MICHIGAN THEATRE FRANKENFEST!!! OCTOBER 31st 2013!!! THE WALKING DEAD OCT. 13th!!!!

Creep Theater presents Frankenfest!!!!  A fun event for Halloween that doesn't involve soliciting strangers for sweets, which means it's a heck of a lot safer for children than trick or treating.  The three movies being shown are old classic Boris Karloff Frankenstein "horror" films.  There is to be a costume contest, with prizes (some of which i can imagine will be "funny" prizes).  Count Spatula will be making an appearance as well.  This is going to be a good ole fashioned small town theatre fun time.  Bring the kids, bring the grandparents, hell, bring yourself! 




Now, there's also an event on October 13th (a Sunday), this event will be showing THE WALKING DEAD, yes THE WALKING DEAD season 4 premiere on the big screen.  You can dress up as your favorite character or as a zombie and there will be a possibility of PRIZE WINNING for those in costume!!!  This is a rare event for this little town, getting to see THE WALKING DEAD in the theater, so get your butts over to the Michigan Theatre on Oct. 13th 2013!!!

Some More Jackson Scenery 2012 and Tips for Raspberry Gathering

Recently at Cascades Park they have added an "urban fishery". There's a gazebo style building, a dock, various concrete rocks that reach into the new pond area, and a bunch of new concrete paths and sidewalks. All the water pictures in this post will be from the "urban fishery". The woodland photos were taken this spring in Ella Sharp park. Ella Sharp park has just oodles and oodles of raspberry bushes throughout its woods. If you're a raspberry fan and don't mind getting eaten alive by mosquitoes during your pursuit of fresh fruit, i recommend taking a basket over to the park during mid to late July through mid August. Most people don't want to brave the mosquitoes so the raspberries often will be left to continue to grow. Always wash the fruit once you get it home though, and i mean WASH, not rinse. Buy a fruit/veggie wash in the natural food section of the grocery store. There's a lot of animals and a few dirty people (we found an old mattress being used as a bed, a garbage stash, human poo, etc in the woods, so beware!) that go through the woods. So WASH whatever you bring home from there.

Jackson's Ella Sharp Park-Autumn

Autumn in Michigan is a beautiful time and Jackson's landscape is no exception to that fact. While we don't have the stunning woodland beauty of the U.P. (upper peninsula), we do have areas where the colours of the trees can be captured in all their stunning glory. One of these locations is Ella Sharp park, which boasts a generous collection of woodland trails that just call out to the outdoor enthusaist. Photographers love the location for it's scenic beauty, writers love it for it's seclusion and history, and hikers love it for it's terrain and closeness to town.

While these photos have been taken a bit late in the fall, there's still an interesting, quiet loveliness to them.

It's mid-November and Michigan is on the edge of winter. Here we see the transition. Some green leaves still cling to trees while other brown leaves have given up and fallen to coat the floor of the woods. Tall pine trees sway in the light breeze, patiently waiting for winter.The smells are intoxicating; pine mixing with the wet smell of leaves and soil fill the nostrils with a vague sense of nostalgia. Memories of times past come rushing back. The wind calls to you, telling you that this is where you belong, this is where you should be. It's a time to walk in peace, to meditate.
Green moss, kept colourful by unseasonable warmth, still covers the fallen and the dead. It's a last glimpse of life before cold white covers everything.
Those of us who live in the northern States and the mountains get to enjoy this almost every year. It's a lovely gift from nature, the chance to see the change in all the seasons. But Michigan is truly one of the most gifted, with farm lands, forests, swamps, cities and inland seas to show us the stunning difference in ecosystems, in life in general. You might get this beauty in Maine, maybe Massachusettes, maybe.



If you ever visit Michigan, i recommend coming in the fall, around the 20th of October (for the lower part of the state, the further north you get the ealier in the autumn you should come). That's when we get all the colours in the trees (usually). Also, give Jackson a good look if you're in the lower part of the state. When you arrive, Jackson might not seem like much, but it's a little town rich in history and if you know where to look, it's also rich in beauty. There was a time Jackson was a bustling city filled with factories and a prosperous downtown, while all that's since gone downhill, there is still the history.

The Jackson County Fair

Jackson, Michigan hosts a very fine local fair every year. The fair includes rides, animal exhibits, art judging, veggie and culinary judging and damn good vendor food. Below are pictures that show the interesting areas of the fair and their descriptions:











The main fair building houses all the art projects, culinary projects, veggies and antiques for judging and show. Inside the building, a beautiful indoor waterfall and garden greets people as they walk in.













The water flows along down a small indoor creek and then (i believe) is recirculated back up to the waterfall.












During the fair 4H kids show off their animals and hope for a ribbon and a chance to sell them. Bunnies are always one of the more popular animals. This year, the rabbits were housed with the roosters and turkeys. Most of the bunnies were sleeping when I went in to take pictures but this little guy was awake so i snapped a quick one of him before he could move.



This horse's sign on the stall said that he MAY bite. It never ceases to amaze me all the dim people who will pet the horses anyway. Many flocked over to pet this horse and even let their kids pet him. They were lucky he was in a good friendly mood. When a sign says an animal may bite, it usually means you should keep your hands away from it. Anywhoo, the horses were absolutely beautiful and ranged in size from large/tall to shorter than me. Unfortunately I didn't see any draft horses this year (they're my favourites). The economy might be to blame for some missing breeds of horse, cow, rooster, and bunny. The animals weren't selling for as much this year.


This here is the Midway, where the majority of the food vendors, rides and games are. It looks a bit quiet here because my boyfriend and I got to the fair real early so we could beat the heat. Admission was a reasonably low price but for an all-day ride bracelet, the price skyrocketed to $18 per person. We opted not to ride the rides.
The food is usually pretty good at the fair. The french fries are the absolute best and they offer vinegar, salt and ketchup to put on them. The elephant ears are also superb as are the Philly steak and cheese sandwiches.

Along with food vendors, there's minny shops and political/religious information tables. This picture here was taken at one of the more impressive shop tables. The woman tending to the table was somewhat hippy like, much like what she was selling. She had upteen some odd Buddha figures for sale, glass and cermaic dragons, various hippyish clothing items and countless other things.
My poor boyfriend was roped into a small lecture by a Baptist Religion table attendee. He left the table with a bit of literature on the Baptist beliefs and a strange awkward feeling. Amongst the other tables for religion and politics were the Democratic table, the Republican table, and the Right to Life table (they hand out disturbing pink plastic fetus figures to anyone and everyone who looks at them).

And that was my journey to the fair this year. I'll post the rest of my pictures from the fair later on in another post. Most of those pics are horses, cows, and randomness.