winter

It's cold and dark.  And cold.  But surprisingly, there is very little snow.  Given the past few years, I can take a pass on the snow.

We took a drive north to visit our little slice of heaven.  We were surprised to see very little snow and no ice. We could pull in the driveway without having it plowed.

It's still beautiful. So beautiful.



It will be a couple of weeks before we head north again.  It's lovely to see EOTE in good shape.  We are counting the weeks.

Cheers!

winter

Another brutal winter but the worst days are in the rear view mirror.  We have sprung forward. We are looking at 50s next week.  50s!!!!

Samson had a nice weekend and while the time changed for us, he was non-plussed.



We have color in the house ... store bought for now, but spring is coming.



We just can't wait for the weather to turn.  Cheers to another week.  Come on Spring!

Good bye January

I always hit the wall in January.   It's post Christmas and New Years, it's cold, dark, and did I mention cold?  I am usually curled up in a blanket, fire in the fireplace, reading a book ... or several.

This January was no different.  Didn't even have the motivation to pick up the camera.

I celebrated a birthday then immediately hopped on a plane to Cali for a conference.  A little sunshine and blue skies was a definite pick-me-up for the January blues.

Got some -

beautiful flowers for my birthday -


some fabulous swag from my time at Fuller -


And now some killer snow coming down at crazy rates.  The snow - a foot and counting - deserves pictures all its own.  

Happy February !  

End for summer

For real.  The absolute very end of any possibility of getting one last day in on the beach or in the water or both. 

It's over until next year.



Sigh.  At least the snow fence makes for a good picture. And I am resigned to cold and blowing snow for the remainder of the year.  

Tomorrow, it's back to work. 

Summer shoes and the vernal equinox

The last day of winter was the warmest day ever in the state of Michigan.  In the 80s.  Today is going up to 86 and it's the first day of spring.  We turned on our air conditioning.  Sissies, I know.  Yesterday felt like a warm, muggy day in June.   One irony is that our heating bills have been unbelievable low.  I suspect that this will be offset by our air conditioning costs.

Such is life.

I am already wearing sandals to work.  The thought of putting on socks or nylons is incomprehensible.  And it got me thinking of my real summer shoes.

From 2011-07-08

From 2011-07-08

So welcome spring in the midst of summer.  Here's hoping that we don't get the missing blizzard in July.

Weather or not.

I am going to take a moment, just a brief one, to write a curious intro.

It's February 8, 2012.  In Michigan.  It's winter here.  Well, it's supposed to be winter.  I always equate winter with cold things ... things like ice, snow, freezing temperatures, down jackets, heavy mittens, UGG boots.

I am beating cheated out of my winter.  We have had no snow on the ground, save a brief moment last month when our plow service came.  Like once.







There has been some talk about snow on Friday.  Will believe it when I see it.

Happy winter, holding out for Spring.

And it continues ...

... to fall, this snow, in this winter wonderland.











Here's to snow days, even on the weekend. 

Snow and Ice

It's starting to snow here on the western plains of the Enchanted Mitten.  It's been LONG coming.  Since our winter started, our snow plow service has come one time.

Seriously.  Once.  That's not a great ROI for our investment.  :)

As we left our beloved EOTE for the winter, the ice was starting to form along the stunning shores of Lake Huron.

From December EOTE

From December EOTE

From December EOTE

From December EOTE

Doesn't that sky look gorgeous?  It was.  And the frozen sand was so cool to see.  It will be a few weeks before we can get up to the O and check in on our cottage.  Time is too slow between visits.

Cheers to Friday, snow, and ice.

Snow fences

Late in the fall, we (us and several of our neighbors) put up snow fences on our beaches.  Oddly, it's working.  At least it's working in Grand Rapids. We have NO SNOW here. ZERO.  Don't know how it's working on the sand and snow East of the Equator but we will find that part out in the spring.  

From 2011-11-13

From 2011-11-13

From December EOTE

It's January 9th and we have no accumulated snow on the ground.  Our snow plow company has come once this year.  Once.

This will either be the quietest winter in the history of Michigan or we will pay for this between now and April in a big, big way.

Happy Monday!

Saturday slop

It's snowing again.  Plenty of precipitation this weekend - snow today and rain tomorrow.  Tonight we are having some steaks on the barbie (with Gorgonzola sauce).  Tomorrow we are supposed to get rain.  Crazy.  

In prep for cooking the steaks, we had to shovel a pathway to the grill.  Samson had to help.

From 2011-02-26

From 2011-02-26

From 2011-02-26

From 2011-02-26

He got bored supervising the shoveling, and decided to take a good roll in the snow.

From 2011-02-26

From 2011-02-26

Then it was time to play some frisbee.

From 2011-02-26

From 2011-02-26

From 2011-02-26

Heat Wave

It's supposed to hit 50 degrees this week.  Maybe some of the white stuff will melt.  Here's hoping!

From 2011-02-12

Snow Day

Calvin College closed today. It's a first in my time there. It's the first in a VERY LONG TIME for the college. The snow started Tuesday night and at points during the blizzard, it looked to be raining snow.  It was so amazing.  So cool.  So beautiful.  

Samson had a blast.  We had the hardest time getting him in the house.  This stuff is what makes me love living in the great state of Michigan.  Makes me love winter.  And snow.  And snow days.  

From 2011-02-02

From 2011-02-02

From 2011-02-02

From 2011-02-02

From 2011-02-02

From 2011-02-02

Tomorrow, it's back to work.

Sun

We actually had some sun today.  It has been grey and lugubrious since November.  I had to take some pictures of His Handsomeness.

From 2011-01-30

From 2011-01-30

It's all in the eyes.

From 2011-01-30

From 2011-01-30

More snow is coming, at least that's what the weather guessers are telling us. We have dodged all the bullets to date, so we just might be due. Stay tuned.

Here comes winter

This is what it looked like last year.  And suspect it will look like this year too.

From 2010-02-13

Hopefully, we will have a little fall first.

Happy Christmas Eve Eve

Well, it doesn't look like it will be a white Christmas. We have a winter storm watch including rain, freezing rain and snow. So it will start wet and finish white. Glad we don't have any place to travel. And we will think of those who are traveling - make it safely please.

I spent last night enjoying our Charlie Brown tree.

Today, Paul will be his normal mad-genius self and finish all the shopping. He has assembled quite a menu and you should take a peek at his blog so see the final result. I have a day and half to work while Paul toils around the house. Samson is starting to wonder if he will ever get a nap. It will be a while.

Happy Christmas Eve Eve!

Oscoda in December

We had quite a week. It did nothing but snow for two plus days, after the 36 hours of insane hype by the local meteorologists. By the time it started to snow, people were so sick and tired of the nonstop Blizzard warnings, we just ignored the cautions and went about our business. It really did snow quite a bit. I normally am all kinds of excited about snow but not this week. We had work to do in Oscoda. Specially a home - or more accurately a cottage - inspection. The snow caused us to postpone the inspection from Friday AM to Friday PM but we got it done.

We headed up to Oscoda Friday morning, early. It was slow going through Lansing but once we hit 69, the roads were fine. We had a nice lunch and hit Oscoda around 1:30. Inspection was at 3pm. While Paul and Dave (from Anchor Home Inspection - shout out to Dave!) were going about the business of checking things out, I took an opportunity to take some pictures.

There is something exceptionally beautiful about being on the water when it's cold. There wasn't any ice yet, and not much snow, but it was cold - biting, wicked cold. But listening to the wind, the swaying trees and the melodic lapping of the waves - all are enough to soothe any harried soul, mine included.

Next is the appraisal and then, well, I won't go there until we have crossed the next great hurdle. It's beautiful. That's enough.