Early Morning Cafe Style. . .

A bit chilly here in Mid-Michigan this morning (it's 6:59am currently), so out came the 15+ year old rugby top from Land's End, or L.L. Bean, made and sold when they were still quite heavy material. It's beginning to fray a bit around the cuffs, but otherwise the shirt continues to hold up well, albeit a bit faded in places.

The Young Master finishes school for the summer -- He'll be in the 8th Grade in the fall and nearing his 14th birthday! -- so my early morning forays out into the world away from home will come to an end for a few months until my own academic year cranks into gear once again in late August. But, lots of interesting, even fun stuff will be happening there in addition to the usual teaching duties.

In the meantime, however, we've got the summer ahead of us with a couple of trips planned for Northern Michigan later in June and July. The Young Master has a week of overnight summer camp coming up (a first), the Grand Duchess heads off to Germany for 10 days later this morning for a quick research trip, and her parents visit in August with yet another visit to the Upper Peninsula in store for wife/daughter, grandchild, and grandparents.

Yours truly, will sit that one out and enjoy a week of absolute peace and quite at Totleigh-in-the-Wold with the cats.

In any case, a full couple of months over and above the usual lawn and garden games, which I actually kind of enjoy. Who would have thought? But when things finally begin coming together outside, the results are worth all of the effort necessary each spring to get lawn, beds, and pots into shape.

-- Heinz-Ulrich

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Mid-June Thursday Style. . .

A nother pretty typical variation on the theme for late spring, summer, and very early fall. I'm a huge fan of Madras and have several such shirts in the seasonal rotation. Lightweight, exceedingly comfortable, and even dressy when pressed and tucked in, which is the usual way of things here at Totleigh in the Wold. Now, if I had my druthers, I'd still rather be skiing the trails in the upper half of "The Mitten" (of Michigan), in the Upper Peninsula, or Ontario. But summers ain't so bad either, and I'd look pretty funny walking around in cross-country ski attire during June. -- Heinz-Ulrich

A Lazy Saturday at the End of June. . .

A sleepy first half of the weekend here at Totleigh. Warmer and quite humid ahead of an approaching cool front here in Mid-Michigan. Perfect for yet another pair of chino shorts an a seersucker shirt -- tucked in of course -- with the usual leather deck shoes and ribbon belt. Otherwise, not much accomplished beyond a page or so of writing and monkeying around with audio settings for an upcoming podcast episode. However, I was not completely useless yesterday! I made a huge fruit salad for dinner, which the Grand Duchess and I enjoyed a short while later at the table on the back porch. The Young Master, as is his wont on Saturday evenings, took his dinner on a tray in the TV room upstairs where he whiled away a couple of hours on Flight Simulator, flying some sort of commercial airliner to some destination across the Atlantic or Pacific. I would have loved that sort of technology at about nine or 10 way back during the late 1970s, aka The Stone Age. As it is, my sister and

Up North Style. . .

Bad Dad makes a friend. YMP and Bad Dad on the shores of Lake Michigan. Or was that Crystal Lake? The Grand Duchess takes a selfie in her kayak. How NOT to impress the girls sunning themselves along the river. YMP and Bad Dad kayaking on the Platte River headed toward Loon Lake. J ust back from a week in Northern Michigan in a charming and spacious house on the banks of the Betsie River outside of Thompsonville. A largely pleasant seven days despite some challenging episodes with the Young Master, who has picked up some very questionable habits and language from his friends in the 8th Grade during the school year just ended. But otherwise, we enjoyed ourselves and contemplated remaining for a few days longer since the house was available. In the end, we decided to return home as planned originally since neither my wife, nor I wanted to spend the remaining days chained to our computers in Zoom meetings from our vacation destination. I actually managed to leave the laptop and ip

Classic Style

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