Garden Visitor

I was hurrying out of my back door this morning to take out a bag of rubbish when I spotted the deer in our garden. It caught the corner of my eye as the door slammed behind me. I thought the noise - and seeing me - would scare her off. It didn't. She sat there, watching me warily, as I quietly stepped back into the house. I even got my camera and caught a picture. I didn't want to disturb her so after I took my pictures I left her alone. I did catch sight of her a little later still sitting there eating grass. At some point she took off. Beautiful sight. Our garden is a little (!) wild back there but apparently she liked it!

I was cleaning out my cupboards this morning and sadly (hanging my head in shame) there was a lot out-of-date. Seriously out-of-date. Shame on me. I am going to do a LOT better. I am still getting used to downsizing the family. I tend to stock up for the winter as I don't go out a lot (it is too cold, too snowy and I just don't like it!) but apparently I overstocked. I am dreading hitting the freezer which is next on my list.

I was just listening to a radio programme about this and how much food we waste. I need some sort of organisation but I am not good at it. 

July 6th - What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday

Wednesday rolled around quickly again. It's time for What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday. I wasn't around last week as I was on holiday. Sadly there hasn't been much happening on my desk since I got back! Hubby had a few extra days off and only went back to work today. We managed a mini-trip on Monday (previous post) and so today was a day of cleaning and tidying up. Hopefully I'll get back in the craft room tomorrow.

This is a picture of my messy desk this week. There are basically a bunch of things I stacked on it. New goodies in the middle - some more tape, 3d foam squares, some paper I ordered from Joann's (GC I received for Mother's Day) and a couple of new stamp sets from Unity that I couldn't resist. On the right are some of the souvenirs I brought back from our trip - some brochures, tickets, maps and a few postcards. They will get sorted tomorrow. I plan on putting on the air conditioning up there, cleaning a bit and then doing some crafting.

I am coming along on my stitching. I felt a little behind as we'd been gone for a week and I didn't take it with me. Time is flying by. I fly out on the 22nd of this month so need to get it finished and soon! Tonight I finished all the actual stitching and now comes the somewhat tedious task of backstitching.

I hope to have it all backstitched by the end of the week so hopefully they'll be a finished post soon! I don't think I'm going to start on anything else before leaving. I have a bunch of other stuff I need to get done. I still haven't decided if I'm going to take craft projects with me or treat myself to something new when I get there - it would be a good excuse!

I appreciate all the comments made! Check out the other desks HERE

Meanderings on Monday

It was a holiday here in the US today. I don't usually do a lot of anything as I'm not American. Hubby sometimes goes out (in years past I've worked) but this year he had no plans. So we decided on a mini-trip.

First stop. We had to drop something off at middle son's place. He lives in a small town on Lake Michigan. While there we decided to visit the lighthouse. We've only been there once before and it was in the dead of winter when the lake was frozen over. We thought we'd take a look while the weather was nice.

The view from the sand dunes.

Each lighthouse. I hadn't realised that there were two of them on the pier! When we went to visit in winter I nipped in and out of car as it was REALLY cold and the view I had then blocked the second one.

You could walk right around the furthest lighthouse. It was quite far from the shore! There were lots of people fishing. It looked like a great place to fish - there seemed to be plenty caught.

It wasn't that busy on our side of the beach but the car park was filling up when we left. There is a firework display later in the night.

The other side of the beach was packed!

From there we travelled on to Yankee Springs Park, another state park a little away from us. We wanted to check out the campsite and see what trails there were. The place was packed solid. Yuck. The campsites were small and really close together with little/no trees so we have scratched that one off our list as a campsite we want to camp at.

There were a few trails around that we'd like to check out later in the year. It was rather humid and, to be honest, I wasn't really dressed for a hike. We walked for a little bit.

All-in-all it was a pleasant day out. Husband goes back to work tomorrow so it's back to normal. I have to get working on Mum's stitching - only two and a half weeks to go!

Mackinac Island - Fort Mackinac

Our recent holiday included a boat ride over to Mackinac Island. I've written about it before HERE for a previous Five on Friday post. It's a great place to visit. While over this year we spent quite a bit of time at Fort Mackinac. It is the oldest building in Michigan.

As you can see there is quite a hill in front of it and it is quite a walk up!

And steps up when you reach the top!

The fort was built in 1780. It was built by the British and later handed over to the Americans after the war of Independence.

There are several buildings around the fort all housing different aspects of life on the fort.

The Soldiers' Barracks.

An Officer's House - quite a bit posher!

Where the soldiers were all kitted out.

It was great to look around all the buildings.

The soldiers had a fantastic view of the Mackinac straits below. You can see why the British built a fort here. It's the perfect place for a great view!

There are several reenactments throughout the day.

Cannon firing

Court Martial using an actual case. These poor fellows were dressed in full wool uniforms out in the hot sun.

Weapons Firing.

Marching - everybody up and marching - keep the line straight!

It really is a fun place to visit. Nice for kids and adults alike. That walk up the hill is a killer especially if (like us!) you walk up it twice!

One Year Ago...

One year ago today I/we took a giant leap. It was my last day at work in a job I had been in for ten years. I had gone back and forth for a while wondering if I was doing the right thing by packing it in. For eight of those ten years I had been going in at 3.30 in the morning which meant getting up at 2.30am. I am not a morning person. I sort of fell into the job. I did enjoy it. At least part of it. I also got stressed. I took phone calls on my days off, holidays even ended up going in on my days off if my back-ups needed help.

There were a lot of things that went into my decision to quit - my foot still hurt, my Mum had been sick and I desperately wanted to visit longer than the two weeks I had always managed before, the place I worked was going downhill and the job was going nowhere (pay was not that good) and Hubby and I wanted to reconnect. My hubby was very supportive. He missed me, the person I was before the job. I was tired all the time. I hadn't realised how tired until I had to take three months off a couple of years before when I had to have surgery on my ankle. That was when I started going in later - 5.15am instead of 3.30am. I realised I couldn't do that early anymore.

It's been a great year. Good decision. Yes, we took a drop in income. We're still learning. Still budgeting. Still getting used to not buying something just because. We're having fun being able to do things again, going places. When I worked we didn't have the same days off and I worked holidays. I haven't even got a dent on all the things I want to get done around the house.  It might not be a permanent thing. I will probably, at some point, find something that brings in an income of some sort. I am not (contrary to what people thought would happen) bored. I am enjoying going to bed when it's dark and getting up when light. I especially liked not having to get up in winter and clean off the car in the dark and cold.

More Michigan - Five on Friday

It's Friday again - a week has just flown by - and it's time to join Amy over at Love Made My Home for Five on Friday. It's been a busy week as we've been away on holiday. I haven't been on the internet much only a couple of times (gasp). It was kind of nice.

This was our first 'real' camping trip. We actually cheated a little - we stayed our first night in a tent on a campsite, next two nights in a motel and the last two nights camping in a campsite. If we had driven straight through from Kalamazoo (where we live) to Munising (our hotel stop) it would have been about 409 miles. We didn't do a straight through trip. We wanted to see some sights on our way up so we took the scenic route. I'm not from here but I have to say that Michigan is just so beautiful. There were points in the trip where I just looked out, took a deep breath and said 'wow'. Some spots looked like paradise. The skies were blue, the water was blue and green and the sands white and fine. Sometimes I think a holiday is what we need just to take a breath from life, to reset and discover what's really important in life. We always seem to be in such a hurry and sometimes forget what is important in life. At one point I was thinking that if I was twenty years younger I would like to just sell up everything and move out in the middle of nowhere and live simply.

We did so much this trip it's really tough to pick five things to show or talk about. I think I'll probably do some other posts about the trip while it's fresh in my mind and the scrapbook hasn't been done. A blog is a great place to document and then look back.

Point Betsie Lighthouse. Yes, we made it to see this one! We ended up seeing at least eight lighthouses this trip. This was one of my favourites. It was built in 1858. The views were just gorgeous. I'll definitely be doing more lighthouse posts!

Sleeping Bear Dunes. I know I did this just a few weeks ago but this place is really gorgeous. I am just in awe of its beauty.

There were actually more people climbing the dune this time. They looked like little ants on their four legs. They were warned!

I was happy enough just to look out and enjoy the view!

Tahquamenon Falls. This is a beautiful area. There are two lots of waterfalls - the upper and lower falls. Our hope next year is to hike between the two. We didn't realise but there is a campsite there too. The park consists of 52,000 acres stretching over 13 miles. 

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

Beautiful. There isn't a lot more to say about this place. It speaks for itself. We took a boat tour to see the rocks from Lake Superior. It was windy and pretty chilly but the view is worth the ride. We also did a couple of hikes to look at the view from the shore.

These are the Indian heads so named because people think they can see the outlines of Native American faces in the rocks.

Colours of the rocks

My favourite of the rocks. Chapel Beach Tree. This tree is on a rock. The only way it is still living is because the roots are across on the mainland.

We walked to this one on our hike

This is quite a long post so if you're still with me I'll be quite quick. I'll probably do another post on this just because I find it interesting.

Fort Mackinac.  On Mackinac Island. Yes, we ended up taking the boat over here. The fort was a British and American outpost. Nice place to visit. Great cannon firing demonstration among other things.

As an end note, I wasn't sure that I was going to like camping. I did. There was a night when it was chilly, a night where it rained and a night where we were too close to some noisy neighbours, but I had a lot of fun. I enjoyed sitting around a camp fire at night, not dealing with phone calls and emails, no access to the internet, just enjoying the moment. It really helped that we had a nice view and could listen to waves crashing on the shore each night and when we woke in the morning.

View from our campsite. I'm already planning next year!!