OK, here are some things I should have told you sooner. If you plan your weekends like I plan mine, it isn’t too late.
- There is an End-of-Summer Arts Festival over in Alden at the historic Alden Depot on Saturday (Aug. 27) from 10am-5pm. There will be 50 artists, and it is a juried show, so you can be reasonably assured that there will be Very Good Things there. Besides, the whole thing is sponsored by the Alden Volunteers, and you know them. Some of them anyway. You met Patti Findlay and you saw Jack Findlay’s library (Behind the pink screen door). I am reliably informed that the show will feature pottery, painting, photography, furniture, jewelry, fiber and wearable art. Besides supporting Starving Artists of Antrim County you will help to fund worthwhile community projects in a very nice place. Here is a link to Visit Alden, if you need to know more.
- There is a more prosaic yet nonetheless compelling Antrim County Hazardous Waste Collection set for Saturday (Aug. 27) from 8am-11am in Eastport. Mike Collins, who bought the former Township Hall property and turned it into a Yoga Studio and tidy storage garage for his heavy construction equipment, has been nice enough to agree that the collection may take place in the parking lot there (US-31 just north of M-88). You can dispose of up to 30 pounds of electronics, prescription drugs, non-latex paint and solvents, pesticides, household chemicals, and mercury-containing stuff like those pestiferous curly compact fluorescent bulbs and old thermometers for free. And then the Antrim County Conservation District will get rid of all that mess in useful and non-hazardous ways. If you sleep in, you can do the same thing down in Elk Rapids at the Public Works Garage from 1-3pm. You cannot get rid of latex paint, ammunition, or radioactive items in this fashion, begging the question of what the heck you do with that stuff if you bought a place and found the garage stuffed with it. (You’d be surprised. The attic of my garage was stuffed with a dismembered 1970-something MG, including the engine block. Too bad I wasn’t writing a blog back then, or mystery novels.)
- On Saturday evening (Aug. 27) at 7pm there will be a Premiere Evening of Ballet up at the Bay View Association – A Chautauqua on Lake Michigan – summer colony in Petoskey. One of the pieces will be the brand new Peterboro Letters Ballet choreographed by Heather Raue and based on Betty Beeby’s Peterboro Letters lithographs, based in turn on a collection of letters written in1904 from a single woman to her newly discovered son. (I told you my Civil War veterans were just like you and me only more so.) You can read all about that at TREATickets.
So first thing Saturday morning Miss Sadie, the Cowboy and I are going to get rid of our Hazardous Waste, most particularly those pesky CFLs. Then we are going for a nice long walk in the woods. Then the Duo are going back to the Writing Studio and Bait Shop and I am going to Alden to investigate the art festival. Later that afternoon, Babs and Betty Jo and I will head up to Bay View for the ballet. I would be willing to bet that there will be photos. As to whether we will be able to load them during my lifetime, We Shall See.
You might consider doing one or more of these things. I don’t see how you could go wrong.
Torch Lake Views 
shoreacres
August 26, 2011
Well, I can’t exactly do any of those things, distance being what it is. However, I was able to get all excited when I saw Petoskey. If I have my Petoskey’s sorted properly, that would be the home of American Spoon Foods, from whom I get my tart cherry Fruit Perfect every year. Well, and rhubarb, too, when I have to have that.
I grew up around pie cherry trees in Iowa, and if there’s anything I’d add to a perfect summer supper of sliced tomatoes and sweet corn, it would be cherry pie. I don’t do as much pie as I’d like now, being middle aged and all, but some of those Michigan cherries swirled in yogurt is pretty darned good.
Gerry
August 27, 2011
One of the finest things about living in Antrim County is being able to go right up the road and pick cherries (and peaches and apricots and nectarines and pears and apples) off the trees from the U-pick rows. Another fine thing is being able to go into the farm markets where someone has picked them for you. I especially appreciate that.
Joss
August 27, 2011
It’s good to have plans, and these are particularly good ones. I wish I could come along myself. I love the fly, and the way the mystery unfolds as the fly folds in. Haha, I thought these were pictures from the Alden exhibition!
Gerry
August 28, 2011
Thank you. I didn’t make it to Alden, but I did drop off batteries at the collection point and we did go to the ballet. More later.