Showing posts with label camping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label camping. Show all posts

Saturday, April 13, 2013

L is for "Longing"


I'm quite sure that at least a few of us are head over heals in love with the thought of warmer air pushing around our hair and the kind of sun light that prompts you to sport your favorite pair of sun glasses...

Right now, other than life goals still waiting patiently for numerous other things to happen...I am desperately "longing" for this...


A fresh cut of Lilacs on the kitchen table.
Oh boy...how wonderfully their scent fills a room!


This is the lake a grew up down the road from. I 
could sit on this beach for hours.




I'm longing for some newly planted favorites from the local greenhouse.
(I tend to favor pink and purple flowers)




That is my sister's picture of Lake Charlevoix below...
(Please be nice and don't steal it!)

 (Same goes for this one below)

A little poem I fixed up several years back.  I'm pretty sure this lays out the longing I feel come early spring every year...


~Her sunset~

She sits and looks down,
At the waves reaching her toes,
A silence creeps in
As the lazy sun goes.

The sand, still warm from the day,
Argues with the cooling breeze,
She looks up to the water,
The chill upon her leaves.

She watches the lake,
Darken in the glow
A shadow growing behind her,
A stillness settling low.

The sun’s colors paint this sky,
As it falls behind the bay,
She wants nothing more,
Than for a few more minutes to stay.

The darkness whispers chills,
Close at her back,
She says her goodbye,
As her lake turns black.

She digs her toes once more,
Into the still warm sand,
She turns into the darkness,
To the trail, inland.
~M.M.P.~
~~~

I am finally in a place where I can have and enjoy perennials so I planted a bunch last year.  I have much to look forward to as the 
weather gets warmer this spring.



and a pup with her wood pile.
Random pics below...but this pup has just as much fun 
camping as her people do!

That is Miss Mikayla last summer.
She is now double the size :)




Longing for a few rays, good company, stories told endlessly by the fire, stars twinkling down on the lake, flowers to brighten up winter eyes and weathered souls...

...all to come.


Take care and have a great weekend!



post signature





Saturday, April 6, 2013

F is for "Flip Flops"...

So do I get two points for having two words with the letter F???
No?
OK...moving on...

It's finally starting to warm up here in southern Michigan.  Instinctively I have been wandering around the house with no socks, no slippers.  When it reaches 60 degrees I will have my flip flops sitting by the front door ready and waiting.  

I spend my entire spring and summer (and a bit of fall if we're lucky) in my flip flops.  I go through a single pair in a single summer.  When I was a child I loved being barefoot.  Now that I cross more than only the soft grassy terrain, I keep my soles and toes safe from whatever debris could be unseen with the least amount of protection I can get away with.

Places you can find me wandering around in my summer slippers?
I'll show ya with a few photos!


 Above, my niece...she loves her flip flops as much as I do!
 Flip flops on the beach of course!
(That's Ryan and I above :)
 Flip flops to mosey on down to the lake and scope out the touch of white caps atop the water...
 ...and flip flops off to feel the bubbles on my toes.
It only takes seconds to flip those flops right off of your feet and bury your toes in the shore.
You can not do that with shoes...(just so you know :) -totally inconvenient with shoes.
 Flip flops to watch the kiddos play some volley ball.  I watch because a couple years ago I had wrist surgery and really should not be diving for a volley ball.
Doctor says that is still a "no-no".
 Ryan (above) has a shared love for flip flops too!
Yes...the feet above are without their "flops"...but I had to share this picture!  That is my dad who the ducks took an interest to.  They walked right up to my father to see if he would share his crackers with them.  They loved him.

Alrighty.  I am going to end it here.  Hope this was a decent post.  I was out and about since 8:30 this morning and I just now got home!  Ryan and I had a VERY busy day.

Thanks again for the read!

Take care,

-Michelle

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

C is for Charlevoix, Michigan...

I am dedicating my A-Z post of the letter "C" to  Charlevoix, Michigan...which is about 300 miles north of where I live!

A visual...



Some quick "fun" facts about Charlevoix...

Charlevoix is named after Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix, a French explorer who traveled the Great Lakes.
---"How little did this modest priest dream as he sailed past these shores that his name would one day be written upon this city, "Charlevoix the Beautiful."

During Prohibition, Charlevoix became a popular place for gang members from the Chicago area. The Colonial Club, a restaurant and gambling joint on the city's north side became known as a popular place for the Midwest's most powerful and influential. John Koch, the club's owner, kept automobile license number "2", only second to the governor – a telling sign of his influence.

Charlevoix used to be a "one stoplight town" until it received a second stoplight in the 1980s at the intersection of M-66 and US 31.

(each section of text is linked to the original site...
take a look to learn more interesting facts about my favorite place 
to visit in Michigan!)

Why is this area so significant to me???  Well, I'll tell ya...real quick ;)

My family and I have been camping in a State Park that borders a portion of Lake Charlevoix for the last 20 years.  There were five of us kids when we first started the whole camping bit and the summer my mother was pregnant with the sixth...(1993)...Charlevoix still couldn't keep us away!  I remember all five of us being lined up and walking down to the beach while our mom followed behind...and oh boy!  The looks on the faces of those watching us!  "And she's having another one!" I heard from a gawker as I tried to skip real fast through the hot, hot sand.


When you go to Charlevoix and shop around it's downtown area you will find souvenir stores galore filled with postcards of pictures taken from the very spot I was standing to take mine above.
This beach is known for it's gorgeous sunsets year round.


Even on a cloudy day the sun plays effortlessly through the sky.



Now...please don't laugh...this below was my camping set up in 2011.
(I HAD A BLAST ;)


The best part of my day during a camping trip?
When I walk down to the beach during the evening while the cool front of night
 begins to calm the water.
 I settle into the sand still warm from a day full of sunshine...
like a blanket, 
and listen to the water gently lap at the shore.


  Below, the drawbridge in Charlevoix.


Another perk of this gorgeous location?  
Fudge. 
 If you are a chocolate lover and you find yourself  in Charlevoix 
a fudge shop is always close by!
(They adore their fudge "up north")
((as do I ;))

That's me below in 2011
Shopping downtown with my sisters. 


I will end it here with one last photo...

This photo conveys another beautiful memory of Charlevoix
that I will hold dear for the rest of my life...




While camping on July 27th, 2012
Ryan purposed to me
on my favorite beach
my favorite place to be

He did good...
;)


Thanks for the read, take care.

-Michelle