AS WE MOVE INTO OCTOBER, I really get my engines revved up for hearty seasonal soups after a summer break from making them. Cool mornings are the trigger for me. No question about it, October has delivered. I made Jenn Segal’s Turkey Chili recipe last week while my youngest son David was in town for a few days. We enjoyed it so much. We also treated ourselves to a pan of Jiffy’s new Hot Honey Cornbread; I’ve tried the Jiffy mix a couple of times. It is a perfect complement to

Potter & Potter Auctions I WAS REALLY INTO TOY GUNS as a youngster. I remember going to our local 5 & 10 department store (Kresge's) in Birmingham when I was eleven years old to buy a Winchester buffalo rifle set. It shot plastic bullets fifteen feet. It came with rolls of green caps that provided authentic sound effects (more of a snap) and ended with the lingering scent of spent gunpowder. Wow, how awesome that was! I had seen it advertised on TV and had to have one. My m

MY GIRLFRIEND AND I WERE DELIGHTED to come upon a farm in Leelanau County (Collins, est. 1877) halfway from Traverse City to Suttons Bay along Highway 633. It featured rows of newly harvested pumpkins in the front yard. Such a nice surprise! The setting reminded me of being a kid again. That feeling settled nicely with both of us as we dashed from the car with an energized step, in awe of the adventure we were on during this sunny but cool Sunday afternoon. We meandered throu

AS SUMMER GLIDES INTO SEPTEMBER, I can't help but think about all the fresh produce our area has to offer. Lately, I've been all about the fresh corn-on-the-cob you can find every day at the local roadside stands. What a delight and taste treat these ears of corn offer, but the story behind this amazing vegetable is equally tantalizing. At least I think it is, and after all, this is my dime. We are coming to the end of our fresh corn season. I’ve decided to borrow excerpts fr

I’VE HAD THE GOOD FORTUNE this past week to have read Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass, an enlightened environmental book for our twenty-first century. It calls for mindfulness in reversing pollution that has beset our country for over two centuries. Kimmerer was trained in the complex science of botany and environmental remediation. Still, her real contributions are expressed in the pages where she captures the unique importance of revering the gifts we share with

Image from BBC/Getty WHAT HAPPENED TO DAYTIME RUNNING LIGHTS on our automobiles? I estimate that 1/3 of the vehicles I encounter are dark during the day. I’ve become aware of this issue because I’ve developed wet AMD in my left eye, and it comes with consequences in driver safety - for all parties, I might add. I have trouble spotting moving vehicles in the shade, in foggy weather, and at dusk on our two-lane highways in NW Michigan. Vehicles with daytime running lights are

I THOUGHT I WOULD REMIND readers, and me, of the miracles up in the sky and on the ground - they are right in front of us every day. Kudos to our glorious sun and to the green plants that inhabit our planet. Photosynthesis is the process in which green plants use the energy from the sun to make their own food. Without it, there would be no animals. Plain and simple, we need the sun and green plants to support our existence. Yep, we’re in this together. Plants know how to ma

I REMEMBER GETTING MY FIRST set of Adirondack chairs in Illinois right after my first honeymoon. They were made of wood, finished with glossy white enamel, and featured striped cushions. They looked great in my yard and up on my porch. They were handcrafted and carried a hefty price tag. I lost one of them in my divorce. Yes, I ended with two chairs, the Adirondack and a blue-gray leather wing-back - half of my earthly possessions. That seemed important in my twenties. How cu

EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE, I'll pick up a book I read in high school. This week, I’m tackling The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, first published in 1951. I found it in large print (LP) at my local library with the help of an associate librarian. The larger font improves my reading enjoyment and has now become a necessity in my life. It is a classic “coming-of-age” novel. I read it in its entirety in high school. Well, I think I did. That might be a bit of a stretch. I might

THIS TITLE MAKES ME SMILE as it brings back memories I had with a house painter that my wife hired to paint the towering walls in our stairwell at our new home on Lamppost Lane. It was a project I passed on because it would require climbing very tall ladders. I had begun to avoid ladders after one slipped out from under me years earlier while I was cleaning leaves from gutters in my first house. I was lucky not to break several bones in my body. Both eyes remained in their

Porky Pig Looney Tunes I NEVER THOUGHT I’D MAKE IT past my seventy-fifth birthday. Here I am, heading to my seventy-seventh birthday in a little over a week. How nice is that! I have miraculously outlived chronologically my grandparents, who passed away in their sixties and early seventies when I was a young lad. Both my parents made it to their mid-80s, but they certainly took better care of themselves than I have. Even with a few complications this past year, which resulted

I NEVER ATE MUCH CABBAGE until recently. I can honestly state that I now use both red and green cabbage frequently in some of my favorite new dishes. My interest in “Let Food Be Thy Medicine” sparked my curiosity about trying cabbage in my diet as I began my journey toward healthier foods. Still, the revelation is how tasty it is in the recipes I have made using it. Casseroles, soups, and salads all benefit from its inclusion. That is a nice surprise. I’m now a total convert

I WROTE ABOUT PLANTS AND FLOWERS in my first book and acknowledged their contribution to my lifelong enjoyment of their rather impressive life cycles. As I have learned through observation, the predictable sequence of flowering deepens my awe of what plants bring to their space on planet Earth. The above photo is a close-up of the Korean Spice Viburnum that grows outside my front porch in Beulah. I planted it as a small shrub over fifteen years ago, mostly because of fond mem

SPRING ASPARAGUS IS SO WELCOMED. They are culinary stars and signify the beginning of our agricultural offerings in northern Michigan, especially appreciated after a lengthy winter and equally long spring. They are the region’s first crop, sprouting from our sandy loam soil. They are also in a virtual tie on the calendar with foraged morels found in our old orchards and woods. How fun. All this happens right in our backyard. The pleasure I experience savoring asparagus’s spec

An Early Attempt NEW RECIPES WITH FEWER INGREDIENTS have entered my culinary life. Cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, and Stevia have become the star ingredients in several desserts I’ve been working on. Initial recipes came my way through influencers in social media posts that pop up quite regularly on my e-devices. I’m fascinated because they are easy to make and have fewer calories than traditional desserts. Complexity is not welcome in my kitchen. I’m even trying a few microw

CREEPING MYRTLE IS A GROUND COVER that has always appealed to me. In early May, small light purple-blue flowers suddenly appear on thin stems between the waxy green leaves. Each flower has five petals that seem to smile up at you, announcing that spring has finally ​arrived. It is the leaves' evergreen nature and spreading growth habit that make them desirable in the right garden spot. In my youth, wooded neighborhood lots that were soon to be transformed into two-story house

MY PHOTO IS A NICE I-PHONE SHOT of two intriguing subjects that both brought back significant memories in my life. Neuman, the cat, is my friend Steve’s newest rescue, and the blooming forsythia branches I cut last week from my shrub at the side of my yard. The bright yellow flowers are spaced evenly along the branches and are certainly a sight to behold, especially after the long, snowy winter we experienced this year. It brought back memories of my mother clipping branches

I’M TAKING A LOOK AT a new endeavor in my writing, and this essay helps in summarizing the framework for this effort. I will be examining the use and importance of proverbs and idioms in our everyday language, and may expand this preview into my next book. Hang with me. We’ll get there. At this point, the essay is still a whirlwind of fragmented thoughts. I’m confident these “morning pages” will help me uncover the vast world of proverbs and idioms and show how useful and fun

SUCH A PLEASANT SURPRISE came my way this past Saturday. I was driving through Leelanau County with Nancy, enjoying the beautiful landscape on a sunny afternoon. The sun was working hard at melting the leftover snow, but there were still piles of it, reminding us of winter’s lengthy grip in northern Michigan. Nancy and I, who enjoy our wandering ways, decided to stop in at the Cedar Tavern for a bite and a beer. It had been years since my last visit, and I was surprised at a

THE PHOTO ABOVE shows a plastic jar of honey I purchased at Tom’s Market this week. Little did I know it would feature a very creative silicone valve that delivers a thin stream of golden sweet honey without creating a mess. If you use honey, you know those drips can end up just about anywhere. It has been an issue I've faced for years. My spouts and dippers usually drip, creating a mess that leaves sticky fingers and hands; the effects often persist for some period of time.