Mulliken 48861

Another photo from last Saturday's little Mulliken walkabout. The view from the south end of Potter Street.

Our neighbors' fence got all dolled up for the holidays. Camera: SR-T 101

That's the edge of Hoytville, Michigan, shot from the end of our road in Mulliken.

It continues to snow around here, but this is another pic of old snow. New Year's Day, 1992. Houses on M-43. I was standing about where they've built the new Mulliken Meadows houses when I pressed the shutter release. Things would look about like this, today, if the intervening landscape hadn't changed.... A lousy scan from a fast-film negative; not the fault of the Chinon camera. Got the atmosphere right, anyway.....

The house at the end of our street. Camera: Minolta SR-T 101

Down the block; until they built Mulliken Meadows, this was the next house south from mine. When I moved to town these trees were newly planted, and quite spindly. They've grown quite a bit. Camera: Minolta SR-T 101.

The porches of Mulliken.... One of the things I found attractive about Mulliken when I was house shopping was the large number of children living in the town at the time. On the day I moved into my house, the first person to stop by was a dark-haired, lanky youngster on a bike. She said hi, asked my name, then asked if I had any kids. I said no. She frowned; said she was hoping I'd brought some new playmates for her. But we could be friends anyway. I asked her name; she said "Delilah" as though it had three quite separate words. Delilah took ill a couple years later and was thereafter confined to a wheel chair; this porch was rebuilt to accommodate her. One of the interesting things was how her playmates (really, there was no shortage of 'em) accommodated her handicap: Basically, they ignored it. Sometimes they'd just sit by the road and talk, or play games; more often they'd do something active. If she could keep up, that was fine; if not, someone would push the chair for her, and everyone would just keep playing. Worked for her; worked for all of 'em. I confess to surprise, and delight. =============================== Everyone grew up, and most of 'em have moved away. Seventeen years later, there's a new generation of youngsters in the neighborhood, and I'm enjoying watching them.

When we got home from West Virginia, we found these guys all lined up in our yard.... Update 5/27/05: A couple months ago they moved to the yards of their respective houses--obviously there's been a policy change. Can't say I miss 'em.

One of those pictures.... My vehicles, the rose of sharon, our past-their-prime daylilies, and the unfinished house across Brittney Lane. Oh, yes; there's that iris peeking around the corner, too. I really don't know whether I like this pic; there are interesting elements, but it's such a sloppy critter.

This is what Christmas looks like in the mind's eye.

June 8, 2003. The weather service called it a tornado, and who am I to argue? I wasn't here. Joan and I had gone shopping after work, and returned home into a nasty storm. Found all our Potter Street neighbors out and about, and remnants of trees in the street. And in our yard. This is most of an apple tree. No one was seriously hurt (one neighbor was a bit bruised), and no buildings had significant damage (our garage lost a little siding). But Joan and I lost three trees--this apple, two maples--and the storm took the tops off some larger trees down the road. Earlier in the day we'd been admiring our maples; I'd planted them shortly after I bought the house, and they were finally becoming serious trees. A couple notes: We have three apple trees in the yard, except when we have two; it turns out that every year we have to replace a tree. Besides the twister, we've lost them to disease, an errant lawn mower, and other odd causes. This year's loss was to a very hungry rabbit.... Our cat, Taffy, used to enjoy thunderstorms. Since this one, she hides in the basement.

What I was trying to do, here, was capture the way the snow had drifted into the sidewalk. I didn't fully succeed, as it's hard to manufacture contrast when there's no light and little color. It's been a fairly mild winter around here. There was some unexpected snow in late October, then a long stretch of above-average temperatures. Mid-January brought us the ice storm , then enough snow to turn everything white. February's been fairly seriously cold, with occasional snow. But the total snowfall's only been a few inches. A mild winter.

Our neighbor's grandkid.

Mike, our next-door neighbor for the past sixteen years, passed away last weekend. Until the cancer got out of control, he was always out puttering in the yard, or in his garage workshop. A fine neighbor; we'll miss him. Say a prayer for Theresa and the rest of the family.

We spent 2002 in a construction project, as the developer built Brittney Lane beside our house and prepared to develop Mulliken Meadows in the field behind our place. One mid-summer day I took this photo of a power shovel digging across the field. This view is now very different--a twister got the trees last summer, there's now a house just beyond the lilac hedge, and there's a nearly completed new house about where the digger was working that day.

Fourteen years ago today. One of my favorite photographs, even though it didn't scan very well. Mulliken, on Potter Street; across the road and a couple lots down from mine. For thirty years or so this was the "last house" in town, at least on Potter; then my neighbors and I came along and built (mine was moved) houses to expand the town. Couldn't reproduce this view today; too much has changed. Camera: Minolta Freedom 100

I like everything about this garage--the color, the shake-shingle roof, the trellises, the roses. Very nice.