Pumpkin Carving in 2012

This may have been an unusually creative Halloween at Wolverine Lake--but as Monique says, "We say that every year." Tradition, tradition. In conversation we were able to determine that we've done this for nine years running already. The event was, as usually, also a celebration of Monique's birthday:

It came after the pumpkins were hollowed out but before they were carved. Wendy's Lexi and Anna, grown again--as time demands--were unusually helpful and also innovative this year:

I like the color contrasts here. And Tigers paraphernalia littered the house. We tried, as it were, but the Tigers lost the third game of the World Series this night and then lost the last one on Sunday.

I also liked Monique's photo of Brigitte communing with Katie. Brigitte helps with designs, and such, and comes always laden with gifts for the girls. But her own pumpkin decoration takes place later. She does the pumpkins intended to be seen in daylight, and I'll post them when they're done.

The occasion was quiet, unhurried, pensive. As if our inward attention were already on the approach of Hurricane Sandy to come--the winds of which lashed inland enough far enough to touch Michigan. The carving was on October 27, 2012.

Key West 2: Where We Stayed

Let's start with the big picture, taken from a helicopter by Big Brother Google. Here is the place...

...our temporary home in Marathon, Florida. Ours is the portion to the right marked by the letters A, B, and C. A is the big house, a ranch-style structure where, at maximum occupancy, we housed six people (Brigitte & Arsen, Barbara & Hillery, Michelle & Stella. The building labeled B is a two-story structure. Monique and John had the apartment on the top, Max, Henry, and Malcolm occupied the lower apartment.  C is actually continuous with B, but that part housed a laundry and assorted stored items, tools and machines owned by the management. The tree-shaded region just beneath B was one of our popular gathering places for outdoor meals, games, reading, and just communing about everything--a table an lots of chairs. The dock that you see jutting out was where we all came after sunset to watch the stars. The blue color of that rectangle identifies it as a pool. The property marked D was our neighbor, but nobody was home except the birds and the palm trees. Those trees provided shadow for our horseshoe games.  Looking at this you might wonder where the water was. Well, it was all around us. Google managed to take this image when the tide was out. But you'll see plenty of water yet.

Here is our driveway--with Monique celebrating the first moments of arrival. The big house, A, is to her left, the neighbors' palm to the right, and the future horseshoe region straight ahead. And, oh yes. We brought our own kayaks. Not that such were not available right on the property--but using those would have cost extra.

Here our only really decent photo of the big house, A. Three bedrooms, there, as shown by the double doors, have a pool-and-ocean view. If you look closely, the other wing of the house is visible on the right. In the pool is Max, getting an early dip. That shadow, I think, belongs to Michelle. She always rose early too, and the sun rose over that ocean every morning. But that's another post.

And here the little house, B, which is to the right of A as you look from the pool. The upper balcony would let us survey our domain. The whole place, by the way, was up for sale, the asking price $1.25 million--the occasion of a lot of laughter and of idle fantasies...

Here is a subset of our group in the shady area that lies down from little house, B. Moving in a clockwise circle from nine o'clock: Brigitte, Monique, Max, Stella, Michelle, and Malcolm. Hats are helping the palms to increase the shade.

Moving down, toward the water, from the shaded assembly place, there is a concrete umbrella right by the water. In this quite typical view of some of our mornings, you can see John reading; behind him a more social group is assembled around the table. This umbrella was another "center of gathering." The pool, shown next, is behind where John sits.

Here it is, featuring Brigitte and her daughters One and Two. Our vast photo collection overflows with pool shots, but this one deserves special attention. It shows building A on the left, B on the right, and Monique having a moment of solar ecstasy in the center.

Here, for the first time, proof that our place was right on the water. More of it would be visible but for Arsen hugging a stone pineapple. A good look at our concrete umbrella, Brigitte's cane, and Brigitte herself, complete the picture.

The view of the water, here, that umbrella again. Notice our guardian owl at the corner of the pool, the birds in the sky, the kayak we chose not to rent, and some of our company wading in the shallow waters just to the left of the umbrella.

Posing at the back of building A, Arsen, Michelle, Brigitte, and Barbara. The gravelled area is where we played horsehoes. The walk that points toward the water leads to our dock, shown next.

Here it is. It looks shorter than it was. We spent much time on the tip of that dock watching sunsets; I'll try to find the suitable images in the post on our Activities. In this one one of the boys (I think it is Henry) is doing some exploring holding a kayak paddle. Our kayaks were stored in front of the wall at the right.

The dock--populated this time.We had some fiercely windy days while we were there, and this was one of them. The center of focus here? It is the iguana. Like ourselves temporarily, the iguanas are immigrants to this part of the world--but they have come to stay. As best as I can make it out, we are looking at Barbara, Henry, Malcolm, Monique, and...John? As in all of these photos, clicking on the pics will enlarge them. Esc will get you back to the post.

Herewith, finally, a wide view of our place, encompassing buildings A and B together, a tiny piece of the umbrella, the dock, and even a little of the water. In other posts in this series we shall also go indoors...

Key West 1: The People

Brigitte, the Birthday Child

Monique

John

Barbara and Michelle

Hillery

Max

Stella

Malcolm

Henry

Arsen, your reporter here

We harvested, as a family 1,143 photographs in our trip to the Florida Keys to commemorte Brigitte's 80th birthday. Such riches, while welcome, create some problems too--of selection and arrangement. I've decided to solve by producing multiple posts. This, the first, will introduce the cast--at least the major characters. In future will come posts titled Our Place, The Scenery, More People, and Our Doings. That last may have to be subdivided in turn. For now, here is a little glimpse of the actors, and some of the things we did...

For relatives a little too distant to keep up, Hillery belongs to Barbara (and, at her age, to herself!!!). Max, Stella, Henry, and Malcolm belong to Michelle. You behold three generations here although a fourth one is already present: Hillery could not bring her children, Kyle and Kobe, but they were with us in spirit. Arsen, of course, belongs to Brigitte.

For the record, the vacation extended from February 18 through March 3 of this year.

Actual Birthday

On the morning of Brigitte's eightiest birthday, we had a surprise visitor--Monique. To be sure, the real celebration is scheduled for later in February in the Florida Keys, therefore this visit was a genuine surprise.

The note on Monique's card suggests that she thought she'd missed her mother. That came about because Brigitte was still upstairs. I was gone in the car to add my own gifts and flowers; that rabbit is mine. The car gone, silence in the house, Monique assumed that we were having a jolly good "medical day" again. But then I marched in--but after she had written her notes!

So it goes. We joined our voices and sang Happy Birthday to the Birthday child!

Halloween 2011

I note here a neglect of this blog. It was August when the last post landed. Today we changed the clocks to gloomy Winter Time. Many excellent Halloween pictures resulted from our annual tradition of Pumpkin Carving at Wolverine Lake, but I intend to focus on a single one, Monique’s last oeuvre of the night. Being last, it was left out of the collective pictures. Taking pity on this wonderful opus, we brought it home. Indeed it is still out there up front, but here I bring two images of it, one in the daylight and one on October 31 when, lit up, it supervised the Trick-n-Treaters:

By light...

By night...

Butterfly Update

We’ve documented butterfly “developments” on Ghulf Genes, but want to provide some instant news now. We took our five butterflies to Traverse City with us, in their chrysalis (or pupa) stage, in a little fishtank:

We got back late last night. This morning Brigitte removed the pupae. She put them out into the sunlight riding high above some old parsley plants.

Then, for good measure, she affixed a huge (from their perspective) plastic butterfly to the window by means of a suction cup. She thought it might “encourage” them. Here Brigitte “archetype”:

Tonight, to our astonishment, the first Black Swallowtail, by coloration a little boy, sliced itself a very narrow opening in its pupa and came out. Brigitte came screaming to get me, and here is a good picture of the new arrival as seen from the side, wings closed, in other words. Meanwhile we’d moved the tray to a more central place in the sunroom. Here he is:

An hour or two later our friend took flight—but only temporarily. At first he crashed against a wall in an unhappy attempt to plunge himself into a lamp. He crawled up the leg of a stool. Brigitte put the stool on the table and took this photo of our friend. Notice that his wings are now half-open.

There the new-born sat for a while, calming down. But the light was still drawing him ever on, ever on. Taking wing again, he landed (happily for the photographer) on the rim of the lampshade and, exhausted from this effort, rested with wings completely opene:

And that was also—probably—the last we shall see of Aristo One of 2011. He took wing again, fell once more, and once more climbed up the leg of the stool. We then decided that we’d set him free—and took the stool out into the night. Good-bye, young one. You’re back in your element again. A happy, happy flight to you in your brief but splendid, fascinating life...

And the two of us came in again, bent over from all of the tensions of the night...

Little MGs First Big Trip

If John's little MG (the license plate's FUN MG provides its first name too) is not exactly young, but it is the clan’s youngest addition, as it were. The trip to Traverse City was its first Big Trip. Soon after our arrival there Monique intended to take Brigitte on her maiden voyage in FUN. I hoped to take a picture, but John was assiduously busy (1) removing the last bit of dust and (2) making Brigitte as comfortable as possible—

I had to wait a bit before I could show off FUN in his complete, shiny glory...

Here! The background is our motel, called Anchor Inn. This is our second stay at this facility, which is now becoming our Second Rugby Home, complete with pear tree shedding fruit, a walk-to-beach for swimming or watching the Moon-Rise late by night. The first time, however, that we had cabin...

Yes. That number, in whatever combination, is an omen of Good Luck for this clan. The beach? Here it is:

The moon rise? Well, here it is, but I'll have to get Kodak to give me yet another lesson on using its High ISO setting for capturing images in virtually lightless conditions.

On the way home we thought we'd get some shots of FUN with the Great Water as backdrop, and above is the first, with John at the wheel.

With Monique and John both...

And finally with the two of us!

The young-old MG performed splendidly on the trip. On the last leg of it, in the dark, I rode with John, and we both enjoyed listening to Click and Clack do their Car Talk on Public Radio together—which seemed rather appropriate material for the occasion...