Musings

We left all this loveliness today…my mother’s bell collection (do not know why bells), a painting by The Guru’s mom, and a painting by the local physician ca. 1960. His grandson is now a town doc…unless he’s retired now, too, like his dad-doc. I can’t keep up.

We zoomed high above this freighter…strange light, moderate waves, kinda windy on the bridge.

Long day…now behind us as we relax in a nameless hotel by another lake. Waiting for winter, ready or not. Truth: we’re readier than we were.

Posted at 7:30 PM | Comments Off on Sad to leave; had to go

I went out to see the dawn, and found a skim of ice on the barrel en route. Love low-angle sunlight.

And, as I slipped under this branch to capture the brilliant orange light, I found this abandoned home. I looked closer, and found well over a dozen more. I don’t know if they were made by friend or foe.

Got in one final walk. I’ll remember this view often over the months to come.

Posted at 6:42 PM | Comments Off on Lasting joys

Am I drawn to contrasts as I take photographs every day…

…or are contrasts just an inherent component of many pairs of photos?

Ladies and gentlemen, damas y caballeros, children and caballos—we have here: day and night. Pretty darned big contrast, ¿no?

Yes, at that moment the darkening sky was that blue…but the haziness is I think due to an imperfect focus rather than natural mist or haziness.

Posted at 7:46 PM | Comments Off on Lake views

This makes it clear why our ancestors named them white-tailed deer. And to the right out of this frame, two more groups totaling about this number again. The groups should be heading north into the swamp soon—most of them anyway….

I managed to be down at the beach when the sun almost came out for the day. Thankfully the rain we’ve been having has not brought up the lake level noticeably.

Posted at 7:57 PM | Comments Off on Oooot and abooot

We arose to frost on the grass (many places), as well as our roof…a sign of increasing overnight cold temps.

During the morning we had intermittent sunshine, and managed to get another round of hatch-battening completed on the “garden”—enough for the winter.

The meteorology report indicated rain in the 1 o’clock hour…and, indeed, it was raining by 2pm. And still is.

I haven’t seen flocks of Canada geese overhead for days…and I assume that means they are far to our south. So, being somewhat smart, we, too, have turned our thoughts toward our final days here and closing the place for the winter. We’ll be sad to go, to leave our friends here, and to leave the beauty of this area. We’ll not be so sad to leave rubbish weather off and on, day after day.

I had not anticipated this, but the temp now is about 39°F, and my watch-borne weather app indicates 48°F at midnight and 45°F at 3am. That doesn’t fit the typical “increasing cold overnight” model—however, we’ll take it!

Posted at 4:48 PM | 1 Comment »

Among non-traditional/atypical/unexpected plant morphologies, I present Brussels sprout trees. Go brassicas!

Posted at 6:09 PM | Comments Off on Otherworldly

Early on, we had sun and plenty of blue in the skies. [I had hope.]

Not for long.

Indeed, when I walked mid-day, I experienced wan sunshine, constant wind, a few droplets now and then—constant changeup. In a further mystery, I had wind in my face going west and going north…pleasant (relatively speaking) that the return leg was southbound.

First photo: normal lens; second: wide (aka very wide).

Posted at 6:14 PM | Comments Off on Leaf color lovely, despite weather

Today was all over the place, in weather and in activities.

Taking advantage of the morning’s relative wonderfulness, I knocked back some of the weeds/grass encroaching on the rhubarb (red stem; has mostly died back for the winter), and in the process discovered many small hollyhocks…that didn’t flower. I can’t remember, but this may be it for these…hopefully there are more seeds in the soil. These plants have been nurtured first by my great-grandmother, then my father, then my cousin, then my neighbor. I’m the one who is doing a poor job of keeping them going….

Perhaps, given my track record, I shouldn’t be undertaking this experiment. We have feral mint all over the place, but it isn’t the mint I like (spearmint, I think). I took two small sprigs off a plant in someone’s yard in ATL, then brought them up here without smashing the life out of them in transit. Then, neighbor mentioned above kept them while we were between visits (got them to root, then potted them—she’s a sweetheart!), and got them large and healthy. Finally, they are in the ground. The tops’ll die back over the winter, and hopefully re-sprout come spring warmth. Fingers crossed. Mint is pretty darned hardy.

In the afternoon, came the rain. Rain on the new-planted mint!

We made a brief escape during the worst of the rain, and picked up the weekly paper (comes out Wednesdays), then drove the driving tour at the Refuge as the rain quit. Saw swans, geese, ducks, perhaps grebes, not sure about loons. And colorful leaves. And gorgeous skies.

Posted at 6:07 PM | Comments Off on It was a day!

Oh, my, was I excited when I got up and there was no wind blowing. And the sun came out. Double yay!

By afternoon, however, the sun left and the wind returned.

By the end of my walk, the wind remained and the sun toyed with my emotions.

And now, Gentle Reader, the sky is grey and we hear thunder. Thank you, Upper Peninsula Weather, for keeping me alert.

Posted at 5:30 PM | Comments Off on Surviving change

Around here, we have fields and forest plots and swamps…and…beauty. These colors are a tad distorted, an improvement on the grey day we lived through. But, also a real truth. The leaf colors are changing.

I tromped up the hill by this farm, walking fast (ish), trudge, trudge—pushing my pace, and this odd sound, dogs growl-barking, penetrated my stride-based concentration. I moved my mental focus to the sounds, and…hmm, ohh, ahh, what dogs? No dogs…. Oh, and I figured it out: the spinning windvane, fighting the breeze to generate its own gyrating metal grating tune, greeeech, aaach (over and over, with slight variations)—no dogs, only metal-on-metal creaking, screetching drama.

Posted at 9:08 PM | Comments Off on Surprises that surprise