Grillin' for Food Gatherers

It's an amazing charity program here in our area. Food Gatherers collects all manner of unwanted, unsold, and uneaten food from stores, bakeries, restaurants, etc., sorts it for edibility (my spell checker is going to yell at me for that one), and redistributes it to people in need. You know that mound of carrots at the grocery store that you've always wondered "how can they possibly sell all those?" or maybe, like me, you've often lamented "why do they stock so much of XXXX? There's no way they sell it all. What a waste!" Well, this program does the amazing thing of connecting people in need, with food in need of homes.

My dad volunteers there. He's done this since he retired and needed something else to do with his time (other than all the other fun things in the world, that is). He has ridden in the trucks to pick up or deliver pallets of food, and he's stood in the warehouse sorting. He's met many interesting people, and helped many more that he has never met.

Once a year Food Gatherers hosts a grilling pow-wow at the fairgrounds in Saline. Many delicious local restaurants and catering services donate their food, many more people donate their time or other expertise, and others of us go to enjoy all those donations and all that hard work. Food Gatherers makes their money in the fundraiser on tickets sold to event and on raffles and auctions that takes place within. My dad has worked the beer pouring station for a couple of years now. It's a good place for him, and we take him "out for dinner" on his break.

Our community is pretty supportive of the group, and even this year's stormy weather couldn't bring it down.

Partying

Have I have told the story here of our "camping friends"? I call them camping friends for the purpose of simplification, because we've gone camping with them at least every year for the past five, but that's not the only basis for our friendship. Sarah and I were friends growing up. We've been friends, in fact, since we were in first grade (Sarah likes to tell it that it would have been earlier, but she got stuck in afternoon kindergarten while I had morning). We lost touch somewhere midway through high school and did not reconnect until the miracle of facebook, when we found that our children were born just two days apart. Two days.

So we get together several times a year, including to go camping, and to celebrate the kids' birthdays together. It's a tradition now.

And, because one party per weekend isn't enough for a ninth birthday, we also had a party with the grandparents this weekend. You could say it was a grand party. Because you only turn nine once.

Mother's Day (weekend)

I got the greatest gift for Mother's Day this year. I loved the birding and fairy tale books my son got me, and the adorable picture he painted for me. And the elephant print scarf from Jon is my new favorite, plus the brunch he made me on Sunday was fantastic. I loved all of these things—they are all really thoughtful, considerate gifts that show how much they were really thinking about me for this special day—but none of these was actually my favorite gift of the weekend. No, the best gift I received was two full days of family time in the great outdoors—wonderful time spent together, enjoying each other and the world around us.

Because Saturday was Big Bird Day, the day when ornithologists and hobbyist birders all over the globe hit the fields to do species bird counts and record them on ebird. Right in the middle of migration and mating season, it's a great excuse to get out and go birding, and being Mother's Day weekend that's what I asked for from my guys. They both love hiking and wildlife, so the hardest part of that gift was probably the 6am wakeup call on both Saturday and Sunday, but they both got up willingly and their enthusiasm added a lot to our expeditions.

On Saturday, up at six and breakfasted, we decided to hike the Arb. I hadn't been there since I was a college student and I had forgotten what a hidden gem it is right in the middle of Ann Arbor's urbanish life. We managed a forty minute hike, on which we saw almost nothing, before it started to rain on us. I was pretty feeling pessimistic about the whole thing, but the boys convinced met to wait it out in the car for a bit. Twenty minutes later the rain abated, and on our second trip into the park we were greeted by sunshine, birds, and deer. We even managed to spot a warbler species we hadn't yet seen this year (though he was too high in the trees for great pictures).

The Arb wasn't our only stop on Big Bird Day. We actually spent the whole day hiking. On our way home for lunch we stopped to make a full trip around Dolph. And after lunch we joined a guided hike at County Farm Park where Calvin got to hold a tiny baby bluebird while the county naturalist checked the nest box to count the chicks and make sure they were free of parasites (they do this frequently, I guess). Then the celebratory nature of the weekend warranted a stop at Dairy Queen, after which we needed to kill time before dinner, so we did a tour of Eberwhite Woods before picking up pizza on the way home.

And as if Saturday wasn't superlative enough, Sunday rivaled it for perfection: up at 6 and breakfasted, we checked the weather report and headed to Independence Lake. The thing about spring weather in Michigan, though, is that it's unpredictable. We had checked the weather for home, and by the time we arrived at the park it was raining. Heavily. The thing about new technology, though, is that it is fairly accurate minute to minute as long as it knows where you are, so we could see that the storm was slated to pass through. And, after a thirty minute nap in the car, it did. Patience pays off. When the rain let up we hiked the park's two mile open field nature trail. It was our first time on the trail, and because of the long grass we came home soaked to the knees, but the trip was amazing. We spotted three bird species none of us had ever seen before, and because it was mostly open fields, we got some good practice with the binoculars. Back at home, Eggs Benedict, sweet and thoughtful gifts, then a little shopping with our growing boy (for summer shoes), and dinner with the grandparents to honor the other mothers in our lives, too, and let them know we love them. See, perfection again.

Arb in the rain

Mute Swans

Eastern Wood-pewee

Indigo Bunting

Arb not in the rain:

Eastern Bluebird

Black-and-white Warbler

Bay-breasted Warbler

White-tailed Deer

Blackburnian Warbler

Dolph Nature Area

Swainson's Thrush

County Farm Park

Veery

Tiny baby bluebird

(Horace's?) Duskywing

Independence Lake, after the rain

Bobolink

Orchard Oriole

Eastern Kingbird

Common Yellowthroat

Yellow Warbler

Eastern Towhee

Eggs Benedict

An island wedding family vacation weekend

We are just back from a few sunkissed days of rest and relaxation, and fantastic celebration. My brother—my little brother, baby brother, favorite brother—got hitched over the weekend. But this was no stuffy church wedding with endless receiving line and in-and-out reception. No, my adventurous brother and his adventurous bride planned a weekend on the island of St. Thomas with their closest friends and family, so not only did we get to welcome a great new member to our family, but we got to do it while relaxing on the beach or at the poolside, spending a relaxing weekend enjoying the company of family and the feel of sand between our toes, champagne in hand.

Day 1, Thursday

The travel for this trip was excruciating. We got up at 3am to catch an early flight and watched the sunrise from the air. But, after a stopover in Atlanta, we touched down in the Caribbean early enough to enjoy a late lunch and a dip in the pool. We were all dragging a bit by dinner, but it was worth it.

out our front door

rumtini for Jon, shirley temple for Calvin

poolside bar?

Sherlock Holmes at dinner

Day 2, Friday

We woke up earlier than intended, but coffee on our front beachview porch while Calvin played in the sand made up for it. We spent the morning on the beach, Calvin and Jon playing in the sand, and the afternoon on a cruise to go snorkeling with wild sea turtles. And a ray. And some fish (watch out for the spiny sea urchins!) before coming back for the wedding rehearsal, more pool time, and dinner. One of the greatest things about an all-inclusive resort was having all this and more right at our doorstep, or at least just a short walk through the sand away.

We'll call him Roy

wild sea turtle!

can you spot the spiny urchin? (he's hiding in the right corner of the reef)

Day 3, Saturday is Wedding day!

Beautiful, except that I cried trying to finish my reading. We love those two so much. Even an iguana came out to watch. Then a really, really fabulous sunset cruise, then a delicious and entertaining dinner reception in the sand. We danced up a storm until we had to take our rather exhausted little dancer back to bed.

proud ring bearer

reading love stories from our family tree

this isn't Roy

singing while dancing

singing while not dancing

Day 4, Sunday

The last full day, not to be wasted. From beach, to lunch, to pool, to beach, to one final fabulous dinner, the whole family together.

wild sea turtles!

Day 5, Monday

We got to wake one last time to coffee on our beachview porch, spend one last morning on the beach with friends and family, and enjoy one last poolside lunch (and one last petting of the cats that made our stay that much more homey) before packing up and heading to the airport. Of course, that meant another set of travel times. We left the island just before dinner, and, after a another brief layover in Atlanta, which got longer and longer with delays, we watched the sunset in the air—a perfect bookend to the trip—and touched down back at home after midnight.

Happy birthday (to me)

I love my birthday. The date, I mean. When I was younger this wasn't always the case, but since my main frustration was that I had to contend with first semester finals every year instead of celebrating with friends, I've pretty much gotten over it. In fact, I've found that looking forward to my birthday has helped annually with post-Christmas ennui.

This year my family spoiled me with more than a week of special treatment: date nights, alone time, favorite meals, special gifts. I felt surrounded by love and admiration.

Date night my way: Calvin with my parents for the night, Jon and I hit the town for a book store crawl. We hit every book store within cold weather walking distance, then picked up pizza to eat at home on the couch, in pajamas, with a fire and a movie. (books: Sylvia Plath's Collected Poems; Wide Sargasso Sea; Alison Bechdel's graphic memoirs Fun Home and Are You My Mother; and Northern Lights, the original British printing of Pullman's Golden Compass). 

I cooked only a handful of times all week, and Jon even made our lunches before he went to work. I got flowers and I spent an afternoon shopping with my mother. The night before my birthday the three of us went to our favorite local dinner spot. My actual birthday we spent at the NAIAS, followed by another favorite dinner.

I feel appreciated, visible, loved, and, I guess, a year older.

photo by Calvin