From Northern Michigan to Northern Kentucky

Where are we? Italy? No, this is Northport, my usual haunt, with the Waukazoo Revival in full swing. I’ll say more soon of the new business that will open in June two doors south of me. The name is Motovino. I know, I know. It sounds Italian, too. But that's kind of fun, isn't it?


Moving north--

A new children's book has arrived this season at Dog Ears Books on Waukazoo Street, a charming and fanciful story that is fun to read aloud and entertaining to hear. The author, Bill O. Smith of Traverse City, a retired school principal, knows his audience, as does the illustrator, Traverse City artist Charles R. Murphy. Don’t these glimpses make you want more?


For a very quick morning visit Up North to see the wildflowers in the woods before you head off to your job this morning, click here.

Next--and this may have to wait until you have more time--please make yourself comfortable, turn up the sound, and settle in for a visit with Wendell Berry. His April 23 Jefferson lecture to the National Endowment for the Humanities is something not to miss if you care about any (or, I hope, all) of the following:

o    affection

o    charity

o    commitment

o    community

o    earth

o    economy

o    family

o    farmers

o    farming

o    home

o    knowledge

o    land use

o    nature

o    responsibility

o    neighbors

o    property

o    value

o    work