Bandemer Park

The sunshine called us outside today.

We woke up to a warm sun streaming through the bedroom window and falling on the blankets under which we lazily stretched before responding to the cheerful clamor coming over the receiver on the night table. It's the clamor that woke us, not the sun—a three year old's cheerful clamor that was too energetic for that hour of the morning, as it always is.

The sun surprised us. I think we'd resigned ourselves to the gray fall weather that has been inching in a bit more towards grey winter weather every day, so we hadn't been watching the forecasts and the appearance of the sun was a delightful surprise. Almost as insistent at the early morning clamor, all through our waking moments, and then through a delightful pancake breakfast, that sunshine entreated us to come out and enjoy its waning warmth one last time for the season. The little clamorer didn't object.

Jon passes by Bandemer Park every weekday morning on his way to work, and long before the clamorer was even a twinkle we'd hiked through the area together, but we've never officially visited the park before today. Fall is a great time for a hike. The heat and humidity that make mid-summer hiking less than desirable are gone, and the crunch of leaves under foot as we explore sun dappled open spaces in the depth of forest delights us every one. The bare tree branches suddenly reveal to us the cornucopia of feathered voices that is invisible to all but the ears during the green months of the year. The four footed park denizens are busier than ever as they prepare for the cold days ahead.

We spent about three hours hiking from one river crossing to the other and back again on the other side. On the west side we found Frisbee golf, Frisbee golfers, lots of joggers, glimpses of train tracks, and even one passenger train with a very friendly engineer who extended his arm out the engine window to wave to a delighted Calvin. The woods on that side was broken up by paved paths, the Frisbee golf course, and those delightfully magical sun dappled open spaces.

The east side was steeper, with old tree growth that wasn't interrupted at all. What appears to be the oldest, or at least the largest, tree in Ann Arbor graces those banks. Calvin tired of walking about half way down that side and ended up lounging in the crook of that tree. I think he was pretending that he was the engineer driving the tree as a train engine. The squirrels and birds were equally busy on both sides. I could swear, though, that the East side squirrels were fatter and more friendly; there are houses on that side where they've probably become accustomed to begging for gluttonous meals, or scoping out bird feeders from which to steal them. We're lucky we made it back to the car without being mugged for our granola.

Halloween

It came, it went, we lost another football game.

I remember when, back in high school and college, the extravagance of celebration went entirely willy nilly when Halloween actually fell on a weekend. For that matter, I remember, back in high school and college, that Halloween came with an extravagance of celebration in the form of haunted houses, hay rides, and parties with dry ice and bad music. There were definitely years that found my friends and I ringing door bells in neighborhoods to which we'd been old enough to drive ourselves. I can only imagine the added thrill at Halloween falling not only on a Saturday, but also on the night before setting the clocks back. Ahhh, elation.

I have heard that celebrating the holidays with your own children is like rediscovering them, and in a way I guess that's true. It's been years since I was out roaming neighborhood streets after dark on Halloween. Last year Calvin had no real interest in ringing the doorbells of houses he didn't know, but this year he caught on quickly. It helped, I think, that we know at least twice as many people in the neighborhood this year, and Calvin himself has become more comfortable socially, so at most doors the answerer knew who he was and was genuinely pleased to see him. Bonus points for that tiny voice saying, with perfect clarity, "trick or treat," followed closely by "happy Halloween thank you," jumbled together as one phrase, all from within a rather large and fuzzy "Honey Pooh" costume.

The "Honey Pooh" costume, as Calvin calls it, was a rather sore point with me. Growing up I made all of my costumes, or at least all of the costumes I can remember; I've been a Dalmatian, a princess, an M&M, a baby doll, and even an Eeyore, all made with my own hands, and last year I made a scarecrow costume for Calvin. So when he asked to be a train engine for Halloween this year I figured it would be no problem. And it would have been, but, as you can clearly see, I did not make Calvin's costume this year. The problem wasn't the job itself, it was the last minute trip to the resale shop for engineer style overalls (to wear under the cardboard box engine I had planned) and the racks full of resale costumes, all marked down for sale before the fast approaching holiday, that caused the ultimate break. We weren't in the resale shop more than five minutes before he spied that Winnie the Pooh costume, too big for him by at least a full size, and the month long wishing for a train costume disappeared down the proverbial drain. I don't think I could have talked him back into the train if I had tried, but to be honest, the short time left to us coupled with the fifty percent mark down (on resale prices to boot, making it a whole $5) won me over before I tried. That, and it's a real costume, not one of those fake polyester things they're selling for $30 a pop these days, so it will last until he outgrows it, which is probably some time down the road yet (it's large size really added to the effect, I must say).

So Halloween is over. Trick-or-Treating was fun (another plus to the Pooh costume—I got to break out the Eeyore costume I made in college). We continued our celebration the next day by being awakened an hour too early, thanks to the resetting of the clocks (another bit of nostalgia—I remember when setting the clocks back was something we looked forward to, not something that meant having to reset your toddler as well). We have a deal with Calvin, which we started last year, that he can trade his candy in for a new toy. He asked for a roundhouse for his train. That's a pretty good deal, if you ask me. And he's still wearing his costume around the house, so that was a pretty good deal as well.

See lots more Halloween pictures in the October 2009, too album.

Honey Pooh, and the cider mill, too

Go blue, and happy Halloween, too.

Pumpkin tour stop 2, and some portraits

Some rain, some cold, a little wind, and just enough sun—it all adds up to the true feel of fall, those days that are crisp when you wake in the morning, but warm enough to go sans jacket by lunchtime (if you're wearing a sweater, that is). As wimpy as I am I've mostly abandoned my leisurely morning runs for quicker versions snuck in just after Jon gets home and before it's time to serve dinner, that time when the sun has warmed the air just enough to make deep breathing bearable. The tailgate yesterday was a tad wet, and the wind that came in last night took a lot of beautiful leaves out of the colorful trees, but it's early enough in the season that there are still a lot left. If we had trees to speak of in our yard we'd be raking about now, but as it is our baby trees don't drop enough leaves to make the use of a rake worth while.

It's hard to believe that Halloween is less than a week away. In fact, when I realized that yesterday morning, and connected it with the fact that I have yet to do any work on Calvin's costume, I had to fight the momentary rise of panic that affects all procrastinors when we are finally disillusioned of our ability to cheat worldly temporal constraints. The smart thing would have been to start work on the aforementioned costume immediately. I'm sure you already know that's not at all what we did yesterday. Instead, with just one pumpkin gracing our porch and only so many days before carving night, we decided to make another stop on our pumpkin patch tour.

I'd love to tell you where we stopped for pumpkin tour stop #2, but I can't really. I can only point you to it's location, on the west side of Wagner Road between Scio Church and Liberty. It's a patch that has been there for many years—I remember visiting it when I was in high school—and I'm pretty sure it will forever remain nameless. We've driven by the farm countless times over the past month, passing its pleading "pumpkins here" sign with its ubiquitous arrow, and I can only remain deaf to such pleas for so long. There are no signs on neighboring roads even, so you just have to be going past or already know that it's there if you want to find this little gem.

Up front I can tell you that if you are looking to spend a day on fun filled activities when you make your yearly visit to hunt pumpkins, this is not the farm for you. The Wagner farm is a bare bones experience at best; no hay rides, no hot cider or donuts, not even a pumpkin farmer to take your money, just a box with a couple of slits in the top and an undisguised trust in the honor system. But, it's a real farm house with a real barn, lots of room for picture taking, and the pumpkins are beautiful—great shapes, great colors, great stems (the stems are a real selling point with us). They had a number of pre-picked pumpkins to choose from, and also allowed free roam of their pumpkin countryside, where you can also find butternut and acorn squash, gourds, and itty bitty pumpkins. And the prices are great—$5 for the biggest of the pumpkins, $4 for the slightly smaller ones, and 5/$1 itty bitties.

It may have been a bare bones experience, but it was great fun to hike the fields for a while and to take advantage of the beautiful fall farm textures for some fun photography. Even without the frills this one gets an A+ from us. Local is great when it's well done and at a good value. And now we have enough pumpkins, so bring on Halloween!

We took a number of fun fall photos and some portraits. Check them out right at the beginning of the new October 2009, too album.