Sunday, August 24, 2014

The Tail End of Summer

Well, here it is, almost the last weekend of summer, almost the end of August, and only a week until Labor Day and time for the Boy to go back to school.  Kids in the district where I work come back to school this Monday, so the Boy gets a week more vacation than I do.

For the last 5 or 6 years (approximately), our family has spent this weekend at a YMCA camp in Lexington, Michigan with other families from our synagogue.  It's a nice way to wind down the summer and reconnect with friends we don't get to spend a lot of time with the rest of the year, mostly because of kids' schedules and other commitments.

The cabins are pretty rustic, but the location is beautiful - right on Lake Huron.  I get to spend a lot of time knitting and reading, and I usually bring a drop spindle as well, which always draws some attention and questions from adults and kids alike.

This afternoon I'm sitting on the deck of the dining hall, taking advantage of the camp's wifi, drinking mediocre coffee, and working on a fingerless glove pattern inspired by our time here.  I'll post more pics and a pattern link when it's ready, but for now, you can enjoy the same view I get to enjoy:




Doesn't that look tropical?  Michigan in the summer.  Happy end of summer to you all!

Saturday, July 26, 2014

Where the Wild Things Are

So, for the past 3 weeks, I've been driving the Boy down to Wayne State for a summer day camp program through the Engineering department.  He seems to have enjoyed it, but the back-and-forth has been exhausting me.  I'm spending about 3 hours a day in the car, and I've had lots of time to listen to music (found some new artists that I'm enjoying) and looking at the graffiti.  And Detroit has, in addition to the typical tags on seemingly every other building, some very nice public artwork.

The ones that inspired the title of this post were the ones that got me started really looking:
 This one is on Woodward Avenue, just north of the Davison, and he feels to me like he is kind of guarding the neighborhood.  This area is really struggling, all the buildings along this stretch of road are burned out and falling down, but this creature looks pretty happy and ready to take on the world.




This one is on the side of the building that houses the Russell Bazaar, on the east side of the I-75 service drive.  Someone put a lot of time and love into this beast, and I think he is pretty spectacular.  Can't call him graffiti - he is definitely a mural.  My son really loves him.

 Here is a closer view.











And a few more murals that I always enjoy seeing when I go into the city:



 It's hard to take pictures while I'm driving, so I had the Boy take some of these - he didn't do too badly! 








There are lots more examples in the city - these are just a few that caught my eye.  I love these expressions of the beauty that lies just beneath the surface of the city.  There is some truly lovely architechture in Detroit, but these are ordinary buildings that are elevated to art by someone's vision and effort.

I'll post more as I find them.  But here is one more that the Boy took on our way north out of town on our last day - this place looks really intriguing: 

It's not the best picture, but this is a chiropractic/alternate therapy clinic and vegetarian cafe.  I might need to stop in some time!  Their website is here.