The last two days have been full of surprises.  Working at the Thrift Shop yesterday, for instance, I was startled when the next customer in the checkout line reached for my head.  He did it so clinically, though, that I allowed him to continue.  He was a tall man with hands the approximate size of… Continue reading Four Surprises

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

Cindy called a couple weeks ago to tell me our friend Rhonda was playing in a concert on the twenty-fourth.  The concert would begin at one o’clock, and Cindy said she’d pick me up at noon.       “I want to bring cookies,” she added.  “Do you think a hundred will be enough?”      I put… Continue reading Concert Cookies

Women from around the world modeled and talked about traditional clothing in their countries of origin during a fashion show at yesterday’s meeting of International Neighbors.  Most like one other in what they chose to wear were the four ladies from Japan, all of whom wore what they described as summer kimonos, made of cotton… Continue reading Fashion in Clothes and Words

We got to see a solar eclipse on Monday.  Weather forecasts leading up to the big day did not look good, but the day dawned bright and clear.  And, while some wispy clouds moved in as the hours went by, they didn’t obscure the sun.      Southeastern Michigan wasn’t in the path of totality, but… Continue reading Eclipse

Daughter Number One is a geocacher.  In fact, she is a geocaching nut.  She loves to geocache.  What, pray tell, is geocaching?  Someone hides a log in a container of some kind and posts the coordinates and hints for others to find it and write their name on the log.  The container may be itty… Continue reading Geocaching Daughter