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1.   Keweenaw Bay

Saturday, just north of L’Anse.   Kind of a miserable day.

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2.  Copper Harbor

Sunday morning.   That’s the ferry to Isle Royale, though I”m not sure if it was running yet.

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3.  Copper Harbor 

Fishermen going after splake.

The day was calm, but you could hear thunder coming from the dark clouds on the far horizon, so low in frequency as to barely be audible.

It was very ominous.

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4.   Near Eagle Harbor

Just ~ 10 miles down the road from the fishermen.

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5.  Near Eagle Harbor

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6.  Bete Grise

Cold and damp…it was 48F.   But an hour later, just 40 km to the south at the town of Laurium, it was in the mid 70′s.

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7.   Between Marquette and Munsiing

Later that same day.  It was warm, sunny and calm, almost summer-like.

It was a totally different lake.

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8.  Twelve Mile Beach (Picture Rocks National Lakeshore)

The next day (Monday).

Needless to say, this was off-peak tourist season, and I had the entire place to myself.

A storm was building on the horizon again, and the water had a greenish grey hue.

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9.  Twelve Mile Beach

Exact same location, just facing East instead of West.

It’s amazing how much the lake can change, even just by turning around 180 degrees.

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10. Grand Marais

A small beach town on the lake, though nobody was really there this time of year.

I didn’t get out of the car much.   The storm had caught up with me and it was a torrential downpour.

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11.  Whitefish Point

Later Monday afternoon.  Close to where the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald happened.

This view is from the lighthouse.

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12.  Whitefish Point

Facing West…with yet another storm building on the horizon.

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13. Near Paradiseer

Facing east, just south of the town of Paradise.

Though it didn’t feel like paradise that day.

Superior was being a real witch, and the storm system followed my for 500 km on my drive home.

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Big Nickel.

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Big Bison

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Big Snowman

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Big Gun

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Big  Skier.

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Big Chain Saw.

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Big Polar Bear.

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Big Minnesota sign. 

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Big Winnie-the-Pooh

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Big Covered Bridge 

Especially in the highways near Provincial Parks.

The critters are attracted to the leftover salt on the roads from the winter.

So, at least once a year,  in April, I do a mini-road trip and bring my camera along, and try to find some moose.

It never fails.

I always find at least one.

Like I did today.

So I’m happy to report:  MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

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As a bonus, I try to include Junior Bear into a photo as well.

And that mission too, was accomplished.

• Customers bring in their crappy old junk to sell.
• Pawnbroker brings in an expert to tell everyone what the crappy old junk  is worth.
• Customers ask the retail price for the crappy old junk.
• Pawnbroker offers back 40% of the retail price.
• Eventually everyone agrees on 60% of the retail price.

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Cajun Pawnstars

• Just like Pawn Stars, but in Louisiana.  Therefore  you need subtitles to understand the show.

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Pawnathon Canada

• Just like Pawn Stars or Cajun Pawn Stars, only Canadian and therefore more polite.

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Hardcore Pawn

• Like Pawn Stars or Cajun Pawn Stars, but  in inner-city Detroit, with more fist-fights.  About as opposite of Pawnathon Canada as you can get.

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American Pickers

• Just like the Pawnbroker shows, except the pickers drive to peoples houses to buy their old crappy junk, instead of the people bringing their old crappy junk to sell the pickers. s.

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Canadian Pickers

• Just like American Pickers,  only Canadian.   And therefore more  boring.

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Toy Hunter

• Just like American Pickers, except they buy crappy old toys instead of crappy old junk.

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American Restoration

• Rich customers brings their crappy old junk to the shop.
• Restorers take apart the crappy old junk and sand-blast it and repaint it.
• Restoreres put the crappy old junk back together, which is no longer crappy and old, but is now shiny and new.
• Restorers sell the shiny and new restored crappy old junk back to the rich customer, who will now pay $10,000 for it.

Counting Cars

• Just like American Restoration,  except they restore crappy old cars, instead of old crappy junk.

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Storage Wars

• Vultures buy old crappy junk that other unfortunate people have abandoned in storage lockers
• Vultures bring their new-found crappy old junk to specialty shops to find out what it’s worth.
• The show ends,  listing what the vultures’s profit margin is on their crappy old junk.
• No indication is ever given, however, if the vultures actually sold any of this crappy old junk.

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Storage Wars Texas
Just like Stores Wars, but with cowboy hats and fatter people.

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Stars Wars New York

• Just like Storage Wars, but in New York.    A wannabee show that never quite caught on.

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Storage Battles

• Just like Storage Wars, but with more white-trash and fist fights.

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Auction Hunters

• An auction house  selling all the crappy old junk that’s been picked and restored.

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Hoarders

• People with OCD, who’s  houses full of crappy old junk that’s too crappy for even the pickers and pawnbrokers and restorers to touch.
• Kind of like American pickers, but with more cat urine and rat feces.

Normally, when I finish a painting, I look at it for a while, and then it goes into a box with all the others.

But I liked this one enough to frame and hang in my living room.

Last year, I was asked to display some paintings in a local gallery and  I needed enough fresh material.

So I decided to put this one up up for sale.

Though I kind of liked my aspens, so I deliberately jacked up the price, in the hopes that it wouldn’t sell.

But sure enough, it DID sell, and I always kind of regretted it.

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But my house is running out of room, and I can’t afford to keep framing everything I paint.

Sooner or later, I’ve got to let stuff go.

If a painting is unique, and if it’s something that I’ll never do again in a million years, there’s no way I’d sell it, not for any money.

But if a painting is something I know I can do again,  then I’m more likely to part with it.

And I suspected I could do this one again.

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Which I did tonight.   Six years later.

t’s smaller:   a 6″ x 4″ sketch with a $5.00 Walmart frame.

For 90 minutes of effort,  I’m happy with how it turned out.   It’s reasonably close to the original.

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So now I have my aspens again.

Which I can hold onto for a while.

Or maybe sell again.

I haven’t decided yet.

But at least I know I can always make more whenever I want.

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I’ve blogged about it before, and I always take lots of photos,  many of which end up as watercolor paintings.

This year was a bit different.

Due to a ski injury, I was out for the rest of the season, which gave me the opportunity to see my favorite sights during the winter, for a change.

I find it kinda neat to compare the seasons….

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An abandoned military base at Foymount.

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Downtown Quadeville.

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Cows.   With an interesting fence made from not just split-rails, but actual logs.

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Some broken dreams.

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Back-roads that haven’t’ been paved yet.   In what I call the “Empty Quadrant”.

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A refurbished church in Rockingham.   With a fresh copper steeple, which you rarely see nowadays.

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Old, wrecked trucks.   All red.

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A Mom-and-Pop ski hill, with one T-Bar.   Still open.

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Another Mom-and-Pop ski hill.  Also still open.

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And a  frozen farm.

Because for the past 20 years, whenever I flew over them, this is typically what I’d see.

Every.   Freaking.   Time.

But FINALLY,  on my recent ski trip last month, the skies were clear and I got to see these elusive peaks.

Flying west from Calgary, the change from rolling prairie/foothills to jagged peaks is quite abrupt.

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We flew right over the town of Canmore, which is the gateway to Banff.

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And of course the clouds started again, but I still caught a few good glimpses of some peaks.

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Flying back,  I lucked out again, and got to see the mountains from the plane for the 2nd time in almost two decades.

This shot is from Interior BC.   The white zebra-stripes are all previous avalanches.

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Which gives you an idea of why you hear about many fatalities when people go into the back-country.

Our flight path took us right over southern BC back towards Calgary, through some ice fields.

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I believe this is Rogers Pass.

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When compared to a screen shot from Google Map, it seems to agree.

Rogers Pass looks so tame from the air.   But at ground level, it’s not so easy.

Last year I drove through it in late March, and talk about a white-knuckle drive.

Single lane,  slush and snow, black ice and rocks literally falling on the road right in front of me.

Not to mention a truck accident that had closed the highway for hours.

Though it gave Junior Bear a chance to stretch his legs.

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She was consoling her Uncle Friar after his surgery, which was the result of a ski accident.

Fast forward, 11 years later.

Here’s an older, more mature Duck Toller.

She was consoling her Uncle Friar  after his surgery, which was the result of a ski accident.