the month in review

       I just discovered it has been a month since I last posted, almost to the day.  How did that happen?  And I was doing so well.  The good news is I am so belated because we actually had things going on!  Always nice to be able to have something to prove that it was time well spent.  There were two things that were major calendar events:  Mid-Winter Break and the start of Lent.  Unfortunately, the one preceded the other.  It would have been great, given the start to Lent that we had, if the Break had been after, but we all survived.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.

There was a forgettable week after I last wrote and then it was M-W Break.  As usual whenever we have a moment and our friends are not using their cottage on Lake Michigan, we borrowed it and stayed there for almost a week.  It was something just getting there because they had had a LOT of snow and the twisty, turney, super narrow road going to their place was almost impassable.  (One day we were there, we did actually have to get out, walk up, salt the road, wait, then eventually drive up.)  Once we got there, we had to shovel out a place to park (they don’t own a shovel-y type thing, or I should say: they didn’t.  They do now.).  Then shovel a path to the house, then shovel out the door.  Anyway, you get the picture.  Or rather you don’t because I didn’t take any because I was too busy, doing guess what?  We were actually quite relieved to be able to drive pretty much right up there; we had envisioned having to walk us and all our stuff up from the bottom of the hill.  We had done that before at the other cottage right there and while certainly not the end of the world, it’s not our favourite.

In any case, we had a great week.  I read a gratuitous book (ie, not required) and a half.  I am now convinced that my destiny lies in traveling the canals of Europe with my dog in my canal boat.  There’s a couple of things I may have to purchase on the way to that goal, but no matter.  Somehow we managed to leave a pile of Jan’s toys at home, but he clearly survived.  We went outside a lot and walked a lot and ate a lot (and are now doing the Lenten fast a lot) and generally had a good, relaxing time.  Toward the end of the week, our friends the Oglesbees came up on their way home from Alaska because, you know, Montague Michigan is clearly on the way from Alaska to South Bend.  But it’s a good thing they did because those boys sure did have a good time, my goodness.  Not that we adults didn’t hoot and holler a fair amount, but there’s nothing like pure, unadulterated child joy.  Ian is Jan’s best bud and they are like brothers, we all agreed.  Ian is four and bigger, but that doesn’t prevent Jan from imitating every move Ian makes.  And because he has good parents, those are mostly good moves.

So here are some photos from that week.  As I said, it was really snowy and a couple days it was really bright.  One day it was rainy and the whole ice berg-y coastline started to break up which was really interesting.  We think the frozen coast/iceberg shelf went out about a 100 feet and rose up about 25 feet.  Nothing at all for the North Atlantic, but pretty impressive for Lake Michigan.   The snow (not on the coast, but in the woods) was up to my hips a couple places.

These are obviously just photos of us outside.

I don’t know if you can really tell what you are looking at.  This is the lakeside retreat of Dr Byker who is the president of Calvin College and made a tad of money in oil (I think) before taking the job at Calvin.  These cottages are so impressive to David, I think he takes a photo every time we are there, so you may have seen them before.  They have copper roofs and trim (even the garage).  They are three “pods,” as we were instructed to call them, because the Department of Natural Resources said the footprint of the proposed single building was too large for the protected dune area.  So they just made it three.  Sneaky, hey?  Even the entrance to the compound back out at the road has a stone wall with a copper coping on the top.  Just a bit of cash spent on the place.

Jolly Jan and sneaky Jan.  Can you see him?

I’ve just realised how long this single post is so I will stop and tell you about Lent in a separate entry so you don’t feel overwhelmed.  I find more empty space on a page is always more comforting.

See you soon.