Quietude

Walking the Marsh

 Thinking that if I got an early start that I would beat the heat, I was able to get to Crosswinds Marsh by 8am. However, it was already hot and humid and I knew that I wouldn't last long. I was soon feeling hot and discouraged when I came upon this dead tree with an interesting flock of Tree Swallows and Barn Swallows.

 Lovely little Yellow Warbler

 Red Admiral butterfly

 I noted that there was a lot of milkweed and it looked healthy. Just hoping that there are some Monarch eggs being laid. I love the red bug....think it is called a mildweed beatle.

I was so hot that I decided to take the trail back that goes through the woods because it is shorter and in the shade. I also knew that the bugs would get me so I practically ran through that part of the trail...I hate those biting flies. Ran across this toad on the road ;-)

I chased this butterfly around for 10 minutes and this is the best picture that I could get. It is called "The Viceroy"

Peace and Love

What People are....

......jerks!

Morning Dew

 What a dewy morning it was. I was soaked up to my knees and sloshing in my shoes. Sure wish that I had a macro lens but I still like these photos. Hope to go out to the marsh tomorrow morning.....last day of low humidity before the heat sets in on Sunday. Will get out there bright and early searching for dragonflies.

Oh, who cares......

Walking

 Had such a wonderful walk on Saturday.....a little cloudy at first and then the sun came out...and not too many bugs. So good to be back on the trail again.

All God's creatures were there for me...except no butterflies or dragonflies. Will be out this week looking for them.

 Tiptoe through the wild flowers

 Cutest squirrel ever

 Northern Cardinal

Sandhill Crane

Common Yellow Throat

Happy Summer

Yesterday was the first day of summer...yea! I spent the morning walking at Kensington Metropark and what a wonderful morning it was. I have lots of great photos to edit and post.
I have been posting about my house and in some ways my house gets in the way of life. I have spent the last 6 weeks cleaning and doing yard work as the wonderful world of nature passed me by. I have to live what is left of my life getting out and doing what I love. Although I want a clean house is it really worth giving up the wonderful month of May? Please remind me of that in October...my fav month of the year...where again I will want to clean, do yard work and get ready for Winter. OK, so tap me on the shoulder and tell me "Carol, get out and walk.....get out and chat up all the little creatures, plants and flowers"
I take medication that keeps me going, I have had my carotid done and a stent put in to unblock an artery in my heart....if I hadn't had all this done I would probably be dead by now. So.......keep reminding me to enjoy my life, worry less and stop eating at McDonald's  ;-)

Inside my Sears Honor Bilt Home

 When I pulled up a corner of my living room carpet and saw beautiful hardwood I decide then, that I would make my Sears home look like my grandparents home. They had a 4x4 (4 up 4 down) that was built in the late 1920s and all the woodwork and floors (yes, hardwood was the thing back then) were stained a dark mahogany. I could see that at one time my woodwork and floors were also stained the same. I had the floors refinished and then my son changed out my switches to push button. I decorated and furnished my house in a traditional fashion that would be timeless. Previous owners had updated the kitchen and bathroom in an absolutely hideous and cheap fashion. I had the kitchen gutted and got rid of the awful drop ceiling. I never did get around to the bathroom other than a new vanity and have learned to live with it.
I love my house and you could say that it is my hobby and I enjoy making little decorating changes seasonally. My favorite is when I go all out for autumn and for Christmas. It looks beautiful.

Shooting from the living room into the dining room...note walk-out bay window and hardwood floors.

See floor plan below.

This switch plate was bought from an ad in a decorating magazine and when I ordered it, I found out that the company was in Southgate (at that time). The owner told me that this was a replica of a switch plate from his grandparents old Victorian home in Wyandotte.

6 over 1 wood windows (restored)

Phone niche.....my son discovered a phone jack (well not a jack exactly) that he could hard wire my phone into. The phone is actually a push button candlestick phone that I got from QVC

My Sears Built House ..the front porch.

I love, love, love my front porch. It makes me so sad in the fall when everything gets put away for the winter. I love sitting out in the summer and watching my little world go by. About 10 years ago, my neighbor, Clara, gave me her old glider when she moved (she has since passed away). I try to make the porch homey and keep it clean so that it is like another room of my house. I love taking afternoon naps on that glider! I read, listen to the ballgame, knit and crochet and just enjoy being outside. No outdoor patio or deck can compare.
I often think that our world is so stressful and filled with strife and conflict and that living back in those days would be a simpler life....but would it? The great depression and WW1 were just on the horizon. Not something that I would want to live through....plus I would have to give up my smart phone ;-)

My grandparents in Hubbard, Ohio had a great front porch....wish I had a photograph although it is all a very clear picture in my mind's eye. The porch floor was wood and always painted gray. They had a wonderful glider and a few of those old metal chairs that had been repainted so many times I can't remember what color they were. The house sat close to the sidewalk and neighbors always stopped to chat. My Grandmother would sit out on the porch with her usual summer project...making oval rag rugs. I always loved to pick out in the rug one of my Mom's or my old dresses. Everything in those days got re-purposed. That porch, in the summer, was the epicenter of the house. I would spend many an afternoon sewing doll clothes or...imagine...playing my clarinet on the porch.

Check back next time when you will see the inside of my Sears Kit home.

...in the old days

  Lincoln Park became a village in 1921 and than a city in 1925 and 6 years later my house was built. Pagel Ave. was a dirt road and there was only one other house on the street beside mine. My imagination invisions my house with a dirt or gravel driveway or one of those drives with 2 stripes and grass down the middle. No garage of course and I wonder if they even had a car. Very little traffic on my street...maybe a horse and wagon and a car like the ones pictured above.
After the war all those returning military needed housing so subdivisions were built around my little house....1950, I believe. My beautiful walk-out bay window in my dining room that once overlooked an apple orchard, now looks out at my neighbors driveway and side door. My house is hemmed in.

So I can't help wondering what it looked like sitting on the front porch and looking up and down the dirt street. Did they have parties, did they mow their grass with a push mower, did they have a glider on their front porch with canvas awnings around the porch?  I wish that I could contact the descendants of the original owners.. I do know that the lady of the house donated a glass dish to the Lincoln Park Historic Museum......I will start my investigation there.

thank you Lincoln Park for the pictures that I borrowed from your website.