Expert Advice
Health Food
Q: What can I find at Sawall’s deli?
A: You can find a wide selection of salads, risottos, prepared meats, Panini, Tamales, Quesadillas, Lasagne, Hummus and much more at our DELI! All our food is prepared in-house with all natural ingredients. Vegan, vegetarian and gluten free options.
We also offer authentic Artisanal Italian Gelato & certified vegan Sorbets, Frappe’s and Sorbet Drinks.
Enjoy our Coffee Bar! Indulge in a variety of aromatic and finest quality coffee beverages from authentic Espressos to Lattes, Cappuccinos, Hot Teas, and Ice Teas. All organic freshly brewed coffees!
Deli Hours:
Mon-Sat: 10:30 am - 9:00 pm Sun: 10:00 am - 6:00 pm
Sawall Health Foods
Oakwood Plaza • 2965 Oakland Dr. at Whites Rd. • 343-3619 • www.sawallhf.com
Financial Services
Q: Can I Shop Around for New Medicare Each Year?
A: Yes. It is highly recommended that a Medicare eligible person look at all their Medicare options on an annual basis. For 2026, new laws and regulations will impact the way that Medicare works for most people. As a result, many health care plans have changed their formularies and how they cover certain prescriptions. Shopping around the various health care companies offering Medicare plans could potentially save a participant a large sum of money.
Please call our office with any questions you might have relating to the 2026 Medicare program.
Funeral Services
Kyle Kutlik
The Atriums • 4341 S. Westnedge #1201 Kalamazoo, MI 269-323-7964
Q: Do I pay interest if I make payments on my prepaid funeral arrangements?
A: We offer different payment options to meet your needs. If you’re able to prepay in full, we can guarantee the cost of your funeral - locking in today’s prices and protecting you from future increases.
However, we understand that not everyone can pay in full right away. In those cases, we provide affordable monthly payment plans. Some funeral homes add significant fees to these options, but we do things differently - our goal is to keep it affordable for you and your family, without unnecessary costs. We’d love to discuss these options with you and your family.
Compassionate care, meaningful memories
Adams - Redmond Funeral Homes & Cremation Services and Adams Funeral Homes & Cremation Services
3 locations to serve you
269.343.6156 Kalamazoo
269.349.7735 Parchment
269.657.6347 Paw Paw
www.adamsredmond.com www.adamspawpaw.com
Transitions
Diabetes Awareness
DO
Q: What Is Diabetes and Am I at Risk?
A: Diabetes is a health condition that makes it hard for the body to use sugar (called glucose) for energy. There are two main types of diabetes: Type 1 diabetes often begins in childhood. Type 2 is more common in adults. Signs of diabetes include feeling very thirsty, tired, having blurry vision, needing to pee often and cuts that heal slowly. People who have family members with diabetes, are over age 45, overweight and don’t get much exercise are more likely to have diabetes. It can’t be cured, but it can be managed with medicine, regular doctor visits, healthy food, exercise and by checking blood sugar levels. This November is Diabetes Awareness Month, a great time to learn more about your risk. Learn more at www.bronsonhealth.com/diabetes.
Roofing
Q: What is the timeframe for move-in for an independent living apartment or cottage in a senior community?
A: A move to a community may include a visit to your physician, a medical interview from a qualified health professional, financial qualification and proof of assets, as well as the renovations or building of your new home. This process may take 30 days to a year or more depending on your specific circumstance.
Friendship Village
“Where Connections Matter” 1400 North Drake, Kalamazoo 269-381-0560 www.friendshipvillagemi.com
Justin Reynolds Manager
Q: With all the recent stormy weather, should I have my roof repaired?
A: We recommend that roofs be inspected about once every five years if the roof is under 15 years old and then once every other year for roofs older than 15 years. These inspections can and should be done after the kind of stormy spring weather we have had this year. We have seen a little of everything since the first of the year including wind related damages and even hail damage on roofs that have been inspected so far this year. Inspecting a roof in this manner can often lead to minor repairs that can prolong the normal life expectancy of your existing shingles that are still in relatively good condition as this is confirmed more times than not during our inspections. For a free roof inspection, please give us a call at (269) 342-0153 or visit us at worryfreeroof.com
Co.
Mark Sawall Owner
Diana Duncan Director of Sales and Marketing
Hajerah Sonnabend,
Chuck Henrich President & Owner
50 Year High School Reunion
I grew up in Waterford, a suburb of Pontiac, north of Detroit.
I attended Carl Sandburg Elementary school which has since been torn down. Once per year, we would bring a bag of pennies from home and toss into a big plastic swimming pool at school as a fundraiser. Our most famous graduate was Mary Barra, the CEO of General Motors. She was a friend of my younger sisters’ and came to our house once for a birthday party.
I graduated from Waterford Mott in 1975. Our graduating class was about 400 and our class song was Knights in White Satin by The Moody Blues. Sadly, John Lodge, the last original member, recently passed.
talker and screwball and spent most of my time in his class, sitting next to the door by the wastebasket as punishment.
I attended my 10 year reunion but none since and was not planning on going until being persuaded by some former classmates.
us look a bit like we did back then.
Sadly about 55 students have passed and their photos were on a large display.
In 1975, The Vietnam War was ending, Gerald Ford was the president, Fleetwood Mac was all over the radio and All in The Family, Mash, The Six Million Dollar Man and Happy Days were the hit TV shows.
Waterford also had Waterford Township High School where my father graduated and Waterford Kettering. Detroit Tiger baseball star Kirk Gibson, graduated the same year as I did from Kettering. His dad was my math teacher. He loved writing all over the chalk board, but seemed to end up with more chalk on his sport coat than the chalkboard. I was somewhat of a
Jackie rode over with me, but was not thrilled, with being “dragged halfway across the state “ to something she did not want to go to.
I tried to make it fun by having breakfast in Albion along the way and spending a few hours walking around downtown Ann Arbor.
We arrived at the Deer Lake Athletic Club in Clarkston for the reunion and had a great time. There were about 130 attendees including 80 students and 50 significant others.
Attendees were given name tags with our 1975 yearbook pictures, which helped as very few of
Jackie and I spent most of our time wandering around reuniting with my former classmates. We reminisced about the “good ole days.” A friend still recalled that in the third grade, he worked tirelessly on painting an ocean for a class contest. He said that he has never forgotten that the teacher said mine was better because mine had better straight lines and apparently won a prize. I didn’t remember any of this, but we had a good laugh over it.
Jackie later told me she had a nice time and it wasn’t as bad as she imagined. I think she had fun.
In closing, my advice is don’t worry about your grey hair, no hair, weight gain, lines on your face, etc. Go to your reunions. The people and events from your past, hold precious memories that are wonderful to reconnect with.
Go to your reunions. You will be glad you did.
The Nathan Moore Affair
Photo by Fran Dwight
Three score and ten — and then?
Lee A. Dean screendoor @sbcglobal.net
As we get older, birthdays tend to lessen in importance. But when the birthday marks the changing of the first number, their magnitude is heightened. A milestone is a milestone is a milestone.
Turning 30 was no big deal, other than the highlight of that day was getting chewed out by a tinpot dictator of a boss over a column our newspaper had published. There were no black balloons for my 40th. The big 5-0 was spent making the perilous trek in the chaos of Chicago traffic. 60 was marvelous, thanks to a surprise party arranged by my wife, the Viking Goddess.
None of these milestones was accompanied by any sense of anxiety or stress, other than wishing that boss was a tree and I was a dog. The milestones never became millstones.
But now, by the grace of God and plenty of help from friends and family, I have reached the biblical lifespan of three score and 10. Psalm 90:10 lists 70 as the average time allotted to us.
I have no angst about my big 7-0. But this milestone birthday feels different.
For one thing, this column is being composed while recovering from a second total knee replacement. This year has been a season of surgery, arranged with the goal of getting everything medical wrapped up so I can sail into the next decade. But doctors, lab techs, and other specialists keep knocking on my door, saying I need this and that. They’re right, but I’d like a break. (Note to self: suck it up, cupcake. At least there aren’t buzzards circling overhead).
What can I really expect from the 70s? I can certainly anticipate the onset of, to use precise medical terminology, “slowing down.” The speed at which we do everything decreases a few ticks. This has some positive aspects. People usually don’t saunter into bad situations – they run headlong into trouble. In the event someone complains about my tempo, I have the answer prepared: “I only have one other speed and you REALLY won’t like that one.”
I am prepared for my physical world to constrict. The five-mile hikes may become three miles. Going to the game in person, while a beautiful experience, may be set aside in favor of watching it from my recliner. Driving becomes more difficult with aging eyes.
How do we compensate with this physi-
cal decline? By mental growth. With luck, my mind will maintain its normal speed and dexterity, and the best way to accomplish this is by learning new things. We can turn these years from the declining years into the ascending years.
Still, a huge question lingers: how long do I have left? Nobody says, “but he was so YOUNG” when they hear about someone dying in their 70s.
I have started to play “the obituary game.” Here are the rules: read all the Mlive obituaries on a certain day and compare your age to that of the departed. How many have you outlived? My Grandma Dean was the inspiration for this game, which she ended up winning most of the time because she lived to be 98.
(Another note to self: this is not a matter of outliving hour enemies. Make sure you don’t have any enemies to outlive.)
All these ramblings boil down to one basic question: what is my philosophy of life as I enter my seventh decade?
For many years, I have searched for a theme word for the upcoming year that helps me shape everything I think, say, and do. For instance, I knew that the word for this year would be “body,” and this has proven to be true because all
those medical procedures.
Upon turning 70, I feel the need to pick a word of the decade. But we’re talking about ten years. One word isn’t enough, so I have chosen two: joy and service. Physical decline is inevitable. My response to this decline is up to me. Isn’t it better to focus on what remains than what has been lost? The best way to do that is with a sense of joy and gratitude for a blessed life and a hopeful future. There is no reason to play a game called, “Ain’t It Awful.”
That’s where service comes in. I grew up in a community where helping your neighbor was a way of life. My particular way to do this was baling hay and other farm work. The word got out that I was willing to help, showed up, and worked hard.
My hay baling days are over. But I can still serve through prayer, by being a comforting presence, and by providing a listening ear and a caring heart. I want to hear from those of you who have successfully navigated the 70s. What was your secret? How would you advise me and others about to live fruitfully in our seventh decades? Drop me a line below, and if I get enough responses and wise counsel, we’ll share them in a future column.
Kalamazoo’s “Matriarch of Weaving”
For nearly three decades, Ruth Howard taught Kalamazooans how to weave stunning fabrics from natural materials. As a charter member of the Kalamazoo Weavers Guild, she taught a popular series of public classes in handweaving for both adults and children at the Kalamazoo Public Museum. As a career educator, she said she enjoyed teaching almost as much as actual weaving.
After earning a master’s degree in anthropology from the University of Michigan, Ruth moved to Kalamazoo in 1949 and began a 28-year career as curator of education at the Kalamazoo Public Museum, then part of the Kalamazoo Public Library and Kalamazoo Public Schools system.
Ruth was passionate about many things, especially U.S. history and the pioneer spirit of her ancestors. While working on the museum’s Pioneer Room exhibit, Ruth discovered a small two-harness loom, but she wasn’t sure how to use it.
Intrigued, she took a few lessons from a woman in South Haven and soon developed a passion for handmade fabric. Ruth attended a two-week seminar in New York, where she learned about the preparation of wool and flax for weaving.
by Keith Howard, Kalamazoo Public Library
Soon, Ruth began giving demonstrations of the complete process - extracting fibers from flax,
spinning the fibers into linen thread on a spinning wheel, and finally weaving the thread into cloth on an 1841 loom that was made in Schoolcraft.
Along with demonstrating weaving techniques for classroom tours, Ruth began teaching children’s weaving classes at the museum. Soon after, she was asked to teach in the Kalamazoo Public Schools Adult Education program. Eventually, Ruth instituted a highly popular series of 20week adult weaving courses at the museum. She was said to have been a “master teacher who easily imbued her students with a love of the craft.”
As her interest in weaving developed, Ruth and others founded the Kalamazoo Weavers Guild in 1968 (now the Weavers Guild of Kalamazoo, Inc.). It’s no surprise that most of the charter members were Ruth’s former students. By the mid-1970s the guild had grown to nearly 150 members.
Ruth retired from the Kalamazoo Public Museum in 1977 and returned to her childhood home in Ionia, where she built a state-of-the-art loom house and continued teaching public weaving courses. Ruth passed away in June 1985 at the age of 67, yet her legacy lives on. The Weavers Guild of Kalamazoo, Inc. openly acknowledges her leadership and vision, while her beloved floor loom is still used by artists and learners in the Kirk Newman Art School at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts.
More at kpl.gov
It’s that time of year when things come inside that we’d rather keep outside. Not just dogs with muddy paws from fall rains, but insects. A fugitive clump of lady bugs under the curtain valance; a column of ants marching on a honey jar; a minor cloud of desperate house(flies) that thwack in vain against a kitchen window. In the fur-bearing realm, mice and chipmunks want indoors, too. As do bats -- although I’m afraid to check the attic. But it’s all understandable. In the Upper Midwest, every wild creature needs shelter from the cold and privations of winter. And it doesn’t take much to attract them. You may have rinsed those chickpea and chicken broth cans in the mudroom recycle bin, but there’s still enough enticing residue to make Templeton the Rat do his happy dance.
“Leaf” Room for Winter Wildlife
By Tom Springer, Vice President for Development
If you’ve got an older home like mine, an 1860s farmhouse, then some measure of porosity comes with the charm. Zero tolerance for wild visitors isn’t possible unless we sheath the whole place in the white shrink wrap that marinas use to winterize pontoon boats. So, we patch holes as we can with mortar, foam and caulk and let mouse and ant traps deter what they can. We didn’t ask for any of these benign intrusions, but neither would animals if they had better
options. What if they want indoors, because we’ve destroyed the natural spaces where they used to hide outdoors?
All of which speaks to the value of habitat. While we may picture habitat as a forest, prairie or wetland, it includes little spaces that mimic the biological processes of their larger ecological cousins. Most yards have some brushy corners or edges where a layer of leaves will naturally accumulate. Even a three-inch blanket of leaves can protect over-wintering pollinators such as carpenter bees, and the caterpillars that will become next
year’s moths and butterflies. Perhaps even a spectacular luna moth! Then, on those velvety July nights when your yard sparkles with fireflies while the neighbor’s doesn’t? It’s because you gave firefly larvae a suitably damp home, undisturbed by mowers and leaf blowers, from which they can emerge full-grown for their luminescent light show. If you limit mowing (at least in portions of the lawn) and cut back on lawn chemicals, you’ll also create favorable conditions for crickets – the signature sound of a Michigan summer
evening.
In a winter, the crevices and hidey-holes of trees offer abundant places for animals, birds and insects. Provided that we let them be. Now granted, a dead tree or large limb that threatens your house in widow-maker fashion needs to come down. Yet a craggy pine snag, or the silvery sheen of a dead elm, has a stark beauty all its own; a wild note to contrast the monoculture Muzak of turfgrass. Mature trees, blemishes and all, serve as nurseries, nests and food caches for woodpeckers, owls, squirrels and untold beetles and fungi.
Homeowners can artfully arrange fallen tree limbs for the same salutatory habitat effect. If that sounds too feral, plant tulip and daffodil bulbs around them to soften their edges come spring. From these vertical and horizontal redoubts, winter wildlife will find arks of sanctuary. Then on a winter’s night, when the wind howls around your eaves, you’ll know that from macroinvertebrates to mammals, you’ve helped wildlife find comforts to match your own.
Tom Springer is vice president for Development at the Kalamazoo Nature Center and the author “Looking for Hickories,” and “The Star in the Sycamore.”
Photo courtesy Jim Triezenberg
The Nutcracker
Presented by the
Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra
Saturday, November 22, 2pm and 7pm
Miller Auditorium
Magical. Enchanting. Holiday Tradition.
Kick off your holiday season with sugar plum fairies and nutcracker princes! In partnership with Ballet Arts Ensemble, Clara’s magical adventures are brought to life through Tchaikovsky’s beloved music, an enchanting story, and breathtaking choreography.
PROGRAM
The Nutcracker | Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Dr. Katherine Kilburn, Conductor Ballet Arts Ensemble Kalamazoo Children’s Chorus
Tickets can also be purchased through the Community Box Office: 269.250.6984
The Tyler-Little Community Box Office is located on the first floor of The Epic Center at 359 S. Kalamazoo Mall. Monday – Friday, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. The CBO is closed for lunch from 1:30 – 2:30 p.m.
“For This Retired Accountant, Giving Back Generates Lasting Dividends” – Tom Drew
By Dale Abbott, Milestone Senior Services
Tom Drew grew up in a small town in Iowa. After graduating from high school, he attended the University of Iowa, where he earned a degree in accounting. Tom says his degree was the opportunity he needed to move to the big city. His first job took him to Kansas City, Missouri, where he also met his wife, Jody. Over the years, Tom and Jody lived in several major cities as he advanced his career as a CPA, eventually settling in Battle Creek with the Kellogg Company thirteen years ago.
When asked what stood out most from the places they’ve lived, Tom didn’t hesitate. For a time, they lived in New Jersey, just across the Hudson River from Manhattan. On the infamous morning of September 11, 2001, Tom was on his way to the office when the planes struck the Twin Towers. He quickly returned home. He recalls how he and Jody stood together, watching in real time and disbelief as the towers fell—an image and a moment they will never forget.
Tom retired from Kellogg in 2023 with three clear goals for retirement: play more golf (his favorite pastime), travel with Jody, and give back to his community. Searching the United Way’s website for volunteer opportunities, one program immediately caught his attention—Milestone Senior Services’ Meals on Wheels.
What drew him in was a personal memory: his grandmother, back in Iowa, had received Meals on Wheels in their small community. She lived to be 104 and remained in her own home until she was 99. His wife Jody, too, had close relatives who had benefited from
the program. For Tom, volunteering with Meals on Wheels felt like the perfect way to “give back.”
He became a Meals on Wheels volunteer right away after doing a ride along to see what it was like. Tom now serves as both driver and hopper two to three days a week in Battle Creek. He says he enjoys every aspect of it—especially getting to know the clients and building relationships with them. For many, Tom may be the only person they see or talk to that day.
As a devoted dog owner, Tom recalls one particularly moving encounter. A woman he delivered to had just lost her beloved dog, her only companion for sixteen years. Tom says he sat with her, offering comfort and sharing when they lost their first dog after a similar time. “These are the moments that mean so much,” he reflects.
Tom sums up his experience as a volunteer this way: while he gives his time and racks up miles on his car, he is repaid many times over in personal fulfillment and the joy of connecting with wonderful people. That’s a balance sheet any accountant would approve of.
To learn more about the AmeriCorps Senior Companion or RSVP volunteer programs, contact Milestone’s Volunteer Services department at 269382-0515 or get started right away by applying on the Volunteer page of their website: www.MilestoneSeniorServies.org/Volunteer.
Book Reviews
Book Reviews by the Portage District Library staff
What We Can Know
Ian McEwan
Ian McEwan is never afraid to experiment with his writing, and this novel is no exception. Split into two halves, the first portion is set in 2119 during a hypothetical dystopian future, while the second half is set in and around 2014. In 2119, Tom Metcalfe is a scholar of poetry in the early 21st century. Living on an island that was once part of the United Kingdom before the rise in water levels, he has been obsessed with a great poem that was once read aloud by its author and then never seen or heard again. This book unfolds slowly, its intricate and beautiful prose framed by a future that may not seem so farfetched to readers today. McEwan asks readers to consider how much we can truly know about the past, making it an excellent candidate for a book club.
The Girls of Good Fortune
Kristina McMorris
Riveting from start to finish, this novel is a superb piece of historical fiction. Set in 1885 and 1888, it is the story of Portland, Oregon, during a time when anti-Chinese sentiment gripped a nation. McMorris has thoroughly researched the history of the place and its people, giving readers
a version of history that is revelatory and unforgettable. Celia Hart, a halfChinese woman, awakens in a cell in the Shanghai Tunnels. A labyrinth of underground tunnels connected town businesses and were used as escape routes during raids. History hints at the tunnels also being used to detain shanghaied victims bound for forced labor. Passing as white for most of her life, Celia is naïve but determined, as she faces several dire situations, including work on a ship, and narrowly lives to talk about them. Overall, a rare look at an often glossed-over or even outright ignored American history.
The Blue Zones Kitchen: One Pot Meals: 100 Recipes to Live to 100
Dan Buettner
After more than 20 years spent uncovering the secrets of the blue zones--the happiest and healthiest places around the world--Dan Buettner puts the lessons he’s learned into practice with 100 research-backed recipes designed to boost your longevity. Inside, you’ll find easier-than-ever plant-based breakfasts, dinners, snacks, and sides inspired by the Blue Zones, featuring grocery store-available ingredients and made with flavors Americans love best. Written with busy households in mind, these one-pot, one-pan, or one-bakingsheet recipes enable you to eat like the world’s longest-lived people.
All these titles are available at the Portage District Library. For more information about programs and services available at PDL, go to www.portagelibrary.info
Lee’s Burgers and Malts
By Richard Martinovich
Jimmy Buffet teased our taste buds with the “Cheeseburger in Paradise” song; tantalizing our senses with words like, “a big warm bun, and a huge hunk of meat,” and fantasizing about his favorites toppings: “I like mine with lettuce and tomato, Heinz 57, medium-rare with Muenster’d (Muenster cheese) be nice.” “Well, good God almighty, which way do I steer for my Cheeseburger in Paradise!”
In Portage, head in the direction of Lee’s Burgers and Malts, at 5234 Portage Road!
Lee’s Burgers and Malts will harken Spark readers back to the time when the burger shop with great malts was the place to hang out; when a burger and a malt was a simple, but heavenly meal.
The Lee’s Cheeseburger comes with fries and a drink, and at 8.99 is a good value. There’s the Lee’s Double Cheeseburger, the Double Bacon Burger and the Double Olive Burger. All of the burgers come with a choice of fries or tater tots, and a soda.
Add a delicious malt with it, too: a Dubai Chocolate Pistachio Malt, Mango Malt, Pina Colada Malt, Tiramisu Malt, Blue Raspberry Malt, Nutter Butter Malt, or Chocolate Malt!
It may be Lee’s Burgers and Malts but for those who like chicken, there are plenty of choices -- Lee’s Chicken Sandwich, Spicy Chicken Sandwich, Kimchi Chicken Sandwich Combo, Fried Chicken Strips, Jumbo Wings, BBQ Wings, Spicy Wings of Fire!
Enjoy a Dubai Chocolate Pistachio Malt with your meal, or Mango Malt, Pina Colada Malt, Tiramisu Malt, Blue Raspberry Malt, Nutter Butter Malt, and Chocolate Malt!
Lee’s has a Polish Hot Dog, fish combos with fries and drink, and “bowls” -- the Lee’s Crazy Tots Combo with tots, nacho cheese, house sauce, and halfchicken, half-burger meat. topped with cheddar cheese and bacon.
If you love barbeque ribs, try the Lee’s St. Louis BBQ Ribs!
Families will feel welcome at Lee’s Burgers and Malts. Kids have choices for 5.99; chicken strips, nuggets, or a hamburger, both with a juice box. Compliment your meal with sides from onion rings, chili cheese fries to pizza puffs.
Check their many specials like the Super Saturday 20-Piece Wing Bucket!
THE NATHAN MOORE AFFAIR IS ALWAYS AN AFFAIR OF THE HEART
By Dave Person david.r.person@gmail.com
Every day is Thanksgiving Day to Nathan Moore.
“Turning to gratitude is something that sustains me,” he says. “I have a lot of things to be grateful for.”
They include his job as spiritual engagement coordinator at the Fetzer Institute in Kalamazoo; his family, including his husband, Robert Guise; and fellow members of his band, The Nathan Moore Affair: guitarist Chris Schleuder; bassist Mark Glubke and percussionist Carolyn Koebel. Moore
is the band’s vocalist.
The Nathan Moore Affair is a favorite with local music lovers, putting its members’ talents on display at the annual Kalamazoo Pride Festival and the Buttermilk Jamboree in Delton, among other places.
In addition to vocals, Moore taught himself to play the piano, and sometimes on stage plays a keytar, which has elements of both a keyboard and guitar.
He says the band practices weekly and performs, on average, a couple of times a month, which is about as much as four people with full-time jobs can manage.
Still, they maintain a close relationship.
“They’re dear friends and we’re there for each other,” Moore says.
The band’s next gig will be Dec. 6 with local musician Megan Dooley at the Clover Room, 1501 Fulford Street in Kalamazoo.
“We’ve known each other for years but we’ve never done anything together,” Moore says of Dooley.
In addition to their live performances, the group put out their first album,”Reconciliation,” in 2024 and their first music video, featuring the song, “Don’t Let ‘em Tear Us Apart,” this summer.
“We’re trying to get enough songs together for a second album,” Moore says.
“We tend to do more original than cover (songs),” he says. He writes most of them, while Schleuder also contributes.
Ten of the 11 songs on the first album are original. “Hey,” the only one that isn’t, is a cover of a song written by local musician Dacia Bridges, who died in 2019. The song is about empower-
ing oneself to know how beautiful and powerful you are, Moore says.
“Reconciliation,” the song, is about processing being estranged from a family member and “Love Abides” is about the loss Moore experienced in 2020, during the pandemic, with the deaths of his mother, grandfather and an uncle.
“They’re very relationship-focused,” he says of the songs he writes and performs.
They also reflect his attitude of thankfulness, even in loss.
The lyrics to “Love Abides” include these words in memory of his mother, Alecia Moore:
“Thank you for walking me home; you were the love of my life. I know our time has run out,
and somehow still love abides.
“Thank you for holding me close; never would’ve made it on my own. We have to say goodbye, but somehow still love abides.”
Moore describes the music of The Nathan Moore Affair as soulful, bluesy rock, but some people might detect influences from other genres as well, reflecting the wide variety of music to which he has been exposed.
Moore, 52, says he got his first taste of music in sixth grade in Flint, where he grew up.
“My parents made me join the church choir,” he says.
Moore wasn’t happy being part of that large gospel choir, and protested in his own way.
“I was just lip-syncing the entire time,” he says.
That is, until someone started singing off key and the choir director pulled each person aside in Moore’s section so he could listen to them individually.
When Moore’s turn came he sang perfectly.
“He (the choir director) started encouraging me to sing; he told me I would be a really great singer some day, and that propelled me,” he says.
In high school, Moore joined the band, where he was able to learn how to play several instruments in the brass section.
“When I came here to go to Western (Michigan University in 1992), I gave up brass instruments and devoted myself entirely to singing,” he says.
He sang in a local gospel choir and also joined Sing Out Kalamazoo, eventually becoming that group’s music director.
Over the years he has been part of many diverse groups, including Natural Vibe, a four-part harmony a cappella group; Travel with Lloyd, alternative rock; Goldstone, “very loud
rock”; and Neon Tetras, alternative, folksy music.
While working as a technical archivist at Pfizer, he joined a blues band made up of company employees.
“I like mixing things up,” he says.
“There is no particular style or genre that I dislike.”
Moore teamed up with Nicholas Martin to found Neon Tetras, and they recruited two other members. The band was successful, but eventually disbanded, and Moore stopped making music for a while.
He then did backup vocals and contributed to the albums of other groups before he met Schleuder.
“We started in 2018 as a duo,” Moore says of the beginnings of The Nathan Moore Affair.
But then in 2020 Covid hit, people stayed home, and public venues were off limits.
Once again, the music stopped for Moore as he dealt with the isolation of Covid and the deaths of his family members.
When restrictions on public gatherings were lifted, he and Schleuder resumed performing.
“When we got together again, I realized I really loved this,” Moore says. The band took off when Glubke and Koebel joined them, enabling Moore to continue to spread the joy that life and music bring him.
And that makes fans of The Nathan Moore Affair joyful — and thankful — as well.
Photos by Fran Dwight
Tree of Love Celebrates 40 Years of Saving Lives Through Early Breast Cancer Detection
The Borgess Hospital Foundation at Beacon Kalamazoo is proud to announce the 40th anniversary of the Tree of Love campaign—four decades of lifesaving impact through early breast cancer detection.
Launched in 1985, Tree of Love began as an annual fundraiser to help patients in need access vital healthcare. Since then, it has become a cornerstone of providing early breast cancer detection for patients in need in southwest Michigan. When breast cancer is found early, it’s often more treatable, and survival rates are significantly higher.
Tree Lighting and Open House, Allegan | Thursday, November 20 | 5:00 p.m.
Beacon Allegan hospital lobby
Join us for a special evening at Beacon Allegan Hospital as we come together to connect, celebrate, and look to the future of healthcare in our community. This is your opportunity to meet Kreg Gruber, CEO of Beacon Health System, and our vision for supporting the health and wellbeing of Allegan County. Following our conversation, we will gather for the Tree of Love Lighting Ceremony.
Tree Lighting Ceremony, Dowagiac | Wednesday, December 3, 2025 | 5:30 p.m.
Farr Park next to Beacon Dowagiac
Celebrate the campaign’s success by joining the Dowagiac community and lighting the Tree ofLove. Enjoy a warm beverage next to the pink glow of the lights.
Tree Lighting Ceremony, Kalamazoo | Thursday, December 4, 2025 | 5:30 p.m.
Lawrence Education Center, Beacon Kalamazoo
Celebrate the campaign’s success with a warm gathering featuring remarks from survivors, supporters, and medical staff—culminating in the lighting of the Tree of Love.
Each donation to Tree of Love offers the opportunity to honor or remember a loved one,represented by a light on the tree. Honorees receive a personalized card notifying them of the special tribute.
Secure, tax-deductible donations can be made at beacon.health/treeoflove. For more information, contact the Borgess Hospital Foundation at 269-226-8100.
CICADA KILLER WASPS
By Molly Williams
While it may look threatening, this species of solitary wasp is actually not aggressive toward humans. Adult wasps feed on plant nectar. During its adult life stage, its focus is on providing for the next generation by capturing and paralyzing adult cicadas and leaving them as food for their larval babies.
In late summer, adult cicadas emerge. We heard their buzzing in the Village Woods in July and August. The adult cicada killer wasps emerge at the same time. The female wasp digs a burrow into the soil where she will lay her eggs. The central burrow may be about 10 inches deep with several chambers branching from the main shaft. Because sandy soil is preferred, burrows may be found in sandy athletic surfaces such as outdoor volleyball courts or sometimes in lawns. This can be upsetting for homeowners who don’t want their lawns disrupted by the sandy mounds dug by the female wasp.
Cicada killer mound with two burrow entrances, found in a Garden Home lawn on the Friendship Village campus.
Photo credit: Molly Williams
After the burrow is prepared, the female wasp finds a cicada, stings it to paralyze it, and then brings it to her burrow. She places it in one of the underground chambers and lays an egg on the paralyzed cicada. In a few days, the egg hatches to a larva that consumes the cicada, pupates over the winter, and finally emerges as an adult wasp the following summer.
The challenge faced by the mother wasp is dragging the significantly heavier cicada back to her burrow. She might drag it along the ground, or – if she’s some distance away – she climbs a tree, hauling the cicada with her, and then flies with it back to her burrow. However, the load is too great for her to sustain level flight. She will lose altitude throughout her flight. So, she needs to figure out how high to climb the tree in order for her descending flight path to end at her burrow. With very loud, frantic buzzing, the heavily laden mama wasp launches from the tree and lands within a few inches of her target. I’ve seen this happen! Her understanding of aerodynamics is accurate enough that she lands within an inch or two of her goal.
Cicada Killer Wasp carrying an adult cicada
Then she and her heavy load disappear underground where she ensures that the egg she lays is adequately provisioned by the stunned cicada.
A bee on a string AI-generated content may be incorrect.
Photo credit: Bill Buchanan, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16868228
These wasps are amazing to watch as they prepare for their next generation. Although, cicada killer wasps pose little danger to humans, there are other similar looking wasps and hornets that can be aggressive. It’s best to stand quietly and not disturb them while observing these fascinating creatures.
Giving Thanks
By Laura Kurella
Heading into the biggest holidays of the year, we all like to look for ways to make them a little more special and it might surprise you, but one of the easiest ways I’ve found to elevate any occasion is to trade in storebought breads for ones that are truly homemade! Nothing beats a bread that’s made from scratch, and it’s likely because bread is kneaded deeply into our primitive hearts.
Back at the beginning of time, bread was able to sustain life because it was made using naturally fermented yeasts and flours not stripped of their vital nutrition. Since ancient bread had such life-sustaining abilities, it’s likely that our bodies simply became hard-wired to, and likely why the smell of bread baking exudes such a magical aroma that it makes everyone drool! Thanks to convenience and heavy commercial processing, which includes the addition of shelf-stabilizing preservatives that Emerging research now indicates can harm beneficial gut bacteria and potentially disrupt our body’s precious microbiome’s balance*, the bread we eat most often is not only not offering the best flavor, but also not the best health benefits, which is what prompted my dearly-departed girlfriend Kathi to gift me a copy of “Bread in Five Minutes a Day” (2007), by Jeff Hertzberg M.D. (a preventative health expert) and Zoë François (a pastry chef and baker trained at the Culinary Institute of America).
A Blast From the Past
Tuesday, November 18, 2-4pm
$3 Members/ $5 Non-Members
Spark Magazine Publisher, Steve Ellis will present a lively pictorial history of some of our favorite places from days gone by: Drive-In movie theaters, restaurants, stores, long-gone companies, old ads and much more.
Please call (269) 329-4555 to register.
Discovering how easy it is to make bread from scratch, I began playing with different recipes and variations of method until I crafted one that suited my needs. I kept it very simple, using a large rubber spatula to literally gently toss flour, water, salt, and a rising agent (yeast or starter) together in a bowl until it became shaggy (about 1 minute), then covering it loosely and setting in a warm spot on the counter to mature overnight.
I could then prep it for baking whenever I found the time the next day.
This simple, super time-flexible method yields an incredibly delicious, airy artisan-style loaf with very little time, effort, and expense. Plus, this loaf will never harm your good gut bacteria, so it leans this bread back to being a much healthier choice!
The holiday season is the time to focus on all we have to be grateful and thankful for in our lives. When we take the time to adopt an attitude of gratitude it sends a ripple of positive energy pulsing through our lives and that in turn makes everything (and everyone) that surrounds us feel our positive energy, too!
To help you elevate the positive this holiday, here now is my go-to recipe for making a fresh and fabulous loaf that provides such an enchanting aroma it will uplift everyone in the house! Enjoy and Happy Holidays!
Laura Kurella is an award-winning home cook who loves to share recipes from her Michigan kitchen. She welcomes comments at laurakurella@yahoo.com.
Upcoming Talks!
Presented by: Steve Ellis
Portage Zhang Senior Center, 203 East Centre, Portage
Easy Overnight Artisan Bread
Prep Time: 15 minutes; Bake Time: 45 minutes; Rest Time: 9-24 hours; Yield: 1 round loaf.
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons unrefined sea salt (not table salt)
1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
Special cookware needed: Porous cloche or Dutch oven, or any large high-heat ovensafe pot with a fitted lid.
In a large bowl, stir together flour, salt, and yeast. Using a wooden spoon, stir in warm water, mixing just until the mixture forms a “shaggy” but cohesive dough.
The less you stir the now the fluffier air pockets you’ll have when it bakes. [Less stirring=more holes!]
Cover bowl with plastic wrap then set in a draft-free place to rise at room temperature for 8 to 24 hours.
Dough will bubble up, and double in size. When dough is ready, position oven racks so that a cloche, Dutch oven, or similar will fit into the center of the oven. Place cloche, Dutch oven, or similar into the oven with lid slightly ajar. Set the oven to 450 degrees and then set a timer for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, turn dough onto a well-floured surface, and with floured hands, gently coax dough into a ball using as little flour as possible.
Place the ball on a roughly 7-inch square or round piece of parchment paper then cover the dough loosely with plastic wrap. After the 30-minute preheat time has elapsed, open the oven, and pull the rack out that has pot on it.
Carefully remove the hot Dutch oven lid and set on the stove top, carefully place the dough ball and its parchment paper into the bottom of the Dutch oven, or similar. Place the lid back on the pot then push the rack back into the oven and close the door. Bake for 20 minutes covered then remove cover and bake for 10 more minutes. Remove bread to a rack to cool slightly before cutting.
All New Weekend Escapes
Wednesday, December 10, 2-4pm
$3 Members/ $5 Non-Members
Spark Magazine Publisher, Steve Ellis has spent the last 50 years traveling all over Michigan and its neighboring states, searching for interesting and out of the ordinary destinations. His lively photographic presentation will give you some great ideas for next summer.
Please call (269) 329-4555 to register.
HEALTHY LIVING
THE COLLECTIVE EFFERVESCENCE
I recently had the opportunity to experience the 2025 Chicago Marathon to cheer my son who was running his first full marathon. Little did I understand until I found myself in the midst of the throngs of the masses that I was at a global event. Let me paint a quick picture: In its 47th year of existence, over 53,000 runners, representing over 120 countries, were signed up to run. These participants raised over $36 million for charity. An estimated 1.7 million people were lined up along the 26.2-mile route, and the city, voted the Best Big City in the U.S. nine years in a row, was very likely hoping to break the previous year’s $683 million-dollar economic impact for the Metropolitan Area economy. It was a vibe like no other.
For 26.2 miles, the city created a spontaneous and profound community, where the simple act of gathering elevated the entire endeavor. The energy of those gathered on the Chicago streets, weaving through 29 vibrant neighborhoods, brought a tangible, electric presence to the course. That day, whether you were a runner,
a volunteer, a resident, or a proud mom among the spectators, you were part of a special congregation. It felt as though, where one person gathered, the whole city—the whole world—was there in spirit.
And in every neighborhood, on every corner, the sheer force of collective support transformed a single race into a world-wide movement. It was a gathering of the very best of us—thousands of individual stories merging into one powerful narrative about goodness, human connection, and the sheer joy of collective support. This is what I witnessed:
Short runners. Tall runners. Lean ones and not so lean. Every skin color under the sun. Runners with leg prosthetics, one was powering forward on two carbon-fiber arcs. Wheelchairs zooming by. An elderly man pushing a younger man in a custom specialized wheeled device; they both shared the same name. We knew because they had big name tags taped to their chests.
Sideliners would call out runners by name: There were Aarons, Alexes, Andrews, Laneys, Kasandras, Marias, Sarahs, Tinas, Tittos. A Fabio. Their faces lit up when shouts moved down the lines like a reverberating bouncing ball of audio, pinging off the wall of shoulder-to-shoulder cheering sections. I saw runners carrying flags of every color: Argentina, Italy, Ireland, Mexico, Palestine. Men in tutus. Batman. Superman. A blind runner surrounded by their personal running guide group. A guy with multiple 24inch hair spikes. Several dinosaurs. Women in sports bras. Women wearing tiaras. A middle
eastern woman dressed in her Abaya and Hijab. People running for a loved one. People running for causes. Runners walking. Runners crying. Runners digging in. Runners cramping. Runners running holding hands. Runners hugging the roadside, giving high-fives to the spectators who lined both sides of the streets, sometimes 20 deep.
Cowbells, horns, were rung and blown by toddlers to seniors on canes. “Well done!” and “you’ve got this!” and mantras of this that and the other thing chanted down the lines.
A soundtrack so dense in its layers of voices, bells, Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ rising off the streets and sidewalk in waves after waves of motivation, inspiration, grit, persistence, where the mathematical computations to quantify its presence in exponential volume can only be described as ongoing vertical wave of energy beaming up towards the heavens that in that indescribable way might somehow from space be noticed as an aura of humanity melded into peace, and love, caring, and fortitude that only comes from those places where many, tuned into the same focus, produce that thing we call collective effervescence.
And I’m not talking about a glass of carbonated water.
Here’s to all the places we gather…for good. Be the bubble.
Submitted by Vicky Kettner, Association Director of Marketing, Community Relations, and Member Engagement at YMCA of Greater Kalamazoo.
Celebrities that came to Kalamazoo
Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo come to Kalamazoo!
Diego Rivera was a Mexican painter. His large frescoes helped establish the mural movement in Mexican and around the world.
In 1932, Wilhelm Valentiner, director of the Detroit Institute of Arts, commissioned Diego Rivera to paint 27 fresco murals depicting the industries of Detroit in the interior courtyard of the museum.
Rivera started the project by researching the facilities at the Ford River Rouge Complex. He spent three months touring all of the plants, preparing hundreds of sketches and concepts for the mural.
Rivera completed the commission in eight months, a relatively short amount of time for such a large and complex work. To do so, Rivera and his assistants had an exhausting work schedule, routinely working fifteen-hour days without breaks between. Rivera lost 100 pounds over the course of the project because of the rigorous work.
During his life, Rivera had 4 wives. At the time of his visit he was married to Carman Kahlo. Although relatively unknown at the time, Carman became well known as an artist herself and was later known as “Frida.”
In fact, due to her unique looks, cutting edge paintings and many self-portraits she painted while laying on her back in hospital beds, she became much more famous than Diego Rivera.
Frida Kahlo lived with a lifetime of chronic pain due to injuries stemming from a horrific bus accident in 1925 and a childhood case of polio. The accident resulted in a broken spinal column, collarbone, ribs, pelvis, and right leg, as well as a crushed foot, eventually leading to a leg amputation.
Rivera came to Kalamazoo on Dec 11, 1932, to speak at the Kalamazoo Institute of the Arts. An article in
the Kalamazoo Gazette, mentions that he was accompanied by his wife.
Rivera’s Kalamazoo talk was so popular, that the venue had to be moved from the KIA to the much larger Civic Theatre, where it was sold out, with many
terpiece, Kahlo suffered deep emotional turmoil. Shortly after arriving she had a miscarriage, which became the subject of one of her most affecting paintings, “Henry Ford Hospital.”
Kahlo was a growing artist at the time, but felt trapped and longed for home. She did not like the Industrial Detroit and one of her paintings ‘Self-portrait on the Borderline between Mexico and the United States.’
extra attendees standing in the aisles.
Rivera was introduced by Blanche Hull, president of the KIA. He spoke in French and his address was translated by professor Walter J. Gore of the University of Michigan.
Diego Rivera spoke of the birth of a completely new art of Americas’ that will arise out of a common mixture of all races. This new art would be continental in scope without having limits of national boundaries.
He told of his early years in his native Mexico, protesting against the academic art study in which he “lost the little talent he possessed” by drawing with easels and models and at age 17 packed up and moved to Paris to learn from the masters. He was inspired by Cezanne and worked with Picasso. Back in Detroit, while Rivera worked on his mas-
The painting illustrates the difference in Kahlo’s perception between her beloved home country and the industrial United States which she disliked.
In a February, 1934, Detroit News profile in a series titled “Profiling Artists in Their Homes,” Frida is pictured with a headline, “Wife of the Master Mural Painter Gleefully Dabbles in Works of Art. “
The Detroit News writer and those in Kalamazoo that may have met Frida, would later find out that they were in the presence of one of the most famous artists of the last 100 years.
Nurse Honor Guard of Kalamazoo County
The Nurse Honor Guard is a distinguished group of nurse volunteers dedicated to honoring the lives and careers of nurses who have passed. Their mission is to pay tribute to their unwavering commitment to care and compassion, reflecting the values of the Nursing community.
The Nursing Honor Guard was established to recognize the individuals who have dedicated their professional lives to nursing. The honor guard will pay tribute to any nurse or student nurse at the time of their death. Services are performed by members of the Nursing Honor Guard and are offered free of charge.
To ensure that every nurse receives the recognition they deserve at the end of their journey, preserving the legacy of nursing by upholding traditions of honor, respect, and gratitude. The Nurse Honor Guard seeks to inspire future generations by highlighting the profound impact of nurses on healthcare and society.
To find out more about Nurse Honor Guard of Kalamazoo, contact: Donna Pennington, FNP 269-271-7711
Trish Wiitka, FNP 269 381-8693
Holly McNally, RN 269 823-3954
Western Michigan University Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at WMU
Founded in 2011, OLLI at WMU is a volunteer-driven organization offering high-quality, non-credit programs designed for adults aged 50+ throughout Southwest Michigan and beyond.
With the support of dedicated volunteers, WMU emeriti, faculty, and staff, OLLI provides enriching educational experiences, engaging events, memorable trips, and a welcoming community of lifelong learners. There are no tests or grades—just learning for the love of it.
Join them and expand your mind, enrich your life, and connect with others who share your passion for learning.
Fall 2025 Offerings:
Classes in the Arts, Culture and Sciences, Health and Wellness, History, etc.
Go to wmich.edu/olli to see the complete class list
The classes are held at various locations around the area.
Course Fees:
$10 per session for members $20 per session for non-members
Email: wmu-olli@wmich.edu (269) 387-4157
Few actors can boast a filmography as extensive as Nicolas Cage. With well over 100 credited roles in a little more than 40 years, he simply always seems to be working on something. Perhaps best known (and adored) for his portrayals of characters ranging from idiosyncratic to unhinged or even downright insane, he is something of a master of the art of gradually unravelling on screen. It is in deference to this tradition that we arrive at Lorcan Finnegan’s The Surfer. Here, Cage plays a man returning to the sun-soaked Australian beaches of his youth, intent on sharing the experience with his son while he negotiates the purchase of his childhood home. Upon arrival, however, he faces stiff resistance from The Bay Boys, a gang of aggressively territorial local surfers spouting the mantra “Don’t live here, don’t surf here.” Swiftly discovering the expression to be far more than mere suggestion, his son departs acknowledging the circumstances to be unworthy of the hassle, but the surfer remains, intent on his goals of reacquiring his father’s home and surfing the beaches he so fondly remembers. With nowhere to go in the meantime, he takes to living in his car at the beach where he becomes a pariah to the entire beach-going local community while the tension and the madness are slowly ratcheted up to the breaking point. – Submitted by Patrick J.
Hobson’s Choice (1954)
A masterful romantic comedy from director David Lean (Lawrence of Arabia, Brief Encounter, The Bridge on the River Kwai) that tells the amusing tale of a brutish, stingy widower and his three daughters. Henry Hobson (Charles Laughton) owns a Victorian-era boot shop in Salford, where he employs his three daughters
Movie Reviews
his nightly hangovers with the hair of the dog at the pub across the street. Hobson is a crude man whose refusal to pay his daughters for their work creates tension within the family business. All three of the young women are eager to escape their father’s ironfisted rule over the house and business. Hobson believes his two youngest daughters, Vicky and Alice, have a fair chance of finding husbands, but it is the strongwilled Maggie who Hobson believes is too old to marry (she’s 30) and thus should resign to remaining under his controlling thumb. But Maggie has other plans and goes about severing ties with her father by forcing the timid but talented shoemaker Willie Mossop to marry her. Laughton gives a wonderfully unhinged performance as the unlikeable father who finds in Maggie a worthy adversary. – Submitted by Ryan G.
Friendship (2024)
Is writer/director
Andrew DeYoung’s 2024 film Friendship a comedy? Corporate suburbanite Craig (SNL alum Tim Robinson) makes fast friends with a new neighbor, local weatherman Austin (Paul Rudd, in congenial liar mode). Austin’s adventurous interests inspire Craig to break out of his persona, almost to the point where Craig seems like he wants to be Austin. After one night gone wrong hanging with Austin’s friends, Craig is suddenly persona non grata in Austin’s universe. As the plot twists, absurdities mount (a missing persons subplot; the appearance of Chekhov’s Gun; “no Marvel spoilers!”), as they do in thrillers such as Single White Female and One Hour Photo. This makes for an extremely uncomfortable view (seemingly a specialty of releasing studio A24), so where is the comedy? Viewers may find it in Friendship’s over-thetop narrative, its actors’ commitments to sly line deliveries, and our own recognition of relations gone wrong. –Submitted by Karl K.
KANDY GRADY
Kandy Grady is a self-taught mixmedia painter from Kalamazoo.
Kandy’s ardent love of color embodies her paintings and collage pieces.
Kandy’s style is eclectic and joyful. She mixes her imaginings of people with nature and animals, to show the connections of exploring identity through social, cultural and religious influences.
Her colorful works of art are on display at the Portage District Library through the end of November.
Kandy Grady can be reached at kgradyartist4life@gmail.com
Tales road FROM THE scotland - part II
By Steve Ellis
In the October issue, I chronicled a recent trip Jackie and I took to Scotland. This second section includes the Outer Hebrides Islands and the trio of towns heading back to Edinburgh.
After spending our day around Loch Ness, we drove to the pretty coastal town of Ullapool to catch the ferry to The Outer Hebrides Islands. With an hour or so to wait, we visited a few shops and had a great fish and chips dinner at Chippy’s, eating outside on a picnic table.
We drove the car onto the large, three-story ferry, and found seats in front of the large windows, with a perfect view of the ocean in front of us. The ferry is more like a luxury liner with restaurants, comfortable seats, etc. Not long after sitting down, we watched a school of dolphins and a whale swimming not far from the ferry. Awe inspiring, to say the least!
The 60 mile ferry ride took about 3 hours. We docked at dusk in Stornoway on the east coast of the Isle of Lewis, the northernmost island of the Outer Hebrides.
We had a 30 mile drive across the is-
land after dark to the very small town of Brager. Our lodging was at Doune Bras Hotel, a charming old school converted into an inn. We enjoyed a quick snack and a beer in the little bar, while chatting with a few other patrons.
We had a great breakfast of porridge and eggs and drove the winding roads to the Gearrannan Blackhouse Village, with nine restored traditional thatched cottages. The cottages were heated by burning chunks of dark black peat moss, cut into squares and dried before burning. Walking down to the rocky beach, we found a small seal pup, trapped on the shore at low tide. Jackie told one of the workers about the stranded seal pup once back in the village.
Just up the street, was a mill making
the famous Harris Tweed. Initially we just walked in and wandered around the large machinery and vats of wool being washed. We poked through a very small area of finished products and when we inquired, were told about a few retail shops in towns we would be visiting.
Down the road were the Callanish Standing Stones consisting of a circle of thirteen stones with a monolith near the middle. The stones are a few thousand years old and have ancient religious significance. The 7’-10’ high stones are said to be buried as deep as they are standing above the ground.
We quickly found that the majority of the roads on the Hebrides are one lane with small pull off’s, to pull into as cars approached. This was a bit
nerve wracking and took a bit of getting used to.
We wound our way down through the Isles of Lewis and Harris, before boarding a half hour ferry to the Isle of North Uist.
Upon arrival, we drove to Lochmaddy, a small fishing village on the east coast. We enjoyed a great fish and chips dinner at our small hotel. Nearby, were several rusty lobster boats resting on their sides in the muck at low tide.
North and South Uist are connected with narrow roads winding through the middle of the islands.The views were absolutely breathtaking, with beautiful blue lakes and sandy beaches, reminiscent of the Caribbean.
Along the way, we stopped at a few distilleries for gifts and visited the Hebrides Museum. We learned that the Black Houses, heated with peat moss, we toured earlier, caused TB and Cholera from the damp walls and black smoke.
We spent the night at the Polochar Inn in Smercleit at the bottom of South Uist.
It is a quiet, remote spot with sandy beaches and large moss-covered rocks. I braved the cold water and took a quick swim before dinner. We had heard previously that reservations may be needed at many inns as food on the islands was limited. After
some gentle prodding of the bartender, we were able to finally get a late dinner consisting of a tasty steak, meat pie and soup.
This location on the western shore, was the perfect spot to end the evening with a gorgeous sunset.
The next morning we took the bridge to Erskey Island. With an hour to kill before the ferry to Barra Island, we walked down a dirt lane to an old abandoned house and saw the wild Eriskay Horses, who paid no attention to us.
On the 45 minute ferry to Barra Island, we met a family who were finishing the famous 185 mile, Hebridean Way bike ride. This trek goes from the northernmost to southernmost tips of the islands.
Upon arrival at Barra Island, we drove to the small airport and watched a 25-passenger plane take off, and land, on the beach at low tide. This was a happening place with a great restaurant and a lively crowd. We witnessed a small private jet get stuck in the wet sand while taxing the beach runway, and the recovery effort.
We stumbled upon giant mounds of large shells everywhere, which was near a canning plant. We stopped to visit with a man, in cow printed
shorts, in the middle of a large pen of sheep. He enjoyed the social interaction and explained the significance of the three or four different colored paint spots on their backs. An older sheep dog stood on close watch, while a younger herd dog was running all around. The man told us, that it was still a pup, and preferred to run around with large pieces of garbage in his mouth, instead of herding sheep.
Another island, another hotel, so we checked into the Craigard Hotel in Castlebay. Our second-floor room had a nice view of the town and ocean.
A few miles from the hotel we spotted a small island, accessible by bridge with a beautiful beach at the base of some mountains. Across the street is a grassy hill packed with large cows. During the day, the cows come down the hill and walk single file through
a gate to lay on the beach in the sun and even swim. Unfortunately, we missed that short window of time, but were told it is quite the spectacle.
The next morning on the ferry heading back to the mainland, we floated past the foreboding Kisimul Castle, dating from the 16th century and accessible only by water. It was abandoned in 1838.
The ferry ride to Oban took about 3 hours. Oban is a resort town, tucked into a perfect horseshoe bay surrounded by classic old buildings.
We ate lunch and toured the Oban Distillery, established in 1794. I had a small dram sample which cost 8 pounds. Jackie browsed many stores, looking for the perfect Harris Tweed
gifts.
After lunch, we drove north along the winding Highlands mountainous road to Kinlochleven. This small town with an early hydroelectric plant and dam, was the first in the world to have every house connected to electricity.
We stayed at the nice Allt-na-Leven Guesthouse and headed next door to the Bothy Bar. A cozy pub on the lower level and a great restaurant with a gorgeous mountain view upstairs. We had a drink in the pub, while waiting for a table upstairs and met many hikers. We learned about the West Highland Way, a 96-mile mountainous trail, running from Glasgow to Ft. William. Most hikers walk the trail in 5-7 days, lodging in villages along the way, with suitcases transported by van. We hiked a few miles of the trail to get a feel for it and saw some small waterfalls along the way.
Our next stop was Ft. William, 25 miles up the narrow, winding road, along Loch Linnhe. We checked into the Crouachan Hotel, a large old stone house overlooking the water.
Ft. William is a bustling tourist town, packed with tired hikers, at the end of their long trek. We loved the brick streets, quant stores and the West Highland Museum. Outside the museum is a full-sized bronze Model T, with Henry Alexander Jr. at the wheel. In 1911, he drove a Model T to the summit of Ben Nevin. At 4,413 feet, it is the highest mountain in all of the U.K.
Heading southeast out of Ft William, takes you through the breathtaking,
bright green Grampian Mountains, with many pull-offs for hiking and pictures.
Along the way, we stopped at a roadside farm, where bags of potatoes and carrots could be purchased, to feed the famous long-haired Highland Cows. What a treat to see them up close and personal.
We toured Dounne Castle, near Stirling, which was one of our favorite castles. It was originally built in the 1300’s. The castle has been restored and was featured in the Game of Thrones TV series and the Monty Python and the Holy Grail movie. While we were there, a large hall was being set up for a 50th anniversary showing of the movie.
Stirling is a hilly medieval city with the Stirling Castle perched high above. We walked to the castle and meandered our way down to Old Stirling past ancient churches and
cemeteries. This is a city that we would love to visit again someday. Our final night was spent in Falkirk, a half hour from Edinburgh.The highlight was Helix Park with its 350-acres of green space, and trails and the Kelpies, which are the largest equine statues in the world. The 100-foot-tall sculptures were built in 2013 and are inspired by shape-shifting creatures in Scottish mythology, said to possess the strength of 100 horses. The walk through this gorgeous park was a great end to our trip.
We loved Scotland and the Outer Hebrides Islands and can’t wait to come back!
