Babs writes: This has not been the most photogenic winter on Torch Lake so a little dip into the archives is sometimes necessary. I promise that next week will bring something very new and different. So stay tuned.
See, this is what happens when November goes on too long. This has been the longest November I can remember. But I’m determined to find a bright side, and birch trees have one in every season. They show off the birds to best advantage, they smell nice, and they can be tapped for sap just like sugar maples. The bark makes a good base for quillwork. Look what I found in the archive:
The only problem with birch trees really is that they aren’t every shade of blue . . . but then, some days neither is Torch Lake. Heh heh. This is a brave new world. We can do something about that. Look what else I found in the archive from March, 2008.
And here is your weather report, snowbirds. There is a little bit of sunshine out there right now, along with a lot of wind. Up here on the bluff, no snow at all. Down on the beach, ice mountains all along the shore. Temperatures right around 40°F. November. I sincerely hope that you are having summer down there in Florida and Arizona and Mexico and the islands. I’ll be sure to let you know when winter shows up.
Posted in: Babs Young photos
Torch Lake Views 
Martha
January 9, 2012
Shhhh. Don’t say it out loud, but I’m starting to like this weather…..
Gerry
January 9, 2012
Well, me too, but only when the sun’s shining.
Sybil
January 9, 2012
It’s been unusual all over, hasn’t it Gerry ?
Gerry
January 9, 2012
Dunno. I haven’t been all over. But on the evidence of the people I read, it has been fairly odd in a lot of places.
Carsten
January 10, 2012
Let me add to the oddness. Here the temperature is some 25 deg higher than last year same time. That’s Celcius – so it is 45 F. Maybe we wil go below freezing in the weekend.
The birch photos are good. We still need light and color.
Gerry
January 10, 2012
Oddness all across the northern hemisphere. We do need light and color, thank goodness. If we were to start having 12 hours of sunlight on January days it would be worrying.
Dawn
January 10, 2012
It can stay November right through March if it wants to. Would be OK with me!
Gerry
January 10, 2012
Unless that leads to December in April, May and June. Ah well. I think the reason we find the weather a compelling subject is that we depend on it it utterly and can do nothing at all about it.
kanniduba
January 10, 2012
Chalk up another odd one here in Upstate NY. Two dustings of snow so far (which promptly melted,) a small handful of really cold days, (not a single negative degree day yet.). Strange. As I told Daily this morning, I’ve gone from enjoying it to being highly suspicious of it. 🙂
Gerry
January 10, 2012
I know that suspicious feeling. Sort of like when the wind blows hard out of the east. But today we are having sunshine, so I’m going to go ahead and enjoy it anyway.
lynnekovan
January 10, 2012
It’s been unusual in the UK also. I have an iris in bloom , and even the odd rose still in bloom. It’s a bit spooky!
Gerry
January 10, 2012
Maybe we’re experiencing a mass delusion. I blame FoxNews.
P.j. grath
January 10, 2012
All right, I’m trying again today to leave the comment that didn’t get through last night: I LOVE those colorful birch trees!!!
Gerry
January 10, 2012
Perhaps WordPress and Blogger were derailed by the psychedelic birches? I’m glad you tried again, and even gladder that you liked the birches. We soldier on.
shoreacres
January 10, 2012
For a while, my subdivisionish home in Iowa had a clutch of birch in the front yard. For whatever reason, they were cut down in the late 60s, and my dad sectioned them to fit the fireplace. Mom used them during the summer as decoration.
When she sold her house, I claimed the logs and kept them in my Houston fireplace. Then, I moved, had no fireplace and thought, “Well, good grief. I can’t tote these around with me forever.” Wish I’d kept them now. But I do have a birch tissue holder and wastebasket in the bath, and a couple of birch-wrapped candles. Nostalgia reigns supreme around here sometimes.
As for winter! It’s 42 on Galveston Bay just now, and heading down to 36 in a night or two, so Michigan and Texas are in the same neighborhood weather-wise. But we got really good rain yesterday, so everyone is smiling.
Gerry
January 10, 2012
Somehow it’s hard to take comfort from the fact that at the moment our weather resembles Texas weather. I’m glad you got some rain, though.