Musings

Was it an excursion to check on our beach’s wooden Nessie? Soaking in the sand today….

Just after lunch we left the property to check on the leaf color and get out of the house.

Just as we got to Eagles Nest, the sun came out for the first time! Yay! Gamed the sunshine! It didn’t linger.

We drove on past the Big Fill (didn’t stop) and Lavender Corners (only stopped at the stop sign; it’s a ghost town now).

At Seney we made a detour up to the campground to check on the Fox River. I looked for a sign saying Ernest Hemingway fished here. None. I would also have been happy with an Ernest Hemingway fished here sign. Nada.

Needed the wood stove today, but right at the moment we have windows open for a few minutes because it’s kicking out way too much heat. Not enough; too much. The dance of life?

Posted at 7:29 PM | Comments Off on Two excursions

I persuaded my lazy feet to take me down to the beach…and didn’t expect the waves to be this quiet. North wind. And the widest beach I’ve seen in a while, perhaps more than a coon’s age—how long do they live???

Then, I looked off the dock and saw this clam track. I don’t know what the bio-folk call this, but it’s where a clam has plowed along through the sand on the bottom of the lake, near enough to shore that I can see it. I assume the clam was feeding? Dunno. My ignorance is vast.

And, next to the house, the barberry berries are transforming from green through red-gold, segueing toward red.

Sit back on your heels and exhale. Full autumn is on the way. Given that the “sun” porch temp reached no higher than 55°F, you know that northern autumn is fully present.

Posted at 9:02 PM | Comments Off on Stay tuned

We monitored the progress of the fall color during a drive, ultimately to Paradise. Where we lunched. Mmmmm.

Here’s a mini-panorama of the Upper Falls*. Always find the roar of the water stimulates a mellowing of my mind….

At the Lower Falls, Droney captured some lovely impressionistic moments…. [Settings adjustments now underway, as I understand it.]

And now that we’re back at the Farm, the sun is out and the porch is nicely warmed.

* Of the Tahquamenon (River), of course. Sign reminds: rhymes with phenomenon.

Posted at 5:40 PM | Comments Off on Lunch in Paradise

I remember (have I already remembered this on these pages???) my dad slicing thick slabs of ready-to-saute puffball steaks. The puffballs were at about this stage.

I looked. I thought about the culinary challenge.

I punted.

We had leftovers, and the puffball stayed in the wild.

Tomorrow? 😀 😍 😩 🤩 😜 🤭

Posted at 8:55 PM | Comments Off on Watching the timeline

One big to-do from our 2018 list has been: get garage roof re-done. We were despairing as we talked to the roofer (second job), starting in, was it February?, and, just weren’t connecting. We talked to him yesterday, and he said, geeze, kinda late in the year for me to have a window given the weather, blah-blah, so, geeze. Then, his boss said, no work tomorrow (meaning today), so presto, we were on the possible list and very excited! Then, the morning was solid overcast and rainy and not workable roofing weather. The guys came, then went to breakfast, returning later. By the time the day was over, howEVER, we have a complete new roof, all done! Ready for winter. Yay!

Now waiting for the call-back from the siding painting guy…. [There’s always something.]

On another front, we hosted the relatives tonight. Here, I’m building chicken stacks that include sage leaves and hard salami…came out great!

And, as we enjoyed our celebratory meal: a rainbow!

Posted at 10:13 PM | Comments Off on A very good day

We intended to head to the Falls, but the view north was just plain murky, with no indication that it would clear. This is the view across the Tahquamenon swamp, which isn’t visible over the tree line, as it would be on a clear day. Since the falls are northeast, we felt the pretty index would be…muted.

The unpaved road across the highway goes into the center of the ghost town of Laketon. Last time we cruised Laketon, there was one standing house and one mobile home, both abandoned.

Given the overcast, we decided to instead head to the Refuge, and take the wildlife drive. We took the fishing loop option, which we do less frequently than the “regular” route. We even saw a couple with a big pike, perhaps twenty inches long, removing the hook from the fish’s mouth—but, ironically, that was before we got on the fishing loop.

While in general, the murkiness and sometimes a light rain, did obscure the beginning of fall color, we did find a few fungi, encouraged by the recent rain (including overnight).

Posted at 6:18 PM | Comments Off on Refuge

Yeah, it was overcast again, this morning, but bright enough at 10:45am that you could see (and, of course, hear) the waves rolling in courtesy of a good south wind. In the afternoon, it was mostly sunny, and we reaped the benefit of the solar gain on the sun porch.

Not 15 minutes later, I took this photo, different angle…looked like a low sun situation…but wasn’t, just strange light through the overcast.

Meanwhile, over at the garden we’re watching, the broccoli was getting away from me. Happens this time of the year. The blossoming stalks are all pruned back for now, with the salvageable ones consumed!

Posted at 7:53 PM | Comments Off on Lake/light variation

This was the southeast morning sky—sunlight trying to peep through beneath cloud cover…

…and this was the southwest evening sky…but not the same cloud cover. It got sunny for much of the middle of the day, and thus the porch achieved a fine level of solar gain. Time to close it off again, however, as temps are dropping.

We walked down the road a bit and discovered that since we’d been staying “on the place,” we’d missed that a large maple limb fell across the road. Don’t know who chain-sawed it and through the pieces into the ditch, but thanks. Still overcast….

White pine pinecone. Or white pine cone. See, sunny. Kinda.

Posted at 6:35 PM | Comments Off on Sky to the south

Still this morning after the turbulence of the last two days. The caulk fix the Guru implemented on the rain barrel is holding!

Not yet seeing milkweed seeds floating around, as the pods are still desicating.

Found this bold lichen on the neighbors’ gate. Tough surface, but a bit sheltered.

The afternoon sun warmed the porch to the mid-70s, warm enough to dine here. Outdoors the temp dropping fast toward an overnight low in the upper 40s.

Posted at 6:29 PM | Comments Off on Photo pretties

Yesterday was rain rain rain, and the wind kicked up overnight—woke us up kind of wind. That kind of wind sure makes us edgy!

By morning the rain/wind had slacked off (mostly), and there was a kinda normal several hours (glorious sky; see photo), as the temperatures rose to the highest point maybe by 11am. Then the wind kicked up and the temps have been dropping to a predicted overnight low at maybe 7am breaking 40°F. The wind wind wind means there are small branches down under all the trees and a live maple branch came down at the neighbors’, narrowly missing a pickup. Safe!

Sad story of life: the raccoons have somehow raided the last of the corn (less than a dozen ears, I think) in the same neighbors’ garden. We people got almost all of it, however. 😋

Posted at 5:03 PM | Comments Off on Wild weather