I did not get over to the first annual Central Lake Chilly Fest on Saturday. I was cranky and it was cold. I am a wuss. Katy Newman is not a wuss. She was over there and sent us a photo of Daugherty Johnson’s contribution to the festivities.
Katy sent the photo without comment, so I will have to make something up. I am pretty sure that is the largest Blue-finned Salmon Trout ever seen on land in northern Michigan. (There are those with longer memories who may dispute the facts of the matter, and I am sure we will hear from them in due course.) Along with the penguin in the blue tuxedo, the Blue Bison, and the Bluestem Cherries, this piece extends the Johnson oeuvre. The man is a giant.
Posted in: Adventures outdoors, Artists of Antrim
Torch Lake Views 
tootlepedal
March 5, 2014
A chilly fest would not be among my top priorities so I empathise with your crankiness.
Gerry
March 5, 2014
I am glad to have the empathy. The deeper truth is that on Saturday I forgot what day it was and on Sunday . . . it wasn’t Saturday anymore. (I, um, suspect that it was a convenient forgetfulness on my part. I hope so anyway, as the alternative is unpleasant.)
Sybil
March 5, 2014
I love your excuse: “I was cranky and it was cold”. ! I’ve felt that way for just about everything these past few weeks.
Gerry
March 5, 2014
When Canadians, Michiganians and Scots are all getting testy about the weather you know Mama Nature has just gone too far. Really.
shoreacres
March 5, 2014
You should hear the fishermen down here. They’re really cranky. There are very many people saying, “Enough, already.”
Finally, today, I was able to go to work. That was good. On the other hand – I’m just loving that blue bison. Even if it was cold I’d be willing to skip work to go look at snow sculptures like that. I wonder what the real bison I saw on the prairies last fall would think of it?
Gerry
March 5, 2014
I can imagine. The fishermen up here are cranky, too, and this in a place where we celebrate winter with ice-fishing tournaments.
Bison strike me as creatures who have seen it all and are not surprised by much.
I gather that you do the varnishing outside? I’ve always thought of you sitting inside some nice big barny place working away in relative comfort. (It’s all a great mystery to me. My boats have been disreputable wooden rowboats or plastic/composite kayaks. My dream is to have a nice big rubber raft for river rafting. You see how I am.)
shoreacres
March 5, 2014
I do the varnishing outside, yes, ma’am. The boats here stay in the water year ’round, and everything I work on is tied up to some dock or another. I rarely work in the yards (although I like it when I do). Instead, my customers all are in marinas. I do both sail and power boats – mostly large trawlers in the power category. I ought to do a post about it all someday, although I don’t think about it being very interesting. I suppose in some sense it is. It certainly is a 19th century occupation in a 21st century world.
Gerry
March 6, 2014
Linda, you should definitely write about varnishing. Maybe it’s just me, but I love to learn about the work people do. I suspect there are quite a few people Around Here who have more than a passing interest in marine varnishing. Real wooden boats are a passion.
WOL
March 5, 2014
I have to say, I’m more used to “chili fests” with one “L” and which involve large amounts of home-made chili and Dos Equis beer, nachos made with blue corn chips optional. (The Native American Pima and Pueblo people grow “corn” (maise)that is “particolored” and they have genetically isolated a species where the corn kernals are blue. Consequently, the corn chips made from them are blue also.)
Gerry
March 6, 2014
That kind of chili fest is very attractive at this time of year. (If I am not mistaken, chili was served at the Chilly Fest. I really should have gone over there.)
We have blue corn chips here, too; I tended to regard them with suspicion when I first saw them. Now I take them for granted. Sue and Shirley over at Verdant Ground have raised particolored corn. One day they hope to have a particularly lovely variety that looks like translucent gemstones. I’ve forgotten the name.
I obsess over food during winter. Bring on the chili, the Dos Equis, and the nachos.
The Editors of Garden Variety
March 6, 2014
Love it!
dawnkinster
March 7, 2014
About now I’m looking for a sun fest…or at least a warmth fest….like the fish though.
Gerry
March 7, 2014
I needed to run some errands this afternoon, so I pulled on my snowpants, fleece, down coat, hat, gloves, boots . . . and when I stepped outside it was almost 40 degrees. By then I just wanted to get going, so off I went, vastly overdressed. Now I’m looking through my shorts.
uphilldowndale
March 8, 2014
We’ve had the strangest of winter weather here in the UK. Very little ice and snow but so much wind and rain. However, I’ve been hanging around this blog long enough to know it wouldn’t be a ‘proper winter’ if I hadn’t seen photos of Daugherty’s ice sculpture.
Gerry
March 8, 2014
Hello Mrs. UHDD – This must be how traditions are made, eh? If you are not blown away and I am not frozen solid we may yet see the annual arrival of the Dutchmen’s breeches!
Dawn
March 8, 2014
You make me chuckle Gerry.
Gerry
March 8, 2014
This is my mission in life.
uphilldowndale
March 10, 2014
Gerry, I wait for the booming ice, the mud the frogs. Let spring arrive…
Gerry
March 10, 2014
I could not agree more. Today is a very springlike day here . . . but it’s just a teaser. We will have to wait awhile for the frogs. I have a list of all the things I long to see again.