Correction to Eastport's location

Hi again,

I have been corrected by Gerry Sell, from Gerry Sell Writing Studio and Bait Shop; gerrysell@torchlake.com about Eastport's location. It is not in the UP, Upper Peninsula, rather the "mitten" part of Michigan. Apologies, Gerry.

And Betty Beeby's poster is actually called "The Traverse Corridor" and details many historical events around Torch Lake- a lake of torches. It even has a drawing of the local band from 1976 which celebrated the Bicentennial of American freedom, including their individual names. Pretty classy!

Gifts from Eastport

In the middle of January it's always fun to read new postings, so here's a current one. At Trent Valley Archives (TVA) earlier in the week, we received copies of Liz Evans' cool poster with the indigenous names of all the places around the Upper Peninsula and Eastport in particular. It has wonderful explanations of the terms. I know it took Liz quite a long time to do it, but it's lovely. I'll try to take a photo so you can see what I mean.

Along with Betty Beeby's poster on Eastport history, Liz's poster will find a place of honour on my wall. These will forever remind me of the wonderful hospitality show to me and Elwood in the middle of this past December.

I have also attached a photo of a Petosky stone that Liz gave me. We each received one. I took it to my Friends Meeting the other week, it was shown to the children who attended, and the comparison with the skin of a pineapple is remarkable. Since I taught high school mathematics from 1975-2000, I am always interested in patterns in nature. In fact that's where our understanding of math has come from - observing those patterns and replicating them. It seems our very beings are patterns, but we sometimes don't take the time to figures them out.

I hope to keep posting on this blog and encourage comments as and when you can.

Staying warm for the time being,

Ruth

Post-New Years

Now it's the first week in January and we are finally getting snow - hooray! What's winter without snow. The trick is to do things outdoors in it- skiing, snowshoeing, skating, walking whatever. And getting fresh air is always wonderful especially in the winter. I take my GS dog Sarah for a walk every day, so it gets me out. Attached is a photo of Sarah watching Lassie and getting all excited- ears up, a few woofs when Lassie barked at the viewer.
For walking I even have have Trax, if the going gets slippery. I've fallen too many times to take chances on ice.
My Holiday season was great, after Christmas I went back to the US, this time to close the house I had negotiated in Vergennes, Vermont. It's an 1880's house, with apt. upstairs and down - I'll rent the downstairs and have the upstairs for me and friends. This has been on my bucket list, to have a "Cabin in VT", but this will do. It's in town, near the Bixby Library which celebrates it's 100th birthday this year. I think it will be lots of fun to explore the area. After all, I was born up the road in North Ferrisburg, many moons ago.