Tag Archives: Lake Margrethe

W^2 –moon, calm

Family, Life in General, Science, teaching, Weather, Weekly Photo Challenges, Wordless Wednesday, , ,

W^2 or W squared for Wordless Wednesday, May 18, 2022

sunset on the lake, waxing moon, calm. Lake Margrethe, Grayling, MI Saturday, May 14, 2022 8:59 PM EDT

This week for my W^2 post, the calm after the storm.

This past weekend I asked my wife I made a quick trip to the lake and back. Up late Friday afternoon and home late Sunday night.

We had chores to do, and I was looking for a bit of calm as the school year winds (and grinds) to a finish. As in my previous post, W^2 – beauty and the beast, weather intervened. The skies opened and a thunderstorm rolled across the lake bringing hail and almost an inch and half of rain in about thirty minutes.

Once the storm passes, the skies cleared and there was calm. Calm enough to sit at the end of the dock and admire the sunset or flip the other way and admire the moon rise.

It was an excellent weekend, and I got a taste of summer, early. We also got the calm we needed and craved.

It is Wednesday, the middle of the week and there are as I sit and type ten more days of school this year and then it is summer. Today and I going to try and convince my 6th graders that there is a lot of space in the atmosphere for air particles (aka atoms and molecules) to move and I hope it provides the calm they need to weather the final days of the year. I know it is going to be going to be a great day. I know it and I can feel it, so I’d better jump up, jump in, and seize the day. Making the Days Count, one day at a time, making the most of every day and trying to compress learning just like air particles can be compressed.

What brings you a little calm these days?

W^2 – ornament

Challenges, Life in General, Photography, Teaching and Learning, Weekly Photo Challenges, Wordless Wednesday, , , , ,

W^2 or W squared for Wordless Wednesday, November 24, 2021

The cottage Christmas tree, a shiny ornament, the lake, and a reflective selfie. Grayling, MI November 23, 2021, 10:57 AM

It is Thanksgiving Break, and we broke away to the lake for a weekend and a couple of days. B decorated the Christmas tree Monday evening while I conducted parent conferences from the loft overlooking the tree. Tuesday morning, I captured the tree, and the day, in all its splendor and light before we broke camp and returned home to spend Thanksgiving at home wit h family.

It is Wednesday, November 24th and one month from today, it will be Christmas eve, may the Christmas season bring the brightness of light into your life. Let it shine. Making the Days Count, one day at a time, enjoying the brightness of a new day and letting my light shine.

In what ways will your line shine?

Summer Days: Week 8

Family, Learning, Music, Reading, Science, teaching, Writing, , , ,

It’s Day 57 and I have a dozen days remaining in my summer break. I slept late this morning. Sleeping late is a luxury of summer or anytime when the following day comes without a schedule or place to be early in the morning. Sleeping late is a direct consequence of living without a schedule or maybe staying up late to watch the stars shine brightly in the summer sky, or return home from a family.

“Summer was our best season – everything good to eat, a thousand colors in a parched landscape.” ― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

Last night all three of us went to a concert by the band Chicago. B and I listened to them in our youth and the songs were part of the soundtracks of us growing up. O got a glimpse of the music her parents listened to as they figured out how to be adults. It was a fun concert, and the band finished their performance with one of their best-known songs, “25 or 6 to 4”, for their encore.

It was a late night and we got home well past midnight.

Continue reading Summer Days: Week 8 →

Friday morning birding on Saturday

adventure, Learning, Life in General, Science, Writing, , , , , , ,

We are up at the lake for the race, the famous canoe race. Canoe race weekend is an important time for us as a family and I have written about this weekend in past years. The canoe race is always the last full weekend of July.

The canoe race is begins in town and ends 120 miles down the Au Sable River in Oscoda, Michigan where the river empties into Lake Huron. For many, the race defines this town, but Grayling is much more.

the view from my perch at the table… I can see the lake and both feeders.. and Saturday morning’s gentle rain

The rivers have been important where trapping along the three rivers – Au Sable, Manistee, and Muskegon – which begin here in the Michigan Highlands was the first industry when Europeans arrived in the seventeenth and eighteenth century. Grayling, the town, was established as a logging town when it was settled in the late nineteenth century. Logging, forestry, and wood products are still key industries in town, but tourism – hunting, fishing, and recreation – is the industry that sustains this little town near the headwaters of the Au Sable River.

When the pandemic began last year, the cottage along the lake was my hideaway. I spent the last two months of the 2019-20 school year teaching remotely from our place on the lake up here. I felt safer away from our densely populated home region. In many ways we were safer here – there are significantly less people in the county and the reported COVID cases were significantly lower here than our suburban county.

And because there are less people wildlife thrives and is more abundant in the absence of people.

During this time by the lake shore, the beginning of the pandemic, change, real lasting deep change, began for me and my family.

We spent more time paying attention to nature and spent more time walking. I walked more last year with my wife and kids than I remember. I also stopped listening to music, podcasts, or audio books when I walked and I started listening to the birds, the trees, and nature around me.

And, I have paid more attention to nature.

For Father’s Day, my wife gave me a couple for bird feeders and shepherd’s double crook to hang the feeders for our lake house. I placed it just off the deck where we can see it when we are sitting in the front room or on the deck. Continue reading Friday morning birding on Saturday →

Late June Sunday morning

Family, Reading, Science, teaching, Writing, , , , ,

It’s Sunday morning and the sun is shining, for now, and it’s the last Sunday in June.

We’ve had rain the last couple of days and the lawn, and the garden are rebounding.

my Sunday morning companion

Yesterday morning I watched the fog lifting and walked outside to take a photo from the end of the dock – yesterday’s days of summer Instagram post and I discovered a couple of spider webs which had been spun overnight. It reminded me of the story of Charlotte in E.B. White’s classic story, Charlotte’s Web.

Saturday morning spider web, spun overnight
Sunday morning spider – spinning int he wind

Earlier this morning Fern and I stepped outside between showers, and I discovered an exceptionally large spider.

I’ve been watching the birds – especially the blue jays – as they visit the feeders. I’ll see a flash or shadow and look up to see a blue jay the deck either railing, the ledge, or the arm of one of the deck chairs before it hops to the seed feeder. Continue reading Late June Sunday morning →

Days of Summer – Week 2

Family, Life in General, Photography, Weekly Photo Challenges, Wordless Wednesday, , , , ,

I am two weeks into Summer 2021 – 14 full days and I mean FULL.

“Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability.” —Sam Keen

The past two days of summer have found me prone on the couch reading a book. Storms blasted through the Midwest late Sunday night into early Monday morning. We went from warm to cool, hence the change in activity reading on the couch and a couple of moments of looking at the underside of my eyelids. I have felt and lived Sam Keen’s quote. Monday morning the lake was breezy and cold.

It’s Wednesday and Day 15. It’s sunny but breezy making the mid-60s (upper teens C) air feel much cooler than it really is.

 

I’ve been watching my bird feeder off and on this morning – it was my Father’s Day gift – witnessing my first seed visitor, a blue jay and watching a hummingbird dip down for sip of nectar. That’s my photo for Day 15 – you can see it in the Instagram feed to the right, or wait until next week’s Summer Days post.

The past seven days have been amazing, and Day 15 through Day 68 could be a million six times better, but today is gonna be a great day. So, I’d better jump in, jump out, and seize the day. Making the days count, one day at a time, figuring ways to make each day count.

What has made your day or days count?

W^2 – bird of the year

adventure, Family, Learning, Life in General, Photography, Science, teaching, Wordless Wednesday, , , , , ,

W^2 or W squared for Wordless Wednesday, May 5, 2021

Dryocopus pileatus aka pileated woodpecker #2 on the upright on a tree. Grayling, MI Saturday April 24, 2021 10:20 AM
Pileated woodpecker #1 on the ground foraging on a log. Grayling, MI Saturday April 24, 2021 10:20 AM
the field guide..

I have been looking for one these woodpeckers for over two years. Last fall I saw one, but by the time I had trained my camera it was gone. Two weeks ago, at the lake I spied one along the lane picking through a log on the ground and then saw another on a tree. I didn’t have my camera, but I was able to capture both with my phone camera. The following Sunday I recorded the video below as a pair of them worked the forest in search of food. it is the ABA Bird of the Year for 2021!

It made my weekend and I keep Making the Days Count, one day at a time.

What made your weekend?

W^2 – lake sunset

adventure, Learning, Weather, Wordless Wednesday, , , , ,

W^2 or W squared for Wordless Wednesday, March 3, 2021

The sunset over the frozen lake, beginning to melt at the edge. Grayling, MI February 26, 2021 6:16 PM

Winter is on its winding its down and spring is on its way. I never tire of watching a sunset or a sunrise it’s what keeps me Making the Days COUNT, one day at a time, each day is a step forward.

When was the last time you stopped to the sunset or rise?

W^2 – play

adventure, Challenges, Learning, Life in General, pets, Weather, Wordless Wednesday, , , ,

W^2 or W squared for Wordless Wednesday, December 30, 2020

Fern and Ivy – left to right, their faces seem to say, “can you come out and play, it’s fresh snow and a lot of fun.” Wednesday, December 30, 2020 10:05 AM

Fern and Ivy enjoy getting out and running in the snow and I enjoy watching them. We’ve got a few inches of fresh snow and until the dogs ran through it, it was a clean white blanket. I’ll be stepping out to clear the drive and walks and playing a little, too. Making the Days Count, at play and work, one day at a time.

What have you done lately to play?

still silent, Stille Nacht

Family, Learning, Life in General, Music, Photography, teaching, Today in History, Writing, , , , ,

It’s Christmas morning and Fern and I are the only ones awake, really I am the only one awake. Fern is curled up in her favorite chair overlooking the lawn and the lake. It was grandmas favorite spot, though the chair has changed. Grandma passed away a little more
than five years ago but her memory lives on.

our Christmas tree with the reflection of the fireplace in the window… Merry Christmas…

We drove north to the lake Wednesday morning. O drove one car with Fern and B and I took another with Ivy. We’ve spent the last couple of days readying the cottage for Christmas and it looks and feels like Christmas. Snow is gently falling and all is silent on the lake and in the cottage.

This morning I came across a memory and tweeted it….


And I went back and re-read my post about reading the story to my mother-in-law. Please read, if you have time – Stille Nacht. Continue reading still silent, Stille Nacht →