Celebrating Fall

Mark and I both know that we have chosen to live in a very different place.  As you read through this blog, you'll see some of the reasons we love it here and we hope you will come visit and experience some of the beauty! 

I love that we have four full seasons here and, even though each has its beauty, I think fall is my favorite.  We've had a beautiful and long fall this year - the colors were spectacular! There is one tree here that I love to watch turn.  Where most trees are one color, this tree on the left is beautifully variegated with yellow, orange, and red leaves.  On the right - the Covered Road has it's beautiful yellow leaves!  All the leaves along that road are yellow so I love to take a drive there right after a rain, the deep brown color of the tree trunks against the bright yellow makes me feel happy and alive and I find myself smiling!

When the weather turns from warm, through chilly to cold it's time for cuddling.  We had our first snowfall two days ago (Nov 12). We got a dusting, which melted the next day.  We've sometimes have had hard frosts at night but then GORGEOUS 50 degree days full of sunshine!

Fall is also the time of year we seem not worry about how we look in our swimsuits and start to think of Thanksgiving and comfort foods.  Well,  I don't often take photos of food I make or eat...but this cheesecake seemed almost too pretty to eat.  I made the cream cheese for this cake from our local raw cow's milk and the cherries and chocolate just added richness.  I think I'll make another one during our Christmas visit to St. Louis.

 

This is also the time of year where we have local arts and craft fairs.  Many local artists show off their skills.  As I've said before, this area has more artists than I've ever seen before in one place.  Our nearby Porcupine Mountain (The Porkies) hosts an artist village which offers arts and crafts classes.  The bread board on the right is only two-dimensional but looks three-dimensional.  It is the result of one of those classes...this one's for you Kev!

Late this summer, Mark and I got to see a little bit of the northern lights as we walked through our garden one night - I wish I had a camera on me to photograph it.  Yesterday, the sunset was beautiful so I made this quick video from our kitchen window.

Last night, we had another experience that we would never have elsewhere.  Mark and I were taking our evening walk - after dark.  We try to get out there during the daylight hours as we don't have streetlights and it can be really dark. We don't have much traffic so we still feel pretty safe.  Since projects took longer than expected, we were walking at about 6 pm.  The moon (1/4 moon) was up so we had enough light that we could see an object in the road ahead of us.  It looked to be coming toward us; we guessed that someone else decided to take a walk too.  As we grew close we saw a hunter (about 40ish) in full camo strolling, with a scoped rifle laying across his right forearm.  He was just walking back to his grandmother's house (our neighbor).  In ANY other place, neighborhood, town/city, this meeting would set you back or make the hair stand up on the back of your neck.  Not here!  He stopped and chatted with us, introduced himself, told us where he had been hunting and told us that he was glad we purchased the farm and cleaned it up.

AND on top of that...this morning, I stopped by to purchase a cup of coffee at our local CYBERIA cafe.  I know they don't like to take credit cards and I didn't have any cash on me so I started to write a check for a coffee and muffin. The guy behind the counter told me to just pay him the next time I'm in so I didn't have to write a check for such a small amount.  I do visit the cafe once every two weeks attending knit night so they know me and I will pay him next Monday evening.  But - WOW - it is a great place to live!!!

Come step into the unique world of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan with me - you'll love it!