There are a lot of ways to get back to Eastport from Torch River, and I chose to detour through Bellaire. I needed to run some errands, and the lemon bars at MOKA were calling me. Inside the lobby at Citizens Bank I grabbed a cup of courtesy coffee to fortify myself for the ordeal of finding my deposits amidst the chaos in my carryall. I was distracted by an odd sight.
What was this? A variation on pennies in a fountain? A design motif? A bank-style penny pot? Supervisor Char Duby laughed. The pennies, it turns out, are meant to diffuse the heat of the warmer so the coffee doesn’t develop that nasty burnt taste. She swears it works, and the coffee wasn’t half bad. I may have to try it for those mornings when I get so passionately involved in a post that I let the coffee turn to sludge.
Wending my way north on M-88 I passed a cascade of blooms tumbling down the hill near the recycling center in Central Lake. I’m pretty sure these are Everlasting Pea—yet another alien we could worry about, but one that seems to do no harm. They might, of course, be sweetpea vines from somebody’s grandma’s garden, but if they are they’ve escaped all over Antrim County.
Torch Lake Views 
flandrumhill
July 11, 2009
I’m going to try the coins on the coffee burner.
I just remembered that I forgot to plant sweet peas this year. The one year I did, they were so beautiful. The ones in your photos look so vibrant and hardy.
Gerry
July 12, 2009
Sweet peas definitely like the roadsides of Antrim County, at least over here on the west side. They’re little hoydens, too, but they seem to play nicely with the other plants.
p.j. grath
July 12, 2009
“Little hoydens”–I like that!
Kathy Wms.
July 14, 2009
My neighbor says they are everlasting pea. We have them all over our bank on the east side of Torch Lake. In the late summer/fall, the pea pods produce seeds for planting elsewhere. They don’t seem to do any harm.