From the sublime to the ridiculous: K's for ABC Wednesday

When I kicked around K words in my mind, it was places and products that came first. 

Kalamazoo, the city and county I worked in for thirty years, the river that runs through it, and the song, I’ve Got a Gal in Kalamazoo, plus two colleges (Kalamazoo and Kalamazoo Valley Community College).   

But then breakfast foods from Kellogg’s and Special K commercials crept in, all from the county next door, Calhoun (which starts with the sound if not the letter K).   Oh, and of course the K car from Chrysler

Then from further a field came Kickapoo, a Native American people who once migrated through this area, and a word that I probably first heard as a kid from Al Capp’s cartoon strip, Lil Abner -- Kickapoo Joy Juice was the home brew of Dogpatch, (see all the details at http://www.lil-abner.com/).   

But to find my daily photo, I needed a K.  When I looked over to the fireplace mantel, I found Kannon and Krishna for you.  

Did other English speakers have my problem:  the cascade of C words that intruded on the thinking about K?  Is there really a difference between the hard C of California and the K of Kansas?   Why the two different spellings?!  Do we know a librarian who could help? 

OK, no more kidding around.  Before you kick back and enjoy all the contributions to K-day, my you find the key to your own!  And then visit ABC Wednesday!

Morning Glory

In the garden in the last month the morning glories moved over to embrace the Buddha.  If I had an aura, I would hope it is this color!

a little history on a Monday morning

This will be a wordy photo blog today!  This historical sign is in the park on two of our rivers, the Rocky and the St. Joe.  It is the Rocky you see in the background.  Not mentioned here but just a block away is a very small historical plaque high on the wall of a building that commemorates the founding of Jesuit Mission here in 170l.  The Indians that LaSalle encountered might have included the Miami and the Potawatomi.  

It was the Potawatomi who were removed from this area of southwest Michigan in the 1830's although the Polkagon Band stayed.  They were Roman Catholic and acculturated because of the St. Joseph mission and were protected from removal by treaty. Their name derives from Chief Simon Pokagon, a famous Native American lecturer during the 1850s.  Refused tribal status under the Indian Reorganization Act (1934), their long struggle to gain federal recognition finally succeeded in 1994. With tribal offices located in Dowagiac, Michigan, the Pokagon are in the process of reacquiring a land base.  Their casino in New Buffalo, Four Winds, opened in 2007.

Mighty Mac in the early morning

Well, not all that early!  It is about twenty minutes to seven and we have spent the night at the Straits View Motel on US 2 in St. Ignace, Michigan.  I tried to capture the bridge last night but without a tripod (what kind of real photographer am I, anyway?!) I just have photos of squiggly lights.  Trying again before we abandon Lake Michigan and head for Lake Superior gives us this early morning view of the Mighty Mac.
Enjoy many more bridges at Louis LaVache's Sunday Bridges.

OK, now what?!

This is Abbey Rose, named for the Abbey down the road where she was abandoned one wintry day almost 10 years ago.  The day after we returned from up north, she would not come down from this eight-foot high fence.   In fact she jumped from the fence onto the roof of the house where she then spent the night, despite our best efforts to lure her off and stop the mournful meowing. 

Anthropomorphizing her plight, I arrived at three possible reasons for her roof sitting.  Had she caught wind of the fact that Willow keeps making the blog and she has never been so honored?  Or, despite daily visits by our good neighbor, was she simply seeking lots of attention after having been left home alone for a week?  Or was she registering outrage that "that dog" came back?

She is a truly beautiful calico with eyes of different colors, one blue, one green.  And she is a cuddler who has the least contentious relationship with Willow, "that dog" who has interrupted the ten-year reign of her kitty kingdom.