Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be, across the nation and across the world. It is just past 5:00 a.m. in "The City."

The current temperature is 32° under cloudy skies. Today's high is forecast to reach 36°, also under cloudy skies with a 40% chance for snow-showers in the afternoon. So, in spite of the balmy temperatures yesterday, today's high temperature will be much lower. The sun will rise today @ 8:08 a.m. and set later @ 5:010 p.m.

Another Small Craft Advisory will be in effect from 4:00 p.m. today until 11:00 a.m. tomorrow. Winds will be increasing out of the east this morning into the 20 knot range. Conditions should give pause to small craft and inexperienced mariners.

We had a great day yesterday. We got up early, at least for us and had a light breakfast after I returned from my walk with STWD. Neither of us go as far or as fast as we used to, owing to our respective ages. But, we eventually get where we are going.

Since our plans called for us to go to Newaygo and visit Mary's favorite yarn store, The New Ewe, to pick up this year's Stuff My Stocking bounty, we dropped Ginger off at daycare and allowed STWD to have the house all to herself..

I told the folks at The New Ewe that I'd give them a shout-out in my blog, so I'll include a few pix I took of the shop and the bags for their Stuff My Stocking program. Mary likes this shop a lot as do I, as the people are very friendly and the store just feels comfortable, even to the men who are along for the ride.

This year, it seemed like there were more bags.

I believe this was Jody, as she was pulling bags for several lucky knitters who had stopped by.

The shop is tucked nicely between the older buildings in the City of Newaygo.

An easy to see and eye-catching sign on the main street through Newaygo.

Since I was there with my camera, along with pix of I took of the shop, I took a lot of pix of the surroundings. Naturally, those shots included some industrial scenes.

The last time we were in Newaygo, this old building was being restored and it is still a work in progress.

I believe that this is a grain elevator located behind The New Ewe and across the railroad tracks.

Using my telephot lens, I took this shot of the city's holiday display from in front of the The New Ewe.

A closer shot as we headed towards home.

I'd be remiss if I didn't add some shots of things that caught my eye, so here they are in no particular order.

Yes, it was.

I like how this looked as I took this shot up the stairs.

Just because.

As we headed towards home, we meandered the back-roads rather than the highways and byways. Mary was driving, so I was able to shoot out the windows and jump out when possible to get additional shots.

Trains are always an inviting shot, even wooden ones.

Newaygo is situated along another branch of the MMRR that passes through our fair city.

These horses and mules are used for kid's rides on the farm that is home to the apples I use for pies.

Since the train was parked and idling, Mary was willing to stop on the tracks and let me take this pic out the side window.

One of the towns that we pass through going to and from Newaygo is Grant, where I asked Mary to pull over and let me take pics of this old, but still in use facility.

Time was passing quickly, so we motored towards home and I took more pix of our surroundings, including these of an old barn somewhere in Newaygo County..

We were getting close to home, so I took some pix of the high waters of Spring Lake, from which the Village of Spring Lake got its name after it was changed from Mill Point many years ago.

Yes Virginia, the docks are underwater too.

Reports indicate that this will be the future of lake levels for a while.

I think I've been here too long, so I'll close out by saying that our day was full, our time was well spent, and that means that today's light schedule suits me just fine. Ciao.