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Butlers Abroad

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Butlers Abroad

Category Archives: Michigan

Seasonal

22 Sunday Nov 2015

Posted by A Woolly Life in Michigan, Seasons, The Weekend, Weather, Winter

≈ 4 Comments

Apparently it’s that time of year again…

Saturday 21st November.

As is always the day after the storm passes through, there is blue sky and sunshine to enjoy and complement the brilliant white snow.  Sadly after a very mild November which saw a lot of trees holding on to their leaves, this turned out to be a very destructive storm as the snow was very heavy and wet.  The leaves then allow a lot more of the snow to accumulate, putting a lot of extra stress on to the trees and a lot came down taking the power with them.  We were fortunate in that regard, but 40,000 folks in metro Detroit were not.

Our giant Smokebush on the side of our house succumbed unfortunately.  I took the first and last photos above standing right underneath it yesterday, this morning two thirds of it was on the ground.

We can’t clean it up until later this week, when the warmer temps will melt the snow again, so we took ourselves off to our local State Park and strapped the bits of plastic to our feet again for the first time this season.  Conditions were less than perfect, what with wet snow and warm ground, but it was nice to be out enjoying the fresh air and getting some exercise.

Despite two little falls I managed ok… which is more than can be said about Andrew!  In fairness he’s trying to get the compacted snow off the base of his ski’s, but it would make a great photo for a caption contest!

Stuck In Spring-ter!

27 Friday Mar 2015

Posted by A Woolly Life in Home, Life, Michigan, Seasons, The Weekend, Weather, Winter

≈ 4 Comments

The calendar tells me it’s the first week of Spring but it’s actually been colder here than the first week of Winter was back in December!  We’re feeling a bit trapped between that no-mans land between Winter and Spring, hence the “Spring-ter” in the post title if you haven’t figured it out yet.

Whilst the weather makes up its mind which way to go I thought I’d show you a few photos of the last days of Winter, a bit late as they’re from the first two weekends in March, but I’ve had strep throat and my step-father is in hospital in England after suffering a nasty fall.  No broken bones, amazingly, but he’s pretty banged up and needed stitches on his face, he’s being kept in for a few days for observation and to make sure that he’s able to get about under his own steam again.

These first few are from our skiing trip to Petoskey.  We forgot the camera on the first day, which is a shame as it was beautiful and sunny and just so pretty.  These are from the Sunday when it was grey and show showery all day, it wasn’t very cold though, not much below freezing and the snow conditions were perfect.  And as Andrew always says, it doesn’t matter how dull the day, or how many people are on the slopes, he can spot me a mile off!

 

And as you can see, on Sunday we practically had the place to ourselves.  Anyone who had come up for the weekend was leaving by Sunday lunchtime for the drive home, but as we weren’t leaving until the Monday it worked out perfectly.

And on the Monday, before leaving, we walked along the harbour in Petoskey as it was a stunning day.  Actually, let me rephrase that, we walked ON the harbour in Petoskey!  Little Traverse Bay was completely frozen over, there were tire tracks on it from trucks heading out to do some ice fishing, and snow-mobile tracks too plus lots of footprints!

Back at home a weekend later and the weather couldn’t have been more different, highs of 21C soon put paid to all of our remaining snow.

Since then we’ve been back down to -8C, mostly after the official start of Spring, but at least that’s given us plenty of indoor time to continue ripping out the bathroom, which is now a big empty space, warts and all.  And we have a lot of work ahead of us!  But more on that another time.

Randomly On My Camera

06 Friday Mar 2015

Posted by A Woolly Life in Family, Knitting, Life, Michigan, Seasons, The Weekend, Travel, Weather, Winter

≈ 3 Comments

I take quite a lot of photos over the course of a week or two, most never make it on to this blog, but I thought perhaps I might show you a few once in a while.  Right now there’s a lot of photos of Winter and snow and I could fill up post after post with them but that would get old very quickly!

Trails at our local State Park.

Some Sock Love.

Fingerless Mitts – they match a cowl I made 18 months ago.

Christmas Cactus – Flowering for the second time

Back To The Park For Cross Country Skiing

Andrew had a birthday at the end of February.  Naturally there were Giraffe themed birthday cards and Giraffe themed socks!

And rather randomly taking up space in my dining room right now…

Yes, we’re getting ready for a bathroom remodel!  Looking forward to it but not looking forward to it if you know what I mean!

We’re heading up north again this weekend for more downhill skiing and our camping friends are coming with us for a break although they don’t ski.  We have a little condo booked right beside the State Park in Petoskey that we all love to go to in the Summer months and we’ve all taken Monday off too so we’re making a longer weekend of it.  I’m hoping for lots of knitting time in between bouts of vigorous exercise!

Just Chillin’

16 Monday Feb 2015

Posted by A Woolly Life in Life, Michigan, Seasons, The Weekend, Weather, Winter

≈ 4 Comments

Cross country skiing in Mayberry Park on Saturday, waiting for Andrew who decided to add an extra loop, whereas I knew how I’d be feeling the next day if I added even one extra foot to my normal circuit!

Perching my derriere on a picnic bench in the sunshine.

The temperature we woke up to on Sunday morning…

Ice on the inside of the bathroom windows on Sunday morning.  We had ice on practically all of the windows, it was a bit of an overwhelming kind of cold…

The forecast for Sunday and also for Monday…

But my feet are toasty warm in my new furry slipper booties….

The only problem is, Andrew now wants a pair too!

This Week I’m…

05 Thursday Feb 2015

Posted by A Woolly Life in Knitting, Life, Michigan, Seasons, Weather, Winter

≈ 2 Comments

…Digging out from Winter Storm Linus which brought us 16.7″ of snow to start the week with.  I stayed at home and worked on Monday, before digging out the driveway and paths and then digging out my neighbour’s son and his car after he got himself completely stuck at the entrance to our street.

…Staying indoors and working on my new socks, Alluvial Deposits:

And casting on yet more socks, like you do.  These are another of the Harry Potter themed socks that I told myself last Summer I would knit more of, 7 months later here are “Socks For The Deputy Headmistress”.  Or as I called my project on Ravelry “Socks For Sheer Dumb Luck” taken from one of Minnerva McGonagill’s quotes from the first HP book and film, which I can still hear ringing around my head.

…Trying to keep warm.  I need more socks because we’re back in the deep freeze, so I’m also not spending a great deal of time outside at the moment.  All my hand knits are coming in useful right now though, especially at 6:30am when I leave my house for the drive to work.  This was the temperature earlier today, after it had warmed up a few degrees.

…Looking forward to the weekend after a seriously stressy week at work that involved a lot of forward budget planning that had to be re-done all over again after I noticed that Accounting had given us starting figures that were a year out of date; and two license servers that decided to have hard disk failures a day apart from each other that left me scrambling to get them back on line and minimize the impact to the users.  But there’s always someone who complains…. and then emails GM level managers to bitch and complain some more.

Still, there’s always next week…

Reindeer Games

24 Wednesday Dec 2014

Posted by A Woolly Life in Home, Michigan, Seasons

≈ 3 Comments

I never knew I had such a “thing” for reindeers and caribou until this year.  We’re currently up in Northern Michigan, in Petoskey to be exact, that lovely place right on Lake Michigan where we like to spend some time during the Autumn.  We’ve rented a two bed Victorian cottage just a couple of blocks from the main downtown area, so we’re close to everything but just far enough away from the hustle and bustle.  While we’re up here we’re also hoping to find our downhill ski legs again, along with some cross country skiing too and a boat load of relaxation as I’m in dire need of a break.  In fact, my suitcase consisted of my outdoor gear and three pairs of pyjamas as that’s what I intend wearing all day every day while we’re at the house!  In my dreams at least!

[You lookin’ at me???]

So, those reindeer.  Every year at the beginning of December we bring home a beautiful, real Christmas tree and I spend a very happy couple of nights decorating it and the rest of the house too.  Only this year, there was absolutely no point in getting a real tree and even less point in completely decking the halls either, so I concentrated my efforts on the entry hallway so it looks nice for visitors and the family room where we spend most of our time.  That meant that I put all my favourite decorations in the family room instead of spreading them around, and it was then that my little Rudolph habit became noticeable!

[This is one of a pair I was given, must do something with his white bob-tail, he seems to have lost the original one!  And please ignore the packing supplies in the background, the Ribbon Organizers have been galloping out of the door!]

 

Of course, no big tree means that for the first time in many, many years we won’t be sleeping under one on Christmas Eve, we’ll actually be in a bed!  Not sure how we’re going to cope to be honest, it will seem most odd!!  But I’m really looking forward do the break as I’ve been very busy at work, very busy at home, very busy socially and basically, just very busy!  I’ve been burning the candle at both ends and I’m rapidly running out of candle!!

[Another gifted one, silver this time.  He lives on the end of the curtain rod as he’s much too heavy for the tree]

I’m also hoping to meet up with a lady I met on line on Ravelry, the knitting and crocheting emporium, as she lives just one block away from where we’ll be staying.  And of course I’ll be packing a knitting project or two to work on whilst we away.  It doesn’t look like we’ll be snowed in, sadly, but there is quite a bit of snow on the ski hills.

[Another gifted one, this time from a Manager at work who seems to know me quite well]

And then there’s Bou, who you’ve met before.  I have to admit that he does receive preferential treatment as he’s up here with us, having a lot of fun and getting into all sorts of mischief.  Let’s hope he makes it back home with us too!

 

[Looks like someone has been sticking their nose in the cookie jar!!]

 

I just wanted to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year in case we can’t get online while we’re away (this is a scheduled post).  I have a new tablet that I bought for myself on Cyber Monday using gift vouchers from Amazon that I had but I’m still learning all about it and what it and what it does!  I’m a bit old school I’m afraid!  See you on the other side.

 

Good News / Bad News

18 Tuesday Nov 2014

Posted by A Woolly Life in Life, Michigan, Seasons, Weather, Winter

≈ 1 Comment

It’s a kind of a good news/bad news situation here.

.

.

The good news, most definitely, is that we’re finally done raking the leaves for this year…

.

.

The bad news is that we’re done raking the leaves for this year because Winter has arrived!

.

.

 

Possibly the worse news is that we’ve skipped December and January and seemed to have landed in the middle of February as it was -12C outside this morning with a wicked wind making it feel more like -22C.  In fact we haven’t actually been above freezing during the daytime for six days, although it was only just on the cusp or just below, and not much colder than that at night either until yesterday.  It makes me wonder what February has in store for us!

Chin, chin.  I’m off to get a warm cuppa and sit by the fire.

 

Skeletons Out Of The Closet

07 Friday Nov 2014

Posted by A Woolly Life in Michigan, Seasons, The Weekend

≈ 4 Comments

Every year in the run up to Halloween my local town sponsors an event called Skeletons on Main.  As well as decorating the pretty, Victorian town with Autumn touches, think flowers, corn stalks and pumpkins), they also work with a local landscape company to install over 50 life size skeletons in various poses around the town.  The result is really quite hilarious.

Last Saturday Andrew and I walked around taking some photos before they were removed to make way for the Christmas decorations.  We had been downtown the night before, on Halloween, but it was wet, windy, snowy, icy and freezing cold so we didn’t spend long.  It was still really cold on the Saturday morning but at least the sun was back out and the blue sky made for some super pictures.

I’m not post all the ones I snapped as you’d be here forever, but you can see some more here.

 

You can always count on Superman…

 

Delinquent skeletons??

 

I hope the Northville High School cheer team are not that anorexic!

 

Spiders! This was lit up at night, they all have orange eyes!

 

..And where you find Spiders, you find Spiderman

 

Outside the “make you own pottery” shop… the iconic scene from Ghost!

 

In the frame?

 

Dinner awaits you… if you dare.

 

The proposal.. outside the jewelers store of course.

 

How about a nice cuppa? As long as you don’t die waiting!

 

Even skeletons hobbies! They have to have something to do for the rest of the year!

 

Taking exercise to extremes?

 

Some don’t have time to play, there’s work to be done.

 

Ghostly music?

 

Sing along now… “And I had the time of my life and I owe it all to you”!

 

Family day out.

 

Getting a bit squiffy?

 

Obviously that cat’s been up that tree for a while!

 

Fabulous dahhhling!

 

No wonder this little town always look so neat and clean.

 

But I was framed! Can you see the Police Dept sign?

Sunny Sunday

20 Monday Oct 2014

Posted by A Woolly Life in Foody Stuff, Michigan, Seasons, The Weekend

≈ 5 Comments

After a few days of greyness and showers it was wonderful to finally wake up to a sunny day.  It was even more wonderful that the sunny day happened to be on a Sunday, so I could enjoy it with Andrew and not have to look at it from the window at work.  It was cold again though 0C/32F but as we haven’t had that many cold days this Autumn so far I really can’t grumble about that.

We decided on a stroll through some local woods after breakfast as it was too pretty not to do something with the morning.  And everywhere did look glorious.  There’s something about Autumn that makes my heart sing and it’s not just the colours.  I love the earthy, slightly sweet smell of it, the low slanting sunlight through the leaves, the glorious blue sky, the crunchy leaves underfoot after a frost, the warmth of the sun on my face and the briskness of the air.  I think I really love Autumn and Winter more than I do Spring and Summer in so many respects.

 

 

 

 

 

Back home we prepared a little treat to go with our morning coffee.  We have a specialty food store near us called Trader Joe’s, it’s a national chain but there aren’t that many of them around, they have a lot of seasonal products and at this time of year it’s all about the pumpkin.  We missed out on this last year so as soon as the products were in Andrew hot-footed it down to our local one and came back with these magical little beauties, Pumpkin Croissants!  Found in the frozen section in packs of four you let them prove and defrost overnight and then bake them for 20 minutes when you want them.  They do need to cool a bit before eating as they have a soft pumpkinny filling that will probably burn if eaten too hot, but oh my, I can see why these sold out in a matter of days at our local store last year.  We need to get some more of these and stash them for when the snow is flying.

Absolutely perfect with a cup of coffee.

 

For those of you with a Trader Joe’s within a 100 mile radius of your home I suggest a little road trip might be in order… but for those of you in countries without one, I’m sorry.  I’d pack my bags and move to America if I were you.  They really are that good!  Chin, chin.

 

An Autumnal Weekend

13 Monday Oct 2014

Posted by A Woolly Life in Kayaking, Michigan, Seasons, The Weekend, Weather

≈ 6 Comments

Just up the road from us is Seven Lakes State Park, we’ve been looking at it for a while and finally booked it up last Tuesday as the weekend weather forecast changed from rain to sun.  And by “just up the road” I mean only 44 miles, so just over an hour after leaving home on Friday afternoon we were sitting in our camp spot all set up drinking hot tea, knitting (well, I was knitting!) and watching two beautiful and colourful balloons ascend into the cool of the early evening.

* Friday 5:45pm 9C/48F ~ Sand Lake Campground *

* Saturday 8am 0C/32F  ~ Mist Rising on Sand Lake*

*Saturday 11am 10C/50F ~ Preparing to launch on Big Seven Lake *

* Big Seven Lake *

* Big Seven Lake  has its own Loch Ness Monster! *

* 12 Noon 14C/57F ~ Goosebumps on legs on Big Seven Lake *

* Big Seven Lake *

* Big Seven Lake *

* Saturday 3pm 15C/59F ~ Hiking Trail to Dickinson Lake *

* Saturday 3pm 15C/59F ~ Campground and Sand Lake from trail *

* Sunday 8am -2C/28F ~ Mist Rising on Dickinson Lake *

 * Sunday 8am -2C/28F ~ Mist Rising on Dickinson Lake *

* Sunday 8am -2C/28F ~ Mist Rising on Dickinson Lake *

 * Sunday 8am -2C/28F ~ Mist Rising on Dickinson Lake *

* Sunday 11am 15C/59F ~ A fungi tree on a hike round Big Seven Lake *

 

* Sunday 12:30 pm 17C/62F ~ Big Seven Lake from the trail*

I’m hoping for more weekends like this before we lose the leaves completely, there may even be another camping trip if we can squeeze it in too.

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My projects are on this blog as inspiration only. Please don't copy my designs or use them for submitting to competitions or for any form of publications. All designs are my own ideas unless otherwise stated.
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