Musings

The other day I mentioned that we have a reasonably prolific pear tomato. Yesterday I mused about anthropomophizing in my interior landscape.

These trends continue today…

Perhaps I’m simple, but this sure looks like a golden pear tomato cowboy to me. Jaunty and all.

Like the green hat?

Let’s see, I was going to post a picture of a wood duck, in profile, nicely sunlit, taken down at the park. But.

But the camera or the customized photo transfer software/script captured the pictures and put them, um, nowhere. The Guru is standing by to tweak the problem. When we do the next download.

In the meantime, he’s distracted me by noting this brand new camera from Canon, the PowerShot SX20 IS, which sounds pretty cool. Of course, our current camera is mighty cool; it’s a Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3 we bought earlier this year.

Posted at 4:01 PM | Comments Off on Where’s my horse?

We’ve had enough precip that we’re experiencing another crop of fungi. These two are crowding each other, inspiring anthropomorphized captions in my head….

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on He ain’t heavy…

A garden spider is guarding our tomatoes. We did manage to harvest a bunch of the golden pear tomatoes (which, I understand, are a variety of cherry tomato) without disturbing her (males are tiny in comparison).

WikiPee says garden spiders are Argiope aurantia, and they’re native to the New World. It also says their webs are 2-8 feet off the ground. This one was just above the ground, however, and in a very protected place.

These spiders are large (or at least the females are) and make large webs, so they’re fun to photograph.

I don’t know what the deal is with the zig-zag white line through the middle of the web, which has the fancy name of stabilimentum (plural: stabilimenta), apparently because somebody thought it reinforced the web, although the function continues to be debated.

* Apologies to Sir Walter Scott, but this web is not tangled….

Posted at 11:40 AM | Comments Off on Untangled web*

In honor of the 52nd Annual Bridge Walk* today, we perambulated to Piedmont Park and made enough circuits and detours to approximate (exceed, actually) the five miles it takes to cross the Mackinac Bridge.

* Note: playing tag (?) while on the Bridge Walk is not permitted. We didn’t play tag either.

Posted at 10:22 PM | 1 Comment »

Soon after I took yesterday’s picture, the pumpkin vine* transported to the compost pile next door. Today’s picture, incidentally, is from a year ago exactly—’tis the season?—and is not of the fruit of that vine, which seems to have been sterile.

NB: The squash/pumpkin genus is Cucurbita, and Cucurbitas are native to the New World.

Posted at 7:36 PM | Comments Off on Cucurbita memories

The pumpkin vine that’s been creeping across our driveway has withdrawn, apparently from various maladies. This leaf is weighed down with many bugs, including what looks like a variety of ladybug and a yellow-green, spiny-looking insect. I think part of the rest of the plant was laid low by some kind of wilt, which I guess could be caused by either a bacteria or a fungi. Sadly, this plant never set any fruit (i.e., pumpkins), and we don’t really know why.

We’re left with the typical farmer response: try again next year.

The Botanist observed that if you are working in your garden, particularly when the plants are still moist in the morning, you can transfer infection from one plant to another down the rows. This was a single plant, however, and how it became infected will remain a mystery.

Posted at 5:31 PM | 1 Comment »

We left amidst moderately dense groundfog across southern Michigan and northwestern Ohio. This down in Ohio, with the rising sun across the fields. Fortunately, we saw no accidents, but it was soupy enough that I thought it a bit dangerous. We stayed off the Interstate, routing via Ottawa, and I don’t know if that was wiser or not.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Foggy morn, late summer, Ohio

I just discovered, if WikiPee is correct, that Cosmos are native to the New World, but I’ve only ever noticed it in gardens.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Cosmos (the flower)

We crossed the Mackinac Bridge this morning, in bright sunshine unlike our most recent southbound crossings, when it was rainy. We saw many crews busy with activities that were often unclear as we zoomed by. I assume they’re preparing for the famous Mackinac Bridge Walk, which has been held every Labor Day since 1958, the first after the Bridge opened, and the only time people can walk across. Some lucky people also get a chance to run across, I hear….

Posted at 10:22 PM | 2 Comments »

We’ve been purging over the last two days. Purging the cottage, that is. I won’t go into details about what has been removed, but it’s almost all junk, and The Guru managed to stack the back of the Explorer full, and we drove it to the “Transfer Station.” They weigh you, your vehicle, and the junque before and after you dump, and that’s how they charge you. We dumped 200 lbs—which cost $14 and change—and we are so happy to be rid of it!

This exercise once again reveals some of the contours of the back, or utility, porch (not yet swept in this photo). The blue cabinet was always called the canning cabinet by Mom, but we never did canning up here, so we only had empty jars and the like in it. When she and Dad lived here year-round, I’m sure it was then stacked carefully with multicolored full Mason jars—food for the long winter, you know.

Posted at 2:42 PM | 2 Comments »