Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be, across the nation and across the world. It is just past 11:00 p.m. in "The City."

We have two weather alerts to report. The first is for a Frost Advisory that goes into effect @ 1:00 a.m. tomorrow and lasts until 9:00 a.m. tomorrow morning, for portions of central, south-central, southwest, and west-central Michigan. There is danger of freezing for sensitive plants, but we have our vegetable plants safely ensconced in our mud-room.

The second advisory, is a Small Craft Advisory from St. Joseph to Manistee that is in effect until 8:00 a.m. tomorrow. Wind speeds of 10 - 20 knots with possible gusts to 25 knots may propel waves from two to five feet in height. 

Our current temperature is 49°, but it feels like 46° with winds out of the north @ eight mph. The sun will rise tomorrow @ 6:27 a.m. and set tomorrow evening @ 8:55 p.m.

Baseball news was mixed, at best. The 17 - 17 Cubs with RHP Kyle Hendricks on the mound, fell to the 14 - 19 Pirates yesterday afternoon, 5 - 6. Hendricks feels he threw some good pitches, but the ball just fell in where it wasn't supposed to land. Gee, do you think that the job of a pitcher is to get the other team to hit it where his team can make a play? The Cubs are off until they face the 18 - 14 Indians in Cleveland @ 6:10 p.m. EDT when RHP Adbert Alzolay 1 - 2, throws the first pitch.

The 10 - 24 Tigers game against the 12 - 20 Twins was rained out yesterday and will be played in August. The Tigers await the arrival of the 16 - 17 Royals to Comerica park for a game Tuesday night @ 7:10 p.m. No pitcher has been named as of this writing. 

Today was supposed to be a day of relaxation and mostly it was. We walked to the library with STWD and then to the UPS drop off box with Ginger, before we set out for a photo-op in the Tri-Cities area.

I took a lot of pictures, first @ PJ. Hoffmaster State Park, and later, @ Black Lake Park, part of the park system belonging to the city of Norton Shores, MI. 

Michigan has some fine State parks.

P. J. Hoffmaster State Park is on the shores of lake Michigan.

Leading down to the lake is this paved path. 

But some places on the fragile dunes are clearly marked, not a designated trail.

If I was choosing a screen saver, I'd have to consider this picture.

Just a nice shot of the "Big Lake."

And the sky and clouds overhead.

On to a hidden gem, Black Lake Park.

With walkable paths.

Wildflowers. 

Swans aplenty.

Blue skies with wispy clouds.

Wild Strawberries.

Pristine waters.

And more blue skies.

All in all, we had a great afternoon after we had walked and fed the fur-children. 

Tomorrow we hope to do even less, as the temperatures fall into the lower 50° range. That's okay, as we have plenty to do around the manse. There is always music to play, reading to be done, kitchen activities, and of course, general chores that seem to always be part and parcel to owing a house. Ciao.