slow and shocking

we went up, up, up north. all the way out of the mitten and halfway across the upper peninsula. you other states don't really have your own peninsulas, but it's sort of like having two states in one. or two worlds in one. things are just different up there. slow and drawling, and you start saying things like youse and thems and everything is just fine. also, as far as i can tell, nobody up there can stay awake for more than four consecutive hours. naps!!

patrick's grandparents are just as grandparenty as possible. there's a pie on the stove. and coffee forever on the burner. and grams smells soft and warm and gramps has those beautiful gnarled old hands and there are rocking chairs everywhere and a million drawings from all the greatgrandchildren. patrick & gramps got to work staining the cabin, grams and i peered at bats in the eaves and visited a wee local farmer's market. homemade handpicked blueberry pie was had by all. 

and somehow in the midst of all the unworldly slowness, the unthinkable happened. i learned how to shoot a gun. i tagged along to the "old pit" (which is now a hatchery for some very surprised fish) just to watch. between my curiosity and desire for someone to stop bugging me about it, i wound up holding a very heavy gun. and... i hit the target (old coffee can) on my first shot. i utterly failed to be properly excited about this because i was still mid-protest about not wanting to do this. after a little more practice (and the rather clever idea of putting my glasses on so i could see) it turns out i am not bad at guns. still don't like 'em one lick but if the zombie apocalypse comes, i will at least have the gun pointing in the right direction.

of course, two minutes later i was taking pictures of lichen and little boats and sort of realized why patrick often refers to me as the little kid in the outfield staring at butterflies. 

and then my cousin got married at one of the loveliest outdoor weddings ever and i didn't take a single picture. (outfield, butterflies) she was gorgeous. 

xo. r

we went salmon fishing and caught a trout

that thing where your mom reveals a deep desire to go salmon fishing, and your husband is oddly resourceful and discovers your heating & cooling guy is really. into. fishing. and you somehow find yourself roadtripping across the state through the land of incomprehensibly huge windmills to the tiny fishing towns where every gas station, restaurant or shed is proudly bedecked with a sign that says, "budweiser welcomes fishermen!" and you wake up early in a pea soup fog and sleepily nod along to a discussion about how to blindly navigate a rather large boat through a wall of white. the sun comes out and so does an array of fishing rods that to my needle&thread oriented mind look like some kind of giant knitting device. and while the salmon apparently had other plans for the morning, one trout found himself duped by a man in a windowless van giving away free candy. (otherwise known as a deliciously stinky bit of bait.) there was a whole morning on a boat and all the blue ever and the way the wind whips when it's on the water. there were photos with fish, a lengthy discussion on filleting procedures, and a gorgeous afternoon back on dry land where the entire town stopped to watch a freighter mosey on through.

that whole thing happened last weekend. the fish was delicious.

r

( back again )

quartercup

we went to connecticut for a long weekend.

it might be the most beautiful state i've ever been in.

rolling hills. old woods with hidden waterfalls.

small doors disappearing into hillsides that took all my self-restraint

to not go knocking upon.

we went to new york for a day.

the beer was expensive.

the boots were all fabulous.

i didn't take a single picture.

which is about the point i realized i will never be a photographer.

i want to see the world through my eyes, not a lens.

it was a lovely weekend.

i suppose you will have to take my word on that

for there aren't any images.

hope you had a wonderful weekend yourself.

it's good to be home again.

xo. r