WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY

When goslings appear in triplicate!

Posted on June 21, 2026 by Linda Schaub

This walk was taken on Sunday, May 3rd. I had bopped over to Council Point Park earlier in the week on my quest for goslings. I was also hopeful the few remaining Redbud trees would be blooming to add a little color to the photos, but they were still in bud.

I walked almost the entire perimeter path, feeling somewhat sad as I tossed peanuts here, there and everywhere at all my regular “drop spots” but not a single squirrel came to see me or retrieve their treats. It was windy though – clipping along at 15-20 mph, so perhaps that was the reason? Also, likely factoring into the zero squirrels equation was a couple walking their Pit Bull mix dog. Well, that would send my furry friends up a tree in record time if they were on the ground. I passed the trio up and was far ahead as the dog stopped to sniff, stop and start as dogs usually do.

Yay – we DID have 2026 goslings, but where were they hiding last week?

Then, as I neared the cement ledge, in the distance I saw a family of geese – ahh, my first offspring of the year. I was happy to see them, but, mindful of the dog, I opened my pocket, dragged out my camera in record time, trying to both lessen my movements and get some shots before the geese were spooked by the dog.

I edged closer to the family, hoping I could get close enough to the goslings without the gander getting stirred up, nor the dog gaining ground, so this was the best I could do.

Incoming and outgoing goslings – if you blinked, you missed ’em!

As I went to move along, thinking I’d walk around again, or maybe double back after the dog had passed by, I spied a second family, this time in the Ecorse Creek and paddling in my direction! These were younger goslings – look how light yellow they are here … a fresh hatch!

Obediently they paddled behind one parent, with the other parent bringing up the rear. The lead goose, likely Mama, stalked up the Creek bank, the goslings close behind, but then I appeared, the looming human. Oh-oh. One gosling peered at me between the blades of grass …

… but, a minute later, the entire family turned around and headed out!

Well, that was fun while it lasted …. (sigh). I shaded my eyes from the sun and looked to see how far away the dog and its owners were. I figured I had just enough time to meander back to the original family, but, enroute I saw a third family. Of course, for the most part, when the goslings are this young and toddling around with their parents, they all look alike. Google tells you that it is easy to distinguish their age once they are a few weeks old …

… but, I had the advantage here as they were grouped in different spots, I could tell it was a third family. Here they are, the goslings snuggled together, a pretty puddle of precious babies.

Mama and Papa Goose weren’t too pleased to see me and hustled their offspring over to the cement ledge.

As you see below, even this adult Canada Goose did some serious peering into the water, judging that drop down (gulp) before taking the plunge. Imagine what were the collective thoughts of the goslings about that plunge – was it their first? My heart was in my mouth as I thought “I’ll back off – please Mama, don’t make them jump because I’m here – they’re way too small!”

Here, minus their daring Mama, they gathered with the mindset “if Mama says we jump, then we gotta jump guys!”

One by one they plopped into the water. It happened so quickly, I was kicking myself I didn’t get a shot, but it was a stream of goslings going down and mercifully (for them and me) it was over in seconds.

Then, off they went, safely tucked between their parents and likely thankful THAT ordeal was over!

Well the folks with their dog caught up with me and we chatted for a few minutes as I pointed out the three families which, by now, each family was in the Creek and headed in the opposite direction. After learning the walkers’ names were Pam and Bill and meeting Lulu, which they adopted as a rescue three months earlier, we chatted a little more and I took some photos of them, which came out badly. In my defense, the wind was whipping up Pam’s hair across her face and Lulu was fitful, up and down like a pogo stick and looking at Pam, not Bill or me, so no good pictures of them were taken unfortunately.

I saw a large group of kids starting on the opposite side of the perimeter path, so I said I was going to move along as the goslings were so small, they would not be paddling very long in the water and soon would come ashore.

My hunch was correct – the three families had regrouped and were on the grass near the shoreline, so post-swim, now it was time for a few camera clicks.

It was definitely dandelion chow-down time!

One family had settled into the grass near a patch of dandelions.

The goslings were all about nibbling those dandelions. I was hoping for a gosling with a dandelion hanging out of its bill as it merrily chomped away, but that didn’t happen as these little ones were enjoying the greens, not the flowery heads. Go figure!

These two goslings, their tummies full of dandelion greens, decided to pose for me, thinking perhaps I’d go away?!

As I got ready to move along to the next family, I stopped for a shot of these little ones “mooning” me. So you thought the Artemis II moon shots were fabulous – well, there’s nothing cuter than goslings mooning the photographer.

The second family was more sedate.

Papa Goose was standing guard over his little family – good old Dad, always protecting his offspring.

His mate snoozed and the “kids” rested after their swim and their big jump off the ledge. I believe these are the goslings that jumped off the cement ledge, judging by their coloring and size. Aren’t they sweet?

It was a quick meet-n-greet with Family #3 – Papa had an attitude.

I’ve been around Canada Geese families long enough to know when I am not welcome. Sure, a peek at their goslings is acceptable, just keep your distance. Mama doesn’t usually have an issue, but Papa watches me carefully. No one messes with his goslings! This was true with this family and the look on Papa’s face tells the story. No, he does not have something wrong with his body which is a bit contorted in this photo – the shot was taken in between him bobbing his neck up and down and hissing at me.

I’ve cropped the picture so you can see him better – note the tongue!

Needless to say I got two quick shots you see below, then decided to leave …

… just as Mama gathered up her darlings, while Papa continued to glare at me. She herded her brood down to the water’s edge. Yes, “Mama says we vamoose, so off we go!”

The first goslings of Spring are always a delight to watch and I hope you have vicariously enjoyed them as well. In this case, it was triple the fun. A few weeks’ time will have these cutie pies sporting grayish plumage, canoe-shaped bodies and oversized feet. Growing pains – sigh. We all had those not-so-cute years too. 🙂

Happy Father’s Day if it applies!

I am joining Terri’s Challenge: Animal or Bird of the Month and Pepper’s Challenge: One Step at a Time.

Posted in birds, nature, walk, walking | Tagged #Flower Hour Photo Challenge, #One step at a time, #Sunday Stills Photo Challenge, Canada Geese, Canada Geese goslings, Dandelions, nature, walk, walking | 4 Comments

In the limelight. #Wordless Wednesday #Great Blue Heron #Lean, mean and green!

Posted on June 17, 2026 by Linda Schaub

Wordless Wednesday – allow your photo(s) to tell the story.

Posted in #WildlifeWednesday, #Wordless Wednesday, birds, nature | Tagged #Sunday Stills Monthly Color Challenge, #WildlifeWednesday, #Wordless Wednesday, birds, Great Blue Heron, nature | 37 Comments

Spanning the seasons ….

Posted on June 14, 2026 by Linda Schaub

**“So Fred, why do we stick around here every Winter? Let’s go South next year!”**

The first day of Summer officially arrives on Sunday, June 21st, BUT, so does Father’s Day and I would be remiss in not giving a nod to all the fathers out there on their special day, (even if some of them are fathers with feathers and they waddle and have webbed feet).

So, I hope you like geese as you’ll see more of them next week. 🙂

Here in Southeast Michigan, just like some of you, we had a mini heat wave in mid-May, with a few days in the 90s fueling severe weather …

… and, while I wasn’t longing for Winter, (if I ever do, please feel my forehead), I sure was wishing we could just kind of ease into Spring like we used to do. All that torrential rain, not only put the kibosh on my walking regimen, but it caused the grass to grow like crazy and suddenly everything was green.

When that weather whiplash subsided, in late May/early June we had 12 days in a row of perfectly glorious weather, blue skies, coolish temps and low humidity. It was picture-perfect, so I scrambled to get outside and walk and take photos because inevitably the effects of this Super El Niño we will be having this Summer will not be great for long walks in large parks. We had a preview of such coming attractions last week when we zoomed to the 90s with “real feels” of 100F in between severe weather. If not for several torrential rains that accompanied that severe weather, our lush green grass would look brown and crispy!

Time is zooming by too fast sometimes – on June 21st we begin our slow crawl toward Winter with shorter days. Wow – it seems like just a handful of months before, I was ecstatic to get out of the house for a few Winter walks as you will see below when I rewind to February.

Finally, there was a respite from the wintry weather.

After weeks of snowy and icy roads, brutally cold temps and, having muddled through Winter with a disgruntled mindset directed toward Mother Nature, I seized the day when conditions finally improved, laced up my lug-soled boots and got out with the camera.

Having re-acquainted myself with my furry and feathered friends at Council Point Park the day before, on this Friday the 13^th, I made a quick pit stop there, then devoted the rest of the morning/early afternoon to visiting two venues along the Detroit River.

Just one week before, according to several sites with weather cameras that I follow, the entire Detroit River was still iced over, so I was hopeful to get some fun ice floe photos at Dingell Park just as I did on March 13, 2025. On that day there were waterfowl gliding along while perched on ice floes that sparkled as much as the water, due to the sun’s intense rays that day. I even came home with a sunburn.

So I arrived at Dingell Park, the first stop on my mission.

My mission was my official bird count for the Great American Backyard Bird Count, something I participate in every mid-February. I did three “bird counts” over the four-day counting period, one at Bishop Park, one at Council Point Park and this one here at Dingell Park along the Detroit River.

Our Southeast Michigan weather had been all backward and topsy-turvy since our first snowfall in early November. The weather, like this pole light on the Dingell Park Boardwalk, just wasn’t right.

Even though the wind was relatively calm when I left the house, a stiff breeze was blowing.

I didn’t care so much about the breeze – I wasn’t going to tumble into the brink as there are guardrails. I was just happy to be out and about and clicking away, even though at a glance, I knew this venue’s count would not fare so well because there were just too many birds, most which were too far away or on the move.

Unbelievably, there was minimal ice near the Boardwalk, just way across the River, much farther than my camera lens could handle. Well, that was unfortunate as I could see many swans, seagulls and ducks milling about, too numerous to photograph, let alone count.

I first headed to the pavilion area, which, unlike the Boardwalk, was salted and snow-and-ice-free. I was hoping to see waterfowl near the cove-like area. Nope, nothing to see here except the frozen Detroit River, the only large area of ice nearby.

Well, I wished these geese were closer, but they had apparently strayed from the frozen area to the open waters, close enough to count, but too far away for close-up shots.

As I stepped away from the pavilion I turned around when I heard a voice … there had been no one here when I arrived a few minutes earlier. A man hurried over with a flyer in his hand. I recognized him immediately from social media and the news. His son, Tyler Bojanowski, had gone missing; he seemed to have vanished into thin air, his truck abandoned four miles away and his passport found in the pavilion area at Dingell Park a few hours later. He started to show me the flyer and I told him I knew the story and I was sorry but knew nothing of Tyler’s whereabouts. For most of the time I was out and about on this day, the Coast Guard helicopters made a constant hum in their search for Tyler. For nearly two months this story made local and national news while volunteers and search parties scoured the area looking for Tyler and finally his body was recovered on March 30th, once the ice melted, near a dock not far from Dingell Park.

I started walking over to the Boardwalk where the snow was past my ankle-high hiking boots, all of it crunchy, ice-laden and slick. The Ring-billed Seagulls were grouped on ice floes across the River. Using my binoculars I could tell there were a lot of Canvasback and Redhead (Ducks) paddling around the open waters. The many Mute Swans, while larger and easier to count sort of blended in with the ice.

Well, counting these three Mute Swans was easy-peasy, but how many ducks were lurking in the brutally cold water?

Thus, my notations for those species on my bird count are as you see below …

I saw a couple of juvenile Bald Eagles fishing from the ice and trained my binoculars on them to ensure they were indeed eagles – they were. The current was strong. Look how the water seems to appear turquoise in these shots.

I didn’t see the eagles catch any fish, but maybe there was a hole in the ice. I wanted to shout out a suggestion that standing closer to the edge of the ice might yield more fish, but that’s what their parents are for, right?

Surely there was a better place for these Canada Geese to have a snooze then on a frigid ice floe!

There were lots of Canada Geese in the water near the Boardwalk and even that species count became a challenge when a huge group suddenly took flight, spooked by something, perhaps me – it was hard to tell.

They were fitful and loud, some flying over to the ice floe near the cove, but evidently the others were hungry and didn’t go far, just plopping, one by one out of the sky and onto the Boardwalk.

There were scant patches of grass between the icy areas of snow on the Boardwalk – perhaps this delighted the geese, but for this human, the snow was crunchy, icy and dicey, so I picked my way along the Boardwalk, high-stepping over goose poop and I decided to move to the grass for easier walking, but, I was met with disapproving looks and a few pink tongues hissing at me between mouthfuls of grass, so I scooted back over to the Boardwalk. Evidently, pickin’s were slim here unless you liked nibbling grass through the snow and this human was an annoyance!

I’m sure their tender tootsies didn’t enjoy traipsing through the snow for a meager bite to eat either.

I didn’t stay long and was rewarded with better results and close-ups of Canvasbacks and Redheads, a pair of Mute Swans, plus some cooperative and photogenic Seagulls when I drove 2.5 miles (4 km.) down the road to Bishop Park. If you missed that post, you can find it here.

I am joining Terri’s Monthly Color Challenge: Evergreen and Dark Green and Pepper’s One Step at a Time.

Posted in Birds,#GBBC,, nature, walk, walking, Winter | Tagged #Monthly Color Challenge, #One step at a time, birds, Birds GBBC, nature, walk, walking, Winter | 37 Comments

‘Twas a dovely morning. #Wordless Wednesday #Mourning Dove amidst the Cottonwood fuzz.

Posted on June 10, 2026 by Linda Schaub

Wordless Wednesday – allow your photo(s) to tell the story.

Posted in #WildlifeWednesday, #Wordless Wednesday, birds, nature | Tagged #WildlifeWednesday, #Wordless Wednesday, birds, Mourning Dove, nature | 56 Comments

Tripping down Memory Lane: 1976 style!

Posted on June 7, 2026 by Linda Schaub

If you’re a longtime follower, you know I love to stir the memory pot and share some tidbits from my past from time to time.

Since beginning my blog in 2013, several times I have stepped back five decades to focus on highlights from 1969, 1973 and 1974. Even writing the words “50 years ago” or “a half-century ago” gives me cause to pause – yikes! I’m lucky to have photos memorializing many memorable events from years ago, so just a few clicks in my digitized photo albums and closing my eyes transports me back … in this case to 1976 and, I’ll have a few more photos from 1976 in my July 4th post where I’ll be remembering the Bicentennial, the nation’s 200th anniversary.

A little backstory first ….

A few years ago I posted about the year 1973. I graduated from high school that year and, when I walked across the stage to accept my diploma, I had turned 17 just two months earlier. I was the youngest of 613 students in our June 1973 class.

This pivotal year, 1973, brought many changes, some which began right after graduation. Five close friends and I hung out together those last years of high school. We were inseparable at that time, but soon after flipping our mortarboard tassels to the left side, three of us got Summer jobs as college was on the horizon and three of us became permanent worker bees. Slowly our shared interests were gone and friendships began to unravel.

I started working the day shift at Carter’s Hamburgers, a small 24-hour diner-type restaurant. It was, by far, the best job ever for me as it brought me out of my shell. I had been terribly shy until then. At Carter’s I worked every Summer, school holiday/semester breaks and weekends until I graduated from Wayne State University in 1978.

In 1973 I got my first car, a ’73 Biscay Blue VW Super Beetle. Amazingly, it cost only $3.00 to fill ‘er up!

Now, rewinding to 1976 – 50 years ago!

I started Henry Ford Community College in September 1973 and initially found it challenging since our city’s high school curriculum sure didn’t strain my brain. It was an adjustment since I’d never had a job while in high school and now I was carrying 16 credit hours, factoring in a part-time job and, once I signed up to work on the college newspaper, The Ford Estate, I had even less hours of free time. Well, who needs a lot of sleep anyway – when you’re young that is. Initially, my life plan was to become a veterinarian, but my math and science grades were not stellar; as I became more involved with the student newspaper, I decided that journalism would be my calling.

My earliest stint as a roving reporter, long before my blog.

Our newsroom became the home base for our staff of thirteen, along with advisor Louise Schlaff. In between classes, we’d return there to eat, or study, but mostly it was where we spent countless hours working on our collective labor of love, the weekly college newspaper.

I was one of several staff reporters, roving around campus and reporting on items of interest to fellow students. One of my “beats” was The Gate Room where the culinary students put on a different ethnic meal every Friday to showcase their talents. I sampled (but did not critique) fellow HFCC students’ weekly menu items, then wrote about and photographed the spread. Another “beat” was attending student government meetings and interacting with our student reps.

The Ford Estate was produced long before computers were the norm. We reporters banged out our news stories on non-correcting, manual typewriters, then, after cutting up those typewritten pages, we pasted them (“keylined”) onto large sheets of paper (“galleys”), along with photos taken by the staff photographer or the reporters themselves. One staff member secured ads from local businesses and she also transported our “baby” to the printer every week. Hot off the press, we distributed copies around campus, hoping no one lined their birdcages at home with our efforts.

At the onset of the school year we were just students comprising the newspaper staff, but soon became good friends and we always got together on weekends throughout the school year – Bimbos for pizza, beer and old-fashioned singalongs with the Red Garter Band every Friday night was a favorite hangout …

… and we enjoyed many Summertime concerts at Pine Knob. We always had lawn seats.

I always toted along my Kodak pocket camera to take photos of The Ford Estate gang. Here are the gals (minus me) …

**Joanie, Joyce, Beth, Ellen and Claudia**

… or, I’d hand my camera to someone else if I could.

The newspaper staff once had a charity event, a basketball game versus the student government staff. The gals were cheerleaders and the Coach. We posed with our advisor, “Owner” Louise Schlaff. I believe the gentleman in the yellow sweater behind Joyce was Dave Whitman, a local TV sportscaster that was covering the event.

**Back row: Joanie, Joyce, Ellen (Dave Whitman)**
**Front row: Linda, Beth, Mrs. Schlaff and Claudia**

**Modeling our cheerleading “uniforms” at Joyce’s house before heading to the game.**

**We practiced, then posed for posterity and of course for *The Ford Estate*.**

**Post-win … Gary was the staff sportswriter.**

It was all good fun – the losing team had to “eat” a copy of The Ford Estate.

**Mark Payne, Student Government President munches down on the front page.**

In my last year I broadened my horizons further while at HFCC.

After two years on the newspaper staff, I decided to pursue other campus activities and next got involved in Associated Student Government as a representative of the student body. I learned a lot about communication and interaction with local leaders as we were involved in various fund-raising endeavors for charity on behalf of HFCC.

I was the Editor of the HFCC Student Handbook, a project which I also hoped would eventually be an asset in my “string book” which at that time was a scrapbook compilation of a person’s writings to date that was used when seeking a print journalism job.

While being the Handbook Editor might sound like a fun and wonderful opportunity, even something that would look good on my résumé down the road, it was actually a very painstaking project. Think about how easy it is to type a paragraph with a justified right margin by simply selecting your text and holding down the “Control” and “J” keys – well, that little nicety was not available to me in the Summer of 1974. Because I had a planned three-week vacation to Spain in August with friends of the family, I began the project as soon as school was out for Summer. I figured I had plenty of time to write the Editor’s note, prepare captions and small paragraphs for all the on-campus photos, then lay out the Handbook for the printer.

However, the snag in this project was I had to use a proportional spacing typewriter and this fancy typewriter was non-correcting and Wite-Out/Liquid Paper masking fluid could not be used as it would leave shadows. So, my typing had to be perfect, plus line up with no ragged right margins. I worked six days a week that Summer at Carter’s and went to the HFCC campus to use the typewriter on my day off and many evenings after I finished my 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. waitressing job.

When I wasn’t slaving over the typewriter, I was at home writing copy and figuring out exactly how many spaces each character took … i.e. a “w” was wider than a “l” (three spaces versus one space respectively) for each sentence to align perfectly on the right side – grrr! The keyboard was different than any typewriter I’d ever used and, if I was lucky and typed with one finger, one space at a time, I made fewer mistakes. It was a nightmare to complete the Handbook.

Taking a big bite out of the Big Apple.

One of the highlights of my three years at HFCC was participating in the National Model United Nations and representing Egypt in April 1976. There were six of us in our delegation – three guys and three gals, plus our student advisor, Arthur Jefferson. The event coincided with HFCC’s Spring break.

In advance of the conference, our group of six got together as much as we could given class and work schedules, meeting mostly on campus, to learn everything about Egypt in advance of the conference.

This newspaper clipping shows what we were tasked with learning to participate in the conference and what activities we would be involved in.

There was lots of cramming of facts and figures on our own, as well as quizzing each other relentlessly as the conference grew near. Mr. Jefferson was HFCC’s foreign student advisor and had attended several NMUN conferences in the past, so he gave us insight and encouraged us every step of the way.

We were in three groups of two; my partner Issam Faraj and I were representing the International Monetary Fund.

The conference was from 9:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. from April 13th through 17th; on the 18th the awards were handed out. There were 130 colleges in attendance, some community colleges, some universities. We had debate sessions with other delegations and were judged on our skills. After each session, we had a catered lunch, then we had the rest of the day free to rest our brains and be tourists in “The City That Never Sleeps”.

One NMUN session day was held at the real United Nations Building …

… where we met the real U.N. members at a cocktail party and we had dinner with the U.N. representative for Egypt.

We were excited to win the “Outstanding Delegation Award” (pictured in the newspaper clipping and a xeroxed close-up of the award is below):

When the conference was over, we got to keep our placards and flags that were at each of our seats. We had a party in our room to celebrate our award and all our hard work.

**From left to right: Linda, Denise Walker and Carrie Pate.**

With the exception of Mr. Jefferson, none of us had been to New York City, so we made a list beforehand of all the attractions we wanted to visit and happily we checked off every item, including all the “touristy stuff” like taking the Staten Island Ferry to Ellis Island to visit the Statue of Liberty.

I know you’ll recognize the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in this photo of the Manhattan skyline taken from the ferry.

We all went on the ferry boat ride – this was Bill Postelnik, Jim Ghannam and me.

And there’s Lady Liberty on her pedestal at Ellis Island.

We wanted to go to the top of the Empire State Building to see the view from two different vantage points. (Hmm – smoggy much?)

On ground level we ticked off more items, like taking a horse and carriage ride through Central Park – this was Denise Walker, Bill Postelnick and Yours Truly.

I wish I’d taken a photo of Times Square at night, so I guess this will have to do.

A stop at FAO Schwartz toy store was a must, even though none of us bought any toys, but did a lot of oohing and aahing over their amazing toys anyway.

St. Patrick’s Cathedral was a bustling place … out front anyway.

As to “night life” … we saw one Broadway play, “Same Time Next Year” with Ted Bessell and Loretta Swit.

One night we went dancing at a discotheque (yes, disco music was the rage at the time and no, we didn’t get to Studio 54). We were celebrating my 20th birthday which occurred that week.

We wanted to watch the Easter Parade travel down Fifth Avenue on Easter Sunday so the gals treated ourselves to a shopping trip at Macy’s where we each bought a “bonnet” … er, hat.

This was my “bonnet” and I posed in the lobby of the Empire State Building shortly after buying it.

The six of us got up extra early to stake a good spot to watch the parade, then we feasted on the Easter treats we had bought for each other; it appears I needed a nap (or crashed after too many marshmallow Peeps). We were then off to get our award, before catching our flight back to Detroit.

All expenses were paid and we got two meals a day, a continental breakfast and as mentioned previously, a catered luncheon while we were “in session” but we were on our own for dinner. We all wanted to go to an authentic NYC deli for pastrami on rye sandwiches with a huge dill pickle on the side, but admittedly, the rest of the week, the Statler Hilton Hotel was across the street from a McDonald’s, so after a busy afternoon/evening of sightseeing, a quick burger and fries was often our meal of choice.

It was a whirlwind trip and an experience of a lifetime. When the trip was over it was time to settle back into college life and hunker down for finals as we all would graduate just a few weeks later.

My grandmother came to spend the Summer of ’76 with us and attend my HFCC graduation with my Associate of Arts degree in June. She liked posing in my cap and gown. 🙂

*[I was the third graduate from the left in black slingback shoes]*

Nanny stayed through mid-August and then a co-worker and I went to visit her in Toronto for a week not long after she arrived home. I’ll be writing about that visit and my grandmother in my annual Grandparents Day post in September.

It was bittersweet to leave HFCC, (the main campus is pictured below) …

… where I not only embraced learning, but immersed myself in extracurricular activities, something I never would have done while in high school as I was not one of the “cool kids” … so I was grateful my parents, (who paid my entire college education), encouraged me to extend my HFCC stay one extra year, but they were adamant I had to keep my grades no lower than a “B”/3.0 grade point average. I kept my end of the bargain.

Perhaps Mom and Dad remembered the first few years after we moved to the U.S. when I was routinely verbally and physically bullied by fellow students because of my Canadian accent or because I was not “one of them” or maybe they were just indulgent telling their only child to enjoy her college days before the drudgery of a daily job and/or the rigors of raising a family set in.

Yes, I am a pack rat. I am sentimental in that I save everything and all the images here, with the exception of the featured photo which was obtained through WordPress AI, were from my photo albums and scrapbooks.

Thank you for reading if you’re still here … it is appreciated.

Posted in Memories, Travels Thru the Years, | Tagged 1976, Memories, Travels Thru the Years | 61 Comments

“Wormies” … The Breakfast of Champions! #Wordless Wednesday #Enjoying a protein power breakfast, one segment at a time!

Posted on June 3, 2026 by Linda Schaub

Wordless Wednesday – allow your photo(s) to tell the story.

Posted in #WildlifeWednesday, #Wordless Wednesday, birds, nature | Tagged #WildlifeWednesday, #Wordless Wednesday, birds, nature | 49 Comments

Hyacinths in the ‘hood.

Posted on May 31, 2026 by Linda Schaub

What happened to that little ditty I learned way back in elementary school about “March winds, April showers, help bring May flowers?” I guess that was long before our weather got wacky and morphed seasons together in such a nonsensical manner.

Here in Southeast Michigan, April’s weather was a rollercoaster of unusual up-and-down temps, high winds, lots of rain (sometimes torrential), an EF-1 tornado, then, on Sunday, April 19th, the weather folks advised us to cover up our plants as we would have a hard freeze that night.

Sure enough, on Monday morning, an icy-white glaze covered all the freshly shorn lawns. Even the dandelions, so plentiful and perky had been zapped – not to worry, they rallied back by day’s end! It was 30F (-1C), with a real feel of 23F (-5C) when I stepped out the door on Monday morning – sure, I didn’t need my snow boots, but I was wearing all my warm woolens, i.e. hat, gloves, sweats and a heavy coat when I left on my walk.

As I don’t have a garden, I did NOT have sensitive plants that needed covering up before this unwelcome frost, but, since frosty weather loomed, I decided to do a Sunday stroll in the ‘hood to check out the flowering trees and even the hardy bulb plants which had already emerged after temps in the 80s just a few days before! There’s never a dull moment weather-wise these days, that’s for sure!

Magnificent Magnolias don’t stand a chance in freezing temps.

My first stop out the door was standing beneath my neighbor’s Magnolia tree. It had just blossomed out and was beautiful, but, because it was a bit breezy, I watched the wind stripping the blossoms from the trees and dotting the grass with a sea of pink petals. I figured “best take a picture of this tree now before the rest of the blossoms are gone when you return from your walk.”

My next stop was Memorial Park.

I meandered over to this park, where I try to stop with the camera a few times during the Spring and Summer months. There are several raised garden beds maintained by volunteers of the City’s Garden Club. In the Spring, the early bloomers add some color to the park and in the Summertime the bright-orange Butterfly Weed is a magnet for pollinators like bees and butterflies.

I was lucky because there were Tulips galore, some with petals still closed up tight and others already opened up. Here a few of them.

A mixture of white and yellow Daffodils nodded their heads in the breeze.

Not to be outdone by the usual early bloomers, a row of tiny pink hearts peeked out between the leaves of a Bleeding Heart plant.

There were some dandelions at Memorial Park – not as many as I’d seen on my way over here though.

This cute black squirrel was munching on something …

… but, when it saw me, it looked at me expectantly. I could see it was a nursing mother. Umm – did I have “Peanut Lady” emblazoned on my forehead? Surely it wasn’t a squirrel from Council Point Park? Since I planned to visit my furry and feathered friends after taking flower photos, I had treats. I tossed it a few peanuts and it stayed there, unsure whether to come closer … nope, it was too skittish and I had to back up and walk away before it dashed over to check out its windfall.

I checked the trees for any nesting birds, even though I thought it was a tad early – no luck, so I headed out to the ‘hood to see what flowers were blooming there.

There were more Hyacinths like you see in the featured photo. After a Winter that didn’t want to quit and the blah landscape that followed, these bright pinks and purples were a sight for sore eyes.

These are Grape Hyacinths.

These dainty flowers are Periwinkles.

The last time I walked past these Hostas, they had just emerged from the ground – I was surprised how much they had grown.

Those ground-level Hostas were just the right height for the Cottontail bunnies in the ‘hood to enjoy. We have a large Cottontail living in the next-door neighbor’s yard, but it bolts every time I open the screen door, so there’s no use trying to get a photo of it.

Perhaps the Cottontails would like to congregate at this house … a dandelion-munching feast could be had and still enough dandelions left for dandelion wine! A friend’s mom used to brew up a batch every Spring and I always think of her when I see a mess o’ dandelions like this. How many dandelions would you guesstimate are here?

No ‘hood stroll would be complete without …

… wandering over to Winchester Avenue, especially in lieu of my recent post about this venue. This time of year, I try to get over there to see all the pink Tulips, but only a few were open. There are usually lots of pink Tulips, but perhaps they are different varieties, early versus late bloomers? I was content to see these two at the side of the house and …

… this Tulip with a whimsical stone bunny almost within sniffing and/or munching distance. (Wait – Tulips don’t smell, do they?)

It looked like this was a new frog settled amongst the mushrooms.

I noticed a new birdhouse, but no occupants yet. I will pop back here in a few weeks and see if it is occupied.

Suddenly it was déjà vu as a dark cloud was trying the monopolize the sky which had been blue with cottony clouds, just a few minutes earlier. Should I stay or should I go? I remember the last time I lingered too long here and got caught in a downpour. At least it had been warm that day – it was cold and rain was definitely not welcome. A sprinkling of colorful flowers to liven up the landscape was nice … a sprinkling of rain not so much!

I had toted along some peanuts and seeds, intending to make the Park my last stop, but the sky looked more ominous by the minute, so weenie that I am, I headed home.

“Wildlife” is definitely scarce when you opt for a walk in the ‘hood. If you’re lucky, you’ll hear a woodpecker drilling into a tree, but on this day, it was a sullen-looking American Robin posing near a tree.

I glanced upward, hopeful to see a nest I could monitor for chicks going forward, but nothing was there … yet. Robins like to build their nests in inopportune places sometimes, like the bend of a homeowner’s coach lights, or where the gutters and downspout meet as it provides the opportunity for a nest away from the drizzle, warm and dry to raise their chicks.

It wasn’t the most-stimulating, nor picture-laden walk I’ve ever taken, but it would suffice to get some flower photos before Mother Nature waved her Winter-like wand once again.

Terri’s Sunday Stills Challenge this week is: “Bicycles and Biking (May is National Bike Month)” I will be linking this post to Terri’s “Flower Hour” and Pepper’s “One Step at a Time” later in the week.

Posted in Flowers, nature, Spring, walk, walking | Tagged #Flower Hour Photo Challenge, #One step at a time, nature, Spring, walk, walking | 63 Comments

Spring Beauties! #Wordless Wednesday #The flowers are Spring Beauties a/k/a Fairy Spud or Miner’s Lettuce

Posted on May 27, 2026 by Linda Schaub

Wordless Wednesday – allow your photo(s) to tell the story.

Posted in #WildlifeWednesday, #Wordless Wednesday, nature | Tagged #WildlifeWednesday, #Wordless Wednesday, Flowers, nature, Squirrels | 41 Comments

Honoring our centuries-old war dead.

Posted on May 24, 2026 by Linda Schaub

Memorial Day is the time to honor the country’s war dead, so why not do a little time traveling and go way back, like 165+ years?

I am always trying to think ahead when it comes to my blog posts and that’s not just because I don’t want to run out of blog fodder. I admit that it’s been a while since I posted about a walk taken the same day.

In today’s post, my meander happened in the aftermath of Memorial Day 2025 – you will see a compilation of photos taken on Tuesday, May 27^th. The venue for this short walk was a very old cemetery in Trenton, Michigan called The Old Burial Ground and it followed a lengthier walk taken earlier at beautiful Elizabeth Park, which is just around the corner.

I’ve blogged about two different cemeteries in the Downriver area in the past, The Old Burial Ground and Oakwood Cemetery. Today I will focus primarily on The Old Burial Ground.

But first, a little backstory about this day ….

It was a gorgeous Spring day and tripping around a vintage cemetery was not on my agenda at all. I had spent a delightful morning at nearby Elizabeth Park where I went to photograph goslings, which are always plentiful in Spring. That day the goslings were so plentiful that as I walked along Elizabeth Drive, the only street on this island park, I practically needed a wide-angle lens to capture them all, as a gaggle of goslings ganged up on me, the eager photographer, happy to click away as this feathered barricade of young geese, most which were already in their teenager phase, came charging toward me. Click here if you missed that fun post which I aptly entitled “Gosling-palooza”. 🙂

I continued on my walk and, despite having taken a ton of shots of the geese, I was greedy as I still wanted more photo ops. I hoped to have another meet-up with some singing frogs like those I encountered the prior Spring following multiple days of torrential rain that converted low-lying areas in Elizabeth Park into makeshift swamps.

Well, I was striking out for sure: there were zero tiny, lemon-colored goslings and zero singing frogs to be found. Sadly, I couldn’t even scare up a seagull along the Boardwalk, nor were there feisty, quacking Mallards in the park’s canal, as the females were likely sitting on nests, hidden from humans and/or predators and their mates were not straying far from them. It was just too quiet to be honest. So, after strolling the Boardwalk, instead of heading to the car, I turned the corner and headed toward the cemetery, of course, an even quieter venue!

Hmm – it wasn’t Halloween, but this girl was feeling ghoulish.

This is the historical marker at the entrance of the cemetery which gives you a brief history of The Old Burial Ground.

As soon as I passed through the wrought-iron gates, which are always left open in daylight hours …

… I noticed many of the gravestones had flags placed near them. Trenton had just had their Memorial Day parade on the Saturday before Memorial Day. The parade route traveled down West Road, near The Old Burial Ground, but not along West Jefferson at 5^th Street where the cemetery is located.

When I got online later that day, I learned that local veterans’ organizations and volunteers like the Boy Scouts had placed those flags around each veteran’s gravesite.

These are some of the gravesites with the flags.

I wonder if Caroline was a veteran? Was the flag holder misplaced somehow? Maybe Caroline was a dog that had a significant role in the Civil War? Lots of questions – but no answers from Google, the City’s historical site, or the Find-A-Grave site.

Yep, the crow and the raggedy tree were a bonus for this shot of the old headstones.

Although this veteran’s name is illegible, the emblem with a star on the flag holder denotes that the decedent, like many of the others, was in the Grand Army of the Republic for the Civil War.

This headstone and flag mark another Civil War veteran, Robert Clark, who lived from 1838-1882.

This is the final resting place for George Dart, birth and death dates unknown.

I was unable to determine this person’s name or date of birth/death.

There is no rhyme or reason as to how this cemetery is laid out, i.e. I don’t see families grouped together or veterans grouped together. Most of the deaths memorialized in the 44 grave markers were from the mid-1800s, with the earliest death date of 1849. This is the final resting place for Civil War veterans that not only perished in that conflict which lasted from April 12, 1861 until May 26, 1865, but passed away years later. It is possible that other veterans, not related to that four-year war, are buried here as well, since the inscriptions are difficult to read and gravestones have cracked and crumbled through the years.

Interestingly, Messrs. Kenneth and Fred Handley, whose deaths were in 1978 and 1984 respectively and likely were brothers, are the only burials in the 1900s. I couldn’t find obituary info for either of them. There are no burials after the Handleys.

Trenton’s early settlers and notable folks, like the City’s first doctor, are also buried here. These shots are mostly headstones because most of the flat grave markers were in very bad shape; some of the headstones were at such a precarious angle, I had to tilt to one side to take the photo. I won’t include all of the headstones, just a few.

There was one child who was William Dearborn “Little Willie” Alvord (1853-1855).

This was Libbie M. Dearborn (1836-1851), another person that did not have longevity in their favor.

I was interested that the word “sleeps” rather than “rests” is on this headstone. Emma was just 26 years old when she passed away in 1854.

This headstone was quite tilted and unfortunately, although I see “Mary Ida” I was unable to find out more info.

Speaking of tilted ….

Here’s the last gravestone, Mr. William Pardington who was born in Gloucestershire, England and died in Trenton, 64 years later in 1869.

I’ve visited here three or four times through the years, but I’ve never spoken to another soul while there. The cemetery is maintained by the City of Trenton.

After taking many photos during my meander at The Old Burial Ground, I decided to pop over to another vintage cemetery to see the display of flags for their war veterans. As I drove those six miles to Oakwood Cemetery in Wyandotte I hoped the pretty pink roses that were rambling along the cemetery’s black, wrought-iron fence at my last visit would be in bloom, but, as I neared the venue, my plan for a Civil War era-only veterans’ graves post, just like my car, came to an abrupt halt as there was construction going on and heavy earth-moving machinery blocked the entire street where the cemetery is located, so I was unable to get near.

But I’ll give you a brief history of that unique cemetery and share my last post from there taken in 2018, so you can take a peek at this unique venue, just click here.

When I searched for that post, I saw I visited in early June, so there were a few flags placed at the veteran’s respective gravesites – here is a photo from that post.

Oakwood Cemetery, a/k/a “Old City Cemetery” is located along the Detroit River and, as mentioned, just like the Old Burial Ground, it is the final resting place for many Civil War veterans as well as other veterans. There are 45 Civil War veterans buried here. One veteran named John Clark died February 22, 1827. Clark, a captain in the New York Militia, fought and was wounded in the War of 1812. It is John Clark’s family that established this cemetery back in 1869.

It is not just veterans buried here. In fact, this is the final resting place for around 1,800 people, including local dignitaries like mayors and state legislators, victims of historical epidemics such as consumption/TB, early settlers from the town of Wyandotte and even the seamstress for Henry Ford is buried here.

But here is where these two cemeteries differ. Unlike The Old Burial Ground, Oakwood Cemetery is maintained solely by Wyandotte Historical Society volunteers that work hard to preserve the dignity and once-beautiful grounds of this over-200-year-old cemetery. They routinely gather to do yardwork, as well as scrub the headstones to preserve them, even when, in some cases, the decedents’ names are barely legible.

It was not my usual type of stroll that was taken on May 27, 2025. The day was varied, from the peacefulness of Elizabeth Park to the loud gaggle of goslings, to the subdued nature of the Old Burial Ground.

Memorial Day is tomorrow and I hope you are having a safe Memorial Day weekend as we all remember the reason for this somber holiday.

Terri’s Sunday Stills Challenge this week is “Babies!” (Animals, Birds, Humans). I’ll have my Council Point Park goslings to share with you in June. Instead, I’ll be linking to “Flower Hour” and “One Step at a Time” later this week.