Miss Sadie, the Cowboy and I request the favor of your company on a short walk along the shores of Grand Traverse Bay. It will be so warm that you will not even need a jacket, but I recommend you bring one so you will have extra pockets to hold Petoskey stone finds, or an excellent treat or two. We took this particular walk on Saturday afternoon, but it is just exactly that nice out there again today. Besides, you can come back anytime. Perhaps the next time it snows, for example. Last year we had quite a bit of snow in April . . .
Posted in: Adventures outdoors, Up North in Michigan
Torch Lake Views 
Martha
March 18, 2012
Well, that sure looks a little more budded out than we are. But there are a few micro climates up here that might surprise me! So fortunate to have these precious days.
Gerry
March 18, 2012
We are blissed out. But we are also remembering last April . . . and we are not putting our down coats and YakTrax away just yet.
Ed LaFreniere
March 18, 2012
Gerry: Thanks so much for your upbeat weather postings and photographs, so full of hope and optimism. For those of us who are a bit timid about retiring Up There, it is nice to know from someone who is from Around Here that there is, indeed, life after Labor Day and before Memorial Day — and quite a robust and rich life if you take the time to look everywhere from Around the Corner all the way to Greater Metropolitan Torch Lake.
.
Gerry
March 18, 2012
You’re welcome, Ed. It’s easier to be retired in a snowy place than to be commuting in one. (Personally I think the best part of the year is September-October, but don’t tell anyone, OK? One of the good things about it is that there aren’t so many people here as there are in July.)
Sybil
March 18, 2012
Thanks for the walk Gerry. It was lovely.
Gerry
March 18, 2012
Thanks for coming along. Always more fun that way.
Dawn
March 18, 2012
Beautiful. We are blissed out too…and my first daffodil bloomed full out today. But still….it could snow again, even here…has snowed most months of March…could it happen this year? Isn’t there some rule that says after 7 days of sunshine and temps in the mid 70’s that snow is prohibited? If not we should pass a law or something.
Gerry
March 19, 2012
When I was little I used to have to wear these plagued stockings to school–miserable knit things with a garter belt yet, not tights. I hated them. My mother’s rule was that when it had been 70 for a week I could stop wearing these instruments of torture. Could have had heatstroke during the seven days in stocking purgatory. Grouse, grouse. So anyway, apparently my mother thought that no snows could fall on her darling after a week of summery temperatures. Mom’s Law.
Nye
March 18, 2012
Gerry, do you have to drive to get to this place? I see Miss Sadie, and the Cowboy are enjoying the warm weather.
Gerry
March 19, 2012
I do not have to drive, Nye. I walk across the road and along the access path and down the stairs to the beach. Then I can walk for miles and miles in either direction. This particular walk went south about a mile and a half and then came back, with the pictures taken on the way back.
Sometimes I drive to get to other parts of the Bay, so you will see photos from Traverse City, 34 miles to the south, all the way up to Norwood, 7 miles north, that are all on Grand Traverse Bay. Past there the view opens up to the Big Lake itself, Lake Michigan. We are spoiled for choice when it comes to lakes. Miss Sadie, the Cowboy and I all love it.
Joss
March 19, 2012
I had three questions, but one has just been answered: you can walk to these beautiful places without needing to get in the car. Wow! I too have lovely walks that don’t need a car, and I could take some very pretty pictures of parts of them if pointed the camera carefully, but not miles and miles of pictures.
Secondly, to whom is the dog fence invisible?
Thirdly, who is taking whom for a walk there: Miss Sadie or the Cowboy? They seem to be yoked together?
Gerry
March 19, 2012
Oh good – someone pondered the Invisible Fence sign and came to the logical conclusion. The buried electrical fence is invisible to everyone except (1) the owner, who has developed a mistaken vision of the purpose and powers of the fence, and (2) the owner’s dog, should the dog be equipped with a collar that receives the signal that the fence is supposed to emit. Deer, porcupines, skunks, other dogs, cats, chipmunks and foxes freely cross the invisible boundary. It’s a fine metaphor for the state of politics.
I treasure the Great Lakes and have walked along the shores of every one of them. Just little bits, mind you, but it still adds up to many miles. I lack the stamina of my friend Loreen Niewenhuis, who walked the entire 1000-mile shoreline of Lake Michigan and wrote a book about it (A 1000-Mile Walk on the Beach – Miss Sadie and the Cowboy appear in one chapter). She’s getting ready for another walk and you can read about it on her blog, Lake Trek. This one begins April 2, and will take her along each of the five Great Lakes. Loreen loves the lakes and writes about them beautifully, but she also engages with the significant environmental issues that affect them. She is doing a fine job of it, too, in the tradition of Rachel Carson and Aldo Leopold.
As for the leashes joined together, this is a strategem I have employed for about three years now.
Kate
March 19, 2012
Thanks for the lovely photos Gerry — makes me wish I didn’t live a gazillion miles away, so I could nip over and follow in your footsteps.
Gerry
March 19, 2012
That’s the trouble, isn’t it – the gazillion miles. Seeing them virtually is a poor thing, but the Next Best Thing To Being There. Sigh.
Louan
March 19, 2012
I thought that perhaps the sign refered to a rather large dog who stays out of sight until you step onto the property.
Gerry
March 19, 2012
Nah – it’s just people unclear on the concept.
kanniduba
March 19, 2012
Beautiful! And blissed out describes us perfectly right now. 🙂 We are expecting to hit 83 degrees on Wednesday and Thursday, then it looks like a nosedive back to true spring with 40-50’s predicted next week. I, too, hesitate to pack away the winter gear, though the boots have been collecting dust most of the winter. As I ask dear husband to switch out storm windows for screens, I keep thinking about the snowstorm tricks Mother Nature has played on us before in April. Would serve me right for jumping the gun.
Gerry
March 19, 2012
What the heck, live dangerously. You can always hang quilts over the windows. 🙂
But do not, under any circumstances, put away the winter gear until it has been 70 for a solid week . . . Mom’s Rule.
shoreacres
March 20, 2012
Pussy Willows! As I recall, our first harbinger of spring in Iowa – but certainly a true one. I loved them as a kid, and haven’t seen any in decades. I still remember how soft and silky they were. I still have the vase that Mom would use to bring in the first cuttings of the year. First the pussy willows, then the forsythia – often only in bud, brought inside to bloom.
Gerry
March 20, 2012
You reminded me of the cats-on-a-fence cards Gram and I made. Hmmm.
flandrumhill
March 21, 2012
Lovely pussywillows. They are one of my favorite signs of spring. How can anyone see pussywillows and not be hopeful? If you have them in your neck of the woods, I might have some in a corner of the yard too. Must look…
Gerry
March 21, 2012
I hope you found some. I just love them. They had started to bud out before the blizzard, but my photos were pretty bad. It made me happy to capture a bit of their cheerful furriness.