Yo, spring! ... Hurry up will ya?

If you'll pardon my whining for one moment... I'm sick of winter! I'm tired of the cold, gray, slushy, snowy, icy, cold, and gray. I'm ready to say goodbye to the hats, boots, coats, mittens and scarves. And I'm really fed up with the chapped lips, runny noses, coughs, and stomach flus that are everywhere.

That must be why I felt so very happy when I saw three sure signs of spring:

1) Gigi's Flowers has a colorful pastel display in their front window in anticipation of Easter

2) Twisters Ice Cream (next to Pierce Park on Main St.) is now open. Despite the 23 degree weather today, I even saw a few eager customers in the parking lot this afternoon.

3) The Garden Mill is having their annual spring open house this weekend (March 1 and March 2)

I can't think of a better way to cheer a dreary winter mood than to go shopping at the Garden Mill. The optimism that comes with buying seeds, hand painted planters, a rustic piece of art for the yard... Knowing that *this* year will be the one where I have all the time and resources to make the garden and yard look like the magazine cover I see in my mind. (Yeah, yeah, don't burst my bubble just yet.)

They printed a great article about getting your bird feeders cleaned and ready for spring in their recent newsletter. With their permission, I will be providing that information here tomorrow.

Happy Leap Day! Spring will be here soon, my friends. :)

Happy birthday to Cranesbill Books!

One of my favorite stores in town, Cranesbill Books, is celebrating their 4th anniversary this weekend. They will be having special guests, live music, a variety of activities and yummy food. Be sure to check it out!

ALSO SEE:
"Four Years and Counting" (Cranesbill Chronicle Blog) - Janet Loveland, owner of Cranesbill Books, reminisces about the store's first days and invites you to the celebration weekend.

In addition to planning their own birthday party, the folks over at Cranesbill have been busy, busy, busy planning other a full line up of activities for the spring. I could write the longest blog post ever if I listed them all here, so here is a brief summary what's going on at the store in the coming months:

• Cranesbill's anniversary celebration begins the evening of February 29 at 7 p.m. and continues throughout the day and evening on Saturday, March 1.
• Friday Night Film Screenings begin Feb. 29 at 7 p.m. in Cranesbill newly revamped second floor, and happen every Friday night through May. Topics include family films, fun films, thought-provoking films, old classics and more.
  
• Mom's Night Out - a new on-going event with a different topic each month. March will be "women business owners" and yours truly will be there to help represent that demographic in the Chelsea community.
  
• Monthly themes with special activities and store events. March is "Dummies" month.
• Canine Corps is a newly formed group for people who love their dogs. In case you didn't already know this tidbit, one of Cranesbill's familiar faces is Jeremy Montange who is a professional dog trainer and is sometimes referred to as Chelsea's very own 'dog 'whisperer'.
  

And in Other News....
There has been a huge influx of spring events recently added to the Things To Do In Chelsea website in the last couple weeks. I'm busily making my way through the stack and am getting really excited about all the neat things going on in town.

Tomorrow, I'll be posting about another of my favorite stores, The Garden Mill. They are also celebrating this weekend with their annual open house.

Be sure to check out all the happenings the library this month. The annual Chelsea Reads Together program began this week. The topic is Immigration: The Shaping of America. That too, deserves it's own blog commentary. But in the meantime, you can find all the details on the Chelsea Reads Together page on the library's website.

Sounds like Saturday will be a good day to meander around downtown Chelsea. :)

The flu bug strikes again... hot toddy to the rescue

When you hear about the flu outbreak in Michigan on the news, you nod your head and feel sympathetic. When you hear about a 'bug going around' your kid's school or at the office, you cross your fingers. When you suddenly feel like a truck hit you, and would rather lay on the couch than win a million dollars... well, then you really got it.

This has been a rough winter for a lot of us. My family has passed around some yucky week-long thing around at least twice --- hence my disappearance from the blog for long stretches. Inevitably, the four of us get it consecutively, so one cold or flu lasts a month in our house. It seems like there hasn't yet been a full week this winter that we have all been healthy. At this point, we all feel ok but there is a lingering cough -- which is difficult to tell whether it's the end of the last illness, or the beginning of a new one. Many of my friends are in the same boat. Either way, I'm ready for spring!

One of our age-old family recipes has been named "Grammy Medicine". This easy spin on a traditional hot toddy goes like this:

1/4 cup Jack Daniels
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup lemon juice (fresh is best, but the bottled stuff will do in a pinch)

Mix thoroughly. Take by the tablespoon, or add a portion to a mug, add hot water and sip slowly. If you are drinking it hot, this recipe will make about 3-4 servings, depending on how strong you like it. Keep in the fridge between "doses".

If you do not want to use the alcohol, then just mix up a recipe of equal parts of fresh lemon juice and honey and add to hot water.

All the ingredients work together to help you feel better -- one way or another! The lemon helps break up congestion and adds vitamin C, the honey soothes a sore throat and cough, and the booze helps you get what is needed most: sleep.

Anyone else get more than their fair share of it this winter? What do you do to care for yourself when it hits?

Chelsea, Michigan highlighted in Business Week magazine

Chelsea was recently named the "Best Affordable" suburb in Michigan. The ranking comes from Business Week magazine, in a series of "best of 2007" feature articles in their real estate section. I first heard the news in a recent chat with the Chelsea Area Chamber of Commerce, and it was also reported in the Ann Arbor News last week.

Here are some links to follow to learn more:

• Best Affordable Suburbs in 2007 - "State by state, the most affordable suburbs that offer the lowest crime rate, finest schools, and best quality of life for the dollar" (Business Week, 12/13/07). This link takes you to a BusinessWeek.com slide show. The mention of Chelsea, Mich. is found on slide number 23.
  
  (Editor's note: I noticed they list population of Chelsea as 13,000+. The population of the city of Chelsea is closer to 6,000, so perhaps this number refers to the Chelsea School District, which includes the city of Chelsea, plus Lima, Lyndon, Sylvan and other surrounding townships. [see Chelsea School District map - PDF file]
  

• Chelsea named best affordable suburb in Michigan (Ann Arbor News, 1/31/08)

Also of interest
Another article Business Week did at the end of last year was the Best Places to Raise Your Kids. There were three towns in Michigan on the list: Douglas, Haslett and Galesburg. And a whole bunch of places in Nebraska. [see slide show on BusinessWeek.com]

Moving to Chelsea?
For anyone who is researching our town or considering moving here, be assured that there is certainly a great range of affordable homes in Chelsea. [See also: Real estate information in Chelsea, MI].You can find many homes for well under $200K as well as those on the other side of $500K, and everywhere in between. What is most interesting to me is the variety of home styles available in a relatively small area. I grew up in a true suburb, where your choice is 2-story or ranch, garage on the left or on the right.

Here in Chelsea, there are historic homes, brand new homes in subdivisions, lake front properties, homes within walking distance of downtown, homes out in the countryside or woods, and just about everything you can think of (well... except for "big city" living. We are a small town, after all). Great school district, award winning library, nice people, active community.

If you are thinking of moving to our area, you are welcome to email me. I can refer you to many useful resources. If you have specific questions about buying or selling your home, I'd suggest you contact real estate agent Richard Taylor here in Chelsea.

What do you think?
Of course, I agree that Chelsea is a great place to live. I don't know that I entirely agree with Business Week's interpretation of "affordable" -- for instance, can a person earning $73, 690 comfortably afford a house that cost $274K? (I honestly don't know the answer to this, which is why I'm asking.) Perhaps that's why they call it the "best affordable" as opposed to the "most affordable". Admittedly, I am always skeptical of how statistics are gathered and reported in feature articles.

What do you make of these rankings?