Yesterday, Inge and I went to Ann Arbor for our annual winter jaunt. It's an hour from my house by car.Don and I had just watched Thursday on the national news that Ann Arbor is the first U.S. city to use all LED lights in the traffic lights, street lights and walkway lights. You can read about LED technology here. The mayor of Ann Arbor said these new lights are like taking 400 cars off the road, that's how much energy they save. They "burn" cold, not hot.
But seeing the LED lights was not the primary reason Inge and I made the drive. It was time to visit our favorite bookstore, Crazy Wisdom, and browse around Ann Arbor.
We pulled books off the shelves and ransacked them.
We looked longingly at other merchandise in the bookstore, all so alluring.
We drank coffee and ate scones.
After the bookstore we wandered into shops, like 10,000 Villages, a fair trade store that's gotten too expensive. I wonder how much of a cut the craftspeople receive.
'Kindness does not go rotten.'
We ended the day at the Common Grill in Chelsea, where we had a delicious meal and exchanged Christmas gifts.
I ate shrimp and lobster on linguine in red pepper sauce. Inge ate veggie wraps. We toasted our friendship with our glasses of wine, mine red, hers white.
I am grateful for my dear friend and how she grows more precious to me as the days, months and years go by.
12 comments:
All of this, exactly as you explained it, is HEAVEN, Ruth! You know how I eat this up. Mom would,too, if she ever did this in her day, so I guess I really can say "the apple didn't fall fall from the tree." I was trying to figure out how that could mean you and me, as sisters, so I guess we're the apples side by side on the ground, having so gently fallen from the tree.
Thanks for sharing this delightful morsel of a day in your life right now. I miss you!
Boots, as time goes on, i'm more convinced that heaven is love. hell is no love.
There are books in heaven, what a joy. i remember Mom's stacks and stacks of books and Archeology Todays and now i understand. i see my own stacks, so many unfinished, and laugh.
Maybe we need to go to Ann Arbor next time you're here and visit this store, do the browse.
i miss you too, so much. How will i live without seeing you and Donica more months?
Dear friend,
Thank you for documenting our day together! This was our 4th pre-Christmas visit to AA, though it feels like it's been our tradition forever. :-)
I'm enjoying the poetry book I bought--glad I "broke down" and "gave in" to the temptation... Not that it took much... hehe
Enjoy your day.
LED lights are quite the phenomenon. a lot of lighting companies are using them more and more, and i love that they're replacing traffic lights. it's genius. you NEVER have to replace them (well you do but not for a very long time). so amazing. i think they use them in NYC? i'd have to check on that.
such beautiful photos. while i'm in the mich, i'm going to meet my friend Cheryl who lives in Ann Arbor. i think we're gonna try to spend the day there! if i can borrow one of your cars. :)
Ink, you got the book you showed me, with Billy Collins?
I'm very glad I got Greenspan's book too, even though it was so expensive. :|
I'm so glad for you, sweetie.
Lesley, my sweet girl, are you using LED lights in the new/old spaces you're designing? Dad says they're predicting to be totally converted in the US in 5 years!
Yes, of course you can use da Aveo, cutee, as much as you want. Maybe you should stop by Crazy Wisdom for a cuppa tea or coffee?
3 more days!! :D (well 4 including today)
What fun and totlaly relaxing day! As I can see from your faces in the last pic. :)
And the other stuff in the shop looks very pretty. Its strange though, how all these fair trade stores that open up with good intentions do end up becoming very expensive and the craftsmen receive the same end as before, atleast as I have seen in my experience. Perhaps some big company buys them out.
Mystic, maybe you're right about companies buying them out. I don't think it's my imagination, I remember this store being cheaper a few years back.
It would be fun to sit in this bookstore with you. :)
Sorry, I've been so busy and have stopped by to glance at the photos but had not time to read and endulge. What a lovely outing. And I just loved the comment about how will you ever endure the months without seeing your sister- was that before or after you knew about the surprise:D?
Hehe, Swedehart, it was after I knew. :D It's so fun to play along with surprises.
Thank you for the pictures of Ann Arbor. After college I left Michigan to live in the Big Horn Mountains. And while I just love it here, we are are sorely lacking for a great university town. Ann Arbor's beauty, diversity, culture, and energy make it one of my favorite places ever.
Sharon, did you go to U of M? I was wondering where you lived, because of your comment to Gwen about more winter for another month. Now I know! Wow, Wyoming. I've always wanted to go there, it must be glorious.
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