It has been a hiatus of a few years since retiring the previous edition of this blog. It dawned on my this past winter that I had missed writing, both about my passion for film photography, as well as life here in the wilderness of the far Western Upper Peninsula of Michigan. For readers unfamiliar with the previous and long-running effort, Field Notes from Rauhallinen Farm was as much a daily diary as photography blog-music, images, poetry, and quotes, depending on the whims of the author during those given moments. I am not sure much will change, as it was as comfortable as old jeans and a favorite hat.

My oldest daughter, Antoinette, and her long-time husband, Greg, visited a few weeks ago to run the Madeline Island Marathon. We got up at 0400 to get to Bayfield on time to catch the 0600 Ferry that transported runners the two miles across Lake Superior to the largest of the Apostle Islands. It was a brisk Spring morning which required jackets on the ferry trip, as the big lake is always many degrees cooler than inland. The kids finished with very good times while I drank coffee and walked about the small town with the Mamiya 6 and scouted out images. The only Apostle Island that has full time residents. When the ferry cannot run any longer, the ice road is usually open so cars can drive to and from Bayfield-a unique Northwoods experience worth trying.

The kids are back in San Diego and life is back to quiet at the farm. Have been adding perennials, two more birch trees, and a couple of bushes to property that has 17 large perennial beds and is an ongoing work of art in progress. The stone farmhouse is 102 years and as stout as the day that Ironwood Township’s first Finnish settler built her by hand.

“In ancient times, cats were worshipped as Gods…They have not forgotten this…” Terry Pratchett