Musings

Rain rain rain rain. During an almost-cessation, I suited up in rain gear and rubber boots and set out. Light drippiness, no wind. That’s okay, I thought.

I reached my half-way point, and uh-oh, the precip kicked in, creating rushing brown rivulets. My gear was good and I slogged on.

No traffic, I thought, that’s one good thing, as I marched back. Was the rain slacking off, I wondered. Half-way back, my knight in shining Nissan appeared. Yup, the rain was slacking. He passed me and turned around, and returned to collect me. I bargained for a few more minutes of trudging since the rainfall had diminished. He waited on top of the hill, and I bounced into the cab, dripping.

And, back at the cottage, he even pulled my boots off. That’s true knightliness.

😉 🚶‍♀️ 🌧 ♞ 💜 🍀

Posted at 9:27 PM | Comments Off on Knight’s tale

A tractor is pretty darned bucolic. In the modern industrial sense.

Grapes…still green and still not eaten by the birds. In my experience, avian beings eat grapes, cherries, whatever, about three hours before I figure out they’re ripe.

You’re forgiven if you think these are Canada geese. Nope: sandhill cranes.

Posted at 10:48 PM | Comments Off on Bucolic moments

Lighthouse from afar.

Approaching.

Very backlit.

Yes, it’s very red.

Bonus shot: sunset sky reflected in Manistique River at Mead Creek.

A small sample of this water winter wonderland. Without the winter. For now.

Posted at 10:17 PM | Comments Off on Manistique lighthouse

Today was murky, rainy, sometimes breezy all darned day. And last night, too. Definitely this photo is from yesterday….

VOD means video-on-demand (I’m told); thus, this is SOD: sunshine…—does that work?

Posted at 7:57 PM | Comments Off on VOD

Kohlrabi invades basil!

Stinkbugs invade mullien!

Okay, these aren’t today’s headlines. Note: the kohlrabi was posed and the stinkbugs were not.

Posted at 5:29 PM | Comments Off on Today’s headlines

This is an upper window from the only remaining old house in Laketon.

This crossing was the center of a community called Danaher. No old structures remain based on cursory examination from this road. The low ground beyond the railroad is the Tahquamenon Swamp. The railroad runs along the south side of the swamp for quite a ways, at least ~20 miles from east of Newberry to west of Danaher. It doesn’t get much use nowadays, but I remember Mom discussing the complex train ticket to get from northern Ohio to the McMillan station (just east of Laketon). I assume she (or whomever did that trip…her father?) sent a telegram to indicate someone needed to meet her at the station? Such a trip would have included a ferry crossing of the straits…either on foot or on a RR carriage. Much I don’t know….

No flower today. I tried to get a low, low shot to tell if this is a bolete. No such luck. Still, I think it is. Something’s been eating it from the top…insects?

Posted at 6:21 PM | 1 Comment »

Ah, fog in the orchard…

As we drove (we left early), it became fog just about everywhere that was low.

However, when we left the trailhead and moseyed through the woods, no fog.

Chapel Falls. This is just the top from above. Video captures it best…[pan; water-roar].

Previous years we might have called this loop Biting-Insects Trail. Today it was Fun Guy Trail. I am sparing you the other sixty-seven types of Fun Guys we photographed.

Legendary Grand Portal. Yes, the rock has caved in. Still stupendous. Sometime I may see it from the water.

However, I will not do it as a paddle boarder. Kayaker, perhaps. From a commercial tour boat, perhaps.

The Botanist had several plants he singled out in the shoreline habitat. Basswood was one. Extremely large and distinctive leaves.

Also note: 30K steps, 11.6 miles of oft rooty and muddy trail (with gorgeous views).

I’m withholding comment on the doings in DC; we seem to be starting a new chapter, as the saying goes.

Posted at 7:44 PM | Comments Off on Naventure Day

Chicory blossom. Chicory roots are processed (roasted? ground?) and used to make a coffee-like drink.

Both this Queen Anne’s lace and the chicory are not native to North America, but are now naturalized. Root also edible. This is closely related to carrots.

Squint at the dots in the field right and rear of the low, green outbuilding. I think six adult deer and one youngster—our local herd….

Subsequently, it cleared and became sunny for the late afternoon…yay!

Posted at 9:53 PM | Comments Off on Local pretties

One year when I was a kid, we arrived for our summer stint at the cottage and the landscape on the edge of the neighbors’ field had changed to include a new pond. I suspect it was to improve drainage in the field and water cattle. Very soon, cattails lined the pond. Now the declivity lacks open water. Such is the way of ecological succession. MaNachur does not want a pond here.

Yes, rainy day…all day…drip drip. When I was a kid (again…(thank you for your patience)), the road grader came and scraped the gravel/fill so that the road had no puddles. The road had a discernible central spine/crown, and the road flowed laterally into the ditches, then down the ditches. Now the paradigm seems to be to make the road flat, which means the water flows down the side of the graveled area, like this, and never reaches the ditch. This makes the ditches a cosmetic spacer, and a waste of good agricultural land.

Posted at 4:35 PM | Comments Off on Comparisons

This is the porch and there was sun: tada! Sunporch! ☀️ Late in the day there was a bit of precipitation and the laws of physics held, and off to the east we saw a rainbow! 🌈

Posted at 10:42 PM | Comments Off on Good omens