Sunday, 9 January 2022
We decided to have take-out pizza tonight. It took the Guru extra-long to collect it. I heard why when he showed up. A squirrel (bird?) nest on a neon sign outside caught fire and a firetruck and squad of fire-folk showed up…delaying the pizza baking.
The pizza was hot and yummy. 🤨
Interesting that the nest caught fire despite rain for hours.
Saturday, 11 December 2021
I clicked this thinking I’d compose an insipid post about the difficulties of capturing the feeling of watching a cold rain fall from inside a warm place, or even just the rain in motion.
Then I spotted this ladybug/ladybird beetle toddling along the window sill, and whoa!
Monday, 4 October 2021
I played the weather odds and walked in the morning, thinking the afternoon would have precip, as my app showed and as happened the last two days. I assumed this color on the Uncle Dave Maple I saw on my return would be the best of the day.
Wrong I was. So, with the advent of MrSun, I went out to capture a few barberry shots.
And was touched by this Sympetrum spp., a skimmer dragonfly as I understand it, also called a meadowhawk. Insect taxonomy requires extensive study of minutia that’s far beyond my knowledge base.
Saturday, 18 September 2021
We went across the road to greet the neighbors, and she gave us a big hug and took us through to the front deck to wave at her husband, out in the boat. On the mirror-surfaced lake. It isn’t usually this calm this late after sunrise. It was a gorgeous day all the way to dark.
I digress.
Her husband came in shortly with a big haul of four, fine, large fishes. These are the two largest. They are planning on a big small party in a week, so these will go in the freezer until then. And we are invited, so….
Monday, 13 September 2021
Seems to me that if there’s a sidewalk solar panel for buried infrastructure, we should be able to use sidewalk solar for other uses, no? Plenty of sidewalks other there, ya’know.
Found this little cherry tomato science project…kinda late in the season, but they should ripen…. After all, where’s there no frost, tomatoes are perennials. [Going and going….]
Tuesday, 17 August 2021
The other day, hmm, yesterday, I walked by here, and the cat was napping in the same spot. Today, here, in the rain, in Fred-weather.
Hope it’s not sick.
Friday, 6 August 2021
The smoke-haze and the dawning sun made the buildings copper and gold. I’m in the city again.
Scale switch. Bumble bee on Joe-Pye weed. Capitalization of the plant name varies. Use of hyphens varies. Or just call it Eutrochium purpureum. Native to eastern North America, from Lousiana/Florida to Ontario.
Tuesday, 20 July 2021
This venerable maple is quite the host. The berry bushes, loaded with fruit are perhaps five feet above the ground. And I think that pileated had a mate (or offspring?) around the backside of the trunk, based on the abundant bird-chatter I overheard.
Saturday, 17 July 2021
I had thought this pair had moved on; today the (I assume) fella serenaded me with their rough call. They had moved on when I returned ten minutes later, perhaps flown to a nearby pond.
We boarded the pick-em-up and headed down the road. A couple of the rivers we crossed were the Sturgeon and the Little Smelt. Yay for fish.
This is the mouth of the Escanaba Marina channel; it opens into Little Bay de Noc. I proposed to the Guru that there must be a good Little Bay de Noc Noc joke, but I couldn’t think of one. [puh-dump] And, yes, there is a Big Bay de Noc.
We returned through the woods and got out on the bridge over the West Branch of the Manistique.
Friday, 16 July 2021
I made squirrel cage in ATL when I caught squirrels stealing my almost-ripe tomatoes. But, in reality, the yard’s too shady for tomatoes to thrive. With a pickup, you can move a screen cube (minus one side) a thousand miles and not sweat it.
Last evening I spotted a black-capped chickadee fluttering around the cube, perhaps somewhat distressed, and then realized another was INside the cube. Oops. I tipped it over and released the trapee, then righted it again. I probably should have shored up the bottom with soil so that can’t happen again. Turns out it is no longer a SQUirrel cage?
Also, while I was listening to the coffee maker wheeze and spit, and waiting for it to finish, I watched a deer stroll by the south side of the cottage, not terribly worried about danger, and perhaps unable to hear the coffee maker.
BTW, the water barrel is full for the first time this summer (I think), proof we received considerable rain a day or two back.