Tag: 2018

Posted on

winter’s Grand II … click to enlarge

…winter’s Grand II

Captured Space…no words can convey what this gigantic structure emotes when visiting the Grand Hotel alone.  Every February of every year for the past 30 I have visited this island treasure.  Twice the winds and snow kept us at bay…One of those times was this year. Twelve inches of snowfall and wind gusts of 40 mph kept us apart.  It is a puddle jump flight….maybe 3 minutes in the air but the rules are the rules.  If you can not see the island from the mainland, the island will not invite you in.
I have been mourning the loss of not having our visit this year. Standing alone on her 660′ veranda, listening to the winds wrap their arms around her….it often requires a toast of peach snoops to make sense of it all. During the summer months hundreds of thousands of people find their way here. Hustle and bustle surround. I experience none of that…just me, the Grand, and the wind.

…winter’s grand…
Mackinac Island USA 

Posted on

the “grand” view … click to enlarge


…the Grand view   For 30 years, each February we are pulled to an inspiring island in the fresh waters of Lake Michigan in North America.   There sits the grandest hotel ever built.  We cherish our time together. During the summer she is on America’s top attraction list.  During our stay: there is only her, the snow that blankets her body and the winds that challenge her soul.  We feel privileged. We feel honored. We are humbled.  We visit her in her most naked state and it is in this state that she is the most beautiful of all.

…the grand view…
Mackinac Island N.A. 

Posted on

…CedarCliffe summer’s end

Summer's End 2018

…CedarCliffe summer’s end

…CedarCliffe Summer’s End 2018  For many years our Labor Day weekend picnic was spent on Lake Huron beach with a few friends.  We would enjoy hot dogs and  marshmallows on a little campfire as we watched what always seemed to be the most beautiful sunset of the summer. Once the sun settled, our friends would begin to arrive for the traditional bonfire, celebrating our summer’s blessings and sharing goodbye hugs.  Each year as I intentionally burned my marshmallows, mesmerized by the intensity of color in the sky, these friends would always enter my mind: missing them. 
So finally: I invited everyone…
 Now: each Labor Day weekend on Sunday afternoon, CedarCliffe opens it doors.  The tables begin to arrive… the excitement charges the air… the potluck stations are prepared. We experience summer’s end…witnessing the most beautiful sunset of the year….together…the way it always should have been.
Summer’s End…

…CedarCliffe Summer’s End 
Bayfield N.A.

Posted on

gator in the park … click to enlarge

Gater in the Park 2018

.…gator in the park … Officially, this is called Pyramid Point. I beg to differ…  I see a gator in the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore Park.

…gator in the park
Pyramid Point N.A. 

Posted on

winter forest … click to enlarge

…winter forest It was a wet December day.  The snow was hanging on the trees as the wind glued its moist falling particles to anything that would hold them.  The sky had cast a blue surreal fog.  Leaving my car…I was met with a cold daunting winter embrace.

…winter forest
Great Lakes Region NA

Posted on

what was: what it all became.


North was completed late spring. We spent our first week enjoying what it all became in early July.

As fall turned into winter: winter into spring…and spring into summer… it became apparent that this space was a “tree house” in disguise.  Removing the dark wood and replacing it with a warm “cottage white” (walls & trim), there no longer was harshness surrounding the windows.  Your eyes became free to move outdoors and feel the strength of the mammoth surroundings of the National Park that enveloped you.

…with new cabinetry hardware and creating an island that seats six…the kitchen began to take on a new life of its own.  It began to invite you “in” rather than feel you would prefer to keep “out”.

The “Man Cave” …as described by the prior owner became our Library…It now acts as a third bedroom housing a sleeper-sofa.  I opened up the wall of a walk-in closet directly across the hall allowing easy access into the bathroom without going through the west bedroom. A fireplace will be added during phase II.
10-18 NOTH 09011292017 Leelanau 0686-19-18 001

The Utility Room was a 14’x12′ area of wasted space.  The furnace and hot water heater were lined up against one wall, the washer and dryer against another, with a huge central area serving no purpose in the middle.  I made this “larger” space into three smaller spaces.  A Utility Room that now houses only the furnace and hot water heater with storage space…a designated washer and dryer area…and a mudroom that leads directly to the garage.  This small change of space along with the changes spoken above have a huge impact on how the “total” space of this 2000 SF home can live.

….so having said all of that…my work is done…my story told.  Time to embrace all that has “become”. 

The End.

07.21.2018
Leelanau
Lake Michigan N.A.