Fall in the north woods...

There's nothing as fun as spending a long weekend with girlfriends you haven't seen in forever -- unless it's spending it in northern Michigan with the best weather they've ever seen in early October: cloudless days, eighty-degree temps, and colors that are so pretty they make you cry.

Well, OK, they made me cry; it was an emotional weekend all around. This was the place where our friendship was born and solidified. Returning here minus one (still out west tending to her ailing husband)made it bittersweet.

I made bracelets for everybody to commemorate the event. See? I knew there was a good reason I was hanging on to all those boxes from my favorite cheese! With some paint, ribbon and a little rubber stamping, they made fine jewelry boxes! I used batting scraps to line them.

The golf course was prettier than ever. Two of us got a couple rounds in before the non-golfers arrived.

I awoke every morning to watch the sunrise, each day disturbing a great blue heron who likes to fish in the neighborhood. It took three days to capture him in flight -- what a magnificent bird!

And, of course, I worked on my quilts -- though not as much as I was supposed to. This one's all washed and ready to get shipped out west. I think Rick's going to like the flannel (front and back).

Saying goodbye as we dispersed to Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Chicago, Montreal and Bermuda was hard. How we ended up so far apart is beyond us; we really belong in the same place, cooking for each other and borrowing each other's clothes, just like the early days.



My peeps on the dock. Nobody wanted a close-up.

The trip home was breathtaking with all the trees in transition. I don't usually stop the car for pictures, but this stretch of woods just north of Cadillac made me backtrack and pull over for a few shots.

Rainy Chicago is kind of a letdown after that, but at least it's giving me a reason to stay inside, catching up on things. I still have a lot of binding to do!