Hooray for T.C.

This is why it's such a pleasure to live in T.C. - and why so many people love to visit!

Easter Brunch

Shelly asked us over for Easter brunch, so we got a chance to spend Easter with adorable kids and great family! Watching the kids was the most fun of all. The food was a big highlight too - everything was so yummy - and you should have seen the dessert! Thanks Shelly for a great time.

Spare Time

Dokas asked Dick what he's been doing in his spare time, so Dick took some pictures to illustrate his recent activities! Almost every day since the snow has melted, Dick has been hauling brush from downed trees and branches, and taking it to Woodhenge - he does all of the loading and unloading himself. I admire his stamina.

Storm Damage Clean-up:

 

On a brighter note:

Nine bean-rows,,,

There is a restaurant on East Front Street in Traverse City called "nine bean rows".  It's a very, very tiny restaurant - I doubt they could seat a dozen people.  I have often wondered about the name of this place. It didn't make much sense to me until I ran across this poem by William Butler Yeats:

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

William Butler Yeats (1893)


I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the mourning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

Innisfree sounds like a very peaceful place.  And since this restaurant is on the banks of the Boardman River, and very near West Bay, I imagine that they can hear "water lapping with low sounds by the shore".  We have never stopped in there to sample their offerings, but I'm thinking that we should.