Where I've Been all summer

 After my retreat i purchased a cyclocross bicycle to get healthier and enjoy the outdoors, We started to go to kensington park which has a very good paved bike trail every other day. Then we went north to Torch lake and did a group ride. I also went to Grand haven with my daughter for her birthday on the Harley. (I have something for 2 wheels) I went canoeing also down the Shiawassee river. All this time I had a pinched nerve in my lower back that was very painful and made it very difficult to walk but i could ride just fine. It finally left me 2 days ago. 2 months of pain!!!! Well thank God its gone. Here are some pics from all that.

Traverse Bay

My New Bike 

Redoute Rose

Canoeing the river

Love this sign

The shiawassee river

Stand of Lotus at Kensington park

Some Skull

The national Shiawassee wildlife refuge

A beautiful Egret at the refuge

Grand Haven beach

Having fun

A Great Blue Lobelia off the bike path

We see these cranes almost every time we ride at kensington park

Retreat House

Black raspberries are one of my favorite  foods

Nice bush of Hardy cactus

Closeup of cactus flower

Went on my annual mens retreat this past weekend. The grounds are beautiful and i go walking quite a bit. here are some pics from there.

The other side of the river

On sunday we spotted what we thought was dogwood tree growing in the wild which are kinda rare around here but it was on a hill on the other side of the river. Today we went on a mission to check it out. The flowers we found on the way were nice. Big patches of Wild Lupines. We did have to traverse two swamps  with our tennis shoes. It was mucky and we were determined.  we had to walk down the train tracks too. The pics I got don't do justice to the tree. It was beautiful, full bloom in its glory.   

This is what we saw from across the river

The Dogwood

Im not much of a mushroom hunter but I think this was a Morel

Nice stand of wild Lupine

Daisy fleabane just starting to open

Nice tree

Blue eyed grass

A couple of new finds

Golden Alexanders

Jack in the pulpit

Star Flowered solomon seal

Swamp Buttercup

Wild Lupines

Went out wildflower hunting today after work. Found plants I never have seen before such as wild lupine. Never knew they were lupines in Michigan.

spring in the greenhouse

its looking nice at work.

Couple of my favorites

sweet smelling lily of the valley

Nice reflections on the river 

I hope i will be able to eat the wild strawberries from these

Todays Walk

Went to the same spot today. it must be a special place because I get to see all the flowers I normally dont see. still dont have an Id book so not all are named.

An unidentified white interesting flower

thought there were going to be purple flowers, i really like the centers

The puppy is admiring the pansies

Random large patch of lily of the valley growing on the river bank

the path

Some Trillium and geraniums

The river in all its beauty

An unidentified flower