More Summertime Fun

I think everybody knows our cast of characters by this time, so we go straight to the action, in which our intrepid travellers -- Michelle, Henry, Malcolm, Stella, and Monique (taking the photo) -- are off to brave the wilds of Canada on a four-day bicycle trip:


Sadly, they had only biked a few kilometers before a polar bear lept from an iceberg and took down Malcolm.

Fortunately for Malcolm, the polar bear didn't think his knee tasted as good as a nice harbor seal, so they all managed to escape. The expedition then fled to the safety of a polar-bear-free beach:

Stella and Michelle.

Malcolm hiding out under the log bridge.

Brigitte and Arsen came to rescue the expedition, which had apparently run low on vital supplies like ice-cream sundaes and iced tea. Here, Malcolm tells Brigitte how he defeated the mighty polar bear.

Three generations of Darnay women in the park in Stratford.

Arsen and Brigitte at the tir na nOg (Land of Youth) gate. It must've worked because when everybody got back to Wolverine Lake we split the candles evenly in a joint birthday party for Stella and Arsen:

Stella gave Arsen a hand-embellished package.

And she obviously knows his cigar philosophy.

Stella gave Arsen two marvelous collages she made.

Henry and Malcolm were more interested in the birthday cake than Stella's present opening...

... until they realized that the present she was opening was a giant jar full of jellybeans!

Arsen perusing his present.

Monique and John, actually in a picture instead of taking it.

The flower garden by the garage. Pretty isn't it? Remember it. We'll come back.

Stella, Michelle, Katie the Beagle, and Malcom, who is hiding behind the watering can.

Monique and Michelle, hat-hunting at the Eastern Market.

Michelle, Henry, Stella, and Malcolm at the Eastern Market. After our Eastern Market trip we were off to...

... the ice-cream social at the Grosse Pointe Farms lakeside park.

Brigitte on the beach.

Malcolm and Henry.

Stella and Henry beside the right boat for their missing sibling: the To-The-Max.

John and Henry looking over the ships.

Michelle and Arsen in a little photo I like to call Grosse Pointe Farms Gothic.

And we end back in the flower bed by the garden. The butterfly you see joined the festivities last week as a caterpillar named Aristo. Today he became a beautiful black swallowtail butterfly and was released into the wilds (well, okay, he was released into the tame suburbs) to a thrilling chorus of "Born Free."

And that's this week's photoblogging update on the summertime visit.

Comments on the State of Mind of Katie the Beagle after Everybody's Been Gone to Canada for Four Days

Katie the Beagle
Wonders what I did with them all,
And worries who's next!

Friday Morning Sounds in July

The coffee-maker,
The clock tick-tock, the locusts,
The snoring beagle.

Evening Storm, Late at Work

I sat in my cubicle and watched my monitor screen
All that afternoon and into the evening
As the July storms rolled across Michigan,
As Doppler radar blobs of green, yellow, and red
Crept from left to right across the digital map on my monitor.

I stood on my tiptoes to try to see
Across rows upon rows of cubicles, all emptied at five o'clock,
Across to the far-off window
Where I could barely spy
The very edge of a dark cloud,
Looming over the grey walls of the cubicle maze.

I climbed on my chair, from there to my desk,
Until I stood atop a boxful of folders,
So that I could lean over the cubicle's walls
To see all the way to the windows,
To see beyond the cubes
Where I could see vast heaps of angry clouds piled up
Churning black and grey, bruised green and purple,
Looming closer
While lightning lit the shadows underneath
Turning night to day, again and again.

I climbed carefully back down off the pile of folders
Down off my desk, and then sat back in my chair
Where I looked again at the screen.
The little colorful blobs kept their stately pace,
Creeping slowly from left to right
Across the digital map on my monitor.

Thunder rolled through the rows of empty cubicles,
Rattling sleek keyboards and old coffee cups.

The little blobs continued to creep across my monitor.

Thunder rolled through my own cubicle,
Rattling my monitor with its green, yellow, red blobs.
I put my hands on my desktop
To feel it tremble at the sound.

And then I stood up.

I abandoned:
--My cubicle
--My desk
--My chair
--My boxful of folders
--My grey cubicle walls

I abandoned my monitor with its little creeping blobs.

I ran through aisles of empty cubicles.
I ran down the stairs.
I ran out the double glass doors, locked at this hour.
I ran out into the parking lot
Where my little grey car stood alone
Far, far from the building.

The dark clouds loomed,
Closing in overhead,
Billowing and flashing,
Driving the very air before them
In a vast gust front
That swept across the trees,
And the manicured grass,
And the asphalt,
And me.

I stood alone in the vast parking lot
With my arms thrust up into the air,
As I stopped and spun about in the wind,
While sheets of rain marched closer,
Twigs and branches blew past me,
The wind roared in tune with the thunder,
And dust swept across the asphalt.

The first cold drops of rain struck the hot pavement
And disappeared in puffs of steam.
Lightning fell about me --
A bolt exploded into an electrical pole
Just at the edge of the parking lot
Sound and flash swept over me,
As one with the wind and the rain
And the frantic clouds.

I ran.

I ran from the building.
I ran for my little grey car
I ran across the black asphalt
I ran across the yellow lines
I ran before the wind and the rain
I ran from the lightning and clouds
I ran until I reached my car and jumped inside,
Cold rain soaking my shirt.

There, safe in my car,
Rain still dripping down my face,
I relaxed in the driver's seat,
And sat very quietly,
Watching water sheeting across the windshield
While my heavy breaths fogged it from inside,
And the storm washed over me.

Photo Potpourri, Part 2

Our annual delegation from France arrived this week. They made it through Customs by cleverly disguising themselves as Flower People.

Usually our Summertime photos include a view of the island from our home. This, however, is the view of our home from the island.

Stella at the Ann Arbor Art Fair.

Monique found a comfy chair at the Art Fair.

Malcolm started his fishing at the small end of the scale.

Pepper plants!

Henry seems skeptical.

Stella kayaking.

The view of our home from the kayak.

Real fishermen don't stop for a little rain. Perhaps we should put The Perfect Storm on this Summer's movie list.

Sadly, Stella caught the dreaded Michigan Finger Fungus.

Cool clouds.

Katie the Beagle joins the crew for a screening of Sherlock Holmes.

The sneaker designers, hard at work.

Lookie here, now we're a two-kayak family.

And we end with a couple of photos of bedtime buddies.

That's it for now. But stay tuned to this channel for more summertime adventures, coming soon....

Photo Potpourri, Part 1

All right, folks. It's time for more photo catch-up...


John and Justine on an early Summer cruise.

Monique picking cherries.

The delphinium and the begonias greeted our visitors.

Arsen tending our hosta bed.

Thanks, Arsen!

Storm damage a few houses down the shore from us.

The hosta tender, himself.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain. Prepare for a relaxing cruise.

Phil Gaven, his daughters Maura and Caitlyn, and their friend Isabella came to visit. A good time was had by all.

Phil in repose.

Four girls (Katie the Beagle, Caity the Human, Isabella, and Maura) with four entirely different expressions.

Isabella donned a colorful nun's habit to protect her from the mosquitos.

Monique's friend Patricia came for a visit. We set the two of them loose on our stinky old carpet with tools of destruction, and they tore up the carpet.

The ladies on the porch. (From left to right: Lexi, Monique, Patricia, and Wendy.)

The Tiki Night party begins as the Tiki afternoon cookout. From left-to-right: Sam & Faye Stamper, Brigitte, Tom & Tara Barber.

Tiki Night cruise.

Lexi and the sparkler.

The Magic Hour.

The Ladies' No. 1 Floaty Chair Agency.

Moi the Cat contemplates the hosta.

Picnicking with the Dems of West Oakland County.

No, Anna, you can't drink five gallons of cyser.

Katie the Beagle playing with Lexi and Anna.