Summer Days Are Very Full

 

Always perky in the mornings -- and most other times, too.

This first photo is out of sequence, because Sunny Juliet is such an attention magnet. Our mornings, however, start much earlier, in the 5 a.m. dark, when Sunny's dog momma makes herself a first mug of strong coffee. 

Mug from the U.P. Do you know that place?

The sky is growing light. We can get up now and start out into the world.

Most often when Sunny and I have little mini-vacations before my work day, we head south (go to my photo blog to see the most recent morning south of M-204), but when the morning includes an agility session out in Cherry Home it makes more sense to go north, and stopping at dear little Woolsey Airport is a temptation there's no reason to resist.

Helpful hint: August 2nd will be a good time to visit Woolsey Airport. Get there early and watch the planes come in! Another reason to be an early bird is to get your pancake breakfast before the line is too long. 

After that stop, I ducked down a nearby unpaved back road. These are some of my favorite places -- what I call Leelanau insolite!  I learned that French word--in the context of travel--to mean out-of-the-way or off-the-beaten-path. Only today did I stumble on the fact that it used to be part of the English language too but is now considered obsolete. Interesting. 'Insolite' is obsolete....

Off the paved road, anyway --

We still had a little time before our agility session appointment, so returning to the morning-quiet "highway," I drove as far as the old original Cherry Home. It had been years since I'd been out that way, and the buildings looked beautiful in the morning light. That was where we turned back, but it seemed very worthwhile to have gone that far.

The road continues to Leelanau State Park and the lighthouse.

But now let's turn to books, because my bookstore is where I spent six summer days a week. My "ancient" section of children's books got a shot in the arm the other day with half a dozen Walter Farley books, all first editions and only one lacking its colorful dust jacket. (There are a few newly arrived Happy Hollisters, too, but horse stories that excite me more.) Bookstore inventory changes on a daily basis, the new as well as the used. I am delighted to offer some great titles in reprint from David R. Godine and can personally vouch for Jane Brox, Laurie Lee, and Clémentine. 

An older title illuminates the London Blitz in letters from one who was there.

I wrote about the new books above, along with Respectfully Yours, Annie, on one of my other blogs, so you can learn more here.

In the evenings--at least on an evening when it's neither raining nor does grass need mowing--my old farmyard is a place where I can relax in the shade, tossing tennis balls for Sunny to chase and sharing the occasional potato chip with her while currently the blossoming linden trees (basswood, to be more specific) are humming and thrumming with bees. Sometimes, of course, I'll take a book out there, too.