Downstate

Last week, Steph and I spent a handful of days in Ann Arbor, where the temperatures were in the mid-70s and the woods were colorful with blooming wildflowers.

Here and there, deer bones from years past poked through sun-parched grass and fallen beech leaves.

The first two photographs depict the same deer skeleton, seen at the Matthaei Botanical Gardens. They are the bones of a doe I found there last March, whose foot had been stuck in a guyline. The third photo is a squirrel-chewed deer jaw, spotted at the Nan Weston Nature Preserve.

Here in Marquette, the snow is mostly gone. Ice is still on Lake Superior and the temperatures have not climbed much higher than the mid-40s. Needless to say, we are more than ready for spring.