there' no place like home!

There’s no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home! The beauty of traveling makes me really appreciate my home. I love traveling but I love coming home. We just got home from a trip to Ontario Canada and southeastern Michigan.
We traveled to Sarnia, Canada because my baby brother Tommy (age 37-gads how can that be?) was getting hitched! -To a Canadian! Wow! What an adventure! I went early to Wisconsin to hang with my mom for a couple of days and then took the train with her to Port Huron. I love trains! Good for knitting. The seats seem wider than airplane seats. The boys joined us later in sarnia. This is the first time I have ever been out of the country. Even though sarnia is 5 minutes over the michigan border. - they really do say “eeh” a lot! And instead of saying out and about they say “oot and aboot”-I loved it! and how cool to be by the great lakes. here's the bridge from michigan over to canada:

For friends who have wondered---yes, I found a dress! (that I even liked it-and will wear again!)-the wedding was a catholic formal!!-I’m the most informal person you’ll ever meet-and I knew my family was worried that I would wear my funky old combat boots-I love my boots! But I was very “appropriate.” My mom even liked my dress-whew!
The wedding went smoothly-relatively. We were responsible for getting the groom to the church on time!!! Well-as we were all dressing for the occasion the boys locked the keys in the trunk of the rental car! Some clothing was still in the trunk and we needed to get Tommy to the church! Thank the goddess we have AAA. -It works in Canada-yeeha! Only it’s called CAA. I explained what was happening and they were on it! THEY PUT OTHER CALLS ASIDE AND PUT US “PRIORITY”. -They rock! AAA has saved my ass plenty of times-well worth the yearly fee! The young man arrived and saved the day! -Much hugging was had!

I finished dressing and realized-I was stressing big time-and was thinking “my natural deodorant just wasn’t gonna cut it today”-I needed some main stream deodorant “BOMB” to make it thru this day. I looked everywhere around Tommy’s apartment-no luck-wait-I saw a roll-on next to his bed. I slathered it on. -holy crap! My pits were on fire! It was NOT deodorant-it was heavy-duty arthritis analgesic roll on- pain relief! Some kind of “ ben-gay” from hell formula. There was no time for pit washing-gotta get to the church on time! Truth be known-sorry tom I was not crying at your wedding-my eyes were streaming from the fumes of my pits!!!! By the way-my pits were odor free-all day and night!

The reception had a hockey theme as the newly weds met on a detroit redwing hockey website. Aren't’ these cute-they were on everyone’s plates. Fun was had by all! it was so good to visit with family members i hadn't seen in forever! and meet nieces and nephews for the first time!
Our adventure continued on after the wedding-we then headed to s.e. Michigan to visit hubby’s family-family he also hadn't seen in forever. they live in amish country.

As all you fiber addicts know-I immediately found fibery stuff to do.
we went to a wonderful sheep farm that raised corredales and jacobs- mt. bruce station-was awesome! please check out their website.

Happy spoiled sheep and a fiber store to boot. meet "buddy" a guardian of the flock:

but there are some forces of nature that this big boy can't handle. there was one ram that wasn't so fortunate:

They were very nice folks-they opened the wool shop for us and gave us a farm tour even though they were closed. check out the brick barn! it was cleanest barn i had ever seen!! they must have some secret high powered farm vaccuum that would would wonders in my home!

wouldn't you kill for this dye cottage:

The wool shop not limited to yarn and roving-they had local artisan handmade wool items, wool quilting batts, wool stuffed pillows, slippers, sheep skins felting kits etc. very cool. I bought some moorit corredale roving to spin. Mmmmmmm! well-they did open especially for me-so i HAD to buy something-right?
We met a very interesting neighbor to the farm as we drove down the road-the sigh read “chestnut hollow” and there were antiques everywhere. Right up liam’s alley.

we bought some chestnuts from the peculiar old lady and then did a bit of exploring. her son(much to the old lady's chagrin)opened a door to a treasure trove of delights:

yes, liam was beside himself!-the son did give liam a glass insulator-yes, my son collects these-he was very happy indeed. now her property had so many interesting things lying about it was easy to miss some of their collectibles. as we were leaving-this caught our eyes:

i did say she was peculiar-ha!

we then ventured on down the road to seven ponds-a nature center with awesome trails thru the wet lands. we hiked a trail that i thought was just beautiful-showing the boys the different kind of beauty of the michigan landscape.

as a young lad carey(our older boy) was plagued with major hemorrhaging nose bleeds. he has not had a major one in along time. well, low and behold while on the trail-the unexpected happens. we all left our packs in the car-with tissue. his nose was gushing!!! blood everywhere. got the visuals? well-dried leaves weren't working-i just happened to have a menstrual pad(unused) in my coat pocket-well, i'll spare you the actual visuals of a almost 16 year old with a menstral pad plastered to his face-my god! we can laugh at it now!!! the boys did take many a still life photo of blood on dried leaves- for a future jacket cover for a murder mystery they intend to write.

back at the visitors center i was in heaven- not many people know this about me-in fact-no one does. i'm being brave here------i am a closeted lover of taxidermy! shhhhhh! i've been obsessed since i was a kid. now most animal lovers despise this art form-or is it craft? or just plain sick? but then i have never really fit into the norm. what a fine collection they had.mmmmmmm-and there's more:

okay okay-i'll stop here. they just fascinate me.

in a nut shell- we are home safe and sound. a big thank you to the neighbors who took care of my chickens and cats. i leave you with a wonderful picture of our two beautiful boys at lake huron.