Author Archives: makielb

We walk past this fairy garden ever few days. It’s fun watching the transition from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Here’s one of our neighbors yards that embraces both Thanksgiving and Christmas simultaneously. Today we went down to the Ann Arbor Farmers Market but also stopped to see some window work by the Brush Monkeys. There willContinue reading “The last of November”

Here’s Susan and I in Camarillo, California last month. Hard to believe that she was a year younger then, as we joke about birthdays. Today we had a relaxing day that started with walking to breakfast at our favorite place for breakfast – Village Kitchen. What made it even better today was that our favoriteContinue reading “They say it’s your birthday”

Today’s post will just be some of the cartoons honoring Charles Shulz. Good stuff here, even some in Spanish. More tomorrow, for Susan’s birthday.

Our day started with meeting our friend Linda at Northside Grill. I found it interesting to find that the car we parked next to had two interesting bumper stickers. The first was the “Stand with Ukraine” sticker, which we are seeing more of. The second was the “Puglia” sticker which was curious since that wasContinue reading “From Thanksgiving to Christmas in a day”

Today would have been Charles Schulz’s 100th birthday. These are the stamps that the USPS issued to mark the date. There were a lot of cartoon today that referred to him. But first. Thursday was Thanksgiving in the U.S. Susan cooked up a storm of wonderful food that we are still enjoying days later. WeContinue reading “Getting caught up for the week”

Oh those pesky cameras. If you only knew what they were saying. A drake singing Drake! Hey don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. Regardless, I am a big fan of food trucks. We get both colors of peppered moths at the cabin. I was rally excited when I got my first years ago. SomehowContinue reading “Some November humor”

Yesterday we got a bit of snow at Whitefish Point. While in the course of the day we only got 6-7″ of snow, for about an hour it was quite intense. That was sadly when we decided to go to Paradise (11 miles away) to mail some letters and stop at the Food Mart. Well,Continue reading “Snow storm at Whitefish Point”

I love bats, and have been lucky to see quite a few in the US, Canada, Mexico and Central America. But one I would love to see are the “flying foxes of SE Asia. But as the human population has grown exponentially over the years these animals, along with many others are brought into closerContinue reading “Human population growth, animals and disease”

An American Goldfinch on a branch with nearby lichens. A male Pine Grosbeak on our deck this morning. Lots of Common Redpolls to watch today. Photographing them required some patience. But the next bird was a pleasant surprise. The un-streaked under-tail coverts and the overall white coloration of this bird makes it a Hoary Redpoll.Continue reading “Whitefish Point Birds and the human population”

Our walk to the point was snowy and cold (27F). But it was still a nice walk. Back at the cabin I was finally able to get a quick photo of a Red-breasted Nuthatch. They are really darting to and from the feeders so fast it’s hard for me to focus on one and getContinue reading “A snowy day at Whitefish Point”