End of the Week - This and That

Well another week over. February is just about done too. Hopefully March will bring a little bit better weather, some more sunshine and a little bit warmer days. It will be a while before anything starts growing around here though. Some more snow did come through, but it is supposed to warm up again on Sunday so it will probably all melt. It was bitterly cold this morning when I went out for a walk - only 23F/-5C with a wind chill of 9F/-13C at 10am. I would have come home sooner, but the sun came out and I couldn't resist being out in the sunshine no matter what temperature. I was all bundled up with my long underwear and hand warmers in my gloves. I can't wait - and am anxiously looking forward - to when I can hope outside in just a light jacket and no need to warm up the car. It won't be long!

I got up in my craft room today for a little bit after the walk, errands and a bit of housework. I have an idea for my sister's 60th birthday card and have to get busy on it soon. I did make a couple of small cards. I'm really enjoying these 3d butterfly stickers I found at the dollar store.

I've also been sorting through my photos from our mini-break. I still have a lot more to go through but thought I'd share a couple.

I had to share this one. Last year when we visited we saw this huge ice thing on the beach in a small park and couldn't work out what the ice was covering. We went back in the summer and there was nothing there! This time when we were up we thought we'd look again. Sure enough ice was there - not as big as last year but still there. We got talking to another couple who were there for the sunrise and they told me that they had talked to a man who said he was involved in creating the ice. The reason we could find nothing in that spot? There is nothing there! This is a totally man-made creation.  Obviously the cold temperatures create the ice, but there is a water thing underneath. Definitely something interesting to learn!

Husband on a snowy beach. I love this beach. It is so wild and untamed. There are lots of tree limbs that have washed up all throughout the year. The beach was covered with lovely fluffy white snow and, closer to Lake Superior, ice that was tall and dropped down into the lake. It is so very beautiful.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

Michigan Beauty - Five on Friday

It's time to join Five on Friday again with Amy over at Love Made My Home. I missed last week as we were off on a mini-break up to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to see some of the colour changes of Autumn.

We live in Kalamazoo down at the bottom of the map. Our trip was up to the top of the map. We stayed in Mackinaw City but the furthest we traveled up to was the point that you can see between Sault Ste Marie and Munising, pretty close to Canada - Whitefish Point. We haven't been up there before but it was a fun place to visit.

Whitefish Point Lighthouse was first lit in 1849. It shares the honours of the first lighthouse being lit on Lake Superior with Copper Beach Lighthouse. This light still works though there is no lighthouse keeper. It is automated.

Whitefish Point is known as the Graveyard of Ships as more vessels have been lost here than in any other part of the lake.

 It is rather desolate looking. The wind on this side of the point was blowing quite steadily.

The light has shined for 150 without fail...except on the night that the Edmund Fitzgerald went down. On November 10th 1975 the light suddenly went out. The Edmund Fitzgerald, whose navigational system had been crippled by a raging storm, went down. Twenty nine men were lost.

There is a fitting memorial on the beach.

 

Every year on November 10th a memorial service is held. The ship's bell is rung thirty times - once for each member of the crew and once more for all the mariners who have been lost at sea. 

Most of Whitefish Point is a wildlife sanctuary and includes a bird observatory.

 Lots of debris washed up on the beach.

Since the first known commercial wreck of the Invincible in 1816 to the loss of the Edmund Fitzgerald in 1975 approximately 325 lives have been lost in 300 wrecks and accidents in the Graveyard of the Great Lakes.