October

Fall is a beautiful season, with it's multi-colored landscapes and sometimes surprises of Fall-blooming flowers, like these saffron crocuses that popped up long after it's leaves were gone, making one think the plants had died.

The sun, sinking lower into the horizon finds new ways to highlight dying grasses and milkweed fronds.

But our highlight event this October was Lee's sponsorship of Martha Teischner to be inducted into the Michigan Womens' Hall of Fame.

Martha, a CBS correspondent, is a Michigan native born in Traverse City. You can read all about her and see why Lee nominated her for inclusion in the Michigan Womens' Hall of Fame here: https://www.cbsnews.com/team/martha-teichner/
and read about the Michigan Womens' Hall of Fame here: https://miwf.org

November

Dot has a new cat. When we donated to a wildlife fund, one of the benefits was to select an oversized stuffed animal. Since Dot always says she "wants one" when she sees any wild cats in nature shows, Lee chose this snow leopard for her.

Lee found himself at McLaren Hospital twice during this time. He had severe stomach pain that just wouldn't go away. The first time he was there, after a raft of scans and tests, they sent him home with instructions to consult his primary care physician and do a follow up scan in a month or so. A few days later, the pain returned, so he went back to McLaren. They were about filled up with Covid patients, so he never did see a physician. The Nurse PA that saw him (after scans and tests) gave him several prescriptions and sent him home. He decided he'd better get his hernia taken care of, so that is what he is now scheduling.

December

November sunset

Once all the leaves were down, picked up and removed from our yard, Lee wanted a photo of how nice and clean the property looks before the snows come.

December did grace us with some beautiful sunsets. Here are a few of them.

And so concludes our year.

Lest you think, though, that all we did was watch the changing seasons in our yard, here is the list of most of the articles that Lee had published this year. This meant many many many hours of searching on-line since all the libraries and archives have been closed since March, and many grueling hours of writing, and agonizing over every word written:

Grand Rapids Press, 19 January

Michigan History Magazine, Jan.-Feb.

History Explorer, March-April

Michigan History Magazine, March-April

L'Anse Sentinel, 29 April, 6 May and 13 May

Michigan History Magazine, May-June

Chronicle, Summer

Michigan History Magazine, Sept.-Oct.

Chronicle, Fall

Michigan History Magazine, Nov.-Dec.

Although March saw the end of orchid shows and, for the most part, judging of orchids at the Great Lakes and Cincinnati Judging Centers and almost all venues for showing orchids, Dot did manage to receive a few awards before Covid shut down judging:

Phragmipedium Fox Valley Fireball 'Wacousta' FCC/AOS January, 2020

Paphiopedilum Deena Nicol 'Black Eye' AM/AOS February, 2020
Paphiopedilum Deena Nicol 'Black Eye' CCM/AOS February, 2020

Paphiopedilum Spidermaster 'Wacousta' AM/AOS June, 2020

We would like to give a special thanks to the Oster Family, who helped us with a very difficult situation on the Potter Family Farm this year. Their help was invaluable to us.