Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be, across the nation and across the world. It is just past 11:30 p.m. in "The City" where the current temperature is 70° under clear-skies and it feels like70° with only a four mph wind out of the west. Tomorrow's high-temperature will reach 79° under sunny skies with an overnight low of 67°. The sun will rise @ 6:21 a.m. and set later @ 9:20 p.m. Yes my friends, the days are once again getting shorter. 

We went on a ride about today after a short walk with our fur-children. It was a warm one today, so STWD had about two to three blocks in her and she was spent for the afternoon. We believe that it is less important for Sugar to walk long-distances than it is for her to get out and smell whatever she can find. Ginger could have kept going, but we had some errands to run, so she was left at home when we went out today.

Our first stop was at the auxiliary gardens where we discovered that in our absence, summer squash had formed, peppers, cabbage, collard greens and marigolds were growing, and the cucumbers were doing their best to grow up big and strong. We watered some and we were off to our next stop.

It turns out, that the Village Baker in Spring Lake was closed for the day, but that gave us more time to find some photo shooting sites. I am still loving my 75mm to 300mm telephoto lens, especially when I engage the feature on my Olympus 4/3 digital camera that effectively doubles the focal length of that lens. Here are some shots of various things and places in Spring Lake and here in GH.

Just a few small boats were sailing on this part of Spring Lake.

Including this pontoon boat. I didn't notice the gulls sitting on the dock in the foreground.

Very calm and serene as seen from the east side of Spring Lake.

An old silo on a road in Spring Lake.

That is part of this dilapidated barn.

One of the trestles belonging to the RSTL adjacent to Harbor Island in GH.

The swinging bridge in its normally open position across the Grand River. 

I'm not sure why there are canoes stored here.

Old used RR ties rarely get hauled away, they just get put to the side of the tracks

This man was a train spotter walking the bridge as we left.

All in all, a very pleasurable photo-safari. 

Baseball news today/tonight was not very good. The Cubs tried to stage yet another come from behind win over the generally hapless D'Backs, but the Cubs came up short, 4 - 6. The Cubs are in St. Louis to take on the Cardinals tomorrow night when Alec Mills makes the start @ 8:15 p.m. EDT.

My beloved Red Sox were totally outclassed earlier in NYC by the Yankees, 1 - 9. The Sox still have a firm hold on 1st place in the AL East, but they did not look good versus the Bronx Bombers. The Sox move on to face the Blue Jays tomorrow night @ 7:07 p.m. when Nick Pivetta makes his next start for the beloved. 

The Tigers swept the Twins yesterday afternoon with a 7 - 0 win. A good series for a rebuilding team that is now 43 - 51. The Tigers are home tomorrow night to face the TX Rangers @ 7 :10 p.m. when Casey Mize toes the rubber for the Tigers. 

The Caps were also outplayed yesterday, in their case by the Ft. Wayne TinCaps as the Caps fell to the TinCaps yesterday, 2 - 9. The Caps are off tomorrow before they welcome the Lansing Lug Nuts to the West Michigan Credit Union Ballpark for a Tuesday night game that begins @ 7:05 p.m.

We also did some reading, some crossword solving, and some cooking today that included a vegan meatloaf that was very tasty addition to our dinner and which is a definite keeper. Last night, Mary was busy in the kitchen, making ranch dressing and a rice salad. 

Oh, I watched out the WW as MMRR locomotives 2170 and 21019 passed by on the aforementioned RSTL heading south, towing 10 CGCs.

Tomorrow, I hope to get back to some of the painting I have been working on. I didn't like my efforts at first, but upon further review, I think things are progressing well. Ciao.