Winter make that Spring! on the Yellow Dog Plains. Deep, deep snow still covers the plains in mid-March, Vernal Equinox — far more snow than elsewhere in Marquette. I skied in with a friend, and we enjoyed several beautiful days in the snug Winter Cabin. During this time, it continued to snow on the plains. All my woodpiles were buried! Triple A was drifted shut west of the Salmon Trout.

Above:  West Bentley Pond in deep snow, March 2013.

Above: Two views of the Winter Cabin, view of the Gleaning, and view of the Triple A road, buried in snow.

From the Mining Journal:

Yellow Dog watercolors displayed

January 21, 2013

MARQUETTE – The exhibit “Greetings from the Yellow Dog!,” featuring watercolor paintings of the Yellow Dog Plains by Kathleen M. Heideman-Rydholm, will be on display throughout February at Babycakes Muffin Co., 223 W. Washington St. in Marquette. Store hours are 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday.

For information, visit babycakesmuffincompany.com

Keweenaw Now: More photos: Idle No More: Returning to Migizii wa sin Eagle Rock.

On December 28, as part of the “Idle No More” call to reclaim sacred places across North America, I was privileged to participate in a trip to Eagle Rock, a sacred site on the Yellow Dog Plains. A few images from that wonderful day:

One rotten branch from the great oak on the corner came down during the storm, but nothing was damaged, and the snow was truly beautiful!

A few days ago, my mom visited Upper Michigan to celebrate my b-day with a cold-weather trip up to camp on the Yellow Dog Plains. Inspired by the photo of a “blueberry twig wreath” I’d seen, we harvested a wheelbarrow full of wild blueberry branches, and then sat together in the late-October sun, quietly weaving them into wreaths. A terrific mother-daughter craft project! The wreath is already hanging on my door, a winter reminder of that remote landscape I love.

Fresh from the press: a new postcard depicting my 2012 watercolor, “Marsh Lake Wetlands.”

“Marsh Lake” is the nickname for a lovely, remote lake in the Yellow Dog Plains watershed. No roads lead to it, so it remains seemingly timeless and unaffected by humans, although because it is a shallow wetlands-fed lake, it is also vulnerable to larger surrounding issues of commercial forestry, climate change (drought) and mineral exploitation in the area. Still… it remains a spot where eagle feathers collect beneath a great sentinel pine, beaver lodges dot the water, and moose groom the trails. Next year, I plan to camp along that quiet shoreline.

PS: Am I the only one who still loves sending and receiving handwritten postcards? One wonders how long the post office will bother selling postcard stamps in a world where most images are sent as bundled pixels…

On the eve of the Winter Solstice, 2011, our friend W. W. passed away after a year of home hospice, and we inherited his small brick home in Marquette. Despite a long list of decades-overdue home maintenance projects, the cottage is quaint, historic (1870), and perfectly situated in the heart of Marquette. Since January, I’ve been working hard at TLC renovations and updates for this house, which will now be my writing studio, office and painting studio space, and serve as our guest house when out-of-state family and friends visit. Lots of work but loving it! Select photos below; a full set of progress pics are on Flickr: Guest House Studio. PS: the new exterior color is called “Ancient Copper.” Love it!

Fresh from the press: new postcards featuring my watercolor “Arbutus Pond at Dawn, Yellow Dog Plains” — these gems are vivid, high-resolution, offset-printed reproductions (with a UV coating to protect the surface from scratches). Ready for scrawled-messages-from-the-heart and postcard stamps! I’m just thrilled with them.