Sunday

We went out for a little walk this morning. Not the brightest day and - eeeekkk - it was SO cold! We only lasted a little while on our first beach walk. Husband slipped on the snow and took a tumble. He didn't hurt anything badly, but he is a little sore now! The second place we stopped at it wasn't quite as cold (still below freezing lol) and I took a longer walk while husband sat in the car. The beach was absolutely deserted. Although it was quiet I had a lovely time just walking, looking at what had been washed up and patterns in the sand. It was nice not to think about things for a little while

We did stop and pick up a few bits on the way the home. The list is really small now. I am hoping to pick up the last few things tomorrow - if the weather holds! We're under another Winter Storm Advisory. It looks like maybe freezing rain and snow this time. Fingers crossed it holds off until midday or later so I can at least get to the shops after a quick walk. Otherwise, I will be braving the shops on Christmas Eve - sigh. I really don't want to. Though today when we went it was quite quiet - quieter than a normal Sunday it seemed!

We also stopped at the in-laws on the way home. Daughter was going to have Baby A open her gift from them and daughter wanted to be able to video call with them. It was rather cute. Baby A sat nicely in my daughter's lap and helped open the presents. She even said oooohhh when she saw the gifts lol. So delightful! I can't wait to see her!

Back home, I got myself a nice cup of soup and spent the rest of the afternoon warming up lol 

Hope everyone has had a good weekend and are ready for the week ahead!

Sunday

Not a bad day today. I had turned off the alarm but still seemed to wake up around the same time. That doesn't mean I got out of bed right away! SIL is home at the weekends so I let the little family do their thing. They tend to stay downstairs in their rooms. Their house has two levels - the bottom level has 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, a family room and laundry area. Upstairs are another two bedrooms, kitchen and dining area and living room. The guest room where I stay is upstairs. It's nice that we can both have some private area to stay in. 

Anyway, they came up a bit later and I got dressed and went out for a quick walk. It wasn't quite as cold as yesterday, but it was still chilly and windy. I did a little walk. The eagles were in the nest up by the Learning Centre today. I am hoping they are going to use that one this year. Even though the road on it is closed from March 1st to August 31 each year, you can see the nest really well from a small car park. It will be interesting to see if they have little ones there this year. When I spoke to the people in the shop at the learning centre at Christmas (it closes then until Spring) they said the nest hadn't been used last year. It will be great if it was!

This is the nest, and you can barely see the silhouettes of the eagles. This was my 49/366 Things That Make Me Smile photo for the day. 

In the afternoon Daughter and I took the baby to town. We went to the local independent craft shop. They are ending their loyalty program, and we had some points on there we had to use. Baby did ok, though she was quite hungry, and I had to feed her while daughter popped in the supermarket. 

It's almost 9pm now. I got the baby to sleep, and daughter fell asleep on the sofa. I'm not sure how long they will stay that way, but things are quiet for now. SIL is playing on the computer in the office and if the baby is still asleep when he goes to bed, he'll take her down with him. 

Hope everyone had a good Sunday!

Yup, Rainy Sunday.

It was dull and rainy when I woke this morning. As I write this at ten o'clock at night it is still raining. We went for a drive and there was a tiny break in the rain when we walked along the pier to the lighthouse. I was amazed to see the fishermen out. I suppose I shouldn't be all that surprised when there was one out last week in the windy snow! 

It's really been quite the uneventful day. I got a bit more sorting done when I got back. Not much, but any little progress is, well, progress. Tomorrow I'll get back to it. This week I want to get all the gifts I have wrapped, see what needs to be still got. I need to get some tidying up done, things are sitting around that need to be put away before I leave. We'll see how far I get. 

The really quick walk today was interesting. We went to South Haven. It was rainy when we got there. 

Through the car window

The weather broke for just a little bit that we were able to get out for a walk. The beach is already changing. Where the sand was once flat there is about a five foot 'cliff' as you walk along. Lake Michigan always surprises me. There are no tides, but during Autumn and Winter, the beach is let go wild and there are such changes. It's this time of year that I like to visit most. 

A few more phone photos

I loved the patterns in the sand! 

Sunday

 I managed to get up early this morning. I've been doing the waking up at 3am thing again and laying there thinking and then I can't sleep. Sigh. I suppose I'm in that part of the cycle again. Grrr. Anyway, I got up early and went to see the sunrise. It was pretty cold 

It was nice and peaceful though. I was the only one at the park (not really surprising lol). 

My Day 338 photo (below)

A beautiful view. 

I went to look for the birds, but I think it was too cold for them to be in the pond that they usually hang around here. There were lots in the fields around the pond, but not close enough to get photos. Oh well. I don't blame them for not wanting to stand in the cold water!

I went to the shops, picked up some wrapping paper (something checked off my list!). I came home and wrapped some of the gifts for the game at my daughter's except now I can't remember what I did with one of them. Sigh. 

It was a fairly productive day. I checked a few things off my list and got started on a couple of others. Hopefully I'll get some more done tomorrow. 

Sunday Happenings

It was supposed to be another cloudy day here in Michigan. We had decided not to go too far as husband had worked yesterday and I wanted to make sure he had some down time today before going back to work tomorrow. We ended up going to the lakeshore so I could start taking photos for my yearly project. It was - surprisingly - a little sunny though bitterly cold. I was so glad I had decided to put my long undies on under my jeans. I even had to use some hand warmers between two pairs of gloves as my fingers were so cold! Brrr…. We got out early and there weren't too many people around. I did manage to take photos. I haven't looked at them yet. I was rather tired when I got home and ended up falling asleep while trying to warm up and read a book.

While we were out in the car hubby and I talked about setting a state park goal this year. It's a big birthday year for me (sshhh… I'm turning 50 in May) so we are going to try to do 50 state parks this year. We have decided to include both Michigan and Minnesota parks as we plan on visiting daughter in April and going to a couple there. It's quite a big goal. We thought this would help get us out of our comfort zone as we seem to be going to the same places over and over. By setting this goal we'll get out and explore some parks that perhaps we would have overlooked. We've already made a good start this year.

Grand Haven State Park - New Year's Day
Muskegon State Park - New Year's Day
Warren Dunes State Park - January 5th

Still working on those other goals...

Things I do need to get done this week:

* wash kitchen and bathroom curtains (not big curtains but more lace style toppers)
* clean out small freezer. If I can get this cleared and sorted I would be able to work on getting down to just one freezer.
* at least 7 books to donate

Photo of the day:

This one is from our New Year's Day walk in the sand dunes at Muskegon State Park.

I Feel Like I've Been Here Before....

It's Sunday. It's raining. I have the feeling that I've been here before. Sigh.

We obviously didn't go far. It's absolutely chucking it down. I think if we see more rain we'll be swimming instead of walking. We went for a drive, but didn't get out.

We did get out at a farm stand and buy some apple cider (not the alcoholic good kind from England lol) and some freshly made doughnuts - pumpkin and apple ones.

The above are phone photos I edited on my phone. I love this app - it changes things into different styles of art. It's really fun to play around with.

I did get up in my craft room yesterday (yeah!) and started on some of the die-cut toppers and decoupage die cuts that I got in England. Several of them will be Christmas cards and others ready for birthdays and other occasions. It felt nice to be up there as the weather wasn't so hot.

Hopefully tomorrow the weather will be a little brighter.

What Happened to Spring?!

I'm not sure what happened to Spring. It came out and teased us and now it's disappeared again! Today was SO cold while we were out. We were going to go to Muskegon, see if it was possible to walk out to the lighthouse yet and then go for a hike at Lost Lake in Muskegon state park. We got to the lighthouse and oh my! It was so cold! Below freezing and the wind was just howling! There were some (really) brave fishermen out at the beginning of the walk to the lighthouse, but there was so much ice still on the walk that it was impossible to go any further. It was so cold that hubby decided we should cancel the hike - part of the walk we were going to do was up in the dunes and the wind was just too brutal. We ended up taking  a little walk on the beach and hubby stopped for me to take photos in a couple of places while he kept the van warm! At points it was snowing and doing something that felt like ice pellets on my face lol. We did however get out and get a little exercise.

Yesterday the weather wasn't that good either. Doesn't that always seem to happen on the weekend? We did a little drive but that was it. I Skyped with Mum and was glad that she'd received her GC to W.H.Smith. I was thinking I probably should have told her it was coming so she didn't accidentally through it out thinking it was junk mail. She still sounds croaky but definitely more like herself. She said she was going to middle sister's for Sunday Roast which will be nice for her. I spent the rest of the afternoon watching some Jack Irish (seen them all already lol) and stitching.

It's coming along quite nicely! Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Snowy Weekend - beaten by the weather

Despite all the snow we got on Friday we did manage to get out for a bit yesterday but it snowed overnight probably another five inches and I'm sad to say the weather beat us. Usually on Sundays we go further afield, but it was just too snowy. By the time hubby cleared the driveway and pavement and had pulled snow off the roof it was (despite being below freezing) starting to come down with freezing rain. We decided to head out to the store, see what the roads were like and then make a decision. The roads were really nasty, hubby was tired out so we shopped and decided to just stop at the park on the way home.

Not a good idea! The car park hadn't been ploughed and we barely got into it. We were mostly stuck but hubby said we might as well walk as we were already there. Not fun at all. We only went around in a loop - it usually takes about fifteen minutes. It took us about forty-five. When we got back to the car park a young woman had tried to get into the park and got stuck. Hubby helped dig her out and managed to get her out of the park. After that we managed to get out fairly easily.

Sigh. It's the first Sunday we've missed for a long time. Oh well. The weather has to get better at some point, right? We're supposed to have some sun tomorrow. I can't wait!

Here's a couple of photos from yesterday.

We saw quite a few deer out and about. There weren't many people - not surprising lol.

Sunday Walk - Glorious Day!

The morning started off quite chilly. I managed to drag myself out of the warmth of bed and get bundled up and ready by about half past nine. I know it's not early, but after years of getting up at 2.30am I can honestly say that I am no longer an early riser. Once we'd done the weekly shop we took off on a drive to a county park. It is called Scotts Mill County Park and is a pretty little place to visit with a nice trail to walk.

This area was first settled in 1836. The original mill was built not far from this one. The mill you see was built in 1870. It was in operation up until 1971 when the owner died and milling ceased. It was purchased in 1973 by Kalamazoo County Parks.

It has a really pretty view.

The nature trail isn't too far.

Can't hardly see the sign!

Through the trees we saw a cabin but we're not sure if someone lives there or not. It is in the park so probably not. We couldn't get close enough to see. 

After walking through the woods and back to the car we headed out to our second destination - Van Buren State Park. We wanted to check out the camping sites and the dog beach. We had a map of the park so marked down the sites we wouldn't mind reserving. Some looked close together and others were larger with natural tree borders marking off the site. 

There were quite a few hills up to the beach. Yikes. Sand dunes. Puff. 

 

Once up one side and down the other the view was fantastic!

There were several people on the beach. They seemed to be looking for something along the lakeshore. Of course, that made me have to google it to see what exactly they were looking for. Apparently because the lake has been so high lots of stones have been left at the lake edge and people are looking for stones and fossils. 

I had to dig in!

This is the most interesting thing I found.

Sunday Walk

It was nice and snugly in my bed this morning, but there was certainly a nip in the air when I went out into the living room. This has to be the coldest morning of Autumn so far. I was tempted to put on the little heater today, but I abstained from doing so instead wrapping up warmly.

Despite the cold temp hubby and I decided to talk a walk. Far better than sitting on my behinds all day. There is a nature preserve not too far from us (about ten minute drive) so we decided to go there. They have lovely trails. You do have to share with people on bikes but it is worth the dodging. No, it's not really that bad. Most of the people on bikes do let you know when they are coming up behind you. It wasn't that busy as it was still early when we went.

We could see plenty of places where deer have been bedding down. Hunting isn't allowed on the preserve so it's probably a good place to hide!

We're beginning to see the first signs of Autumn. The colours are slowly changing.

A few leaves here and there.

In a couple of weeks I bet this place will look really beautiful. Looking at it you wouldn't believe that it is just 6 miles away from the city!

Sunday Walk

After last weeks camping adventure and how much fun daughter's dog had at the beach, we decided to take them to a dog park on Lake Michigan so she could play in the waves again. There are only certain beaches dogs can be on so it was a matter of finding one of the closest to us. We found Kirk Park and Dog beach.

It was really pretty. The waves were quite high and I think she was a little bit scared!

There was one other couple with their dog on the beach while we were there. When they left they let us have their ball to play with.

At first she wasn't sure what to do with it but she soon got the hang of it!

Think she enjoyed her trip! I know that I did.