My birthday lunch celebrated with faithful dogs.

The cold waters of "winter" Lake Huron retard the warming of springtime along the shore. Spring flowers arrive later here. The reverse is true in the fall: the warmer waters of "summer" Lake Huron retard the cooling of autumn's lake shore. Fall flowers last longer. It's a trade off. Some flowers of iris, crocus, winter aconites, spring flowering colchicums on the lake shore finally follow spring flowers in the Thumb's interior regions. Clicking on photos will enlarge them,