Month: May 2024

Walking on the Lake Michigan beach, as my sisters and I continued our stay on Beaver Island, we had a chat with Erin Binney Gergler.  Binney is a professor of biology at Kalamazoo College, one of whose research interests is pitcher’s thistle.  This is an endangered plant that takes years to flower, blooms once, and… Continue reading Island Lights

As Sue and I motored off to Doyle Park last Friday, we found ourselves distracted by the dust rising from a field along Pontiac Trail.  It was pink.      Some parts of the country have red earth.  Daughter Number Three lives in such a place.  We, however, do not.  Any dust rising from the ground… Continue reading Color and Form

While we waited for our meals to arrive in a restaurant recently, a mother and young son were waiting for theirs, at the next table.  They were in their own little bubble of love.  The little fellow had just placed his hand against his mother’s hand and discovered that his pointer finger was as long… Continue reading Squirrel Ladders

It seems to have been Hat Day at the Thrift Shop yesterday.  Hat after hat found a new head to call home, and some heads found numerous hats to call their own.  So, what sort of hats were people buying, this rainy afternoon?  Summer hats.  Hats to wear on walks around the neighborhood or while… Continue reading Hats and Hellos

Bonang barung.  Sackbut.  Theorbo.  Gaohu and erhu.  Pipa.  The Stearns Collection at the University of Michigan has some twenty-five hundred musical instruments from around the globe and from as far back in time as scholars can trace them.  The collection used to be housed in Hill Auditorium, where it was open for viewing during intermissions… Continue reading Xylopong