GOOD MORNING, UPPER PENINSULA!!

 

Meet our woodstove.

Good morning, Blog Readers!  OK, maybe it is afternoon.  Maybe it’s evening.  Maybe it’s midnight when you’re reading this.  Never you mind.  We are just going to pretend it’s morning here in the Upper Peninsula.

Welcome to my world.

Our woodroom.

This morning I blinked a lazy eye around 6:30 a.m.  Mumbled to husband lying in bed, “It’s 6:30…”  Because it’s a Thursday, this fact means something different to him than to me.  Thursdays I don’t have to go to work at the school.  Thursdays he must hit the road for his day job. I tried not to rub it in.

However, I did rouse myself from bed and start the morning chores.  Do we all have morning chores we follow religiously?  Mine are such:  flip on light near front door.  Turn on gas beneath tea kettle (to make one cup of coffee for said husband and one cup of peppermint tea for said blog writer.)  Follow the circular stairway downstairs to the basement. 

Start fire.  Ahhh, I have started a million fires in our marriage.  I am the Chief Fire Lighter and Stoker.  If someone inquires about my profession, I should state, “I am a fire stoker.”  Because that’s what I am.  Nine months of the year…sometimes ten months!…sometimes in July, I am sad to add.  I move around the coals in the wood stove and add newspaper and kindling and logs and a match and…wa la!!…start the blessed stove.

Day in and day out this ritual repeats itself.  It is a gentle ritual.  It kindles me awake.

Rise 'n shine, Morning Pineapple!

 

Barry and I chatted briefly before he departed for work.  Today he took my car, the senior statesman of the fleet, the silver 2003 Buick.  His Buick is not doing well.  Should I say “Grandma’s Buick” is not doing well?  Do you remember the 1970’s snowmobile suit that I inherited and that I have shared with you faithful readers for more than a year now?  Well, we are proud owners of one other possession owned by my grandmother.  It’s a 1995 Buick Century.  Maroon. It gets a glorious 30 miles per gallon.  (And I named her Alice years ago, after my grandma’s sister.  Long story.)

My mother passed it along to us after Grandma died, and it’s been a faithful member of the family ever since.  I drove it for about five years, and then Barry became the primary driver.  Oh, I could tell you stories upon stories about this Buick.  It sports 196,000 miles now.  And lately it’s been having Issues.  Stuck temperature gauge issues.  Oh heaven knows how the issues will resolve.  It has an Appointment with our faithful mechanic on Monday.  In the meantime, I graciously offered my husband the use of “my” car. 

That meant I was “car-less” for a day.  Fine and dandy.  One of my jobs is from home, so that would be the priority today.

Here, dear reader, is a picture of Grandma’s Buick:

Grandma's Buick

Since it was Thursday…it was time to utilize the juicer and make a delicious pineapple-apple-orange juice for breakfast.  Remember The Great Juicer Adventure?  We have been enjoying juicing for the last couple of months…although not on work mornings. 

Strange apple, yes?

This morning I took the camera everywhere around the house.  Snap, snap, snap.  Bemoaned the lack of lighting.  Suggested to the Gods of Picasa photo editing that they add the proper degree of light.  They sneered haughtily back at me.  I simply cannot figure out indoor photography.  It’s a mystery.  But will continue to attempt it!

Let's take the juice outside

And then let’s look at it from a different angle:

Frothy juice--different angle!

Ahhh….delicious juice.  It’s now 8 a.m.  And it’s light outside!  Time to turn on the computer and check out exciting happenings in Cyber-world.

Ahhh, good morning computer.

Buoyed by the peppermint tea and homemade juice, I turned to email to connect with the world outside of the Upper Peninsula.  To places where one doesn’t stoke the wood stove at 6:30 a.m. 

A lovely email met my eyes.  Reggie, from South Africa, had written a blog in Grains of Sand called Well done, Kathy! with congratulations for fulfilling the 365 day outdoor commitment.  What a sweetheart!  What a lovely beam of light on a gray February morning.  Thank you so much, Reggie.

After a half hour I turned off the computer and headed outside for today’s adventure.  But that would be way too many photographs to post for one day!  Stay tuned…photos from the walk Up the Road will appear eminently.