What a Weekend! (And what a transition, from dog parade to French literature!)

Summer is winding down....

This past Saturday was the Northport Dog Parade, the second-biggest day in the Northport summer – second only to crowds for the 4^th of July fireworks, that is, but as for daytime crowds probably the biggest day, and the 2023 theme, “Canine Couture,” certainly inspired colorful entries. I took a different approach to watching the parade this year. I didn’t take my camera outside, just stood on the sidelines enjoying the spectacle and applauding the entries as they passed by. Other people – plenty of other people! – would be taking plenty of photographs and videos, I knew, and so it was. The Traverse City Record-Eagle even sent a reporter and photographer to cover this year’s event. In this video you can see our former township librarian, Deb Stannard, parade marshall, in a car driven by Clifford the dog.

Sunny and friend -- reunited!

Sunny and I had other important fish to fry that same evening and all the next day and on into Monday morning, because Therese and Yogi, formerly our Arizona hiking buddies, came for a visit! Sunny and Yogi greeted each other with joyful abandon and familiarity, as if they had been parted only the day before. There was playtime in the yard, there were long walks, even trips to beaches – the whole nine yards. Yogi did the first dog paddling of her life! My visits to nearby Lake Michigan now number seven for the summer. It’s probably been years since I’ve been so diligent about getting to the beach. (Diligent? Yes, that’s what I mean. Double digits are now within reach!) But again, no photos from the beach. My friend took photos and videos, though, so here are the two of us: 

Another pair of hiking partners reunited!

Once dog parade is past, and we reach mid-August, though, once the first goldenrod blooms, cherry harvest is over, and apples are beginning to ripen, fall is in the air. Pow-wow is next weekend, and for me that marks the transition from summer to autumn. It's time to get the rest of my berry jam made as soon as possible to clear the decks for making applesauce and drying apples. 

 

As time permits (i.e., at night before I fall asleep or when I wake in the middle of the night), I’m nearing the end of Marguerite Yourcenar’s Memoirs of Hadrian and plan to read it again soon in English translation, amazed at myself for being so enthralled with historical fiction, especially set in the time of the Roman Empire. But there was a reason Yourcenar was admitted into the French Academy (first woman member): her telling of Hadrian’s life in a voice she invented as his is mesmerizing and convincing.

“The true birthplace is that wherein for the first time one looks intelligently upon oneself; my first homelands have been books, and to a lesser degree schools.”  

― Marguerite Yourcenar, Memoirs of Hadrian

 

What are you reading as summer of 2023 winds to an end?

What DO We Have This Summer?

Cherry harvest is getting underway this week in Leelanau Township. It feels early but is actually just about right on schedule. “Black-eyed Susans already!” I exclaim, but what should they have waited for? It’s their time. Just because Dog Ears Books opened on July 1^st instead of May 15^th doesn’t mean Nature or farmers were snoozing. 

So many things are not happening this year that it’s easy to be caught up in everything we’re missing. No Music in the Park on Friday evenings, for instance. But since we’re all aware of the many cancelled events, I don’t need to get into listing them here. Instead, let’s see what we have this summer – and I refer you to the cherries at the top of my post and offer you more, along with a reminder that Farmers Market is happening, every Friday in Northport, as well as other mornings in different villages of Leelanau County, as well as Saturdays in Traverse City.

In terms of fruit, we had wonderful strawberries in June, and raspberries are coming in now. The trellis on our old barn (originally intended for wisteria that has now climbed up to bloom on the roof) gave me a strange experience yesterday: climbing a ladder – very carefully! -- to pick black raspberries, a wild “crop” particularly abundant this year, and I look forward to making what I call my “blackstraw” jam, as strawberries wait in the freezer while raspberries accumulate…. Fruits of summer are colorful, as are vegetables and flowers. 

The lovely, lush, eagerly anticipated tray of fresh parsley, however, is not to be, as ground squirrels are also present in plentiful number this season. Those little rascals! And they are so darned cute, too, the little stinkers!

Books I have in every season, wherever I am, as you know, and this summer is no exception. Always a re-reader, I may be doing more of that right now – hungry for visits with old friends – but I’ve been venturing far and beyond, as well. Nelson DeMille is a popular author whose work I had never sampled before. Though family members recommended Up Country two years ago, it was only now, July 2020, that I read the book, and I feel as if I’ve had a tour of the country from south to north, complete with historical episodes of French and American involvement and sociological lessons on ethnic hill tribes. With plenty of dialogue and suspense, however, the novel is anything but dry. It's a page-turner!

Other books I’ve read recently appear in the list at right. What have you been reading, and what is on your To-Read list? How about this one?

Here in northern Michigan, on our little peninsula jutting into what we often call simply the Big Lake, we have plenty of blue sky and blue water and even many smaller lakes. No need to be loud and rowdy. Peaceful and serene is the order of summer pleasure this year.

As you bicycle or walk or cruise along county roads, be sure to notice the lovely fields, both cultivated and fallow or wild.

Revel in natural greenery, majestic trees, and abundant shade.

Be grateful for loving companions, whether or not they are readers, too. 

Say "Yes!" to life!

Apple King and Queen Hold Court in Northport

Phyllis and Johnny Kilcherman arrived in state on Waukazoo Street for their Saturday evening book launch, and everything went smoothly from then on. John brought the apples, I made punch and put out cookies, and a sizable crowd quickly assembled. More than one person came early, so as to be able to make the 8 o'clock Sousa concert at the Northport auditorium up the hill (proving my contention that the conflict could be easily overcome).

Phyllis Kilcherman's chief focus in the book and in her remarks to the assembled audience was the family farm angle and the recipes. "Family farms are disappearing," she said, explaining why she wanted to document the various families who had lived and worked the land now known as Christmas Cove Farm.

John Kilcherman had stories of playing softball in an old orchard when he was a boy. "Everyone had to hit into left field," he said, "because we didn't have enough players for right field." He told how he first got interested in old apple varieties and started planting one or a few of each at a time, but only on marginal land and along fence rows, as he didn't want apple trees to take up valuable growing space.

It was 1975 when the Kilchermans first started growing apples, "and we had so much fun," Phyllis said, "that we wanted to share them with friends." They began to put together gift boxes. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Other honored guests of the evening, pictured below with John and Phyllis, were Dianne Carroll Burdick, photographer, and Susan Bays, publisher (Arbutus Press).

Those who have visited Christmas Cove Farm know that John Kilcherman has an enormous collection of antique bottles, but they may not know he also has quite a collection of old books, featuring (not surprisingly) many books on farming and fruit growing. So it is a serious compliment to the photographer when John says he thinks her photographs of apple varieties are some of the best he's ever seen. All apples were photographed in the orchard, on the tree, in natural light, and the results are spectacular.

All in all, it was an evening of celebration, a dream come true for Phyllis Kilcherman, and the response from the gathered Northport crowd was heartwarming. What a satisfying way to wind up the season's author events at Dog Ears Books!

It Can't Be August Already, Can It?

This busy past week, as time came to turn the calendar page from July to August, I did the following (a partial, not an inclusive list):

Observed Cherry Harvest in Progress

You can’t help observing it if you’re out on the roads this time of year. Cherry shakers and haulers, crew and tractors, are on the move throughout the county, and orchards enclose our home on all sides. My own farm dreams don’t involve fruit trees (a few chickens, a couple beef cattle, a field of alfalfa, and I’d settle for half a dozen chickens and time for a productive, well-tended garden), but I like living in a region of working agriculture and having farmers for neighbors.

Got in a Bunch of New Books for Young People

Some of them, for young adult readers, were recommended to me. Others, like the Beezus and Ramona books (and others) by Beverly Cleary, were my own personal brain wave. Oh, the bright, happy colors!

Started Reading a New Book

World War I began a hundred years ago this past week. (Not such a happy thought.) It isn't a war that gets a lot of play in bookstores, where customers much more often look to the Civil War or World War II than to the “Great War” (WWI) or even the Revolutionary War. Why is that? Too long ago? But not as long ago as the Civil war. It's a mystery to me.

My own horrified fascination, beginning with Elliott Paul’s The Last Time I Saw Paris, focused for years on the interval between World War I and II. More recently I have found myself reading further back in history, back into the 18th and 19th centuries, but having received a review copy a few days ago of David Laskin’s The Family: A Journey Into the Heart of the Twentieth Century (now out in paperback), I plunged right in and on Thursday morning reached Chapter Eight, “First World War,” coincidentally with the historic anniversary. A review will have to wait until I’ve read the entire book, but the story is gripping, especially with the Eastern Front bisecting the Pale....

Had a Beautiful Friday in Northport

Last Friday morning, after home chores and country dog walk, began in town with the farm market, where I bought bread, croissants, lovely red onions, little striped purple-and-white eggplant, fresh fennel, two kinds of goat cheese, and some irresistible organic beef. It continued in the bookstore, selling out of the second printing of The Ice Caves of Leelanau, and wrapped up with Music in the Park, for which I was a co-sponsor, this time around, of the Claudia Schmidt Funtet. It was a “good day from morning ‘til night,” but I was too busy and relaxed—yes, sometimes both at once!—to photograph the passing hours.

Thought a Lot More About Writing

William Zinsser’s classic On Writing Well: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction is so lively, as well as helpful, that once I started reading it, I couldn’t stop, so I was glad to find it’s still available in paperback. Much of what he writes is applicable for fiction as well as nonfiction. After all, good writing is good writing (as bad is bad), so any writer can learn from good advice about the craft, whatever its genre focus. I’m ordering this for my bookstore, along with books on writing by Eudora Welty, Stephen King, and Anne Lamott. Any other suggestions for books on writing that have been important to you?

Started Reading Another Book

The Family is my morning book. At night, before sleep, I’m reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s novel, The Signature of All Things. Fiction, history, botany – all in one book. Only thing is, the edition I’m reading is LARGE PRINT, and I’m finding the LARGE PRINT makes me read differently. It’s very strange and more distracting than I’d thought it would be, but I’m persevering.

Took Note of Spotted Knapweed in Bloom

I know, I know! It’s a horrible, nonnative, invasive species, and it doesn’t do our fields and meadows any favors at all. The feeling I most associate with the blooming of this plant, however, is a sense of poignant urgency, coming from my knowledge that we have now reached late summer. After that, of course, comes summer’s end. But before the end come waves of lavender and gold, soft living colors threaded through the green, and my breath catches in my throat. Is this a response to beauty or to the passing of a season that is never long enough?

Invited Four Friends for a Dinner, al Fresco

It can be hard to find time and energy for entertaining during the summer, but in other ways summer is the best time for inviting people, since we don’t have to be crowded into the tiny rooms of our old farmhouse but can stretch and spread out under the black walnut and basswood trees. But the weather was unsettled on Sunday, and as I was driving home dark clouds loomed. I found David in the yard, scanning the sky and making dubious noises about the dinner plan. Those clouds were going to clear off, I told him confidently. The sky cleared for a while, then more dark clouds came; in the end, however, we were able to have our dinner outside under the trees, with just a little breeze and a question of rain in the air but no falling drops.

Baked a Lemon Polenta Pound Cake

This recipe was from The Cake Chronicles, and I think the author said there that she’d gotten it from some other book, but I’m at the bookstore now, and the copies I ordered to sell are still on back-order. Anyway, heavenly smell! Heavenly taste! A bit overdone on top, but the nice lady who brought me a whole quart of fresh-picked black raspberries, after I mentioned that I’d only been able to harvest a handful from my yard – she’s the one who made this dessert a real glory! Now, the next time she comes in, I’ll have to get her name! Nothing like the excitement of raspberries distracting me while bookselling to make me forget the basics. Well, I did say “Thank you,” but that hardly covers it, do you think?

Felt Deep Gratitude

I love our old farmhouse and the surrounding farm neighborhood. I love all of Leelanau Township. I feel so very fortunate to live here, so blessed, so thankful for my life. I’m also feeling grateful for friends old and new, present and distant, young and old. And I can feel that our dog, Sarah, shares all these feelings. Sarah loves her home! She loves company! She loves the yard! She loves her life!

Not Much Time for Commentary

"Take your dog to work day?" someone asked. After the work, we had a lot of fun.

This is obviously not our private playground any more.

Instead of dogs frolicking, there will be golfers soon.

I'd eaten quite a bit of chicken curry before realizing I hadn't taken its picture first,

but I got a photograph of David's refreshing rice noodle and shrimp sausage before too much of it was gone. This was the first evening of Thai food at Lelu Cafe.

This morning I captured spiderwort's blue better than the other day.

Many blossoms yet to come on this stem!

Time for beautiful lilies ...

... and the first raspberries are coming on, too.

I did not take my camera on yesterday afternoon's mini-vacation with Sarah. We were living in the moments, luxuriating in a refreshing pool created by a rushing creek emptying into a large lake. A mother duck and two ducklings kept their distance. Brilliant blue dragonflies were not bothered by our presence. I picked through small stones. Sarah stood around in water up to her belly, content to be cool.

Tonight Loreen Niewenhuis will be at the Leelanau Township Library in Northport, beginning her presentation at 7:30 p.m. Loreen has done two 1,000-mile walks, one around Lake Michigan and the second comprising different stretches of the five Great Lakes. On book tour now with her second book, she has also begun her third adventure, exploring Great Lakes islands. Most of the library series events are on Tuesdays, so a Thursday event is unusual, but it's when Loreen had time in her schedule. She is a lively, personable presenter. Catch her if you can!

Mornings Are Not Hectic -- in the Woods

Forest floor, morning

What are you looking at here? What do you see?  Do you remember those wild leeks only a few weeks ago?

Baneberry & leeks

The leafy plant you see there is baneberry, but the stems with heads shaped like birds' bills are what's left of the leeks after their leaves die back. The stems are still dark reddish, like those you recall from the leaves. Some of the flowers are beginning to open. In a few days the woods will be full of these small, white, rounded clusters of bloom. People will say, "What is that wildflower?" And if you visited Books in Northport and saw this post, you will be able to astonish your friends with your Up North woodland knowledge. You see? Reading blogs isn't always a waste of time.

Stems that hold flowering leek heads aloft

Soon petals will unfurl

And guess what -- there are gooseberries in the woods, too! Sourest fruit you ever tasted, but you can make pie with them.

Gooseberry

As the season heats up to a fever pitch this holiday week, my quiet mornings in the woods mean the world to me.