Surprise! I'll Be Here All Winter!

What is the PLAN?

All (if any there are) who have been frustrated by not knowing my winter plans for the bookstore can put my name on the top of the list. My winter has been up in the air for months, which means there could be no plan at all. There was a possibility (one that sounded like a wonderful adventure!), but it was just that – a possibility. And then time went by, and more time went by, and the possibility grew ever dimmer, shrouded in heavy fog. Yet it had still not been definitively ruled out! So, as I say, up in the air…. 

 

Now, however, the situation has clarified, and I will not be taking off for an adventure in the West but will remain in northern Michigan this coming winter, as the Artist and I did many, many winters in the past. Of course, we were younger then (2015-16 our most recent winter in the farmhouse), and he was with me, so this season will be very different, but it feels good to have the question settled. And who knows what adventures Michigan may present before the long hours of spring daylight return? 

I plan to be here!

One thing my winter plan will mean (now that I have one) is that the bookstore will not close for the season, though it will operate on a somewhat truncated schedule. September already saw a cutting-back to Wednesday through Saturday, with Monday and Tuesday “by chance or appointment” days. (During the summer only Monday was BCOA, with Sundays always closed.) On the dedicated early fall open days, though, I was at the helm until 5 p.m., whereas beginning in November I’ll close at 3 p.m. on Wednesday through Friday and stay until 5 only on Saturday. All of this, of course, weather and roads and transportation permitting!

Because sometimes winter looks like this.

All along, though, I told myself that whichever direction the winter took would be okay, that I was leaving it “in the hands of the gods,” as the Artist would say. Pros and cons looked about evenly divided: different challenges and stresses either way, different pleasures and rewards to be expected, but it would be all right, here or there. So while I am disappointed (the situation I had reached for would have been new and exciting), I am also reasonably content. That is not a contradiction.

Sunny Juliet in Arizona snow --

Sarah in Michigan winter past --

It will be Sunny’s first Michigan winter. She experienced snow in Arizona, but nothing like what could come our way here in Leelanau County – although as I was saying to my neighbor only the other day, every year is different, so we can’t really predict in October how much snow there will be in December or January (let alone March!) or how often we’ll need to have our joint driveway plowed to get in and out from the highway.

 

Now that using up stores in my larder in a few weeks is not an issue, I got back to work on my jam-making on Sunday. Getting the berries into jam and the jam into jars means room in the freezer for other items, e.g., fresh-frozen neighborhood sweet corn. And maybe I’ll make more applesauce than usual instead of cutting up the larger portion of my apples for the dryer. Homemade applesauce will be a treat on cold winter nights.

It's apple season in Northern Michigan.

Maybe I’ll have a Christmas tree in the bookstore again. I’m already thinking of holiday gift-giving (for those who do not eschew giving gifts) as I make out my new book order lists. And when spring does roll around, I’ll be starting my garden seeds earlier. No more waiting until May in 2024, as I did in 2023.

Long-ago decorated tree 

This year's tardy garden

Meanwhile, for now and only slightly belatedly, here is my list of books read during the third quarter of 2023, i.e., July-August-September: 

***

92. Harris, Tara Shelton. One Summer in Savannah (fiction)

93. Cook, Matt. In the Small of My Backyard (poetry)

94. Tekiela, Stan. Fascinating Loons (nonfiction)

95. Jenkins, Peter. Along the Edge of America (nonfiction)

96. Goldberg, Natalie. Long Quiet Highway: Waking Up in America (nonfiction)

97. Arkin, Alan. An Improvised Life (nonfiction)

98. Lovelace, Maud Hart. Betsy In Spite of Herself (fiction)

99. Hanff, Helene. Underfoot in Show Business (nonfiction)

100. Lovelace, Maud Hart. Betsy is a Junior (fiction)

101. Glaude, Eddie S., Jr. Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons For Our Own (nonfiction)

102. Lovelace, Maud Hart. Betsy and Joe (fiction)

103. Buttigieg, Chasten. I Have Something to Tell You (nonfiction)

104. Sundeen, Mark. The Unsettlers: In Search of the Good Life in Today’s America (nonfiction)

105. Gloss, Molly. The Hearts of Horses (fiction)

106. Griffin, Susan. Women and Nature (nonfiction)

107. Griffin, Susan. Pornography and Silence (nonfiction)

108. Didion, Joan. The Year of Magical Thinking (nonfiction)

109. Sempé. Marcellin Caillou (graphic fiction)

110. Corbett, T.C., ed. Wm. A. Corbett. The Drums of War: An Autobiography, 1917-1924 (nonfiction)

111. Page, Susan. Madam Speaker: Nancy Pelosi and the Lessons of Power (nonfiction)

112. Yourcenar, Marguerite. Mémoires d’Hadrien (fiction)

113. Wiesenthal, Simon. The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness (nonfiction)

114. Brooks, Geraldine. Horse (fiction)

115. Horwitz, Tony. Confederates in the Attic (nonfiction)

116. Murdoch, Iris. The Sandcastle (fiction)

117. Kropf, John W. Unknown Sands: Journeys Around the World’s Most Isolated Country (nonfiction)

118. Petro, Pamela. The Long Field: Wales and the Presence of Absence, a Memoir (nonfiction)

119. Leon, Donna. Trace Elements (fiction)

120. Shumate, David. High Water Mark: Prose Poems

121. Grosz, Stephen. The Examined Life: How We Lose and Find Ourselves (nonfiction)

122. Russell, Mary Doria. Women of Copper Country (fiction)

123. Dorris, Michael. Yellow Boat in Blue Water (fiction)

124. Campbell, Bonnie Jo. Once Upon a River (fiction)

125. Campbell, Bonnie Jo. Q Road (fiction)

126. George, Alex. A Good American (fiction)

127. Roth, Michael. Being An Introduction

128. Harrison, Jamie. The Edge of the Crazies (fiction)