Tulip Time ~ 2007

'Splendor' by Catherine McClung

May 9 Wed 2:00P Volksparade (1.5 hrs)

May 10 Thu 2:00P Kinderparade (1.5 hrs)

May 12 Sat 2:00P Muziekparade (2.0 hrs)

Consider that a seat must be found no less than 2 hours prior to parade start time. Even if said seat is located towards the end of the parade route. Typically, if I plan to attend the Saturday parade, I trot my buns down to Holland High School about 7:30 Saturday morning, find a few square feet of open grass, mark my spot like a dog and pray nobody pilfers my blanket. Gee, you'd think it was the Rose Parade.

Since I no longer have a child marching with his class in the Kinderparade, I recommend the Saturday parade, with prayers for no rain. I've been fried in the sun, miserable from the heat but I've also been frozen stiff, miserable in near freezing rain. Ya never know! Saturday is not only a bigger parade, it's also longer. I always park at Aunt Trudy's, or Brother Tom's house. They both live about 3 blocks from the end of the parade, which is at Philip's school. The bad part about this is that the marchers are pooped by the time they get to us but they do rather well nonetheless. It's a good spot. Many folks in the crowd at the end of the route are there because they're picking up a parade participant -- everybody knows everybody -- fewer tourists. And, it's an easier exit.

Finding that I am frequently kicking myself for not having the camera for that 'Kodak Moment', I need to go back to a bigger purse. It's much more pleasant to include a photo of the day. Otherwise it's just blog, blog, blog.....blah, blah, blah.....

Thus, another Parrish....'Waterfall'

I went patio furniture shopping tonight. Egads is that stuff expensive. I REALLY want comfy & practical stuff on my patio but I REALLY don't want to pull the wad out of the bank right now. Timing's never right to splurge. However, the patio IS, in truth, another room of the house in the summer and it is definitely one of my personal happy places. Sunshine, moon, stars, birds, squirrel, chipmunks, rabbits, raccoon, lake sounds and scents -- SUMMERTIME! It also does NOT include a TV and is, for me, an escape. Yeah, okay, it's justified. Besides, then Connie can have my Fiskars chaise lounge, for which she has been searching the world over.

So, what do I do with the 2 really cool, perfectly good, vintage metal lawn chairs that could be wonderful if somebody chose to be handy? I really want to keep them but....I also have 2 vintage wrought iron table bases with no glass tops & 2 matching chairs. What to do with all this stuff??? I need a barn. A barn with a work bench. Someday maybe, baby! In the meantime, the shit's still gotta go. I think of 2 piles: Donate or Dump.

I've been enjoying new tunes this weekend -- Greatest Hits of Lynyrd Skynard, as well as Molly Hatchet. This brings the ipod library to 2,569 songs, or 9.66GB of files, or 1/3 consumed memory, or 40.2 days of listening pleasure. Someday I'll pop it on 'shuffle' and let er go till done. We tried this once and couldn't keep from cheating. You're not supposed to skip ahead!

Bets started a few weeks ago in my neck of the woods: Tulip Time or Stem Fest? Stay tuned.....

New schedule posted for Indacoda Blue.

Tom: Update! Hint..hint...got Thunder photos?

Julie: Your mother cooks/bakes, I clean up. I don't do dough!


Think: Evening Thunderstorms; Daily Sunshine --

Twas a picture perfect weekend. Started out Saturday AM, just me, the Jeep, and tunes, heading toward Indiana. I spent the day with my dear bud Connie, dodging Amish buggies, bikes and horse shit piles in the road. It was a gorgeous day to toodle the back roads of Elkhart and LaGrange counties. We procured baked goods, assorted bird seed, peanuts for squirrels, a Martha Washington geranium for mom, and an Amish lunch for us. The country was alive with people and critters, including a tiller pulled by 8 Belgians, harnessed 4 abreast. It was a great day but a lot of time in the car.

Are you aware that cookie dough tastes better in the rough than it does baked?

80+ degrees today with no clouds. Awesome day. I am enjoying a tingle to the pink tone acquired on the patio this afternoon. Ahhh, heat.

After spending time this morning cranking out a couple loads of laundry, as well as focusing on a couple phone calls from the office, I spent time with two of the most important people in my life, Frank and Barb. I love and respect these two people dearly. I think we've reached a resolve with each other, to some degree. As time moves forward, what is truly 'important' is what ultimately prevails, despite the delta between our lifestyles and beliefs. Somewhere, however, we ultimately find communal ground.

Looking at the umpteenth condo with them over the course of 10 years, I have a feeling that what we saw today may finally be the last hurrah for these guys. They've got more patience than I do, tis for sure. We'll see how the deal goes down but I'm hopeful that we can help move them into the next phase of domicility (is this a word?). Zeeland would suit them well.

So, why is it that my ultra conservative, Calvinist parents, virtually adopt the local baker boys who don tattoos, earrings and long hair, but yet they can't tolerate their daughter's long, kinky do? Nor can they understand same daughter's seemingly indifference to her child's rather skanky locks. Why get your tit in the wringer about something that shall pass? As the Wise CJ Oz would say, ' ya gotta pick your battles'.

This afternoon I had the rare pleasure of sharing a few hours & 2 bottles of wine with a very special friend. I had a rare opportunity to let go; to free myself of an honest reality weighing heavily within for so long. It helped.

This evening I found Petoskey, sea glass, and a few other assorted stones at Oval Beach, as the sun was setting. It was a lovely evening with a very calm lake. After 2 bottles of wine I found no issue with finding a discrete spot along the beach to do what I needed to do.

Walleye at Spectators this evening. I'm finding a pattern to Friday nights. Somehow we seem to end up here. Decent food; good music; sports bar. And close to home.

Saw deer at Saugatuck Dunes State Park again this evening.

Plans are for me to visit with my bud, CJO tomorrow in Indiana. I am so looking forward to it. See ya 'bout 10A, darlin.

All in all, a rather full day, wouldn't ya say?











Lake Michigan from Alligator Hill, Glen Lake, Michigan - July, 2006

During my formative years, this was quintessential to what life was about. Every Friday, beginning about 3P, LAV-FM played what became known as 'the Friday Song'. It took me awhile to find it. Wish I had a wav file to share.


Shanty - by Jonathan Edwards

Gonna sit down in the kitchen and fix me something good to eat.

Make my head a little high and make this whole day complete.

I’m gonna lay around the shanty, mama, and put a good buzz on.

Well, pass it to me, baby, pass it to me slow.

We'll take time out to smile a little before we let it go.

We’re gonna lay around the shanty, mama, and put a good buzz on.

Well there ain't nothin' to do and there's always room for more.

Fill it, light it, shut up and close the door.

We’re gonna lay around the shanty, mama, and put a good buzz on.

Gonna sit down in the kitchen and fix me something good to eat.

And make ourselves a little high and make the whole day complete.

We’re gonna lay around the shanty, mama, and put a good buzz on.

Every night and day!

We’re gonna lay around the shanty, mama, and put a good buzz on.

Hey, don't get excited. This is last summer. I'm just getting anxious. 60's & 70's are predicted this weekend, with sunshine. I'm looking forward to cruising my Jeep to Indiana Saturday to spend a day with my pal. We are committed to a new adventure.

I had a pang of melancholy this evening while attending a session at West Ottawa High School about transitioning to college. I found myself at my high school alma mater, though it is only 2 years old. The building where I attended high school was built in the 60's. When I arrived in 1972 it was 7th through 12th grade, representing both junior and senior high. Today it has been converted into a middle school and the high school has a new home. It's a mega-school with more technology than printed material. It even smelled good inside.

It also hit me this evening that this year marks 30 years since I graduated from that institution. Egads -- what an incredible thought!

Hey, Go Panthers!

Glen, by Maxfield Parrish

One of my favorites

There were 4 of these guys at the park this morning. Saw them on one side of the entrance road coming in. They moved across the road as we were leaving, which is where I took this photo. In all the years I've been coming to this park, it is only the entrance area where I have actually seen deer.


These dudes were brave. While the sun was shining and there were no clouds, it was chilly at the lake. I was happy to have my earmuffs but regretted that I didn't have gloves.

From Saugatuck Dunes we headed into Saugatuck to pick up cafe latte (I said toffee latte but, oh well....to make matters worse he forgot the second key ingredient to toffee latte....whipped cream). Onward ho to Oval Beach where a tiny Petoskey was found, along with a few other goodies. I'm dying here as I can see Petoskey in the lake but it's too dang blasted cold to consider venturing. I did jump the water to secure a lovely fossil I couldn't pass on.

This afternoon has been lazy and wonderful. A needed nap; a little cooking; some laundry; and a visit from my sister, which resulted in the requisite country drive. Making a vague plan for next weekend which involves men and children taking a whirlwind trip to Thunder over Louisville, by way of Butler University in Indy, while Con and I seek out a new adventure, yet TBD.

The sun this evening set like a fried egg. Lake Michigan gently rumbled, flowing dark like molten jade. It was a beautiful sunset, complete with seagulls bombing the lake, coming up with their catch of the evening. My catch was a few pebbles and a Louisiana quarter in the parking lot.

The heart and soul remain bruised by recent events. The light burns dimmer. I know the fuel generated by the hamster wheel isn't going to cut it.

Wow! I just realized I've been doing this nearly a full year. It may not be consistent but there is a regular presence.


The Boys....

April 21 - Village Inn - Be there or be square.....

No photo tonight. Just a quick post, only because I'm here.

I've been a bachelorette for the second night in a row. I could DEFINITELY get used to this. Outside of having to leave work at a reasonable time (oh, darn) to allow puppy to relieve himself after 12 hours, I am responsible to no one -- until about 10:00 tonight, that is. Dude is in Lansing all week at some building inspection tadoo, child spent 2 days in Chicago museum hopping. Including, I might add, a trip to the Museum of Science and Industry to see Body Worlds 2. If you haven't seen it -- GO! It's definitely worth it. I saw the exhibit in Chicago 2 years ago. It's amazing.

So, last night it was Cold Mountain all to myself. Tonight, it's a glass of wine and, hmmmm.....not sure which one yet.......TBD.....

You know, it's a strange feeling to walk into my house 2 nights in a row to find it exactly as I left it in the morning. Not a thing out of place. Bizarre.

Rosco is looking for a new post so here you go, slim pickin's though it may be.

Hey have any of you eblog folks figured out what's so new and improved? Seems the same to me.

So, it hit somewhere in the 80's yesterday. Here you go. One week ago there was still ice on the lake. Today, fishermen in boats; shorts and tee shirts. If I'd known, I would have left the dog home, taken a blanket, and donned swimwear. A 1 hour nap could have left a warm glow. Somebody mighta thought I'd been to Florida.

Nothing much new. Discovered that my 'puter has it's own cardreader. I don't need that extra little device I keep sharing USB space with. Whodathunkit?

On another note: 16 year olds -- can't shoot 'em, can't eat em. What's a mom to do with one? No wonder my mother is half nutz -- she had three!

P.S.: The dog is at the OTHER end of the leash....

Twas a sunny day at our house today and everybody found a sunbeam.

It's still cold; I'm still bitching. I want my flip flops!!!!

For whatever reason, every few years after multiple cleanings, the silicone goo that holds the whole aquarium together decides to give way. Thus, a trip to the pet store this weekend during a blizzard ensued. Not that the loss of the 3 remaining fish would have been a disaster, should we have decided to wait. No, the guys braved the elements and came home with one twice the size as our previous minnow house. 30 gallons of water perched precariously atop a desk. Additional fish were purchased, as well as living plants and a chunk of lava rock.

Jah, we've had a blizzard. It started Friday afternoon while I was in Meijer. As I was checking out my groceries I peered outside and realized a moment of panic as I looked at a wall of white outside the windows. I couldn't remember where I parked my car. The snow and blow hasn't ceased. Activities in the region have been cancelled throughout the weekend. You know things are not pleasant when good Dutch churchgoers take a snow day. Schools are closed tomorrow. 5 inches of new snow expected tonight, along with wind. All of which will continue through tomorrow. Oh, joy. High of 8 tomorrow. Whoopie!

I must say, however, for all my bitching about the weather, I'm glad it hit on a weekend when I could stock up on necessities and stay home. It's been a perfect winter cocooning kinda weekend. A short 4-wheel drive through Laketown Township both Saturday and Sunday afternoon was just enough to keep the heebeegeebees at bay. I'm grateful for my little Jeep. She was the transportation vehicle of choice this weekend and she performed like a trooper.

We've moved from our mild winter, full steam ahead into old man wintertime. Egads, the view from my bedroom window, overlooking the backyard, is a frightful sight. Philip walked 3 blocks this morning to a buddy's house and just blew back in the door. Tis ugly outside this weekend. More snow and high winds coming too. I'm happy to have hit the grocery store yesterday and finished essential errands. I have no intension of leaving my nest till Monday.

I've been underground for a couple of months. My 'free' time has been spent keeping up with the bare essentials at home as well as procuring as much rest as possible. Thus, somethings have moved to the backburner of life. This blog is one of them. Dusting too. I just realized I haven't dusted since the Christmas tree went up, somewhere about's the first of December. Double Egads.

Talked to my folks in Florida who, after countless calls home over the last month, finally now feel that their visit to the Sunshine state is worth it. Once we get snow up here, they breathe a sigh of relief that their investment into a 2 month rental is worth it, even if it is in the lukewarm panhandle.

Fresh baked brownies and an orange cake are cooling in the kitchen. Homemade manicotti is the menu for tonight, along with a loaf of baguette bread. Yum.

In the meantime, until we meet again, stay warm and keep an extra gallon of milk and a stash of TP on hand.

Yippee! I am officially done with Christmas shopping AND everything is wrapped! Lists and most plans are made and most of the grocery shopping is done too. It's time to start baking and cooking.

To get this all accomplished, we missed out on last night's do at the Corner Bar, where we understand Indacoda Blue rocked the house. There's always Friday night. Check out the link to their updated website. This evening we've been listening to a rough cut demo we received for Christmas.

It's apparent to me that winter is setting in, although the weather here today was quite lovely. Blogger is slow tonight which indicates many folks are at home, cacooning. We have a lovely campfire blazing away on the patio with nobody out there. Geeze.

Someone told me that if I believe I will receive an ipod for Christmas, I should start downloading my music collection to the computer now. Oh, this is a wise man. After 2 weeks I'm about half way through my collection. Current count is 1,031 songs and 4GB. MAYBE I'll get the job done sometime in 2007.

It will be another busy week at work, what with trying to get out of there at a decent time on Wednesday to make it to THE concert. Yeeha! That is, after dinner at Ruth's Chris - yum.

Well, we got our tree. It's perfect for our house -- tall & slim. It's in a new location this year and I think this might be the right place. The guys went out yesterday and spent $40 for this baby. My only peace over spending that much dough for a dead tree is (1) monies went toward a charity (2) another reason for that rather brand new chain saw -- I've got $40 worth of firewood sitting in my living room.

After spending all day yesterday cleaning, I'm now prepared to decorate the tree. That is, after number one son digs out the ornaments from the crawl space. Christmas cards were finished this morning and I even got some presents wrapped. O00h, doggie, I'm ahead of the ballgame already.

So, everybody is always asking -- what do you want for Christmas. Okay, here you go:

- ipod 80 Gig color: Black - Now, Philip says I don’t need this much hard drive space. This coming from a kid who has a hard drive on his Christmas list! How dare he under estimate the amount of music his mother has or could possibly want at her finger tips.

- IF Santa brings an ipod, I need a gizmo attachment that will frequency into my Jeep radio. Get it at the Apple store at Rivertown.

- A cleaning person.

- Of course I’m going to want to keep that new ipod looking pretty. Something maybe to protect it – a skin of some sort?

- What’s the quickest method to burn all my CD’s to that ipod?

- So, while we’re on the wonder of ipod, what about those real cool home stereo units you can set your ipod into so you’ve got an instant library of all your tunes - plugged in, ready to go?

--World peace.

- A GOOD, quality spring form pan to make cheesecake (Williams & Sonoma?). Mine gets rusty.

- That my kid studies and performs to his utmost potential. I know it’s in there somewhere.

- DVD’s – the old Thin Man movies with William Powell & Myrna Loy.

- More room in my house. Though I highly doubt I will receive this as a gift, I decided to add it to my list. After all, miracles have been known to happen at Christmas.

- Diamonds are a girl’s best friend. I’m still waiting…..

- Roller blades – shoe size is 8.5 Used blades would be a fine start for these (Play it Again Sports). After all, the ski boots disintegrated before our eyes from lack of use. By the way, you might want to include body padding too while you’re at it.

- China cabinet/side board to put in that extra room.

- New black leather jacket – slightly fitted, just below the waist – Medium.

- A few more hours in my day.

- A small toaster oven – notice this is way down on my list. I don’t need or want another appliance so our current, perfectly good, toaster would have to go. This little item was on my 2003 list and nobody bit.

- The family needs (1) State Park sticker. To Ed or me, doesn’t matter.

- More room in my house.

- Gift cards/certificates:
- --Quality Car Wash
- --Barnes & Noble (yeah, like the 4 foot high pile of books getting dusty next to the bed aren’t enough). Yes, but there’s always music.
- --Via Maria (restaurant – pricy, but good)
- --Boardwerks (restaurant)

- Last, but certainly not least, for the cold and snow to depart on December 26, followed by sunny days in the 80’s – low humidity.

- No-No’s: Clothes & froo-froo items. I’ve got enough of both, thank you.


So, how many spring form pans do you think I'll get?

We found ourselves this morning hiking the south side of the park. The dunes are more open and create quiet valleys. It's a beautiful part of the park and much less traveled. As we approached the lake we came across this old, large concrete structure. While it doesn't appear to have a proper entrance, it does have 2 large holes on top -- one of which is plugged with concrete, the other is open with no ladder to get out if one should decide to take a trip. We're not sure what this is but we suspect it might be part of an old water tower or cistern. Looks like a bunker to me. Remnants of a water system can be found throughout the park. Not sure if anything is still in operation. Behind the structure, up in the tree, are large pieces of rusted scrap metal.

I am thankful for the most glorious, warm, and wonderful Thanksgiving holiday anyone could ever wish for. It's kinda like we're cheating or something. Thursday morning started out with a chilly hike through the dunes. Nobody was out except us. Thank heavens for ear muffs and gloves. The afternoon found us with family at the Brown's, enjoying a lovely traditional turkey dinner and games with friends. The evening is now a blur.

Somewhere in here we made a trip to Oval Beach, putting our total through today (Saturday) at 3 beach trips. We have discovered petoskey stone at Oval Beach - who knew? It was confirmed to me by a local that petoskey is found frequently along the rocky areas of the beach between Saugatuck and South Haven, especially in the spring. Oh, my, I have a mission.

Friday at the dunes was absolutely out of this world. Busy, busy...tons of people and dogs. It was warm and, if I had taken a blanket and left the dog home, I would have been perfectly content to have taken a nap on the beach. Maybe Sunday.........

Friday afternoon was errands, house chores, and more errands, including 2 trips to the grocery. Ed's birthday being the next day I decided that a cooked dinner was in order so we invited Doug and Daisy. Had a lovely evening till taxi guy had to mosey on down the road....Had a kick ass campfire going too.

Did I tell you I'm a band groupie? The Smut Puppies have developed into quite an interesting team of 3. Indacoda Blue is the grown-up version. From garage band grunge to a maturing blend of rock, blues, and a little fun stuff (thrown in for good measure), the boys are keeping the local winter Saugatuck crowd havin fun down at the Corner Bar. Tis fun stuff. Twas looking forward to seeing them again Dec. 1 but the gig has been cancelled. College commitments come first, after all...These boys need to grow their repertoire and cut another demo. Then, update the website.

Okay, so today we hit the road by 8:30A, headed the Camry towards Goshen, with a stop at the Niles Martin's for a Starbucks. Connie and I promptly hit the road in the Caravan towards our planned trip of necessary stuff. After a quick stop for cheap (ah hem) smokes, we pointed our missle in the direction of E&S Bulk Foods in Shipshee. About twice a year we hit this joint to load up on pastas, baking needs, herbs, spices, candies, and cheese. Oh, yeah, and cheap tampons. On down the road for a trip through Yoders where I picked up cotton dish towels for Christmas baskets, socks, and a few other oddities. All this followed by pizza and a lovely country drive -- both ways.

So, about my pictures. The first two -- guess where those were taken. Awesome beach day on Friday. I followed this up with a quick trip through Castle Park and finally had the nutz to get out of the car and take photos of the front and rear of one of my favorite homes. I don't even know what it looks like inside but.....I don't think I'd mind. As I look closely, from lowest level to attic room, this house is 4 stories high. The western wing of the house appears to be a more recent addition to a home that most likely started out as an old family cottage, dating back to the turn of the twentieth century. It's now quite mammoth and very intriguing to me.

The tug is on the Kalamazoo River, across the docks in Saugatuck.

I don't have a clue how these pictures will appear once I upload this blog. I am challenged with, and have no patience for, fine tuning the html code. I'm a WYSIWYG kinda gal, in more ways than one.

Yesterday we hiked the trails at Van Raalte Farm. It was a first for Baxter and me. Nice trails for dry days. The terrain is clay, thus there was a lot of held water. Wait for dry weather.

Today we climbed the steps at Sanctuary Woods Preserve. The best time to climb the steps for hiking is when the leaves are off the trees. The center photo was taken atop a bluff, looking northeast toward Holland and Lake Macatawa. The photo below is the Holland channel, looking northwest toward the Holland State Park.

It was a beautiful, crispy morning. The sunshine is invigorating. Too nice to dust.....think I might just take a drive instead.