Musings

I left early, as in I’ll walk for an hour and a bit, and be home by eight—another overcast morning (whew), yet humid humid humid. That’s a prescription for early outdoor exercising, if at all possible. Rumor is overnight the weather will change. I won’t be ready for the hot-sunny real thing.

So there I was one foot in front of the other, no coffee yet, trudging at a good pace (is that still trudging?), when I realized that pink and white feathery plant bits were smashed into the blacktop beneath my feet. I looked up: mimosa-in-bloom.

Later, nose down once again, I spotted stump transformation underway. Go fungi!

Posted at 7:55 PM | Comments Off on Invasive mugginess

I headed out on my walk thinking my body was adjusting to early-mid Deep South summer after being in mid-spring northern Midwest, and I was darned lucky that it was overcast. Humid, but no bright sun.

A man’s voice penetrated my distraction. He told me about a lost dog, a small golden retriever. Phone number on collar. I said I’d call if I saw her. I rounded the next corner and saw a woman carrying a…yup, small golden. Which was not tiny; I’d say smallish medium-sized. I said, “you found her!” “Yes,” she said, “she was sitting at the end of a driveway.” All’s well.

Not so happy second story. Voting is a real mess in this state, or at least in this city.

We were lucky that we received our absentee ballots. They were long. About half judges, at all governmental levels. Took us both quite a bit of study to work through all the options.

Then we set off with our properly (I sure hope) packaged ballots to drop them in a ballot box toward downtown. While we were there long enough for me to drop ours off, we saw six other parties dropping off ballots. That’s a steady flow, considering it took me less than a minute to walk across three lanes, a wide sidewalk, and up a gentle half-flight of steps, push them through the door, then return. That’s a big pile of absentee ballots, and there were at least a half-dozen other absentee drop-off stations in this county.

For grins (as the saying goes), we returned home by two polls…. Both had long snaking lines, at least a half-mile, I estimated. Social distancing had collapsed somewhat…huge numbers of people. Lots of reasons for the problems, beginning with long ballots, brand new machines, and inexperienced poll workers. Afternoon showers I’m sure did not help things. I will not speculate on the role of incompetence, or the potential for malevolence masquerading as incompetence in the poll problems.

Photo themes: color graduation (small changes…you get it); parting of the plant (separations in wholes); and the sign for an Atlanta institution, the Sweet Auburn Curb Market (local name for the market; WikiPee details that the Municipal Market sign is a replica.

Posted at 7:41 PM | Comments Off on Two stories today

Some important aspects of the landscape are invisible to most of us. This farm is not terribly far from a major border between catchment basins. Behind me is the Tennessee River Valley—that water flows into the Mississippi River, while the south side, this side, flows into the Coosa and then the Alabama. Both end up in the Gulf, albeit via different routes. Not readily apparent while touring the countryside.

At home, we found the wee basil plants—”regular” Genovese and Thai—are doing well. They need water, but some are already going to seed. Gotta snip those when I water!

Perhaps the biggest news: we do not have to wait in line to vote in person tomorrow; our absentee ballots did indeed arrive while we were gone (they should have come before we left; love bureaucracy 😉 ).

Posted at 8:28 PM | 5 Comments »

Ah, well, if the dandelions are going to seed, it must be time to hit the road.

Time to leave behind this first phase of the Cow Parsnip Eradication Program. I have no doubt I’ll be scouting for survivors on my next visit.

I admit that I find the regularities and irregularities of patterns in nature soothing.

Now that I’m soothed, it’s time to look at the headlines and read a few paragraphs of news stories…see what’s happened while we’ve been ticking away the miles.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Time in the style of this century

During today’s Eradication Operation, I had to remove several larger plants (but still perhaps youthful and medium-sized)—sure enough, the roots resemble parsnips. Indian celery/rhubarb are other names for the cow parsnip. Yes, if you’re careful, there are edible parts. Don’t count me in, though.

These are garden lupines gone wild, so I guess they technically are an invasive species. Pretty, pretty, however. I’m told you can eat the beans, as with other members of the Fabaceae family. This type doesn’t make the large seeds called lupini in Italy—which I ate not knowing they were lupines. Interestingly, they are beans with no starch. Some people’s body find these and other beans toxic. But I digress.

Meet Bailey. I threw her floppy not-a-Frisbee over and over (she mostly returned it to my feet), waiting for her to tire. Then, I accidentally threw it in the PI way over in the corner of the yard, and that was the last time (I’m tooooo allergic). With no more tosses happening, she took a nap. Sweet Bailey. A great fetcher.

Posted at 9:18 PM | Comments Off on Sweet day

Perhaps a dozen times I’ve driven this route across the field…the first time there was no path—it was “virgin” grass. Each day, I’d drive it twice, over perhaps ten days. The grass height between the tires, where the tops are brushed by the underside of the pickup, is shorter than to the sides where it was untouched. Grass learns fast, it appears.

I hadn’t ever shot straight down on a lupine. [Got that out of my system, ¿no?]

I got this one right: it’s false Solomon’s seal (Maianthemum racemosum). Edible; didn’t know that.

Dined outdoors at proper social distance with the neighbors. Great sky. We got a special invite because the hunter-fisher-gatherer-gardener had success out on the lake this morning, and they shared. 🧡 A walleye, sometimes called yellow pike. In Canada, it’s a pickerel—although it’s not taxonomically a pickerel.

Posted at 9:48 PM | Comments Off on Learning curves

I do enjoy these dewy mornings. Conditions weren’t quite right to foster a fog layer in the field…. Love the long shadows.

Of course, it meant that I got darned damp even with knee-high boots during my Eradication and Weight-Loss Spading Fun. It was clear yesterday, although I didn’t acknowledge it, and unavoidable today, that I will not finish removing the infestation. I did a good hour-and-a-half yesterday and today…hard push…just too many invaders. Ah, well, that’s often the way of invasive species removal programs; if I went for burdock and milkweed, too, I’d be…well, let’s just not go there.

Found this busy, noisy bee doing bee-business. On a pink-shaded lupine. Mid-afternoon.

I assume the feather is for luck, good winds, continued health, all that fine sentiment. And for safe travels. Our numbers here at the end of the road have dropped a notch again (safe travels!). Uptick expected Saturday—yay!

Posted at 5:33 PM | Comments Off on Critical assessment

See those broadleaves among the skinny vertical grass blades. My quarry. Hours of digging remain. This is what weed control can look like.

Enough work. Off to Gitche Gumee on this blue-sky day.

For I don’t know how many years, the mouth of Hurricane Creek has taken a hard bend (sometimes east, sometimes west) before flowing into the Big Lake. This year it’s just a straight descent over the dark rust-red sandstone.

We also ducked (haha) in to check the Refuge, although it was “the heat of the day,” not considered the best for critter-watching. We saw the usual assortment…swans, geese, ducks, and a few other feathered critters we/I didn’t recognize. Several turtles. Two work trucks, yet no tourists whatsoever!

Most swans were bottom-up feeding, although we did see two sleeping (head under wing), and managed to catch this pair heads-up.

Posted at 6:50 PM | Comments Off on Under a blue sky

I was in a strolling mood early, and walked down to the lake, already with lapping wee-waves. Nice distortion by the water of the bivalve shell.

Heading up to check the forest edge where I knew more cow warships parsnips await, I found this wildflower lovely, a jack in the pulpit. First I’ve seen this year, but probably mostly because I haven’t been looking in the right places.

I see that the northeast field edge has a robust CP settlement, probably take five daily shifts to eradicate them…or all of them that I can see now that the grass is pretty darned high.

I decided not to put off ring fort construction further, and began generic weed eradication on The Botanist’s Mound. Detailed clearing the last few years has tempered the grass infection, and it went pretty fast. I wanted to go through the soil one more time for contaminants, however, so I left planting for another time. This took sufficient energy that I avoided CP digging today. High this afternoon into the 80°Fs, so you know I wasn’t out there for hard labor after midday!

The barberries are noisy with visitors. I could discern at least four species, including a large orange/black striped bumblebee. They were all moving so fast from flower to flower, and the blooms are on the underside of the branches…making it difficult to get a good shot. This’ll do.

And I found nascent grape clusters. I think much of the lengths and loops of the vine are no longer alive. Another chore to prune back the deadwood.

Posted at 4:46 PM | 2 Comments »

The purple lupines are emerging.

The lilacs are coming along more slowly.

Insect lilac-admirer.

Trillium senescence continuum.

You know the phrase “the blues”? I’m suggesting there’s a similar mood/mental condition that can be called the purples. There’s covid. There’s death and protest. There’re plenty of people not wearing masks. Enough to alter your mood. Mine, anyway.

Posted at 6:00 PM | Comments Off on Having the purples