Lynn Carson Harris

It was a bright and sparkly morning

Wordless Wednesday

Fiery Fall

Our beatiful days of sunny skies have continued well into October. I've been out trying to soak up as much sunshine as I can. 

Our zinnias are still putting on quite a show.

The marigolds are not slowing down at all.


I know I'll want to remember all this fiery color in the coming dark months of winter.

Miss P was channelling her inner Andy Goldsworthy while B and I harvested this year's Indian Corn over on the weekend.

I hope you are able to get out and enjoy the out of doors these days.

Spring Break 2015 - part four

Our last few stops for seeing the sites on the way home were in the Smoky Mountains. We would love to go back and spend a week camping there. 

 

Spring Break 2015 - part three

On our way home we also made a few stops for nature viewing. The first stop was the Okefenokee Swamp.

Our next stop was Pearson's Falls, a 268 acre property with a beautiful trail and waterfall owned by Tyron Garden Club, in North Carolina. 

Aurifil Designer of the Month - February

It's that time again, time for the Aurifil designer of the month feature.

I didn't make a project this month as I had hoped but I do have a quilt waiting for the delux Aurifil treatment on the longarm. I'm waiting until after I take Krista Withers' class this week at QuiltCon. I'm hoping I learn some fun tips and tricks that I can incorporate into my own style of quilting.

Since I don't have a project to share I'll leave you with this bright splash of Aurifil color. It's quite a contrast to the white we are surrounded with here in Michigan.

Each month throughout the year a different designer on the 2015 Aurifil Design Team will be featured on the Aurifil blog. They will post an interview and a link to directions for a project designed by that month's designer. 

If you make one of the featured projects, take a picture and add it to the Aurifil flickr pool for a chance to win a box of thread. EACH month someone will win a big box of 12 spools of thread. That's a BIG prize! I can't wait to see all of the projects coming up this year.

Joanna Figueroa is the February designer of the month. You can hop over to the Aurfil blog and read her interview with Pat Sloan. You can also see her project and get the directions on the Aurifil blog.

 Here is the full list of designers for the year.

Jan – Gudrun Erla www.gequiltdesigns.com/ 
Feb - ​​Joanna Figueroa www.figtreequilts.com/ 
March - Kimberly Jolly fatquartershop.blogspot.com/ 
April - John Kubiniec bigrigquilting.wordpress.com/ 
May - Sara Lawson sewsweetness.com/ 
June - Barb Groves and Mary Jacobson www.meandmysisterdesigns.com/blog/ 
July - Ebony Love www.lovebugstudios.com/blog/ 
August. - Nancy Rink www.nancyrinkdesigns.com/index.php 
Sept - Valori wells www.valoriwells.com/ 
October - Lynn Harris thelittleredhen.typepad.com/my_weblog/ 
Nov - Bonnie Christine www.goinghometoroost.com/ 
Dec - Celine Perkins www.perkinsdrygoods.com/blog/ 
Host - Pat Sloan blog.patsloan.com​​

 

 

St. Joseph, Michigan in Winter

This weekend was a long holiday weekend for us. Both B and Miss P had Friday and Monday off. Friday we did some catching up on chores at home. Saturday, we had a tourist in our town day in Ann Arbor. We parked just north of town and walked in to Ann Arbor on a walking, jogging trail by the river. We walked up to the hospital and saw an amazing exhibit of paper cut snowflakes by Thomas Clark. Then we walked over to the Natural History Museum, for our fill of rocks and dinosaur bones. After our dinner in town I was exhausted. It is a lot harder to walk around town in subzero cold, wind, and snow than it is in warmer spring and summer weather. 

I have seen pictures of Michigan lighthouses covered in ice and icicles and have always wanted to see that in person. With the Saturday snowstorm and extreme cold temperatures we thought that this might be a great time to head over to the Lake Michigan and see what it was like. 

We went to St. Joseph to see the lighthouse yesterday afternoon. It was not dripping in icicles as I had hoped but the ice on the lake did not disappoint.

The lighthouse is at the end of a long pier and the lake was frozen all the way out to the end. Where I was standing to take this picture was on a bit of an ice cliff. The usual beach line was far behind me.  The ice formations were quite impressive.

I had my camera set for photography inside the museum in Ann Arbor so the first photos I took didn't turn out well but I did like the lighting on this one. After changing lenses for a wider view and adjusting the settings I did get some photos that I liked. I'm sorry the ones with the rainbow in the sky did not turn out. You will just have to trust me that they would have been GREAT!

There was so much ice. B and Miss P are standing on a giant ice hill. The shoreline is far behind us.

You could hear the creaking of the ice below us where it wasn't as thick. The ice formations around us were fascinating. The big dunes of ice were made of packed snow and broken pieces of ice. They looked a bit like ice concrete.

Closer to the shoreline were giant balls of ice that had been trapped in the growing ice and snow.


It was a beautiful sunset at the beach but one unlike any other beach sunset I have experienced before. 


We were remembering our visit to St. Joseph last summer when it was so hot. I was wearing long underwear, jeans, snowpants, two shirts and a sweater, winter coat, super boots, hat, scarf, and mittens and I was still cold. 

This morning we visited the lighthouse in Holland, MI. I'll post pictures of that tomorrow.

 

Thoughtful Sunday

"You were stubborn...and fought against the storm, which proved stronger than you: but we bow and yield to every breeze, and thus the gale passed harmlessly over our heads."

"The Oak and the Reeds," Aesop's Fables

Thoughtful Sunday

"Goodnight stars
Goodnight air
Goodnight noises everywhere"

Goodnight Moon, Margaret Wise Brown, 1947

Wordless Wednesday