Winding down summer............

Monday Laura had the day off so we decided to make the most of things. Next week school begins. Her next day off is Thursday and we have open house at school that day. So we figured that Monday was it. We got ready early and were off just after 9.30. Just got up the hill out of town and the clouds burst. Thunder and lightening and the whole sheebang. Got so bad we could not see, it was all around us. We pulled over for a few moments till it eased off a bit. Good job because further on it had caused an accident and closed the road.
Being English, I can not let rain stop play. So we carried on regardless. We were heading for the beach and then the river for some play time. Kids had suits and everything. So..............it rained all the way out as far as Glen Arbor and then it eased up a bit. By the time we got to our secret beach it was all clear, still warm and misty. Lovely.


So there we were and the thunder was still grumbling in the background but we were not going in the water here. We had the beach to ourselves, just how we like it.

Here we looked for Petoskey Stones. Here is one, can you see it?

Here we are looking for some. We collect many other stones too. I look for hearts and stones with holes through them. Or shapes I can use in crafts.

We left the beach after awhile and had a look around the historic farm houses again. There are still many we have yet to visit. We saw these guys and stopped to take their picture

The rain had cleared up and it was now a bright sunny day, it was still quite nice for being out in the sun, not too hot. So we had a look around the farm. Some of them are not so old but even they eventually will be restored in their turn. Many are used as was the one where the Sandhill Cranes were walking, so we left that one and went on to another.



Next we went looking for critters. We went off through the woods on dirt track roads. That day we did not see any deer. Must have been laying low due to the storm. We did see some Hawks though. This Coopers Hawk was just sitting by the side of the road. We went back to be sure he was OK. He sat there just looking around so we could not figure what he was doing. We have decided we need to keep a pair of leather gloves in my car. One of these days we will be getting clawed trying to help one of these critters. Neither me or Laura has much sense when it comes to animals. We know its gonna hurt but if it needs help then we are willing to take the consequences. Now, what we would do with it in the car once rescued we have yet to figure out.

Anyway, he flew up into a tree and was just fine so on we went.
Our next stop was to be the Crystal River. Now I have stopped at this spot many times over the years but never went in the water. The girls did many years ago (my granddaughters) This time, as Laura had gone in on the weekend we thought the kids would enjoy it. We came prepared, suits were on and in they went. I didn't need a suit as I did not plan on getting wet. Its only ankle deep she said.

We put Tristen in a life jacket because we were going to leave them and explore. Its only ankle deep she said, or maybe up to the knees in places so I rolled up my shorts and stepped in. Ok so far, she was on the other side by then playing with the fishes. SH had brought bread to feed them.So I stepped out and it got past my knees, hmmmm so I turned to the left and felt my bum get wet. Well...........she said, you were supposed to come this way its deeper over there. Waaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!


The kids had a blast, they loved playing in safe water. Laura and I walked one way and then the other up and down river. It really was only knee deep. Most of the time.........

We did stop in Cedar and ate supper. We didn't go for lunch as we were wet. By this time we had dried off enough that no one would notice. So then we went home a different way because we had stopped at the river in Cedar. Just to get a picture

So the river looked nice, but it was a murky river not like the one we had played in. In fact among the rushes along the edge there was algae. We saw this strange sight. I told the kids that someone was standing on their head...............

They decided it could be a zombie. We left and went home along Lake Leelanau.Some lovely views and its been awhile.

There were very happy cows along the way

I took a lot of bird pictures and will do a blog on the Garden Journal. I try to keep the posts relatively short. So too much to put here.
Sharing with Brambleberry cottage and also with from my front porch to yours