Thanks to everyone who has been writing… it’s the unveiling time now. The yarns are up, at this web page:

http://www.colorjoy.com/forsale/

I had much fun making these yarns. I will have much fun meeting people as they claim their very own “puppy” that will follow them home. OK, it’s not a puppy. It’s better, because you don’t have to feed it. You just pet it and knit it and wear it. (I do really enjoy meeting the folks who knit with my yarns… they come to life in someone else’s hands. It’s like we did a collaboration. It makes me very proud.)

I hope you love my babies as much as I do.

I was a busy grrrrl today!!! As you can see, my dye table is full of color mixtures, and my drying racks are full of yarn.

I will have a dozen new offerings tomorrow, yarns/colorways that I have not offered before. I am very excited about some of them.

A few of you (Hi, Cyndy! Hi, Laura!) have written to tell me you are watching the yarn page (thank you, that makes me feel really good). Here is the scoop: I have almost all the web pages ready to go with descriptions, pricing, and the rest. However, since the yarn is still drying I don’t have photographs for those yarns.

I’m off to sleep, and as soon as I wake up I will begin photographing, editing photographs, and then putting up the web pages. As they say, progress… not perfection. Right? And I feel it is pretty nice progress, although I would like to have been done with the web pages by now. OK, I knew that was a longshot going in, but it was a lovely dream.

See you in the morning… or somewhere thereafter, anyway.

Today I’m spending all my energies in getting a new batch of ColorJoy yarns ready for sale. As always, I have some of my Cushy ColorSport and Cushy ColorSox yarns, and a few one of a kind offerings that may never be offered again. At least one yarn is an alpaca blend, very nice. I love anything alpaca, I must confess.

I am pressing hard to get these yarns ready for the Socknitters’ Ad Day, which is the 15th. I’ll do my best to let you folks know when the web page is up and ready, at least an hour or two before I announce to Socknitters.

-OR- you can just go peek yourself. The page where the yarns will be, is: http://colorjoy.com/forsale

I expect that this will not happen before midnight Monday, but who knows? Maybe I’ll do better than expected. We can only hope.

To whet your appetite, the photo today is a large skein of sportweight silk/wool yarn that is currently available. It is 50% Silk, 50% Merino Wool, 5.5oz/Approx. 685 yards. Price is $44.00 USD. You should feel this stuff, it is very soft and will drape very well. It would make a gorgeous shawl, don’t you think?

Woodward Avenue
Today I took a drive to Royal Oak, a suburb of Detroit. It’s now a very funky area, was once sort of passed by and ordinary. I drove down highways 96 to 696 and then got off at the Detroit Zoo exit (haven’t been there in years). Then I got onto Woodward to get into Royal Oak.

Woodward is a historical road, it’s Michigan Highway #1. There are more neon signs on that street than I could ever photograph. Every time I travel Woodward, I want to stop every block and take photos. Except that the street is so wide, that it is nearly impossible to get a good photo from across the street, and sometimes the side angle is not a good one. It’s a shame.

I wish I had a great camera and a month to give it a good fair try. Those signs will not all remain, unfortunately. I particularly enjoy the dry cleaners and motels, they have very nice signs. I did take a few shots and we will see if they are too blurry or distant… but that takes more time than I have to work on them right now. Maybe later this coming week I will give it a shot and see what happens.

A Pleasant Picnic
I met some friends at a park in Royal Oak. Some of these folks I’ve known almost 15 years. A lot of them I had not seen in years and years. The most recent encounter I had with any of them was 2.5 years ago. It was wonderful to see these friends again. I used to see them quite a lot, around the time I was going through my divorce. They were so very supportive to me just when it felt my life was falling to pieces. It turned out that I needed that, to become who I really was… but it was extremely difficult to go through. I will never forget the kindnesses of these friends, and others (especially my brother, Eric), who were really there for me when I needed a listening ear.

So today was a joyous day. I met these friends, and some of their friends. One woman is a knitter. She invited me to come to the knit in at Borders Books in Birmingham. They meet every Tuesday night. I just might be able to go sometime. I think that would be such a fun adventure!!! It is only maybe 20 minutes farther from my home than the Ann Arbor Borders, and I love driving in the summer, especially at night. I will put that on my wish list, and some Tuesday when I don’t have another guild closer to home, I think I’ll just venture forth and meet even more knitting friends! Whee!

This park had a parking lot the size of a postage stamp, and so most of us had to find parking on streets in a neighborhood behind the park. I found a cute little corner spot across from this house with an asian-themed garden. It looks like there is a little ceramic pagoda or something in there, can you see it? There was a red-leafed bush that I think is Japanese Maple. There are curved paths and stepping stones. It is not my style, but it is clearly very well planned and executed by someone whose heart is totally into the theme. I thought it was worth sharing with you.

Home and Brian
When I got home, Brian was moving furniture to make things work better for us in the house. My yarn business is sort of taking over the house, but he also needs to manufacture our new CDs, and he had no room to do it. He made the house look so nice! I hope it works out this way, because it really feels more airy and spacious now.

We had a little date after dinner, by going to the local Meijer store (a huge discount store, sort of like K-Mart only nicer, but also with a full grocery department and often a gas station as well). We went to the gardening department. I bought a packet of mixed leaf lettuces. I’m crossing my fingers here, I’d rather buy on the internet from a supplier Paula told me about (Veseys, they specialize in the short growing season), but that would delay the planting so this time I’ll just go local. We got a beautiful clay pot, a little less deep than my other pots but very pretty and a decent price, so I’ll give that a shot.

And the “statuary” was 20% off, so we bought the remaining four plastic pink flamingos. Actually, they are more a salmon or coral color than pink, but the packaging declares pink, so what can I say? Right now we have four plastic flamingos, plus some painted ones on a single stick where the wings move (they were a gift from my mom’s friend Fai). The plastic ones are really getting faded and ratty. At least one has white house paint splattered on it. They all have gone through at least two winters, and are looking more baby pink than salmon. So this year, we will have fresh new color in the garden.

Brian also bought me a tiny spade to work the soil. I’m so small that I can’t get a full sized spade/shovel into the ground, even if I jump up and down on it. And the soil is so solid with clay, that I keep buying hand trowels and they bend from the strain of use. I am hoping this new tool will help. I don’t need a shovel very often, and Brian does most of the digging I need done. But sometimes I want to do a specific thing quickly and I don’t have the strength or the tool to do it properly. I think this will help.

Oh, and we got raspberries at Meijer as well. When we got home, I heated two toaster waffles and put raspberries on them, for dessert. It was positively wonderful.

Fully Enjoying Spring
Spring/Garden report: The carrots are peeking up through the soil in two rows, just in front of the Swiss Chard. The nasturtium flower seeds I planted last Sunday are up about 1/4″ (.5 cm) or so (I planted a bunch of these a month ago, and they are about 3″ tall now, but I filled in the empty spots in that patch with more seeds).

We had two daylily blooms yesterday… none today, but those were the first of the season (I think we have 4 clumps of daylilies on our property, and for some reason those that are partly in the shade blossomed before the full-sun flowers). Very exciting.

And the climbing roses are ready to pop. The flowers are clearly going to be pinkish (they are a pinkish-red that fades to light pink in the sun). I bet if we get any sun tomorrow, we will have roses. That is sort of the unofficial beginning of summer. Woohoo!!!

Oh… and today I saw this for the first time: Within three blocks of driving, I saw two ice cream trucks. They could not have been too happy about that, but I found it highly amusing. I guess this is a good neighborhood for ice cream, because they persist all summer long. We have at least three we see regularly. One plays Turkey in the Straw, one plays Yankee Doodle, and one (a new one this year) plays Music Box Dancer. Funny how that music gets stuck in the mind so easily!!!

I only got rained on for about 10 minutes today, but it was a doozy. I hope you all stayed dry.

Wowie, it was a fun day. After two days of fighting off an allergy headache, I woke up with a clear head. Just in time, I’d say… because we had a noon performance at Elderly Instruments. It was a wonderful concert. Mom and several of her friends came. Some friends from Ferndale (near Detroit, they drove more than an hour one way) came. Actually, she’s a friend we met at a music party last year. We had not met her partner. She said she knew he’d love our music. He must have loved it, because he bought all 4 of our CD’s… Brian’s two instrumental banjo albums, Brian’s solo “Mother I’m Wild,” and our new album together, “Moon June Spoon.”

Another couple came from Grand Blanc, near Flint. They also drove at least one hour one-way. Also, one of my students from Foster Center was there, and a number of other folks we know from the music community here in town. It was a nice crowd, indeed. They were with us on each song… my mom’s friend Joan said her face hurt from smiling so much!!!

This photo was taken of us at the concert. The photographer was Estefania, a young lady I think is 12 years old now, who is a very good musician herself. She is in the trio Clavel, where she sings and plays drums most of the time. They play Spanish-language music from all over the world, and they play at Altus sometimes. Thanks for taking the photos, Estafania!

Brian took me to lunch at Portable Feast in Old Town after the concert. He eats there regularly, but I had never been there. I had a gorgeous salad, with mixed greens, red bell peppers, asparagus, cherry tomatoes, red onions, and a tuna steak that had been marinated in key lime juice and dill. I’m not big on fish but often that is all I can eat in many restaurants. This was much nicer than most restaurants, I must say. The salad was beautiful to look at, I’m sorry I didn’t think to take a photograph until I ate half of it. Trust me, very nice. They are on Turner street, just to the right of Creole Gallery.

On the way home I stopped at City Market and bought some food from Seif Foods, the Egyptian restaurant there. I wanted Altu to try her food, so I bought three things I thought Altu would like and then took it over to her restaurant where she, Charles, and her friend W (I don’t know how to spell this Ethiopian name properly) were working. They shared the goodies, and I went home.

I took an hour nap. I tell you, fighting that headache for two days had taken all the energy out of me. I had a hard time waking up after that hour, but Brian came home and it was time to go to Altus for our Abbott Brothers band gig.

Photo by my mom, Liz Troldahl. From left to right: Bob McCarthy on guitar, Barbara Abbott on piano and fiddle, Larry Hauser on harmonica and bongo drums, Lynn Hershberger on Heftone bass, Brian Hefferan on ukulele and banjo.

That was very fun, also. Mom brought two friends, and there were a few folks in the audience who came just to hear us. There was another table of folks I just keep running into all over town, and they were very attentive to our music as well. Temesgen Hussein, Altus’ house musician, came in with his family including the new baby (maybe 3 months old, I had not seen the little boy yet). They are great listeners as well.

I tell you what, I promote Abbott Brothers as “Good Time Music” and tonight that was certainly true. My goodness, what a unified energy a group of people can make, who have known and loved each other as long as this group has. I was proud to be there performing with these very cool people who also are good musicians.

You know, today I just have reflected over and over again how lucky I am. My ship came in, you know? I don’t mean money… I mean happiness. My husband adores me. He taught me to play bass. He gave me a means to sing for people. We get to sing love songs in front of folks, and we enjoy it and they enjoy it. And on top of that, I get to play in the band he’s been in for years, and those friends are now essentially family of choice for me.

And Mom is my best fan. And her friends are just as loyal as ever… to her and to me.

How lucky can I get? I guess I do complain, everyone does. I want to not have headaches. I want to not deal with rain. I want to sleep more and worry less. Yet none of that matters.

OK, end of waxing poetic. We had a fun day, and we made fun for other people as well. Gotta love that.

Oh, joy! Despite awful rain for days and expected rain for days more, my seeds are happy. I have two rows of Swiss Chard seedlings. Good thing Swiss Chard likes cold weather, because it’s frigid (for late spring) here again today. It is dinnertime and it never made it up to room temperature.

My little plants are teenie-tiny. I would not recognize them as future food if they were not growing in two little rows. I was just sure this would not work. Maybe they won’t mature, but at least they are coming up.

I’m so happy.

Back to the studio. There will be a batch of handpainted yarns by the 15th. You will hear it here, first.

Seedlings!!! My first home-grown-food seedlings ever in my adult life! I’m happy!!!

Wow, the weather is sure entertaining these days. The last two days have been very hot and humid, about 90F and so humid it was a bit hard to breathe. Then yesterday brought several rainstorms (other areas got tornadoes but we missed them, thankfully).

Wednesday I drove to Imlay City to see my friend Deb/Scarlet Zebra. From here that is two hours one way, northeast through Flint (which is one hour) and then continuing toward Port Huron and Sarnia, Ontario Canada. Someday I’ll keep going, because I love Canada, but Wednesday I stopped when I found Deb.

It was a glorious day driving up there, sunny and warm but with the windows down I was in heaven. It was a feeling of freedom only experienced on the open road in summer. My car is wonderful and Michigan is gorgeous this time of year. And when I drive out of town, I listen to the radio and hear music I don’t hear in Lansing. I enjoy that as well.

Well, on the way back I listened to the radio. When I tuned in to Saginaw stations, just north, they reported tornado warnings… an actual tornado had been sighted. When I listened to Detroit or Ann Arbor stations to the south, they also had a warning. I drove home, and could see dark clouds north of me and south of me. For only about 5 minutes did I get any rain on my car, and at no time did I have my windshield wipers on high speed. I just lucked out. When I hit Lansing I could tell there had been a big downpour, there were puddles everywhere even though the roads were dry. It was still really hot and really humid but I didn’t have to water my plants, which was a plus.

I had Habibi Dancers rehearsal at night, and when I got home Brian was having a band practice with Scarlet Runner String Band, on the porch. It was perfect porch music-playing weather. I love it when the guys practice here. Live music is perfect any day, you know?

After they were done, Larry and I talked gardens and plants for a while. He says he has some cherry tomatoes that self-seed every year. How cool is that? It’s not a large patch but they just like growing there and he just harvests what he can eat, and leaves the rest to seed for the next year. I think that sounds wonderful.

Someone on one of my lists was talking about growing lettuce in containers. Now I’m all excited about that possibility. It may be too late this year, and if I want to do it I need to buy another large pot (large is the key, because they do not dry out quickly). I love leaf lettuce for summer meals. Doesn’t that sound fun?

OK, so I wake up on Thursday and it is 61 degrees F. Brrr, because “room temperature” is considered 68 and I am cold at that temp. The National Weather Service predicts 60 as the high today. It also predicts rain every day and night through Monday, although the temperatures are supposed to rise slowly to about 80F on Sunday. I guess that makes it perfect weather to go down and dye wool in my studio. It’s hard to be distracted by my garden when it is getting watered by nature!

Here is a picture of one of my impatiens pots I planted on Sunday. They finally look happy… I’m sure the heat and sun and water of the last two days really made them thrive. I had to go outside in a little mist to take the pictures, but rain makes the colors more intense.

Cyndy wrote me a comment yesterday. I love hearing from her, she tunes in regularly and I love the relationships I have started through this blog.

I wrote Cyndy a long reply back and now her mail is bouncing. Cyndy, would you please write me at Lynn AT purpletree.com, and give me your right email address??

For everyone else, please excuse this interruption. I’ll be back later tonight with a regular post.

Wowie… this looks like a great week for Brian and I as musicians. Last Sunday, Bob Blackman played our piece Come, Josephine, in my Flying Machine (from our new CD) on his show, The Folk Tradition on WKAR Radio in East Lansing. (Thanks, Bob!) We are sure several of our local friends heard that cut. How fun is that?

Then on Tuesday afternoon, Uke Jackson played our piece By the Light of the Silvery Moon, on the Flaming Ukulele Radio Hour on WNTI.org (aired in New Jersey, but also available via streaming audio on the internet). That was very exciting, as we know that Uke has listeners all over the world. (Thanks, Uke!) This show is excellent. Tune in any Tuesday at 3-4 pm for the current broadcast, or midnight on Thursdays for a re-broadcast. We are always humbled by the caliber of other performers showcased on shows where he plays our music. What company we have been keeping!

And now we are preparing for two performances on this coming Saturday, June 12. That’s right, two performances! I just love days like that.

At noon, we will be playing as The Fabulous Heftones (our duo act) an in-store concert at Elderly Instruments. It is free of charge, just come down to the store in old town. Follow the link here to find a map if you need one, or send me an email and I’ll give you directions.

And then from 6:30 – 8:30pm Saturday night, we will be playing with the Abbott Brothers band – Barbara, Larry, Bob, Brian and I (Dick won’t be there this week). That show is at Altu’s Ethiopian Cuisine (517/333-6295), on Michigan Avenue in East Lansing, at the border of the Lansing City limit… next to The Dollar.

Abbott Brothers has been around since 1979 I think, long before I knew Brian. They had a regular weekly gig at Old World restaurant in East Lansing for a long time. Now I get to be part of this wonderful music. And what fun we have, what friendships we have made. I’m grateful.

What an exciting week!!! I hope those of you in town who read this weblog, might consider coming out and saying hello. It’s so wonderful to sing to folks you know.

Oh, my… I have avoided this column for nearly a week. Last week, on Wednesday and Thursday, I had my last days of CityKidz Knit! until fall. I love these children. I think of them when I am not at work. And I will miss them terribly.

However, I found out last summer, that even the most dedicated of my knitters is too busy in the summer to come consistently. I can be there, but attendance is spotty at best, with maybe over 20 kids in a day but maybe 60% of those kids never returning again. The child last summer who attended more sessions than any other child, attended only 6 sessions out of 16. And even she dropped out, so to speak. She came twice a week early in the program and then left and didn’t come back until school started.

Well, I just could not handle the stress of a program like that. I really need some consistency so that I can be sure the kids make real progress. I do not see knitting as a one-hour craft project. It is an activity where we make small progress each week, and we get better by slowly trying new things. We must love making loops, as I tell the kids. We make many loops over the course of many weeks, and we grow and become more skilled. So I chose to put my energies this summer into dyeing wool yarns alone in my basement studio. I will see many of the kids in the fall, and I will look very much forward to that.

Here are the only two pictures I got of the group on our last day. The adult who I asked to take the photos, had a hard time using the viewfinder of my camera and so the photos cut off the back row entirely, but the kids were very eager to see the photos so I’m posting what I have. I know they have been anxiously awaiting this column. So sorry, kiddos!

The back row is L—- (see dark hair), me (See turquoise sweater), and A— (coral shirt). Fortunately, you know what I look like and you get to see A— in the solo photo here. I’m so sorry you can’t see my loyal and talented L—- as well. At least you can see the other kids.

In the solo shot, one of my most prolific knitters, A—, shows off her stuff! The yellow pouch in her hand is the gift she brought to me the last day. Inside it was two pair of polymer clay bead earrings. She made the beads and then made the earrings from those. She attached them to paper that looked like you might have purchased them at an art fair. She wrapped the two pair of earrings in a tissue inside the pouch. I put on the orange/multi pair right away. That night some girls in the Habibi troupe told me how much they liked my earrings, and they didn’t know the earrings were made by a youngster. I was pleased.

She also has two pouches/purses she made as well. Her mom reports that she will go nowhere in the car for more than 5 minutes, without taking her knitting with her. She does very well, making things up on her own. They work out fine, don’t they? Who needs patterns??? Go kid!!!

On the last Wednesday, my busy day, I broght my spinning wheel. We talked about different fibers, we felt all sorts of different baggies full of different fibers, and then I made some yarn in front of their very eyes. When they left, I gave them each a silk cocoon (complete with caterpillar inside, dead unfortunately), and a length of yarn I’d made myself. I had to give them a little souvenir of my program. It is very hard to say goodbye.

Now let me go cry in a corner by myself. I’m gonna really, really reeeaaaaallly miss these kids.Sniff….

I got a very nice shot of the 12″ flowerpot I planted about a week ago (these two matching pots are 3″ smaller than the other four 15″ pots I also planted). I have one pot like this on each side of the back steps… the entry we use every day. The flowers are not really blooming much yet, but I thought I’d show you anyway. I think the picture turned out very well.

The pot has a variegated “Zonal Geranium” which will have large coral flowers (you can see a tiny hint of what will be, at top left… except that it is almost neon bright in real life). In the center are the velvet-purple petunias with smallish blooms, that I got at the City Market on Saturday. In front is a variegated vine I think is called vinca. The purple and white flowers on the right at the back, are called verbena. I hope they turn out well, they apparently don’t like drying out and I am not a very consistent waterer.

On the ground at left are my beloved violets that grow wild in this part of our yard. On the ground center and right are weeds that bloom with pretty yellow flowers. Just to the right of the flowerpot are a few blooms from the “pinks” (also known as small carnations) that I’m trying this year (cross fingers, they like sandy soil and we have clay).

The back right is something called “Silver Mound” which comes back each year. I bought that plant the day I paid off my car, late last month. At the back center of this photo is the peony bush that I thought had died last year. It sure looks perky, doesn’t it? And I have barely watered it this year, it just came back as if nothing had happened at all.

I hope you enjoy this photo as I have.

Fiber Update/Upcoming Classes

It’s been a while since I’ve had a knitting/fiber update. I finished a Fast Florida Footie for a store sample for Heritage Spinning in Lake Orion, and she said there is already some interest in that class. (It will be held August 28). I’m now knitting a ColorJoy stole for the class I’ll teach, also at Heritage on October 16. By the way, I’m also teaching the ColorJoy Stole at Gathering Basket in Chelsea, next Saturday and the week after (June 19 & 26).

I also have a beginning knitting class at Foster Center starting Tuesday June 22, and a “Beyond the Lonely Knit Stitch” class starting Thursday, June 24. The Foster classes are both in the evening. Call 517/483-4233 to register for Foster Center classes.

I have also been back in the dyeing studio this week. It’s slow going at first, since I haven’t been down there in a good long while. However, last week I did two batches and this weekend I have done a couple dozen skeins. I should have a new offering of handpainted yarns, mostly one-of-a-kind finds, before too long.

It’s supposed to be a beautiful Monday. My mother returns from her trip to visit her sisters today, and I will also be attending a dance recital for Altu’s daughter after dinner. I am looking forward to that, I’ve been to her recitals once or twice before.

Life is just so much more right, when the weather is this fine! I could just live on the porch… but sometimes I have to settle for eating my meals out there. It could be much worse.

Wow, I hurt all over. I worked in the garden for hours and hours today. Never mind my dirt aversion… I was covered from head to toe in soil. But on top of that, many gardening tasks are physically difficult, and for part of the day I was working in the sun, which made it hot and sweaty and just not pleasant at all.

So why do I do it? I’m an incurable optimist. I am fueled by dreams. This is what keeps me knitting on a sweater when it takes a full year to finish the thing. I just know what it might feel like to wear that sweater, and so I plod on. With the garden, I love flowers and I love warm weather, and I want my yard to be comforting when I look at it. I can’t imagine I’ll ever be a full-fledged gardener, because I think you really need to love soil to do that well. But I can read about plants and try some here and there, hoping that they do well because the book says they might.

Today I planted three large, 15″ diameter pots, just full of blooming plants. Two of them I have done now for a few years. I put impatiens in as the mainstay of these (I prefer the salmon color but this year I couldn’t find many of those, so I have a combination of salmon, white and red). The impatiens do well in the dappled light of this location (either side of the front steps to the porch). I add purple lobelia because I love them, even though they do not do well when the pots dry out in late summer. They last as long as I water well, so I enjoy them while I can. I also put in a variegated vine (vinca?) in front to trail over the side, and a spike plant (dracena?) in the middle to give it some green and some height. These pots don’t yet look very happy but I know that in a week they will be beautiful.

I added another pot this year, at the northeast corner of the house where there is a bit more sunshine. I put white impatiens in the middle, and the viola/johnny jump up flowers in there, with a vinca vine that somehow survived the winter from last season. I’m not sure how this pot will do, but it’s fun to try something different.

I also planted in a very small spot in the back (maybe 2 feet by 4 feet if I exaggerate a little), some dill seeds, some swiss chard (a little like spinach) and some carrots. We already have three parsley plants back there and some chives and sage very nearby. I know from history that dill does well in this spot. I’ve never tried swiss chard, and I haven’t planted carrots since I was a child. I loved eating the tiny carrots that we picked when we thinned out the rows. I also loved the pretty leaves of the carrots.

My swiss chard is a variety that has many colors of stems, from yellow to orange to red. I think this could be pretty, with the carrot leaves in front of them. I don’t know how they will do (swiss chard should have been planted in May when it was still cold) but I am eager to give it a shot. I always enjoy going out to the garden and picking herbs for my summer meals.

Oh, and the most messy job of all today… I dug up myrtle/periwinkle/vinca minor plants out of our south side yard, and transplanted them to a barren spot on the south side of the house. The myrtle groundcover acted like it was not going to thrive, for two full years. Then this year the snow melts, and we have groundcover all over the grassy area! So I will give these plants much water and love this year and next, and hope they take off in the third year as the others did. I can only hope.

I also found some baby daylily plants near a couple of lily plants (these do well without any fuss, although they don’t bloom as well in the shady areas). I dug up six of these and planted them in the back and on the sides of the same barren area. This area is a challenge, because the dryer vent is there and it creates a micro-climate of dry, warm weather off and on. I think that the myrtle will be hardy enough to take the stress. I hope. We won’t know for a good long while, but now that I’ve seen how long it takes to establish, I won’t worry as much.

In fact, I think I’m lucky this year, to learn about patience with plants. Last year I asked Brian to move a peony plant, perhaps 4 feet, closer to the sun. Then it acted like it was dying. I was so sad! I cut the plant way back, and I tried to water it almost every day. It looked like it was barely hanging on. But this year it came back, is bushy and lovely, and looks very happy. It did not bloom this year, but it has never been very large even before the move. I wonder if maybe next year it will bloom for us. I’m so relieved to see it healthy again.

Here is a picture of a peony plant that is doing well even though it is in mostly shade. These plants look like they are from mars, don’t they? I hope to have even more peony blooms next year.

I experienced my city fully today. It was delightful.

I woke up somewhat late and had to run a box to the post office before touring, so I got going about 1pm on my bicycle. It was in good shape after being stored in our garage all winter (it’s a very basic garage, with an earth floor, which means there is more moisture in there than in a heated or attached garage, and I was a little worried I’d have a rusted chain). I just had to blow up the tires and I was ready to go.

(Please forgive the larger than usual photographs today, I felt the larger size really did show valuable detail today and I really wanted to share the details with you.)

I rode my bicycle to Potter Park, which is maybe a half mile from our house, and where I catch the Riverwalk. The Riverwalk was beautiful today. Here is one picture I took as I approached the business district of town.

The first stop was at the City Market. I had not been to the Egyptian food restaurant (Seif Foods) since she moved her booth down a bit, and it was great to see her there. She has more windows, more sun, and more visibility where she is now. She’s in the center of the second buidling, where all the prepared food booths are. It was very nice to see her again and chat. I had a wonderful meal of Mujaddara (she cooks it with lentils and rice, but in the Lebanese places in town they make it with lentils and bulgur wheat). She puts this wonderful tomato-garlic sauce on it, which I have never seen before I came to her booth. It is heaven on earth. It’s spiced without being hot, and it is so flavorful you just savor every mouthful.

For dessert I thought I would see whether she had anything I could eat (my list of ingredients that make me feel unwell is pretty long). She figured out that I could eat the sesame bars. They are sesame seeds and honey, cooked until they are a sort of caramel texture. Oh, my! I really enjoyed that treat. Divine.

After I ate, I went outside and looked at the flowers. They have loads of flowers in pots and flats for putting in one’s garden. I talked to the guy a little, and asked for a suggestion of a draught-tolerant small purple flower to put in the pots with my Geraniums. He suggested petunias. What a novel idea! It seems when I was young, my grandma and all the fancy gardeners loved petunias. I think they are a bit smelly but a few won’t hurt me much. In all the many flats, all the many colors of petunias, I found one deep blue-purple velvety variety with smallish flowers. Very beautiful! Mind you, I was on the bicycle so it was almost good I could only buy one package of four small plants. So I put the plants on the bike rack at the back of my beautiful old Schwinn (can you see them in this picture?), and went on my way to Old Town.

Just before I got to the center of Old Town, I found myself at the Fish Ladder. There is a dam here on the river, and they made the fish ladder so the fish would not be disrupted by the dam when they needed to swim against the current. It is actually just a beautiful place. Here I show the circular ladder itself, but in the center of the spiral is a gorgeous work of masonry, a small stone building that is very well designed. You can see the park area near the Riverwalk in the background of this photo.

I then went to Old Town proper, and found my way to the Lansing Visitors Center. There I bought a “passport” so that I could get admission to Turner Dodge House. While I was there, the ladies encouraged me to join the children in making sunglasses with decorations. They had cheap plastic sunglasses for the kids, and each had a strip of double-stick foam tape at the top of the sunglasses. The kids could decorate the glasses with feathers, plastic jewels, stickers and more. I need my glasses to see, so the sunglasses would do me no good. However, I did stick some feathers and stickers and jewels on each side of my glasses. They didn’t stay stuck too well, but it was fun to wear the decorations for a while. (Photo is Turner Street, the prominent red brick building houses the Creole Gallery.)

From there, I went to Turner Dodge. The approach was appealing, because I approached the garden first. The peonies were blooming like crazy, and the climbing roses and coral bells were in full bloom as well. And of course, many plants I don’t know anything about! But I really enjoyed the garden. A lot of others enjoyed it as well, and I just didn’t get a good photo of the gardens themselves, but I got a great shot of the mansion behind the gardens.

I enjoyed touring the home. It reminds me in part, of a building in downtown Lansing where I have done a lot of work. The second house is smaller of course, but still three stories and one of the bathrooms in the small house is appointed with the same tilework and decor as the mansion. The Turner Dodge has been renovated very well, and they are very proud of the building. I talked to a woman who actually works there on staff, and she strongly encouraged me to come at Christmas time. I’ve heard it is really beautiful then, but have never taken the time. Holidays are so crazy, it’s hard to add more things that are optional. I’ll have to give it more thought again this year.

I rode my bike back on the Riverwalk. I could hear groups of drummers in Old Town and in Riverwalk Park downtown, across from Lansing Community College. There were a good number of folks fishing on the river, particularly on the north side of downtown. There were families, folks walking their dogs, folks jogging. My town was just alive. Not too crowded, but alive.

I really loved my day. The sun shone all day and there was just a tiny breeze (not enough to slow the bicycle). It could not have been more perfect.

Well, tomorrow will be the first Saturday I have not had anything scheduled, in a very long time. Not only that, it is supposed to be a gorgeous day. And to top it all off, tomorrow is “Be a Tourist in Your Own Town” day here in Lansing. I have never taken advantage of this event and I think I might just do it tomorrow.

There are several places in town where you can buy a passport for $1 (I’ll probably be going to the CATA main terminal). The passport gets you into a host of places for free… there are more than 30 places listed on the website linked above. Some of the locations are not in Lansing, certainly not in central Lansing, but many of them are.

I am planning to get out the bicycle that I have not used since last fall, dust it off (literally) and oil the chain, and ride on the Riverwalk down to the center of it all. There are many things that sound very interesting to me, but these I like best:

Lansing City Market – Oh, this is a wonderful place. There is real maple syrup from a family I’ve known socially since the 1970’s, and a cheese booth run by some of my computer students from Foster Center… plus fresh produce, flowers, and plants. And that is only the first building… the second has prepared food booths. My favorite reason to go to the market, is to get Egyptian food. It’s mideastern but done differently than the Lebanese or Syrian food I’ve tried. I particularly like it when the woman who owns that booth has eggplant (she says this is summer food so I can’t always get it). She also has a vast array of foods for people who are gluten/wheat sensitive. The market is open 10-5.

Cooley Gardens - Just a fabulous place on a beautiful day. It’s just the other side of the 496 highway from downtown, at the end of Washington Avenue on the South side. Next to the Michigan Women’s Historical Center (also a fabulous place). The garden is open 10-5, the Women’s Center is 12-4.

MSU Beaumont Tower - Beaumont Tower is the symbol of MSU, it is on most of the literature for the University. It is a carillon tower which is still sometimes played by live carillonneurs. I have never been in a tower like this. Brian has been up there and I would love to go also. Unfortunately, this is the only place I’m interested in going to that is not in Lansing. I can of course take the $0.50 round trip fare on the CATA buses to go there, but I may skip it just because there is so much to do and it’s so far from the other things I want to do. They are giving tours from 11-1, every half hour.

Old Town Main Street - This is just north of the current downtown. The center of it all is North Grand River where Turner Street ends, by the fish ladder. There are so many wonderful places in Old Town, particularly Creole Gallery and Bare Bone Studios for Women’s Art. I haven’t been to Spiderhouse Gallery yet either… I guess it is just a bit east from the center of things, I hear it is across from the Temple Club just across Cedar Street. Sarah Stollak, musician and knitter, teaches knitting at that gallery and I need to meet her friend Spider who runs the place.

Riverfront Plaza/East Side - Our friends in the band Mystic Shake will be playing from 11-1 here. There will also be “Taste of Lansing” which I expect will be a popular event, though I’ve never tried it. Since I need to read ingredient lists before I can eat anything, I will pass on the food part of this location. Food starts at 10am, ends at 1pm.

Beal Botanical Gardens – I have been here many times so I won’t go tomorrow, but this is a huge and wonderful location at MSU. The promotional materials say this garden is over 100 years old. It’s open 10-5, longer than a lot of the other locations.

Turner Dodge House and Park – This is a mansion from the early days of Lansing. I remember as a child, before it was open to the public, I would notice it on the way to the airport, and wonder what it was like. I had a coworker once who volunteered here, and yet I have never gone. Tomorrow this is my primary goal, to get to Turner Dodge House on my bicycle. Well, that and the Egyptian food, that is!!! This location is open 10-5. I’m sure to make it.

The photo today is one I took last summer, when I was riding my bicycle on the River Trail just south of downtown.