Musings

Note horse shoes…of course, with ends up (to preserve our luck)…these are winter shoes, with extra protuberances and cleats.

Here are the slabs we kept from the giant white pine that had to be…downed. I am glad we have them; I had despaired that we would find someone to cut it up. (Sooooo glad the tide turned on that problem! Thanks, DM!) The wood needs to dry for another year or so. The pieces are now stickered so that the air flow will help them dry, but also we hope allow them not to split (much). Not sure what exactly we’ll do with these fine slabs, but there’s talk of (substantial!) tables, including for the “new” fire-pit activity area.

We moved the slabs with our trusty contractor’s wheelbarrow (balance is sooooooo important), using puff-puff human power. Part of the route wasn’t mowed as wide as the long slabs, and we gently knocked over these sweet peas to make room, which is why they’re sideways. They lost stature, but we managed to avoid crushing them….

Posted at 5:39 PM | Comments Off on Stickered, aging

With permission, I raided the hunter-gatherer-horticulturalist-gardener neighbors’ potato supply that wintered over, and took two plants of this year’s cilantro. They went into a Columbian version of potato salad, you might say, with the dressing not vinegar and oil based, but instead salsa (more or less). With the fresh cilantro leaves torn and artfully adorning the bowl. Secret ingredient: the whole was augmented with some chèvre soft goat cheese….

Had to add this photo of the corner of the stacked-log playhouse. Have lost track of what’s in there these days. Besides spiders….

Posted at 10:17 PM | 1 Comment »

Every now and again, an odor awakens me. Maybe I’m not as soundly asleep as I think and something else is going on, but that strikes me as a pattern. However, it’s not often, so I may well be mistaken. This morning I woke up and I smelled skunk. I think one was trundling about near the house. Pfft. Stinky. But muted stinky. I laid awake for a while trying to decide if the smell was fading. When I was sure it was, I got up.

I walked the shoreline in the later afternoon, although at this date and latitude the sun remains high despite the time. I checked how many branches had disappeared from the dead white birch on the point that the eagle favors. No eagle; there are still protruding branches, but less so than even last year. While walking, I found only one leech. One swimming, that is. I also found a second one, limp and white-grey, with the business end missing(!?); don’t know how that happened.

We host, at minimum, hundreds of milkweeds in the field and orchard here. They are valued by the nature-oriented as hosts of the monarch butterflies. I have mixed feelings, not about having SOME milkweeds, but about having so many. Anyway, their buds are just starting to open. Here is a set that hasn’t quite yet split. The shade of dusky pink of the bud-husks is lovely.

Posted at 7:37 PM | Comments Off on Nature footnotes

Even if you’ve been in this space, you probably don’t recognize it.

This is the entry area of the back porch. Which is the back porch if you think of the side of the cottage facing the water as the front. If, however, you think of the main entry/door as the front, it’s the front porch—there’s only one door to the whole building.

In either case, we’ve added new rugs, indoor/outdoor that can be taken outdoors and hosed off for a serious cleaning. We also brought the long chest in the back right downstairs to make a seating area for shoe removal/replacement. So that’s new to the porch. I love the shade of blue of the box and the oxblood lid. I think my dad (not a woodworker by preference) made it for blanket storage and as a linen closet. It’s been years since we used it that way, however. It IS rodent-proof.

We’ve also begun reorganizing the functional activity areas farther back on the porch. More on that to come.

Posted at 7:17 PM | 3 Comments »

Sometimes, in the changing of the guard and the ebb and flow of inhabitants here, there’s no real evidence of change, except the people are gone. Here are watchdog chairs, awaiting the return of their masters. If anthropomorphized.

In contrast to yesterday’s crashing surf, the breeze today came from a different angle, and the dock was, essentially, becalmed. Still, I looked for leeches. None near the lake-edge.

I didn’t go in to look farther (and tempt fate).

Posted at 10:25 PM | Comments Off on Human-scale, temporary

Before the rain arrived in late afternoon, I went down to the beach. See how the sky is already anticipating the incipient precipitation?

The wind has kicked up the waves, and they are toying with the dock. Love the bubbled, lacy look of the thin and thinning leading-edge of the wave on the sand-shore. It’s only there a heartbeat before gravity triumphs, and the cycle launches again.

As I was returning to the cottage, I discovered this moth artfully resting on a daisy. If I’d paid more attention I would have gotten a less blurry shot.

Posted at 6:24 PM | 1 Comment »

Short version: I can see Canada from my friends’ beach.

Another short version: Corps of Engineers logo detail. War Department, I think the text amplified.

Yikes.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Reality detail

Without looking at a specimen, there was quite some discussion among a subset of partiers this evening about this plant. Several of us went to actually look at it, thinking that might help (haha). I wasn’t sure, but comparing this photo to my wildflower book just now, I’m thinking cow parsnip. I’ll chat with the others about their conclusions in a day or two after they have had time with their reference materials….

This one’s easy however: a yellow goatsbeard (or perhaps a different Tragopogon spp.) that’s gone to seed. Or to fruit, technically. Confusing.

Posted at 10:47 PM | Comments Off on Detangling botany

The overt reason for our car/woods-jaunt was to pick up our mis-delivered rugs (back porch is coming UP in the world!). Vendor’s screwup, and John negotiated refund of shipping costs, and we’re fine with the outcome. And the new look!

We ended up hither and yon along one section of the Tahquamenon swamp, then touring Laketon, a ghost town (takes only a minute). We even crossed the river on a wood-decked span I’m sure would have been labeled “WEAK BRIDGE” in the Brit Isles.

Found this wee fur-bearer at Eagle’s Nest/Eagle Nest. Naming doesn’t match. I know s/he is NOT an eagle. We’re thinking weasel relative…?

Our critter count also included gulls (of course), LBBs*, a doe and pair of fawns, and a 4-point buck (running FAST).

All that plus new rugs, yes!

Posted at 7:20 PM | Comments Off on Quotidian and novel

From one perspective, the headline today is that the rhubarb is coming back. The llama poop treatment worked. The crowns still need TLC (on my chore list—knock the surrounding weeds back!! Let there be light!), but progress is happening. This may be the year’s only picking…the plant is a quarter to a third as robust as it should be.

These plants make the deepest darkest reddest rhubarb sauce I’ve ever seen. Sooooooo satisfying.

We threw ourselves into prep, cleaning and food, and turned out a fine meal for six, yum, rather proud of ourselves. Very good time!

Served the rhubarb sauce over ice cream for dessert….

Posted at 10:22 PM | 1 Comment »