Sweet Summer in Sister Bay

TODAY!!! TODAY!!! TODAY!!!
While the calendar may not officially concur that this is the first day-of-summer. 
It is in my heart! Season of sunshine and sundowns!!
We are headed north to our heaven-on-earth haven. 


I think about daisies all year long and now we are headed up to my blue skies and all those white petals await me all over again! A new season of daisies!!! Daisies will be blooming soon in Door County, probably not upon our arrival, but they are coming. They're waiting. They beckon all year long. We're headed north!

It's been a big year of making my Author Illustrator school visits. I use summer to recharge my battery! It's my favorite thing!! Daisies and reflection. I reflect on all of those schools and all of those smiling faces. I consider how to make a larger impact. I learn something new about connecting my blog to the bigger world. 


MY FAVORITE THINGS!


Punctuating all of those SWEET SWEET daisies are the sundowns. A few glimmers from last season. The nightly show a block from our front door: Sister Bay Marina.... where the evening sailboat tour tacks back and forth for photographers delight. I LUV that we -- tourists and natives alike-- applaud when the sun goes 'plunk' below the horizon line. Brilliant kaleidoscope of color!!

We live 'just' behind the BIG tourist attraction-slash-restaurant known as 'Goats-on-the-Roof' Al Johnson's. Give me a call and I'll make a reservation for us!!

Beyond the goat watching and the daisies and the sundowns....... my other favorite pass-time is the stacking of rocks. Seriously. There are few things that are more soothing than sitting at water's edge and playing with rocks. Sister Bay and surrounding beaches are known for their lovely 'flat rocks.' I will know it's summer when I've made some lovely rock cairns. 

What does summer mean to you? I think of summer as the season for my ultimate creativity. I recharge my batteries in these amazing natural surroundings. Our peninsula is well known for its invitation to creative-types. There are galleries and festivals and Artist studios to tour. 


My favorite week of the summer is our Plein Air festival when 40 professional artists will descend by invitation bringing their tubes and sticks of color plus all of that talent to capture our surroundings. They are brilliant and share, instructing as they work. Can't wait!! They always help to fill-my-bucket!!

I've learned so much about blogging over the last year. There are actually people reading here these days and that's a huge thrill!!!!! I have all sorts of ideas about what to do with this creative season at hand. The challenge will be to F*O*C*U*S!!! I'm thrilled to have the time and opportunity to stretch my wings on new ideas percolating for the future. 

• At what point do you begin planning for the new school year?
• What agenda items do you have for your professional growth this summer? Reading? Conferences? 
• Do you have any exciting travel plans on the horizon? 
• Where do you get your inspiration for the year ahead?
• Are you interested in having an Author/Illustrator Skype session next year? 
• Which blogs are your favorite for summertime surfing? 

I wrote this post to join my blogging friends excited about the season at hand. All of us are eager to recharge and renew. Join the fun over at "Kindergarten Lifestyle." 

-- Debbie --

Linky Party Time!!

Just added this post of MY FAVORITE THINGS over to Mary's blog hop at "Sharing Kindergarten." 

Afternoon "Siesta"

Siesta time?

Beach-at-hand!

Polka-dots-in-sand!

Rocks for play!!

Oh what a day!!

Life sublime!

Garden Walk Pretties

Historic Society sponsors garden walk.

Happy people see pretty growing colors.

Hard work is made wonderful through the sharing.

Cycling Coach

YE GADS. Cyber-computer issues. Fourth time to attempt to post this critical entry. That only adds to the fact that I'm way behind in synchronizing our idyllic life with my blog.... I'm way behind, cuz we just keep packing so much into every day. So this is actually catching you up with earlier in the week. Monday to be exact. Allen took a day off of golf and volunteered to be my personal cycling coach. The question: "Could we find a route to Little Sister Bay that I could accomplish?" Off we went past the bison and then onto Q, nearly all the way into Ephraim. Hang a right at Townline Road, a quick hop on Route 42 and ride like the wind down the hill into the bay. After watching the boat sail past and building with my favorite rocks, it was time to trudge UP the hill, we'd just sailed down. We then decided we still needed our muffins over in Rowley's so across the peninsula we pedaled. The last pic is atop the highest crest on ZZ. All-in-all, just over 25 miles. I'm poised at 495 miles for the summer..... I was so tempted to go back out, but once I sat down I lost the steam necessary to pedal past the milestone.

Rock Cairns for the Cure

Back at "Pebble Beach" to build rock cairns, for this afternoon's art therapy. I'd forgotten how steep the beach is. The crystal clear blue water is the same. This year I've added my 'CURE' hat. I've continued to add to it's photo album on Facebook -- of the many images of my hat making the rounds of the Door. I'll have to see if I can mount a slideshow of all of the images at some point. Beyond my technical know-how at this minute.

Every pebble, a prayer.

Pebble Beach Cairns

Today's field trip took us on our farewell-motorcycle-ride to the very edge of town..... all the way out to Little Sister Road! [**Remember I have the 'original' now-antique, street sign by the same name in my studio.] Anyhow, it's a picture perfect, blue-sky, postcard-sorta day. We went to the public "pebble beach" and just had the most fun finding such incredibly happy rocks. Perfect circles. Triangles. Flat spheres. Golf ball rocks. Allen made a perfect exclamation mark from two 'perfect' rocks. We left our statue cairns for others to appreciate. I could have stayed and played all day. We have just over one day left for our northern playground hiatus. Yikes.