April 14, 2023–This was as Michigan-y a stretch of weather contrasts as I can remember. On Friday night, I spent the night sleeping outside under the stars at a friend’s property adjacent to the park. My brother was with me, and we talked the night away and headed to sleep just as the moon began to rise over the dark wind-blown shapes of white pines. As I prepped my bedroll, I was shivering, so I slept in everything I was wearing even though I was in a heavy sleeping bag with a big thick wool blanket overtop. We both woke to a light snow that kept falling til a thick inch of white was covering our bedroll when the sun rose. That next night, Hawthorn invited friends over and the peace and solitude of my previous night was contrasted by a horror movie and screaming teenagers. I sat out on the patio in the darkness for a bit of a respite. The first peepers of the year croaked out from the mud and reeds to give me a needed dose of nature. I could feel a spring warmth in the air, so different from the night before. The warmth has continued. My hikes with Sonny have shortened as this week has turned unseasonably warm. On Monday, we leisurely walked the edge of old fields and admired the beauty of old fence lines running between woodland and farmland. Sonny laid in a few remaining snow drifts hiding from the sun’s hot rays. On Tuesday’s hike, he ate the wet sloppy bits of snow knowing it would be the last he would see for a long time. Our Swiss Mountain dog is ready to hibernate into the air conditioning much earlier this year if this heat keeps up. But of course, it’s Michigan, so Sonny needn’t worry too much.
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