Natural Beauty Road

Ms Maya ready for school. She came over for a visit later yesterday. Tall and skinny

The year of the Ram: My niece relocated to downtown San Francisco and captured the New Year Parades colorfully

In Michigan, certain roads are designated Natural Beauty Roads which means that they are scenic and trees will be allowed to grow at the edge of the road instead of being cut down to a point of 6-8 feet away from the road. Thus lots of shade. One is quite close to our new house but up to now I have been avoiding it as dirt roads can be quite slippery in the winter. The Head of the Pack of Chows said though during the ice days of last week, this road was much less slippery than our nicely paved street.

We had a section of this same road within running distance of our old house but I had to cross a mile of open farm land (i.e. no shade) to get to it. Plus with all the new development scheduled for the road I took to access it, that run would no longer be fun. This development also would lead to more cars right behind our house, a reason to move.

There was still ice around when I went for a run on it yesterday morning but the soil underneath it is sand versus slippery clay so I had traction (does not bode well for bicycling; hard packed clay is easier to ride on than hard packed sand). The woods are quite dense so it will be cool in the summer. Heard lots of birds. Deer must roam through it as I came across an old carcass. When the leaves come out, I will post photos. And there is a public nature preserve less than a mile from our house so it should be a nice place to walk through.

Norovirus has been sweeping our area. This is the thing I had 2 weeks ago that I caught from Naomi who caught it from Maya. Josh and Allie had it this weekend (thus no visit). My friend had it yesterday so our lunch will be tomorrow instead of yesterday.

Our bookcases for my den came yesterday. Steve spent hours putting one together only to find when he thought he was finished that he put in a crucial piece backwards.

Today was the first morning above freezing. Yay! Will bike once it is warmer and the traffic dies down and then later, my survivors cooking class.