This past week two people I know were sailing the Great Lakes. First my niece, Jenna, sailed from Mackinac Island to Bay City on the Appledore. Very cool! And also, mom came to visit us. She took the ferry from Muskegon, Michigan to Milwaukee where we picked her up. A great little visit. Here are…

Brian and I went for a little hike on the 4th of July. We went to the Ray Lake forest preserve. The last time we visited the asters were showing off but this time of year there are lots of other flowers shining. Especially the purple coneflowers. I've never seen so many blooming together! It…

Per usual the things that are making me happy lately are baking related and garden related. I tried a new recipe from the Midwest Made cookbook. It's the Chocolate Eclair Dessert – a choux pastry topped with vanilla custard and a thick layer of whipped cream. It got really good reviews from my family. For…

Take a look at my garage – isn't it a sweet little building. It has its interesting diamond pattern garage doors, original lights and four big windows. Like most of my home it needs some love. I painted the garage doors earlier this spring. It just got a new roof with a shiny copper edge…

Summer is rolling along. The pandemic restrictions are lifting and that feels great, but Brian is still stuck in his office doing meeting after meeting from home. I know he misses traveling and doing his job in person. We've been out to restaurants a few times recently and that has been great. We went to…

It's summer! We've eaten almost all the strawberries that I picked – strawberry shortcake, strawberry jam, strawberry milk, strawberry pie and strawberries in my cereal. Yum!  The girls and I went paddleboarding. We all got some sunburn – oops. My shasta daisies and my nasturtiums are blooming. Pretty stamps that I need to get framed.…

Bea and Claire had their last days of school this week. What a strange year! Here they are heading off to their last days. Since Bea is moving on to high school she had a special graduation ceremony. It was planned to be socially distanced and outside – basically everyone gathered in a big parking…

In the grass there are bits of balloons from when Claire and her friend had a water balloon fight. But there are also lots of creatures. I sit in the hammock in the afternoons. I make sure to place the hammock in the deepest bit of shade and I read. But I get distracted by…