When Donna MacIntosh isn’t going for appointments and then rides with her friend (Hi LOU!), she makes her way outside her apartment to snap photos nearby. Today’s collection starts with a view of the back side of the Douglas House Apartments on Montezuma Avenue in Houghton, where the vines have just about completely covered the building there. You can still see a small portion of the sign peeking out from the vines in Donna’s first photo. I wonder how many years it took to spread like this and cover the building.

The next shot is the steeple from the Grace United Methodist Church in Houghton, with an interesting overcast sky of clouds as the backdrop. Following that, we turn our gaze down toward the Houghton Waterfront, with a flag waving proudly over the Portage Canal and all that’s going on there on the shoreline both in Houghton and across the canal in Ripley.

And lastly, Donna captured a hole in the clouds with the blue sky peeking out at us. Those look like a storm could be brewing, but maybe the wind will blow them away and the sun will come out and save the day. You can see the sun is UP there, brightening the clouds around the opening, so there is hope!

We hook up with the Michigan Nature Association for a look at The Wild Keweenaw. I love the quote in the lead-in to this video: "There's a soul that exists here, and the very heart of that is the wilderness." Explore the many habitats that Michigan Nature Association protects on Michigan's 'wild' Keweenaw Peninsula.

Nice view you have!! I especially
love the cloud picture! And how
can you go wrong with the American
flag??

I love that ivy on the Dog House, (Douglas
House...it's known as the Dog House locally), but I
hear there's a lot of bugs in it. Thanks, Mary, for
using this stuff!

No Deb...MY view is ugly...these are from getting
outside in front of this building. What I get is a
couple of rentals for Tech and the courthouse
behind that!

Oh, well that stinks, Donna. Glad
you could get around the building
to capture some beauty.

Nice pix, Donna!
Interesting video that talks about keeping
the land the way it is, but there are those
who would buy up the land cheap and
then sell it to make a profit.
It reminds me of lyrics by the Eagles
called “The Last Resort”.
“Some rich men came and raped the land
Nobody caught 'em
Put up a bunch of ugly boxes
And Jesus people bought 'em.
They call it paradise
I don't know why
You call someplace paradise
Kiss it goodbye.”

Nice set! The church steeple is my favorite.

You are right, Donna! My Grandma had vines on her house and the ants used it as a highway into the house. And everywhere the vines attached to the house it ruined the brick, breaking it down.

Hi
The ivy on that building gave me the creeps. I fight
with aggressive shrubbery & weeds in my yard
downstate, I'd hate to have to fight for my house.

I've been a dues-paying member of the Nature
Conservancy for decades. Part of what they do is buy
up wild land and make it into a preserve that no-one
can develop.