It's still summer

That's what I keep telling myself - despite the fact that my thermometer outside the kitchen sink window currently reads 42 F this morning. It's been a cold summer in Michigan this year. I had some plants do well in the garden, others not so much. The coneflowers are doing well - they always do well and they self seed every year, which is a good thing for a lazy gardener like me. My mailbox garden of morning glories are still going strong, and I grew those from seed myself, which makes me very proud. I am hoping they will self seed, too.

The Japanese anemone are not doing so well - normally I am pulling them out by the handful, they were borderline invasive in my flower garden, but this year, there's only a couple blooming. I have always liked these flowers because they bloom in the fall and they are different than the same old mums everyone else has. They must not like our cool Michigan summer. Today I am going to plant a rose bush. I haven't had much luck with roses but maybe this year will be different.

Speaking of summer in Michigan, we spent a weekend in Grand Haven at my friend Liisa's rental cottage which is called "Trainspotting" because it is next to the train tracks. While there, we got to be in the most spectacular storm that blew in off of Lake Michigan. We were eating burritos at the Tip A Few Tavern in Grand Haven at the time. Motorcycles were blown over, street lights knocked down, trees fell. I don't think I have ever seen winds blow so hard. Earlier in the day we had been swimming in Lake Michigan and the waves were like the ocean. People were actually surfing! We had tried to book a sailing trip the night before, but it had gotten canceled because of the rough water. It was a strange weather week prior, my daughter had been at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp earlier in the week for band camp and her director told us that she had to huddle the entire band, instruments and all, into the center of an outdoor structure while another horrific storm pelted them from all sides. I went to the Grand Haven Farmer's Market and the rain just came down in buckets. A couple hours later, it was all sunshine and blue skies. Strange!

Grand Haven, or as Liisa calls it, "the Grandest of Havens" is a wonderful place to visit. The picture I have used in this post is of the Grand, and old movie theatre made into a restaurant in Grand Haven. They serve fantastic sushi, which was a pleasant surprise for the west side of the state. It was taken by squeeg who has lots of great west Michigan photos. I found it on a fantastic website about happenings in Michigan called Absolute Michigan. It's tag line is "All Michigan, all the time" and I really enjoy reading it. There's always new stuff to find out about my home state.

Time to get back to the garden, so I will sign off for now. It's still summer, but it sure feels like fall.