Vacation, Day 3

We crossed the Mackinac Bridge and drove along Lake Michigan and stopped to camp at a Lake Michigan Campground. We took a stroll along the shore at sunset.

We kept a journal of our travels which I may post at some time--BB needs and opportunity to review it. See the sunset from this walk here.

Double, double, toil and trouble--doing art on the iPad while camping.

Working on a lighted iPad as it got dark produced eerie effects.  photo by BB

The Voracious Predatory Chipmunk

While We were at Bay Furnace Campground Near Pictured Rocks, and Keith was absent from the campsite, Mary watched a drama unfold. A chipmunk who had been nosing around the campsite all morning suddenly aroused the ire of a little chipping sparrow, who chipped madly and fluttered around sort of like a killdeer trying to lead a predator away from it's nest. The chipmunk paid no attention to it and began nosing around the area of open piney woods where the chipping sparrow was.

The sparrow then began attacking the chipmunk, pecking vigorously at its head. Then, Mary spotted a baby chipping sparrow fluttering about in the tall weeds and sparse tall grass. The chipmunk spotted it, too, and rushed after it and there was some furious scuffling where the baby was trying to flutter away, the chipmunk was trying to catch it, and the mother was pecking the chipmunk vigorously. Then, the chipmunk grabbed the baby by the throat and killed it and ran off about 20 feet and started eating it. Mary, who was trying to reposition herself to see better, accidentally scared off the chipmunk, who left the dead baby under a pine and never came back for it while we were still at camp. The mother chipping sparrow kept
searching and calling and searching and calling up until we left.

When we got back from our expeditions, hours later, we both checked, and the dead baby bird was gone from where the chipmunk left it. Since the chipmunk had already killed the bird, we hope he ate it.

This is not the first time that Mary has observed a chipmunk being predacious. She has also seen a chipmunk kill and eat a large water snake, big enough to have eaten it.

Sketch pro #2

And here is my second attempt with Sketchpad Pro in the middle of the night last night. Sent from my iPad

Sketch pro #1

I am trying a new iPad Sketch program, which I did during a bout of insomnia last night.  It seems to work pretty well.   It's called sketchpad pro.  Sent from my iPad

Vacation, Day 2

We dropped of CB (Choir Boy) at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp and drive up to Sleeping Bear Dunes. On the way, we climbed many stairs for a view of Lake Michigan.

See one more shot of the day here.

Vacation, Day 1, Whitehall

We ate at Crosswinds, at a table beside White Lake. We watched the sailboats and fisherman and enjoyed seeing the trees through the tops of the shande umbrellas. On the way back to the motel, we stopped in a sculpture garden where we tried to make the sculptures squeak like they did last time we were there--but someone had oiled them.

See another shot from this meal.

For Annie

Dark Lanterns

My plants are dead
when I get home from traveling.
I sit by their shriveled bodies and weep, wishing
I had friends who cared, someone to spill water
onto parched soil, someone
I could trust.

I have no friends.

I sit and think of you and cry.

You were a friend, and now you're gone.
A nurse, an actress, a humanist
an activist. Someone who cared.

You never smoked. You avoided even second hand smoke,
but lung cancer took you anyway, stole your breath
your hope, your life.

Always, you were a soft smile, a welcome in, a gentle ear.
You served brownies and cookies and smiles,
always smiles. Hugs. Healing hugs.

I touch the lifeless blossoms
that hang from brown stems like little lanterns,
empty of light
and remember your face, so full
of joy. Your eyes sparkled and shone with fun.
Now they are closed forever.

I pour water on those desiccated sticks,
wondering, hoping
somehow some bit of green,
some life remains,
some sprout will answer
my wet wishes.

But for you, the time to hope
has passed. This
is the time of sorrow.

Mary Stebbins Taitt
for Annie LaForest Phillips, July 2010

Digital Iris Painting

Iris, by Mary Stebbins Tait. I've been trying to learn to do art on
the iPad, because I took it with me camping. Today, I am home--came
home a week early due to medical issues. So I did a digital smudge
painting on the real computer, with the cintique tablet--I've got a
lot more control! I can do much finer detail!!! LOL! (What a
difference). I wonder if they wil have software for the iPad that
comes closer to this.

First light from our trip: Lake of the Clouds

I've downloaded the first card from our trip to the UP.  This card came from BB's camera.  I am attaching three pictures from Lake of the Clouds, by BB.  This was probably our favorite spot on the trip; I know it was mine.  We LOVED it there. It's in the Porcupine Wilderness area, at the tippy top of the UP (Upper Penninsula).

We are back now, but I haven't looked at my email yet, and probably will NOT do so at least until we're unpacked and the plants are watered and we've retrieved the bird etc.  Much to be done here at home.  We've cut short our vacation by a week.