Tuesday, 20 June 2023
Ya leave for two nights and the critters and varmints and infestations set in. Aphids are sucking the juices out of (a minority, I admit) the lupines. Arrgh; it’s tough to be a human molding the world. [Hello, Anthropocene.]
Monday, 19 June 2023
In my admittedly sketchy attempt to obtain and retain Upper Great Lakes headlines, I vaguely recollect a story or mention of cruise ships, perhaps looping from Chicago to Mackinaw Island and back, something like that. So I shouldn’t have been surprised to see this towering maritime vessel, but I sure was. It was anchored just off the mouth of the Manistique River, and thus offshore of the celebrated city of Manistique. I’m pretty sure that orange central vessel was transporting cruisers…but what did they come ashore to do? Shop Main Street? Visit the Thompson Fish Hatchery? Wander the aisles of the hardware store (as we occasionally do)? What?
Sunday, 18 June 2023
With our fine cuppsa-joe in hand, we strolled across the Fox River bridge rather early in the morn, meeting these googly-eyed statues of two of the four fox-sons of Papa Charlemagne. The St. Charles (Illinois) Chamber of Commerce website tells the story of Charlemagne’s command to his offspring to take care of the EuroAmerican settlers of the valley. I find it a fanciful and strange tale.
Upriver a short way, we came across this statue, also with rather paternalistic words, although I rather liked the figure’s presence.
We continued up the riverwalk to the older train trestle (green), now with a walking bridge nestled alongside (brown). Our friends said long ago when they were children, the daring among them might cross on the trestle…this was long before the river was cleaned up and the walking trails developed. And condos built and development and resurgence…and gee, it’s great someone spent tax dollars to clean up the river….
In the afternoon, we attended a fine party and BBQ, and still later, we caught the smoke-altered sunset en route to our overnight location in Wisconsin. A great time was had by all.
Saturday, 17 June 2023
Saw lots of green growing plants outside the car windows today, row crops to forests, with several kettle moraines for good measure. Here’s a yucca from the garden we ended up in.
Friday, 16 June 2023
Here’s another garden escapee that is surviving in the tall (unmowed) grass: bachelor’s button (BB). Our specimens all look like this, which is like only a minority of the photos that Goo summons up to a search for BB. Perhaps it fell out of favor in the gardening community?
Thursday, 15 June 2023
I’m still enjoying the lupine lusciousness in the orchard…and I’m “sharing” it with you.
Wednesday, 14 June 2023
I’ve undertaken a program of frustrating milkweeds that are near the cottage; don’t fuss—plenty to feed the monarchs are untouched in the field. This operation means I’ve been walking in close patterns searching out offenders…and coming across other species mixed into the grass…like this campion.
Meanwhile, in the basil ringfort, despite the chill temps, the basil leaves are getting larger…although they’re still at the two-leaf phase.
Tuesday, 13 June 2023
Let’s stick to a hyper-local news cycle: we got more rain, and it lasted a while, but it was so light I wouldn’t call it a soaking rain. That surprised me; on the other hand: what do I know.
Monday, 12 June 2023
I know of Impressionist paintings. This looks like an Impressionist photo…same vibe anyway.
Sunday, 11 June 2023
The lupines are just so lovely. I like this bicolor specimen, and I’m not a huge fan of pink. It’s okay, even lovely, but not usually a favorite. Perhaps its the pairing with magenta that sparks this for me….
The BBC published this map showing wildfire data from NASA and “firms” data from the first eight days of June. There’re far more fires than I gleaned from news reports…they’re all over…well not ALL, but many scattered places.