And the correct answer is......

Hi Everyone! Thank you for your guesses last week on my photo. Yes, indeed, it does look like the Milky Way. I would be really happy if my camera could actually catch that beauty! It is not Arizona from the sky, but great answer as well. 

So here is the answer...they are left over cupcake sprinkles on Abe and Kristin's black kitchen table.

I simply changed the photo to black and white. Amazing how our minds work, isn't it?

Holly and Brianna did the decorating, of course!

Indiana says good night..

Last night I took a bike ride around my neighborhood with Aaron and Jonah. We made a special trip to a hidden little glen which Jonah calls "Roxaboxen."

He chose that name from one of our favorite books by the same name written by Barbara Cooney. The story tells of a group of children long ago who claimed a place in the desert all their own. This was away from adults and full of imagination.

Jonah and his friends have claimed this place as well, although I won't reveal the location!

I stayed a little longer to take a short "Out and About" video. I have had trouble the past couple of months putting these videos on my blog, but I think I have it fixed now!

The video is a bit shaky and you can hear the mosquitoes in the background as well. Enjoy saying good night in Indiana in the spring.

Hope

"I said to my soul be still and wait...

so the darkness shall be the light, and the 

stillness the dancing."

T.S. Elliot

My iris garden this morning.

Singing under the Arizona sky...

Dear Friends and Family,

As always thank you for following my blog, my life story, and my oftentimes fairy tale existence. This has been a week for all of the above.

Here is the link to this week's column. Enjoy!


Click here for this week's column!!

As for the real star in the night sky, here she is before her dance recital!

Brianna before her recital.
Kristin Homan, her mother, was the photographer!

Can you guess?

As you know I am in Arizona this week. I took this photo myself and would love to hear your guesses.

Looking forward to your creative answers!!

Lou Ann

I took this photo with my Nikon D3100

My son Abe, an avid Arizona gardener...

My son Abe moved his family to Arizona a couple of years ago. They considered many southern choices such as North Carolina, Texas, and several others. Abe's main purpose was for the brilliant sunshine and deep blue evening skies and gardening.

Abe grew up to be a tinkerer and that has followed him into adult life. He successfully is the CEO of his own company with his office in his house. (Once in a while he does have to come out and ask the girls to hold down the noise when he is on the phone!)

In the early mornings as well as noon and after five he is the caretaker of his home, his wife, and his children.

I am spending a week in Arizona as a house guest, a Nannie, a mom, and an admirer of his work.

Abe believes in 'walking the earth' with his bare feet every day. It reminds me of one of my favorite bloggers, http://iwalkthisearth.blogspot.com/,  by Cirrus Woods.

I met Cirrus a couple of years ago as he walked across America. 

Here are a few photos I took last night from my son's garden.

As always, enjoy, and thank you!

Dessert in the garden, carrots from the patch. Look who gets the smallest carrot?

Bougainvillea

Morning hibiscus

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day

Here is the link to this week's column. I loved writing this Mother's Day column and hope you enjoy it as well!

Click here for this week's Mother's Day column!

My sister Jessie is in the blue, my brother Scott is the baby, and I am in the pink dress.

Indiana countryside...

No trip to Shipshewanna is complete without a photo with a horse!

We stopped at a farmhouse to buy fresh eggs for $1.25. This tree was in the front yard!

The lilacs were everywhere...in town, in the country. 

Spring countryside at dusk in Indiana

We waited a long while for spring to come to Indiana this year, but it has not disappointed us in any way. I think it is one of the loveliest springs I can remember.

Virginia's family is visiting this month from Argentina. I told Virginia that it would be the perfect time to visit, and they are enjoying it immensely. They have meandered across northern Indiana including Pokagon and Trine. They have stayed at lake cottages, and prairie homes. Last night we went to Shipshewanna for the late afternoon and evening. We took the road less traveled coming home on 100E. It was a beautiful drive through Amish country. There were no cars, just bicycles and buggies. We stopped a few times for photos as I could not resist.

So here are a few photos from the day!

As always, enjoy and thanks for reading. 

Lou Ann

P.S. Makes you want to visit Indiana, doesn't it?

Goin' fishin' with my Daddy!

Matthew, Aaron, and Jonah are showing off just a part of their catch yesterday!

Indiana lakes in the spring are the perfect place to find little boys playing hookie with their dad! Aaron picked the boys up from school and took the boat out to their secret fishing hole!

In Steuben County, Indiana we have 101 lakes. In the winter we ice skate, ice fish, and ponder over thickness of the ice in winter. When the apple trees blossom and the crab apple trees cover the streets in bloom, it is time to take the boat out and bring in supper.

My three sons have been fishermen since they were about three years old. Their dad took them fishing and now the tradition continues. Lucky for the rest of us who are invited to their house for a fish fry or to be given a bucket of blue gills! Aaron fillets all his fish and Karen is the cook!

Lou Ann

My Indiana/Ocracoke fence!

My Indiana/Ocracoke fence!

I love this photo as it reminds me of the fences on Ocracoke! This is my delightful "White Picket Garden" fence after power washing!

For more stories on this first week in May, here is the link to my column!

As always, thank you for reading. Maybe you have a fence of your own you would like to share?

Please click here for the link to this week's column!

Lou Ann

Camelot

Those of us in the north are finally experiencing spring. It seems as if overnight the flowers and trees have budded and blooms are appearing each moment.

Yesterday was the perfect day...light breeze, sunshine, gorgeous sky and the unfolding of spring. It was also my last day at Trine. What an exciting year this has been working with the kids and the faculty at my local university. The students were playing music, sunbathing, and just being normal college kids at the end of the school year. One fraternity had taken all the couches out of their house and placed them in the front yard for the day.  After my last final we went outside to sit in the courtyard just as the Dominoe's pizza van pulled up. Yes, it was pizza day to celebrate!

Coming home I worked out in the yard helping my friend Lee power wash the fence, put in a new raised bed, and doing some other chores that had been neglected. All the neighbors were outside telling stories, cleaning up after winter and well, you know, catching up. Kids were everywhere with shovels for worm digging (my garden is the best for worms!), and playing every game imaginable.

At sunset I built a campfire to welcome May Day and everyone sat around roasting marshmallows not wanting this day to end.

Here are a couple of photos from my neighbor's trees.

Happy Spring!

This is a weeping cherry tree.

This is, of course, a forsythia bush.

Happy May Day!

Happy May Day! Today is the cross-quarter day between spring and summer. It is also known as May Day Beltane in Ireland.

Traditionally it is the day May Poles are set up for dancing, children leave treats on the doorsteps of neighbors, and the embers from bonfires mingle with the stars.

It is a fascinating day of celebration that we often miss. There is still time...dance in the street, build a campfire, offer a gift to a new neighbor.

The masks were gifts from my friend Kathy. They adorn my dining room table on the first week of May.

The wind blows out the gates of day.

The wind blows over the lonely of heart

And the lonely of heart is withered away,

While fairies dance in a place apart,

Shaking their milk-white feet in a ring.

Tossing their milk-white arms in the air.

W.B. Yeats

Tibbits Opera House

The events of human life, whether public or private, are so intimately linked to architecture that most observers can reconstruct nations or individuals in all the truth of their habits from the remains of their monuments or from their domestic relics. (Honore de Balzac)

I took this photo when I arrived in the late afternoon to get ready for the evening.

Last night was a spectacular night at the Tibbits Theatre in Coldwater. The reception

began at 6:30 which was a gathering of board members, a senator or two from Michigan, the Mayor, the architect, and patrons.

I was a meandering storyteller always looking for a light for my cigarette as I spread historic information through the party. The bartender really did try to give me a light, but I had to decline.

The dedication was next in the lovely theatre upstairs. I had a front row seat next to the Trine Band and right up against the 1882 stage. Folks lined the stage area as the speeches began. They were passionate, artistic, and for anyone in the arts, they were empowering. Christine Delaney, the Executive Director, was the other star of the evening.

The premiere of the film, Old Buildings, The Restoration and Preservation of Tibbits Opera House, followed. It was also passionate with the history of the Tibbits and the restoration of the facade. The restoration was completed by craftsmen using the small copper and woodworking shops in Michigan.

The evening concluded with champagne and an invitation to go outside for the lighting of the building and the releasing of hundreds of white balloons. The lights were originally gas lamps, but are now, of course, electrified.

I took this photo as the Tibbits Opera House was lit up, but before the balloons!

Needless to say it was a wonderful evening. I loved doing my research. I felt like a one-woman show as I meandered about telling stories.

Here is the link to this week's column about this evening. As always, enjoy!

Click here for this week's column. Enjoy!