric vehicles) are taking some of the pollution out of the air is encouraging.

Needless to say, the Volt is a pretty incredible car.

Boys Who Draw

Somewhere along the way in my art education I learned how to take the word "boy," print it in big block lower case letters, and turn it into a cartoon sketch that resembles a boy. I like showing this simple connect-the-lines process to kids. Their brains figure out the hairline and the chin that emerge from the "Y" and then they add the nose and mouth. The cartoon boy soon emerges from the printed word.

At Uncle Peter's birthday party on Friday night, the tables were topped with big sheets of white paper, just perfect for drawing. Quinn and Finn watched me demonstrate the cartoon boy and then Quinn put his head down and was in the creative zone as he drew three boys with great concentration.

Peter, Quinn, Finn, Clay

His cartoon boys are superb. Well done, Quinn. If you were in Mr. Harmon's fourth grade class, we might be giving you a new last name, like "Quinn Whistler" or "Quinn Picasso" or "Quinn Pollack." I know that Uncle Clay and Uncle Peter are very, very proud of you and Finn.

Pete's Birthday

Peter has a birthday today and I trolled through the photos on my hard drive, looking for something that would ring his chimes. I found this photo from December of 2006. Ed and I drove down to East Lansing with two sergers and some sewing supplies. Peter pulled together a sewing day at Dem Hall for the State of Art Winterguard unit that he and Orlando Suttles were directing.

There were lots of happy faces as those flags got finished that day. As I remember, the project went on and on through the holidays and finally came back to my studio in Pigeon where Danielle Damen finished them.

But here we all are, happy as clams in cold Dem Hall in December, getting ready for another performing season. I'm in the back row on the left. Then comes Peter, then Orlando. I'm not sure who is between Orlando and Ed, who is on the far right. The fifteen guard members in the front were the big workers that day as they learned how to rotary cut slippery flag fabric and run sergers.

What is serendipitous about this photo is that it is before Clay and Peter met (I think), and, with Orlando's untimely death this past summer, it reminds us of how the little moments in life make for really good times. 

One of the joys of getting older is seeing your children become adults. In my case, I can say that my kids turned into wonderful adults. I say that with all humility since there are so many corners that get turned as you raise a family. We made it through many of those difficult times, thanks to luck and blessing.

Happy birthday, Peter. I'm proud to be your MOM.

Beet Harvest Album

A familiar sight in Huron County and all of the Thumb, a beet truck slows to turn north toward the piling station just off of M-142, east of Verona. This truck's load is piled high.

Farmers work late into the night, quitting when the frost and dew prevent safe harvesting, and then begin again before first light. Here's a tractor with a beater that flails the leaves off of the beets before a conventional harvester lifts the beets from the ground. This photo was taken before dawn.

It's usual to see headlights in strange places during harvest as the equipment moves up and down and around in the fields.

Here's another view of the giant Ropa loading equipment at work along Atwater Road this week. I have to admit that I liked the sharpness of the yellow against the sky so much that I heightened the color. Artistic license!