Garden and Nature

Each time I sub in a class on the Northwest side of the school, I try to take a picture of this tree that lives outside of the forest.  As fast as the leaves are falling, it might be bare by the time school starts back up, but in the meantime, it was still mostly green!

My poor neglected garden has continued to pump out a tasty supply of tomatoes that we've used for tacos and sandwiches and snacking for the past couple of months!

Now that Alice is officially a licensed driver, I can take pictures of sunsets, while she monitors for traffic!

The tarp/insulation bald spot in the back yard is slowly covering back up.  It took me 17 weeks to feed all the insulation from the shed into our can, but it feels good to be done, and not have spent the $600 on a dumpster!

A beautiful Grand River sunrise.  This was just a week or so before they pulled the flowers out for the fall.

A close up of a flowering weed, that must be awfully hearty, because it is cold at night now!

Billy and I had a picnic lunch in the park one day, then went to walk along part of the Lansing trail.  It was a little rainy, but not terribly cold, so we had a good walk.

According to reports it's been an "unseasonably warm" October, I've found it to be perfect. ; )  Hopefully, we can have the warmth stick around until Halloween at least!

later days

Signs of Spring

One sad afternoon, the check engine light in my car came on.  As fate would have it, it just happened to be while Alice's car was with my friend, and Billy had an early morning at work.  So, I was due to walk up to the school, to work.  While super glad that was an option for me, I was even more thankful when Jennifer offered to pick me up on her way in!  

Since it was only a half day, I was walking home in the cold, but that beats walking to work in the dark and cold for sure!  Because I was on foot, I did get a nifty picture of the river, covered in goose prints!

I also saw a pile of sawdust or mulch that someone had put halfway on the sidewalk, but when I looked up, I found that the culprit is actually the noisy woodpecker that you can hear from our porch!

Our kitchen window bush is a hot spot for birds ever since Grace hung up her citrus rind bird feeders!

On a particularly warm day, as we were driving down to the Cornishes, Billy rescued a turtle who was stuck in the far lane trying to cross the road to a comfortable looking pond.

I scored a garden wishlist item for 50 cents at a rummage sale in Kalamazoo.  My mom and I made the drive, and it was well worth it.  This is now my in-bed compost bin!  I need several more of them, so let me know if you see someone tossing theirs!

I put some bread heels out in the bush, and the birds came over to check them out and get a snack.

The promise of spring, if not the temperatures to go with it!

The tree, from this post, is budding!

I'm hoping for more and more beautiful days to get out and enjoy the weather.  Billy and I walked the path near his work after lunch yesterday, it was warm enough that we were sweating a bit!  Not much sun, but I'll take the warmth.  Then today, it was a high of 36. = (

Fingers crossed that this is it for the 30 degree days!

later days

School Spirit Days and Other School Related Pictures

For spirit week, Alice and Emily dressed up each day, but William's themes were kind of difficult for him to join in on!  As rushed as our mornings are, the only pictures I have time for are in the car.  But for day one, it was grinch/green day!

The twins had flannel day, but we only had a single shirt, so Juliet went looking very 90s grunge, and Grace borrowed a plaid shirt from Alice, that was huge, but at least she was kind of themed.  Kristy gave me some of Zoey's old flannels for the next round of dress up days!

Christmas accessory day is definitely the easiest!  We have hats and headbands and necklaces galore!  Sadly, these were the only days I took photos, but there was more spirit, and William did don spirit wear at least once. = )

On the first day back at school, I was in for one of the support teachers, and we did an activity that required cutting.  Sadly, she only had five pair of scissors, and we needed 8 for one of the groups.  Ironically, as part of one of my Christmas gifts, the twins bought me a bag of two adult sized scissors, and a class set of metal scissors.  I happily dug the largest and easiest to use from my get rid of box, and donated them to her scissor bucket. = )

From her window, during planning time, I was able to watch bird and squirrel drama while eating my lunch and listening to one of my first audio books of the year.  On the day it rained, they were nowhere to be seen, but I kept forgetting to pack my binoculars for a better view!

The same tree, a week later.  No birds or squirrels in sight.

I'm not sure when the next spirit week is, but I do feel like it may be around Valentine's Day.  

Now, we'll just try to stay warm and celebrate the things we can as they come!

later days

Country Mill

When the Crockers came to visit over the summer, they repaired and painted the very sad stairway wall.  I went with a solid color, because the two tones were not my favorite.  However, the new wall looked so blank, and instead of just picking out some random art, I decided that I wanted a canvas print of my dear ones to break up the empty expanse.  

I had some pictures of them that I could have used, but thought it would be nice to take a picture for this express purpose.  Country Mill is a yearly fall destination, so we rolled two tasks into one!

We had to stop and collect new height pictures first!

It was quite sunny that day, but there were some clouds moving in, so our next stop was actually donuts and cider, while we waited for the clouds to become natural diffusers.

Grace opted for Hot Chocolate instead of cider.

The clouds moved in, and it was time for pictures!

Or nor, Emily was stung!

They added a pressurized apple launcher!  Everyone took a turn, and I was so incredibly proud of Alice.  When William took his turn, he missed all five times, so Alice dug out her own money to get him a new bucket of apples to shoot.

We skipped over the sunflowers, and opted instead for some pretty yellow flowers instead.

Sadly, by the time we got to the field of flowers, the sun had reappeared, and there were squinty eyes and transitioned sunglasses.  

So, we tried to do the corn maze while waiting for the clouds to return, but they had stopped selling tickets, as it was after five, and they close at six. = (  

Since we had exact change ($21) cash, we were able to take the final trailer ride of the day, in addition to being a fun ride, was also helpful in scouting out photo locations. 

When we got back, we sent Billy, with our lists, to the store, while we returned to the best spots!  The flowers were pretty, but this pose felt really forced.

In the forest, I should have had William and Emily step in a bit, because it was a pretty spot, with lovely lighting, but they look so far away!

The best pictures were definitely on the deck overhanging the river!  Since we were there so late in the day, there were not many people about, and the lighting was just perfect!  This was the chosen picture for the wall!  We took the pictures Saturday, I ordered the print on Sunday, and by Friday the canvas had arrived!

This was the runner up, as I also really like this one!

Emily wanted to pose on the tree limb, which initiated the series of individual pictures. = )

Group shot, but the disparity of light took it out of the running.

 

I love this series of the girls pretending to throw William into the pond.  The final picture could not have come out more perfect! 

If Alice had been looking at the camera, this would have been the shot!

And just like that, it was time to go!  So, we started making our way toward the exit.

Attempting to level out their heights.  It didn't work very well.

I have a picture from years ago in front of this train, or perhaps a similar one, that I wanted to replicate, but apparently Alice was done. = (

Everyone got to pick a pumpkin, but Grace was the only one who wanted to carve hers when we came home.  Our porch looks pretty festive now though!

I am so glad that we have such a lovely place to visit for apples and cider, so close to home!  The leaves have started falling in earnest now, so we went on a good weekend for a green background. The temperatures are also dropping, and it appears autumn is right on time this year.

later days

edit 9-21-25: backdated for continuity.