Exploring Kalamazoo 2024-

Crane Park

Walked up to Crane Park and back - pleasant 25 minutes.  

6/2: Unitarian Universalist Community Church; Portage Pride

We went to visit the church in Portage and to hear Levi Rickert's talk about the boarding schools. Unfortunately, Gy wasn't there. Afterward, Amy showed me Bishop's Bog, then we went to the Portage Pride picnic, sponsored by the churches.

6/7: Kalamazoo Arts Fair; Kalamazoo Pride

Went to the arts fair at Bronson Park - lovely as always. Then we walked over to Arcadia Creek Festival Place (park) and sat in the shade while we waited for Pride to open - we didn't have to stand in line or pay for admission but got to people watch. We ate dinner at La Piñata bar & grill on Drake & W. Main - pretty good.

6/8: Berries Pancake House; Bishop's Bog

Berries on Westnedge - loved the pancakes! Open every day 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The Bishop's Bog Preserve Trail was lovely. I didn't spot any Purple Pitcher Plants, Orange Fringed Orchids, or Stemless Pink Ladyslippers, but I did see lots of Tamaracks, Spatulate-leaved Sundew (Drosera intermedia), Southern Blue Flag (Iris virginica), Blueberries, and the Sugarloaf Drain. Enjoyed the bounciness of the plastic floating boardwalk.

6/13: Kleinstuck Preserve

This morning I parked off Chevy Chase and walked on the main trail in Kleinstuck. It makes a loop around the marsh. Interesting that there are 4 separate habitats - all had wonderful aromas.

6/22: Wolf Tree Nature Trails; Husted's; Sawall; bakeries

Walked the Blue trail (3/4 mile) at Wolf Tree, on the south side of KL Ave just east of 4th, for about 20 minutes this morning. Tons of black raspberries, Sassafras trees, and flowers. Also a ton of poison ivy, so I was very careful. Their site says that, "Its ancient 'wolf trees' – characterized by widespread branches – are evidence of the savanna habitats that were here in pre-European settlement times." I didn't see the pond - maybe it's on the Green trail. I did see White False Indigo! I heard a bird that I couldn't identify - didn't have my phone with its Merlin app - perhaps could have been the Hooded Warbler?

Visited Husted Farm Market - got banana chocolate chip bread - not as good as mine - Concord Grape jelly, and a few other items. It seems weird for it to be so far west, on W. Main just east of 2nd, as I remember it at its original location on KL Ave.

We had gelato at Amorino Gelato Al Naturale inside Sawall's - both chocolate and carmel were amazing. Also got some deli items to eat cold on a hot, humid day. I continue to love this store!

Sarkozy Bakery: Polliwantza Cracker!

Victorian Bakery: Ginger Molasses cookies!

7/1: Lillian Anderson Arboretum; Oshtemo branch of KPL

Went for a walk at the L.A. arboretum. It's just west of the Oshtemo Fire Station, the entrance an unmarked driveway. I took the 1st part of the Fern Oak trail to the Wetland Boardwalk (another recycled plastic floating boardwalk!) and heard a Common Yellowthroat warbler, then along Chestnut Point to the powerline, then Bernie's Landing - heard a Towhee - then backtracked on the powerline to Not-so-Magnificent Pines. Went by the Batt's Pavilion and up Pavilion road to the parking area. 50 minutes of moderately slow walking. Bee balm / Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) was just starting to bloom along with Joe-Pye Weed, and I also saw Yellow Jewelweed (Impatiens pallida) flowering! Lots of other trails to explore in the future.

I had worked as a page at the Oshtemo Branch of Kalamazoo Public Library while in high school, but hadn't really gone to it since it had been rebuilt. If you read the history linked above, my mom attended the 2-room Old Chamberlain/Hurd School. I don't remember the library being there, but do remember visiting the building once. I worked in the New Hurd School building for Betsy Watts 1980-1982. I can still see the shelves in my memory, especially the children's section, adult fiction around the edges of the nonfiction shelves, and nonfiction sections of the 200's, 636's, and 921's).

7/6: Wolf Lake State Fish Hatchery 34270 County Road 652, Mattawan, MI 49071. Trail map. Saturday bird walk with Audubon members.

Picked up Gail Walter. Cool morning - cloudy for the first hour, then the sun broke through. Saw: a female Wood Duck and her 6 ducklings, Kingbirds with their fancy flight, Tree Swallows, a Barn Swallow, a Trumpeter Swan which trumpeted, Song Sparrows with the dark spot on their breast, 2 Sandhill Cranes, a Chimney Swift, a Warbling Vireo, a Great Blue Heron wading, and a muskrat swimming. There were 44-45 people, including the Audubon leaders, with varying levels of experience; we went in smaller groups with 2 leaders per group. I met Shelly from West Michigan Birds on fb, which was fun!

I want to connect with the Kalamazoo Area Wild Ones' programs/field trips.

7/12: Blueberry Picking

Brookside Farms, 34448 44th Ave, Paw Paw. Went with Karen & Mr. B. Hot & humid but big, lucious, sweet berries, and a blueberry-red raspberry pie for only $15.50!

7/16: Sapphoasis Dinner Out

Wonderful time with lesbians our age (& older)! Ate at the Thunderbird (ok).

7/18: O'Duffy's Pub

It's below Cosmo's Cucina. Went with Angel, Chris, and Peter. Good hamburger - very lean, so next time order it medium well instead of well done.

7/20: Bee Friendly Nursery; Delano Homestead trails

Noelle at Bee Friendly had a "buy 3, get 1 free" sale today. I got 4 Jacks-in-the-Pulpit, 2 Columbine, 3 Cardinal flowers (Lobelia cardinalis), a Tall Meadow Rue, and a Wood Poppy. They're all for the east side of the house.

At Delano, part of the Kalamazoo Nature Center, I walked to the Source Pond, fondly remembered since my first visit 50 (+?) years ago! It was incredibly peaceful. On the way back, I walked on a Wilderness path (with a fox on the sign) that I remember loving too - a broad, mowed trail with wild raspberries and blackberries on each side. Stopped at the pioneer log cabin and barn. Probably walked a bit over 2 miles. I was glad I had downloaded the map to my phone!

7/28: Kalamazoo Valley Museum

The Museum had a special exhibit on the Kalamazoo State Hospital. My Great-Grandma, Myrtle Mae Bupp (née Thomas) got her nurse's training and then worked there, perhaps as early as 1908 or 09 to 1917 at the latest (the Kalamazoo City Directory says 1912-1916). 

(Born January 1889, she left home at age 18 and came up to the Woodland area in Barry Co. to stay with her Grandma Mary Catherine Hollar/Holler. Then she and a girlfriend went to Kalamazoo to "take their nurses training.") 

There was a gurney in the exhibit, which made me remember Grandma telling me that when a patient died on her shift, she had to transfer the corpse to a gurney and wheel it down the street to the morgue, at night by herself. When I asked if she'd been scared, she said, "No." I also remember her telling me that she turned down a promotion because she didn't want to supervise her friends, and that the conditions were awful - some patients screamed and had to be tied to their beds or chairs because they didn't have the medications we had. 

Also enjoyed the "Kalamazoo Direct to You" permanent exhibit. I hadn't realized that there had been 5 companies making windmills in the 1880's, making Kalamazoo the "windmill center of the world!"  There was also a set of Flinch cards from 1903, like the game I inherited from Grandma Bupp. She taught me to play when I was young and never let me get away with anything. When I got good enough, we played a variation where some of the piles ascended (Ace-Fifteen) and some descended (Fifteen-Ace). Flinch is like the precurser to the more recent Skip-Bo game.

8/10 Delano Homestead trails:

Source pond, then a tiny bit of Headwaters trail connecting to Trout Run. I was glad I had downloaded the map to my phone! Need better signage at trailheads, especially on #15 Trout Run! There's a mown tractor path that goes outside the property, to Westnedge - I was tired and was mad that there was no sign. Then, I wanted to take the shortcut to the Source Pond trail but again - no obvious path or sign. I think I walked about 6 miles that day. Lots of memories came back in flashes from when I attended summer day camp (somewhere between 8-10 years old). 

8/15 1918 Flu Epidemic in Kalamazoo

Amy, Tullio, & I went to an interesting talk by Sharon Ferraro about the 1918-1921 flu, sponsored by the Oshtemo Historical Society, in the Oshtemo Township Hall (behind the Fire Station on W. Main).

I saw Joyce McNally, the mom of Don, a former boyfriend of Jill's, and spoke to her - she was really sweet. She recalled how Jill came over one night to hang out with her, and rearranged her spice rack in alphabetical order! 

8/17 Washington Square Library, KIA, Kazoo Books

Went to pick up a MeL book from the Washington Square branch (1244 Portage St.

Kalamazoo, MI 49001) - I want to go back and take photos inside and outside! 

Then we went to the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts' exhibit 

Clearly Indigenous: Native Visions Reimagined in Glass. I enjoyed it! There was a nice exhibit book but we didn't get it, so I requested it via MeL.

Then picked up a book I'd ordered from Kazoo Books: Sunbeams and Raindrops by Dorothy Rice Bennett (2023), about older lesbians. Actually # 3 in the Lives Intertwined series, but looks good.

8/18 Lake Michigan beach

We went to Pilgrim Haven Natural Area to play in the waves (red flag day, strong undertow, so I only went up to my knees). South of South Haven, north of Van Buren State Park.

9/14 Connecting Chords Music Festival: Migratory Music

Around the Kalamazoo Nature Center Arboretum and Visitor Center Bridge were, in the order we heard them:

• Members of Bahar Ensemble: Traditional Middle Eastern music
• Norse Code Norwegian Fiddlers (Hardanger fiddles, a married couple, Karin Loberg Code & David Code from Portage) 
  
  
  
• Birdseed Salesmen Euro jazz (instrumental jazz in the tradition of Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli)
• Selkie Sounds Celtic Music (the best group!)

9/21 Dr. Nathan Thomas House - Underground Railroad
613 E Cass St, Schoolcraft, MI 49087

Met the Green Pastures Quarterly (Friends) Meeting there - several folks from Ann Arbor as well as many from Kalamazoo, and Jana Norlin from GRFM. Interesting history! It was his wife who wrote about their work in the URR. Nathan Thomas' memoirs (Nathan M. Thomas, birthright member of the Society of Friends, pioneer physician, early and earnest advocate of the abolition of slavery, friend and helper of the fugitive slave; an account of his life written by himself) and Pamela S. Thomas' A Station on the Underground Railroad (p.107) is in HathiTrust and in my Ebooks folder.

9/22 Paw paws

I ate a local Paw paw (Asimina triloba), also known as the American custard apple, from Bonamego Farms! It was quite similar to the Cherimoya (Annona cherimola).

9/25 Asylum Lake Preserve

Went in the south entrance, made a loop north through the woods with Little Asyum Lake on the east, then north to the big lake and west to the peninsula observation area, south through forest and meadows. Beautiful! 

Next walk: go in the west entrance!