Musings

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….

Posted at 8:29 PM | No Comments »

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….]

Posted at 8:39 PM | No Comments »

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.

Posted at 8:39 PM | Comments Off on Another mystery

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.

Posted at 8:56 PM | Comments Off on Metropolizing

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.

Posted at 8:38 PM | Comments Off on AirBnB (ish)

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.

Posted at 6:56 PM | Comments Off on Bits of our day

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.

Posted at 8:17 PM | Comments Off on Wildlife notes, limited edition

It was raining, and the sun was out. Until I got outside, camera (aka phone) in hand. Then, where the rainbow I’d hoped for would have been, just this as the sun had departed with its magic capabilities. Pretty, sure, yet NOT the same.

I managed to catch this beauty with the wings fanned. Such vividness.

Posted at 9:36 PM | Comments Off on Color thoughts

We had to go to town for grocs for tomorrow’s scaled-down party, and on the way, look what we found in the road. Shell was maybe a foot long. I think the black color is from algae or other growth. Meet a small-to-medium sized snapping turtle. I stood around until s/he turned around, and I stayed behind her/him until I saw him/her disappearing under a bush. In the shade. Until then anyway, a happy ending.

For various reasons, like it was hot hot hot, I took my walk late (for me), and the sunlight was in ray form, and just stunning. I tried to capture how magical the ferns looked, but they just look meh.

Posted at 10:07 PM | Comments Off on Snap snap

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