The Gnomes of the Snowlands

Before winters disappears entirely, as it has almost done, here's a little reminder of those long, darker days when spring seems to have decided to skip a year or two. This fellow stands serenely at the foot of the front door of Art and Miranda Davis's place in Copper Harbor (Miranda is my daughter). Art enjoys his gnomes, for some reason I cannot fathom, and there are a number of them inside and outside around their CH cabin. I was so pleased to give him a couple more this past Christmas. I insisted on buying them for him, though Marsha couldn't believe what I was doing as we looked them over in a market in East Lansing. This chap is the Davis's Greeter Gnome, nearly buried in the snow a few months ago, but still holding his post.

Concerts and Language

It's one of those times of year in which there are many school concerts. Drew and Logan were both involved in Okemos's joint-school Spring Concert at the high school recently. Logan is in middle school choir and Drew, in fifth grade, is in first year strings and choir as well. This is a shot of Drew on the risers in the high school auditorium on the night of the big concert. That's him separated from all the kids in this perspective. It was just a chance shot. Being tall, he always stands in the back, so I try to get a shot of him when he's coming on stage. I always enjoy photos like this one, of a crowd of people doing something. I like studying the faces and the gestures of each person and reflecting on how each person experiences a shared event differently. Many stories are being told in this photo, but the stories are almost entirely hidden, as is so much in life -- sometimes even in our own private lives.

Next up we have a shot of Logan on our short trip to the Ohio River and Mammoth Cave National Park over spring break. Logan was sitting in a downtown restaurant in a farm town in central Indiana where we were having burgers for lunch. He's studying his Latin flash cards. Logan loves languages right now and is always working on something to do with learning or even making up languages. Keep up the good work, boy. There is a story or two being told in this photo, too, but they are narrower and more focused stories. Yet there is much in Logan's face to study, and don't we all love to study our children? Marsh and I, when we go out alone, have to work hard to keep from spending all our time alone talking about the kids, as is so common among parents.

Spring Fields

Just before last week's cold snap and snowfalls, which took the shape of that massive blizzard up in Copper Harbor, down here in Okemos the snow had all melted and the fields, though still a bit muddy, were beginning to dry out. Here's a shot of a soybean field down Sandhill Road west of our house in Okemos. I hopped out of my car on the way to work to get this shot. That's no permanent pond. It's a flooded low spot, which fills up when the snow melts or the spring rains are heavy. The family who owns this field has never been able to keep the spot dry enough to plant in it regularly. Ducks and geese stay in the pond when the water is up, but then quickly move on when the water gets low or stagnant.

The Spring Blizzard of '07

We've been staying in touch with our daughter, Miranda Davis, all weekend during one of the biggest snowstorms of the past 20 years on the south shore of Lake Superior. I've heard and read differing figures, but it seems that the mining ghost town named Delaware about 11 miles southwest of Copper Harbor got about 40 inches of snow over three days. It was a true blizzard, with north winds blowing at 40 to 50 for lengthy periods. I've been bugging Mir to send me some shots of the action up in CH since we were last there, but she hasn't done so until now. Here's a shot of her standing on a trail somewhere in the woods near town a couple days ago, after the blizzard had let up:

Looks as though it was quite the storm, even for the Keweenaw. Here's another shot from Mir, this one taken outside her and Art's log cabin near the Mariner Restaurant:

The birds will have to look elsewhere for sustenance -- and for warmth. If the forecasts can be trusted, it looks as though this is going to be a long spell of April cold and snow in the Keweenaw and all along the Superior south shore. Notably, my parents, Don and Betty, made their way back to CH through Escanaba on Saturday and found just a trace of snow on the ground on the south side of the Upper Peninsula. Of course, it's cold everywhere east of the Rockies and north of a line about 200 miles north of the Gulf of Mexico.