Into the Wild Blue Yonder

Chelsea Martin, Chef Extraorinaire

Well, today is actually the second day in our (my friend Theresa Dearhamer and I) little whirlwind tour of the Northern Lower Peninsula and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We left the Detroit Area yesterday morning around 9:15 to head up to Dewitt so I could deliver a program on Viburnums sponsored by the Dewitt Millenium Garden Club, which was a great success, not least because of the delicious potluck lunch we had afterwards. (I have to say, I've seldom met a gardener who is no also an excellent cook!)

Having finished, we trundled over the Summertime Cement to visit with our friend, Chris Hopp of Farmbrook Designs to see new hypertufa projects and shoot the breeze before heading over to the home of our good friends, Gar and Gerry Martin, where we were fed an amazing meal of Green Bean Salad, Tomato and House-made (believe it!) Mozzarella Cheese Salad and Chicken and Pasta Bake prepared by Gar and Gerry's daughter/Chris's girlfriend, Chelsea Martin. (This was after she kept us going with homemade smoked salmon dip and cheddar cheese.) After catching up on new products and ideas after dinner, we spent a restful night with only the occasional solicitous visit from Sammy (the Cat).

This morning, after some discussion between Chris, Chelsea, Theresa and I regarding our route and additional destinations, we set out on the next leg of our journey: Crystal Gardens in Frankfort; The Secret Garden in Empire; Ruth Conklin Gallery and Forest Gallery in Glen Arbor; Michigan Artists Gallery in Sutton's Bay; and Artcenter Traverse City (actually located in Acme).

Ruth Saddow of Ruth Conklin Gallery

We made an impressively brief yet productive stop at Crystal Gardens to find some more cool rocks that Gar Martin could make into candleholders for me (Cheryl) and one that was just darned cool for Theresa, after I saw a similar piece at Chris's workshop yesterday afternoon. While checking things out at The Secret Garden, we ran into our good friend Joyce Janicki, who was so generous as to invite us to see her lovely vacation spot, where we also met two bunnies, her dog, her mouse, and several monarch butterfly larvae munching contentedly on Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca). We had an impressively efficient visit with Ruth Saddow of Ruth Conklin Gallery, not only dropping of lots of new daisies and Sunflowers, but LP Stepping Stones and luminaries for Chris Hopp/Farmbrook Designs. Beth at Forest Gallery loved our friend Melanie Boyle's (of Cleverlotus Designs) notecards - which are a perfect fit for the gallery's Arts and Crafts sensibilities.

Michigan Artists Gallery in Suttons Bay is
celebrating its 15 year Anniversary May 26, 2012!

We made a new fast friend in Sue Ann Round at Michigan Artists Gallery. Check out the upcoming Miniatures Show, opening this Saturday, with almost 500 unique works of art, all less than seven inches square and $150 in price. When we arrived, no less than four women were trying to figure out how to get the computer to print out specially-formated price tags. I was able to - sit down in the chair - and get the job done while Sue Ann brought out a delicious smorgasbord of fresh fruit, cheese, crackers, peanut butter, cookies and fresh water. Good thing we hadn't squeezed in lunch! While I worked away at the computer, Theresa shared my box of samples, with the result that you'll be seeing some of my work in Suttons Bay later this year. I'm going to send Sue Ann links for work by my friends Chris Hopp, Donald Schulte, Tim Hanks and Melanie Boyle - so maybe you'll see some of their creations as well!

Heading over to Traverse City, we ran into a snag when it turned out that the address for the Artcenter had not been updated on the web. Kathryn was good enough to stay late until we finally found the new location to drop off the two pieces juried in for the upcoming Art and the Garden exhibit, opening June 6 - it should be a great show so, if you can make it, be sure to check it out!

Whitney's of Charlevoix,
where Annie took very good care of us!

Finally, having met all of our business, social and technical obligations for the day, we headed to Whitney's of Charlevoix, recommended to us by friends/clients John and Dianne O'brien (friends of the owners) for some much-deserved down-time, assisted by glasses of wine (whine???), as well as an appetizer, dinner and dessert.

Here we are, now, in Petoskey's Holiday Inn Express. A come down? Perhaps - but we'll definitely get a great breakfast before we head on up to the UP tomorrow!

Stay tuned as our Northern Michigan adventure continues!