Spring Leftovers
Horton, Michigan
michigan
Make It Last
Seventy degrees and sunny – just give me that.
I wait all year for May days. Those warm, sunny, apple-blossom-scented days with a gentle breeze and the birds chirping. After a cold, bitter winter in Michigan, it’s these kinds of days in May that keep us all sane. Gives us something to look forward to.
The problem this year is that the tree blossoms won’t last long, with the wind and the rain. Us and the bees – we have a short window of springtime opportunity.
So make it last.
Make it last and give us a bit of the warm, pleasant days before the grogginess of summer. Before our modest humidity takes hold, and people start turning on their air conditioners.
Give us a few days of short-sleeves-and-pants weather, where we won’t be all sticky by sundown. Where we can warm up in the sun, and cool off with the breeze.
Let that scent linger, just a little bit, and fill our nose with memories and hope. Give the bees something to be busy with.
Make it last.
Abandoned Ann Arbor
I try to keep a running list of places to photograph in my head. But that doesn’t always work, because my memory is terrible.
What usually works is taking a photo of the place as a reminder, and then returning to the spot when I get a chance. Such was the case with this abandoned garage in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
I drove by this place in December and immediately pulled over to do some quick exploring. I caught a glimpse of the inside, and thought, “I must return.”
So I did. A quick climb through the shattered window (and torn pant leg) later, I was inside and “urbexing.”
It’s hard to tell what the place was before the roof caved in. The weird part was the all the stuffed animals strewn about. Bags and bags of them, and they were everywhere: on the furniture, on the floor, on the balcony.
The place had just what I look for in photos: strong, deep shadows with shafts of light showing some intense color. It was a lot of fun.
Besides the torn pant leg, of course.
Monochrome Detroit
Took a tour of the Detroit Institute for Arts and the Bike Hub a few weeks back. It was a chance to explore a part of Detroit I had never seen before.
Cloudy and gray, so black and white it is.
Place of Rest
Place of Rest – Prehistoric Forest, Irish Hills, Michigan
Read my write-up on the abandoned amusement park.
At the Drive-In
You can see it from the road, clear as day, when the leaves are gone. It’s right off the side of the road after the highway exit.
It just sits there.
I drive by an old drive-in movie theater in Albion often. By the road, there’s a pair of old abandoned houses, with a drive next to them that leads to the drive-in.
The drive-in concession stand sits way back in the weeds, surrounded by a rotting wooden fence. The speaker poles are still out there – an invisible grid to a long-ago torn down screen.
As soon as the snow melted, I ventured out there to see what it was all about.
Years ago, the drive-in did pretty well. It drew in people from all over, thanks to its handy interstate location. But then things took a downturn, and the drive-in had to specialize. What did it pick?
Porn. Of course.
And much like anything else, you know you’re on the downturn when you resort to smut. So the drive-in closed. And rotted. And the screen was torn down and turned into scraps.
One story says that cars would pull over on the side of the highway to watch the on-screen smut. So the drive-in owners installed spotlights to shine into the roadway, blocking the view.
Now, there’s no shining. It’s all dark. The snow is melting, and everything is dripping and peeling.
