Musings

Since we drove up the Woods Machine, we felt compelled to play hooky from chores and head for the creeks, ponds, lakes, rivers, and forests of the northland. In this lake we found a fine downed log with a half-dozen turtles aboard, their shells blue-black and shiny in the sun.

In the woods we found many of these. I had to look them up: bluebead lily. I have seen the blue fruits/seeds later in the summer, but never associated a flower with them. It’s about time!

We saw several of these showy orchids, pink lady’s slippers. We also saw a single group of small white lady’s slippers. I don’t remember seeing them before. Did we miss more?

I have no recollection of seeing or looking up these distinctive flowers. We saw just one cluster. If I have identified it correctly, it is in the milkwort family (rural folk thought consuming them would up milk production—in humans and cattle), and is Polygala paucifolia, commonly called fringed polygala or gaywings. Neither term is familiar. My guide notes that its bloom “resembles a tiny airplane without a tail;” not sure I would have made that observation….

Posted at 7:19 PM | Comments Off on Learning curve

This fern offers a high level of symmetry and many repeated patterns. So green; so fine—and flanking the entry walkway…I can see the daily growth….

This brilliant red hibiscus is from the neighbor’s garden (thank you!), and offers symmetry through the pair of lily-of-the-valley stems (mostly, not entirely).

The plant world offers both symmetry and asymmetry. And colors—look at that lovely green and the lavish (fulsome?), lively crimson….

Posted at 9:42 PM | Comments Off on Botanical (a)symmetry

The barrel is now in place awaiting rain. I see the playhouse looks…unattended…from this angle….

The late-day sun highlights the woods; you can see these trees are almost fully leafed out. I expect that up at Lake Superior, the trees are less leafed out.

The trilliums are still in bloom on the forest floor, but are reaching the end of their flower-phase. Here’s a lousy photo….

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Angles

Here’s the ___ River at Mead Creek. In my distracted mind, it’s the Fox River and a few miles and more bends downstream from where Hemingway had Nick Adams fish. But it’s not the Fox. Well, Nick Adams didn’t exist, either….

A cluster of birches on the bluff above “our” lake…sturdy against the wind. This morning was a bit rainy (and the landscape needs the rain—dry spring), and the afternoon turned into clear and windy.

And the wind piled the waves inshore…but not as far as I had feared. The beach is holding its own….

This isn’t truly water, only a reflection in the brass chest my uncle made. Looks rather like water, however….

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Water notes

Right out my back door: forget-me-nots (knots? haha) and a trillium. Plus bracken ferns (not in photo). Lovely.

And in the orchard: a strolling sandhill crane (brown object in photo center).

Just out the neighbors’ back door: giant apple petals scattered on the lilies-of-the-valley.

Short version: whatta special place, here where the road ends at the lake.

Posted at 9:39 PM | Comments Off on What a neighborhood!

You know if this was your neighborhood, you’d sure shop sometimes at Kimmy’s Korner Groc.

Silo sentinels of the Midwest often flank barns, but not all are dilapidated and deteriorating, like this specimen.

What is not in this photo is a modest-sized drone far above…a backhoe and a drone witnessing latrine use…glad I was on the sidelines.

Orchid in window-still-life. Very welcoming. (Thnx.)

Posted at 10:45 PM | Comments Off on Midwest glimpses

Out and about before the sun fully rose, and I spotted the moon above the roofs, and (apparently) below the service wires. Yawn.

Still out and about as dusk set in, different place, different sky. Enjoying the pink glow and the cloud-shapes.

Posted at 10:22 AM | Comments Off on Eye on the sky

As I looped by the firehouse early this morning, I saw this news crew (well, two men) setting up for (I assume) a live-shot. The other guy was moving the “Vote Here ➔” sign to a…better location for the camera angle. I didn’t know this is a voting location….

Later, when walked to our polling place, I found this planter-chair. Viny. Or ivy-y.

More art just up the block: a wire-frame lizard, with an errant earring in its mouth. On the roof of a non-bird house.

Posted at 7:17 PM | Comments Off on Voting adventures

I’ve been seeing lilies for days, and this is one of the most dramatic—bicolor with maroon and yellow. Do not make this the basis of your wardrobe….

Now, orange doesn’t really go with the above, but heck, it’s dramatic, too, so here ya are.

Posted at 7:40 PM | 2 Comments »

Half an urn is better than nothing?

Manuel’s Tavern is being remodeled. At present, the windows gape and the interior walls are tattered. A worker abandoned a cup on the windowsill. We await the Tavern’s rebirth.

Posted at 9:47 PM | 1 Comment »