More from the U.P.

I am no longer living the U.P. Now the U.P. is living in me!
Yes, it's true. The more I travel in the U.P. the more I know it's where I wish to end up in my life. Lately I've been having fantasies about this building in McMillan, Michigan. It started it's life as a school. Then it became a bottling plant for an artesian water company. Now it's a huge empty building on 27 acres of land.

But I realize this is a pipe dream, so instead I'm turning it into a story idea. In the story, (the ME character) a woman and her two best friends, all quilters, decide to move to the U.P. Their husbands all worked for the same Engineering firm and thus they are all rich. They have all just retired and their plan is to move up to the U.P. and live in this huge building and make it into a quilt shop and Hobby shop. Each of the men have a different hobby. One is a model train builder, one is a guitarist, and the other is a computer builder. The three women all are interested in different styles of quilting so the main story of the building is a quilt shop. On top of that, they are involved in making this little community into a summertime destination. They are planning to show movies on a giant blow up screen in the backyard, host baseball games between communities, and build a dormitory style sleeping quarters so they can host retreats. In addition one of their sons is a chef and in with this deal they open up a local eatery from one that had been shut down years before.
I'm thinking this will become a ghost story! Just thinking out loud!

My mother sees angels everywhere. She insisted I take a picture of this one.

I took this picture from my cousin's front door. The Albino Deer pictured here is a regular resident in the neighborhood. I never thought I'd see an albino deer let alone get 20 pictures of one. It stayed in his neighbors yard for a good fifteen minutes so I could photograph it. Rather accommodating of her wasn't it?

Here is a picture of a pair of socks that I designed. The pattern for them will be available later this week through Ravelry and on the Quiltlynx Designs Blog (see link to the right of this post.) It will also be available in my Etsy store once I get that up and running. I plan to get my store going by the end of January. On Etsy, I will sell, baskets, beaded necklaces, patterns, other finished craft projects, oh and my books. Everything that I plan to have in my booth at the farmer's market and craft shows this summer. Let's face it. If I actually get all this done, I will be organized for the very first time in my long drawn out life! Wish me luck! Haunting the U.P. like never before, Cindy K-K

Haunting Marquette

For those of you who don't know, my mother is getting on in years and I have moved to Marquette to take care of her. One of the things I have taken up to keep us both involved is a daily drive out to Presque Isle. We look for deer, ore ships, and whatever else we can see.

There is a man who goes out there nearly every weekday and sets up a hammock between two trees and reads a book out next to the lake. We have seen him many times. When he is NOT there we speculate on why. "Maybe he's found a job," Mom said one day. The next day she quipped that maybe his wife found out where he was going and put a stop to it. Silly Mom!

The Michipicoten has often been seen lately anchored in the Marquette harbor right at the end of Wright Street. (See my Blog on the Ore ships: link at right.) I've developed a major interest in the topic of Ore Ships since I've come here.

Oh, and I've made some friends, one of whom, Carolyn Scott, has given me some yarn she no longer wanted. So I made this afghan. When I took the colors out of the garbage bag I saw that they all went together. They reminded me of citrusy sherbert colors so I call this the sherbert afghan. Just as I was getting to know Carolyn she had a change in plans and is now moving out of town about 30 miles. I probably won't get to see her as often now. With her living right upstairs all I had to do is shout out and she would come down and spend time with me. But after she moves we will have to schedule appointments to get together. That's OK, we will, we have become very good friends. We respect each other's privacy but we still enjoying doing things together. I've never had a problem making friends. I haven't even tried the local quilt guild yet. Those are friends waiting to be made!

All in all, this move has been good for me. Taking care of my mother is difficult because she needs to have noise in the house at all times. If she isn't watching TV in the kitchen, she has the radio on and listening to music. I can't concentrate hard enough to READ a book, let alone WRITE one. So I have been walking in the mornings, usually with Carolyn, but also by myself, and then going to the local library where I can find a quiet cubical in the mornings to write for a while. When I need time to think I have been going for long morning drives out to the Island and sitting there to watch the ships. I come back with the pictures to prove it, but I always take a little time for myself.

I also have been known to go "shopping" mostly at thrift stores. And yes again I come home with certain little things that I have purchased at these stores but mostly I go there and walk around or sit in my car and listen to an audio book, or walk in the park with my camera. Anything at all to get away and let my own thoughts filter through the nonsense!

Carolyn is good at doing this for me as well. She sometimes suggests we go somewhere and get out and walk around, be at one with nature. I discovered one place on the Island that I had never seen simply because I've never gotten out of the car on this particular stretch. The entire back of the Island is cliffs overlooking Lake Superior and at certain vantage points you can see them from the land.

The day I took these photos was a clear day in late May, notice that there are still icebergs on the lake! It's such a beautiful place, Presque Isle.

School kids must have made this into a tradition, to put their locks on this overlook fence.

Flamingos I suppose aren't the only birds who save one leg. Mom and I saw this gull Picnic Rocks. A day or two later we saw what we thought was the same bird at the Island. I can only presume that it's a trait they all share.

I don't really blame them for saving their feet, this is how they use them. How many of us would survive barefooted on the icebergs!