Pier Park in December

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! I am sorry I have been unable to blog lately. Here's what the swimming Beach at Pier Park looks like today.

Vacation, Day 2: Sleeping Bear Dunes, part I

On Day Two of our vacation, we dropped the kid (CB--choir boy) off at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp and headed up to sleeping Bear Dunes.

Back in Detroit--a man at Pier Park Shows me a fish he just caught.

See three more shots from vacation day 2 here.

Cooling Off

A group of women sit and chat at the end the dock at Pier Park, a good spot to sit in the breeze and escape the heat of the city.

Wagons at Pier Park

To carry stuff out onto the pier.

We are going to be away, up at The Pinery in Ontario Camping.

Largemouth

Largemouth bass from Lake St. Clair held by intrepid fisherman from Pier Park. The little spot shows the magnification.

Boatwells and Freighter, Pier Park

Pier Park is right on Lake St. Clair. You can see that most of the boatwells are still empty. And in the background, a freighter going by in the shipping channel--the rest of the lake is fairly shallow.

Slow Spring at Pier Park

The lawn is greening up, a few baby leaves are showing on the trees, and 4 more boats have appeared in the slips for a total of 5--but most are still empty. Day by day, small changes.

And here is my latest art piece, a watercolor sketch of ML Liebler, Detroit Poet, reading at the Scarab Club among the art pieces.

Spring Sprung At Pier Park

This young man is fishing at Pier Park, he and a number of others. I asked what they were catching--Rock bass and bluegills. Note the sailboats behind him, in the distance, another sign of spring. It was actually a hot summer-like day yesterday--cooler today. I was away again all day--will try to get caught up soon. I missed my poetry reading though, but I am behind in the Moleskine Exchange group I'm in and need to paint paint paint paint to get caught up with that.

Here are some of my new art pieces:




I did this with a Tom Jones video in my water media class. Click them to view larger.

And here are two tiny little quick sketches:


In my personal small Moleskine

and finally, here is an illo for a new poem I wrote:


"THE SNIPE HUNT" by Mary Stebbins Taitt (click image to view larger.)

The poem is here, if you wish to see it. The illo combines two previous illos in a digital composit.

Spring in Detroit

At Pier Park, the first boat has been placed in a slip, the kids are playing on the beach and fishing.

In the woods, the wildflowers are in bloom (bloodroot, cut-leaved toothwort, Dutchman's Breeches, spring beauty, trout lily, hepatica) and in our yard, the daffodils, jonquils, hyacinths and forsythias.

Pier Park a week ago

These pictures were taken a week ago, and I hate to say it, but I haven't been back since. My guess is that the ice is all gone. But I can't swear to it.

1)the community building and empty boats slips

2)one of the few residents at this season

3)rotting ice

4)incoming ice packs from Lake St. Clair

And here is my latest art piece:

From the Providence of Dreams, by me--a digitally manipulated fractal art-piece. I made the original fractal from which this came using Xaos, a free fractal download for macs. (Click to view image larger.)

Pier Park Beach in March

The beach is calm and deserted--but it will be a madhouse when it warms up!

Ice Fishing

As of a couple days ago, there was still ice in the boat wells at Pier Park--and ice shanties--and ice fisherman.

Skating Pond at Pier Park

In the afternoons and early evenings, it is full of kids and families.

Wildlife, Pier Park

OK, so we don't have moose or bison here. It is DETROIT! (It was also quite dark.) (I always see animals when it's dark). (Plus, I didn't have a real camera, only a point and shoot.)

Still working on a tight deadline!!!

At the gazebo at Pier Park

It looks different every day--this was near sunset on a clear day a couple days ago.

Lake St. Clair from the beach at Pier Park

Looking our over lake St. Clair from the sand beach at Pier Park.

Skywatch Friday, Pier Park

I know I recently published a similar picture, but I couldn't resist another one. This is Pier Park "Off Season". Lake St. Clair.

I'm also sorry I'm behind on commenting--we've had some health issues here and several trips to the hospital (3 so far) (not counting tests), but hopefully, things are looking up and I will try to catch up!

Visit Skywatch Friday for lots more sky pix!

Zamboni at Pier Park

Pier Park has just a tiny little skating rink and a HUGE Zamboni to groom it with. This picture was taken just as the dawn-light was reaching the houses, but hadn't made it to the ground yet.

My husband had surgery Monday and things have been a bit difficult the last few days. I will catch up when I can.

Here is a new art piece done in pigment markers on watercolor paper. Click to view larger.

Skywatch Friday, Pier Park

These pictures were taken before dawn, at dawn and just after dawn at Pier Park. This morning (as I write this), my 15-year old son woke me earlier than usual and wanted me to drive him to school because it was abominably cold out. And very windy—bad wind chill. Normally he walks. And he was wearing his pajamas. They aren’t very warm.

So I got up, dressed warmly, put on wind pants and drove him to school—then drove down to the lake where I saw, in the dark, that the ice was piled up along the lake wall—frigid-looking but beautiful.

I drove to Pier Park and got there at 7:36 AM—it was still dark and the park was closed but the attendant let me in when I told him I just wanted to talk a walk.

I’d bundled myself up but was still shocked by the cold. Brr—and the wind tore through me. But I walked through the dark and the slow growing of predawn light until gradually it was nearly light out—and then I witnessed the dawn over the frozen and partly frozen lake and bays. It was lovely. I took lots of pictures with my tiny digital camera. I walked over the frozen sand of the lake and the frozen docks past the frozen boats slips and up on to the viewing platform and around to the gazebo. I was out for about an hour and some man came looking for me, because it was so cold the parking attendant was worried about me—also maybe worried because a couple weeks ago, a local woman parked by the lake and walked into it and was never found. It was so cold they said she’d have died of hypothermia in about ten minutes—and it’s colder than that, today. Oh, how I hate to think of her there . . .

But I was okay—my hands hurt when I took pictures, because I couldn’t do it with my glove on.And I couldn’t take the time to be precisely careful about the pictures.

I had a warm car and a warm house to return to, but I worry about the homeless in this bitter cold. And the soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I took lots of pictures ad will be sharing them over the next few days (or weeks?)

And here are two of the new art pieces I've been doing:




The first is called "At the Black Canyon of the Gunnison" and is made with Christmas markers. It is 8 x 10, on watercolor paper. The second is gouache--I was just fooling around testing the transparency/opacity of the gouache. I haven't had time lately to post my art.

The Beach at Pier Park in December

LOL! I know this is a cliche, because I take it every year. I can't help it--the abandoned beach, the frozen water, the barren sand, the icy shore. It speaks to me. (I think it's whispering "Florida, Florida"--or--"St. John St John." LOL! :-D