Manitou Passage

Because I am a geek at heart.

So, back in Michigan where I am from there is a park I've posted pictures of before called Sleeping Bear Dunes. There is an Ojibway (Chippewa) legend about the place - a mama bear and her two babies set out across Lake Michigan from Wisconsin. The mama reached shore first and waited for her two babies, but they drowned. Mama bear became the big dune at Sleeping Bear, and the two babies became North and South Manitou Islands. Between the dunes and the islands the water is called the Manitou Passage. Look here for a picture. (That is South Manitou Island in the background.) Here's another.

Y'all who have seen me at SnB know what this reminds me of. It's a scarf, it's heavily inspired by at least three other cabled scarves and a Rowan man's sweater pattern from 2003, and I finally decided tonight to call it Manitou Passage even though it's more of a cranberry colour. (Silly, probably, but it does look like the shape of the water.) One day last fall I spent some time there watching the water and the wind blow through the dune grass, and it was one of the best days of my life. Isn't it odd how that works? You expect the best days to be the ones that are planned or extravagant or otherwise elegant, but you end up somewhere feeling the sunshine on your face and listening to the waves and smiling at the people you're with and thinking you have the happiest life there is.

Tomorrow, pictures of Manitou Passage in daylight. I've been home tonight with a woozy cat who can't walk a straight line, and another kitty who apparently thought we'd left her forever and is Very Sad, But Feeling Better. And a lot of yarn. I love my kitties, though, and I love my yarn, so tonight was very happy. Plus I am taking an antibiotic for a sinus thing, and it's only a matter of time before the metal-mouth sets in again...so I am trying to enjoy a metal-free mouth while I can!