Musings

At the tail end of our two-day car adventure (after well over 6k miles of travel) we got to endure several traffic slowdowns coming into our hometown (three stretches, and an estimated 30 minutes increase to travel time, so not too bad—except we were tired and ready to be home). It’s rare that we get stuck in rush hour traffic (RHT)…it was during the rush hour, but it was coming INTO town, so it’s a slightly different flavor of RHT than typically occurs.

Pretty sure this is ragweed. No pollen yet, so no sneezing.

Posted at 8:04 PM | Comments Off on Trip-end tale

It’s always tough to leave the Upper Peninsula. Sightings of two rainbows over green, green farmland tempers the sadness, however.

Mass upgrades underway here at our overnight stop. I heard meowing as I approached the sinks. Pretty sure it wasn’t the vanities complaining about being displaced.

Posted at 9:35 PM | Comments Off on Sightings

Another foggy morning.

With sandhill cranes (center, on hill).

Later, much later, a teeny storm was threatening from the northwest, and this merganser mom lead her brood away from our par-tee. The storm did get to us, a wee bit of wind and not even enough rain to moisten the soil around the mint on the ringfort.

Posted at 9:29 PM | Comments Off on Variable weather

Today was Day 2 of three garden-work days. I’ve been doing the usual spring reclaiming of the rhubarb from a non-optimal situation. Plus, it’s really dry this year, so I’m very glad to see the plants looking this good, or this plant—the others are less robust, and the smallest one has merely five small leaves.

Essentially, the crowns need to be transplanted to a new location where they have more sun exposure. Perhaps this fall.

Posted at 8:54 PM | Comments Off on Freeing the rhubarb

Around here, these are known as both mayflies and fish flies (Hexagenia limbata). This is the first one I’ve seen this year, and well after May has exited. They typically hatch en masse, so where are this one’s relatives and friends?

Posted at 7:25 PM | Comments Off on Local resident

First drama was a population explosion, overnight mind you, of tiny gnats…which meant the spiders got busy, and the porch was decorated with web-caught and un-caught gnats.

Second drama was a lowering sky to the southwest…which meant it slid past us to the south, but it wasn’t clear whether it would follow that usual pattern or not for quite a while. As I was out walking.

The third dramatic event was that we attended a live music event! Meet AnnMarie Rowland, singer, song-writer, story-teller, and writing teacher. Covid struck and separated the Michigan native from her love, a Canadian. Now, all is well. She got a special exemption to travel to Ontario late last summer, and they got married, and now she can easily border-cross. As she said, “Sixty years old, and I HAD to get married!”

Posted at 9:25 PM | Comments Off on Day of drama

Another foggy, dewy morning, with wisps generated by the arrival of Mr. Sun. This is a few minutes later, when the fog tendrils had disappeared, and the sun highlighted the dew-outlined spider webs across the field. Lovely effect.

We left the compound, and headed up to the mouth of Hurricane Creek. At present, it’s flowing straight into Lake Superior, with its tannic taint clearly evident in the crystal clear lacustrine waters.

We walked the 1.5 miles along the Norse Country Trail* to the Au Sable lighthouse.

On the way back, I detoured to look at this shipwreck. Those are large iron rods that held the wooden beams together protruding above the water.

I also spotted a few of these gorgeous endangered pink lady’s slippers (Cypripedium acaule). They’re orchids and

In order to survive and reproduce, pink lady’s slipper interacts with a fungus in the soil from the Rhizoctonia genus. Generally, orchid seeds do not have food supplies inside them like most other kinds of seeds. Pink lady’s slipper seeds require threads of the fungus to break open the seed and attach them to it. The fungus will pass on food and nutrients to the pink lady’s slipper seed. When the lady’s slipper plant is older and producing most of its own nutrients, the fungus will extract nutrients from the orchid roots. This mutually beneficial relationship between the orchid and the fungus is known as “symbiosis” and is typical of almost all orchid species. [USFS link]

This one had me stumped. I don’t remember seeing it or looking it up before. It’s Polygaloides paucifolia, commonly called gaywings. Given that its range is eastern North America from Georgia north to the Hudson Bay and inland as far as Minnesota in the USA, I should be familiar with it. So, have I forgotten? 😎

* Why is this stuck in my head? Of course, it’s really NORTH Country Trail. No Viking hikers sighted.

Posted at 6:54 PM | Comments Off on Lakeside adventure

We did get rain during our small dinner party on the “sun”porch, but only enough to almost make the upper surface of the hillfort garden-let damp.

I am my husband’s smart speaker. I’m smart (asserted modestly), and I speak (undeniable). [I’ve been hearing too many prompts on the radio….]

Posted at 9:37 PM | 2 Comments »

The story of rural agriculture decline in marginal areas like the central Upper Peninsula in one image; that’s what this decrepit fencepost “says” to me.

Posted at 7:12 PM | Comments Off on Talking fencepost

Always love the effect when there’s a quiet night and plenty of dew, which together create a mist when the sun-heat arrives.

Pair of sandhills in the field on the opposite side of the road from previous sitings/photos. If I’d been quicker to snap the shutter, you could see both their bodies (instead of two necks/heads and one body). I heard that the farmer may put some feeder cattle in the field (no sign of that so far*), so they better take special care in selecting a nest location.

* Since the nutritional quality of the grass will soon drop precipitously—it’s almost going to seed—I’m not sure if it’ll be worth the effort of shipping the beasts in and out, and upgrading the fencing.

Posted at 6:55 PM | Comments Off on Neighborhood summery-ness