Several folks have mentioned that they too, love the old brick streets and old bricks.....so here is what those old bricks look like at Gail's......I took this just before dark, hence the rather flat appearance .....'course they ARE bricks.....hee hee.

I love the view from Gail's living room !...( more about Gail at another photo..) Janet and Gail and I had been out at the town beach picking up purdy rocks....and afterwards we headed out to Gail's house for wine and pizza...and some photo taking for me....what at lovely afternoon, with a great sunset and really good pizza...and a whole lot of laughing. Gail has one of those wonderful laughs that makes you want to join in even if you have no idea what's so funny ..... ( in the case of being too far away to hear what's being said, for example )

Life is pretty good sometimes....

I have this thing about bricks, especially the old ones with the brick company's name so elegantly shown on them.....this group of bricks actually came orginally from the city of St. Joseph, Michigan ( where Janet and Gail both grew up, and live there now)....

Several years ago, while they were tearing up the brick streets in town to put down concrete or asphalt they have now ...( fools !) the powers that be, offered the old bricks free to the people of the town....each brick weighs about 7 pounds I hear tell. Gail and her husband have these brick paving walkways all around her house...the mind boggles at how much all those bricks weighed and the logistics of getting them from town out to the lake...whew, I bet they went to bed real tired every night while that project was in progress ! Not to mention probably going through several sets of shocks on the truck .....it doesn't take that many bricks to put a heavy load in any vehicle.......

I fell in love with the wonderful cedar shake siding on the house, ..... we could never use a material like that out here in California......way too much of a fire hazard.....ya see what we are missing ?!

This was taken from the side of the main deck at Gail's house.......there are 4 levels of decks. I could live happily on those decks, Lake Michigan is such a powerful being, that it drew me outside every time I was there.

I simply cannot make up my mind which sunset photo I like the best......which one do you like ?

Ahhhh ....Just another sunrise on the farm.....this part of Michigan certainly knows how to show off a sunrise !

Back in Michigan Again !

This trip was shorter than the first one, and there was no snow really, and of course no major holiday to decorate for. But I did want Janet and Pysi to have "spring wreaths" ....These are quite a bit larger than the Christmas ones....and both are made from the deodor cedar cones, or cedar roses, as I call them .....

Pysi's is the wun made with silk flowers, and Janet's was made with both dried flowers and fresh...I have never done it this way before, but I am hoping that those fresh rose buds will just dry right there on the wreath..I was finishing them up right up to the day before I left, so no time to dry roses....

I was rather pleased with the way they turned out though....almost broke my arm patting myself on the back .....