Climbing Mountains

Last winter, Abbey and I found two huge maps to put up on the walls of her bedroom.  We look at them at times and talk about all the places Daddy has been and where Abbey would like to go.

Earlier this year, we got to talking about vacation plans, and Abbey remembered hearing about the Catskill Mountains in New York.  I think it was the name that caught her fancy.

She decided that for vacation she wanted to go “climbing mountains.”  So that’s what I planned — a trip to the Catskill Mountains to places where we would need to scramble up the trail.

Mini-Julie

Rare Find

Purple Fringed Orchid

Last weekend we spent two days mowing sections of the North Country Trail.  The weather was beautiful and we got to spend some quality time in the woods.

When we were mowing one particular section of trail, Frank and I came across this rare beauty–a Purple Fringed Orchid.

According to Michigan Wildflowers in Color (Lund, Harry C. 1999), this is a “protected Michigan wildflower.”

Are you interested in where we found it so you can see it for yourself next summer?

Perkins is Producing!

Toscano kale and Red Bull beets

I received an email from my mom today and she was bragging about eating fresh tomatoes and summer squash from her garden.  While tomatoes are a ways off up here in Michigan, the greens and other early crops are coming in strong.

Perkins 2009

Everything is a bit slow this spring, especially my blogging and the garden.  There’s really no excuse for the lack of blogging except for laziness.  For the garden, the reason is an unseasonably cool spring.

The one big change at Perkins this year is that Abbey has her own garden plot.  It’s located in the midst of our veggies, and I helped her plant some corn, soy beans, strawberries, and flowers.  She chose what she wanted to plant, and picked out the flowers at Kingma’s with her mom.  The  strawberries were rescues from an abandoned garden and are the ever-bearing variety.

Ice Age

The ice on the inside of the cold frame this morning was a wonderful reflection of what February has been like… cold, but with beautiful and interesting weather patterns.  And lots of ice.  As a result, I have two ice stories to share on this blog.

And for those of you wondering about life in the coldframe behind this curtain of ice crystals, there’s plenty of Italian parsley up, and spinach and arugula are a-sprouttin’!

Happy New Year!

Just a quick post to wish everyone a Happy New Year and to share a photo of what Abigail did on New Year’s Day.

As we did last year, we joined some friends at a cabin down at Pinckney-Waterloo for some food, festivities and hiking.  One person who joined us was Dave Augee, a local who spends plenty of time on the trails and lakes in the area.

Dave brought along his ice fishing gear so that he could show Abbey (and the rest of us) how he fishes through the ice.  We went out at dusk to try our luck, but the wind drove us off the lake before anything was caught.

Abbey was rather amazed at the prospect of walking across frozen lakes, let alone fishing through the ice.

Ice Skating

Two days after Christmas, Abbey and I went ice skating at Griff’s Ice House.  We had to skate inside because it was in the mid 50’s and raining outside, melting our two feet of Christmas snow.

But skating inside the Ice House was a good idea for someone whose skating abilities are growing by leaps and bounds in recent weeks.  The Ice House is less crowded and has smoother ice, perfect for someone who is learning to skate on her own.

Getting Reacquainted

This December I’m getting reacquainted with my snow shovel.  We got our first snow the Sunday after Thanksgiving, and with the exception of about 12 hours one day, seen haven’t seen the grass since.

This weekend has been particularly helpful in developing my relationship with my ash-handled friend.  We got a foot of snow on Friday, and another bunch of inches last night and today.  I can’t tell exactly how much because it’s still blowing about.

Today was a two-shovel day.  One shoveling took place in the early morning to find the New York Times that had been tossed on our front sidewalk sometime overnight and to get the Jeep out to go to church.  The other shoveling took place right before dark to get the new snow that had blown in cleaned up before the temperatures drop any further below 10º.

The Chubby Little Snowman

First things first.  Aunt Beth was asking for a new picture of Abbey and Ana.

Ana is now incapable of producing offspring, and came home from the vet without 13 of her 21 claws.  She’s a little mellow these days, but it’s good to have her home.

She’s a wonderful lap cat. Nightly, about 10:00pm, she comes and curls up on my lap.

Now, for the Chubby Little Snowman performance, continue on to the next page.