Mid-Week Snow and Reading Report

Seen Near Home and in the Village

Some winter days, like last Saturday, are calm and beautiful—a welcome change from the cold, driving snow of Friday, seen above through my bookstore window.


Saturday’s morning light on snow-covered black locust trunks made the trees look from a distance like white birches, and our neighbors’ little farm stood out from the landscape like a scene from a storybook.


Waukazoo Street in the village of Northport looked inviting, too, on a sunny winter day.


Not all days are sunny, and when the weather turns bleak again Sarah takes it in her stride, literally, as long as she’s given opportunities for fun, exercise and exploration.


But this poor little cedar waxwing outside the Leelanau Township Library on Monday morning could not have been enjoying being outdoors. If it had still been able to fly, surely it would not have allowed me to get so close with my camera, but what to do? My general #1 rule with wildlife is “Do no harm,” which usually entails, for me, doing nothing rather than trying to intervene in ways that may worsen the situation.




After watching the bird polish off a tiny crabapple, I ventured to pluck a few more from the tree and place them within its reach. Where is the little feathered soul now, over 24 hours later?

My Reading This Week

Monday evening I stayed awake long enough to see the main character and first-person narrator of The Book of Salt, by Monique Truong, introduced into the household of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. I might have gotten further in the novel had I not been seduced earlier in the evening by the London Review of Books. Today it was some historical research at the Traverse City Area Library (how long has it been since you looked at old newspaper articles on microfilm?) and the book Oil Notes, by Rick Bass, that claimed my attention. Here is one right-on little observation from Bass that has nothing to do with oil:

There are people I know who dabble, who want to write—no, who want to be writers. But they’re married, or have children, or have a job, or watch the news. There’s no time. Or they need to be inspired. They wait for it, and it comes about once every three years, and half the time in those instances they’re without a pen, or think they’ll remember it—their inspiration.

Restaurant News from Waukazoo Street

Stubb’s Sweetwater Grill is open for dinner this week on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Beginning next week, Stubb’s will also be open on Tuesdays, but that will be bar only. Dinner evenings will remain Wednesday through Saturday. Sounds like a cheery change of pace, doesn’t it? With the weather outside so frightful and all?