Musings

Sipping my coffee and looking out the window, I saw the low-angle morning sun gloriously illuminating the birchbark, aka birch bark.

Posted at 10:07 PM | No Comments »

The earliest of the apple trees opened today. Most of the trees in the orchard are still in bud. The Siberian apple is one of the ones that are abloom, and I’m wondering if the pollinator trees are opening first. Certainly, I’m glad it’s warm enough that the pollinator insects can be active.

Posted at 9:05 PM | No Comments »

This morning, I walked through the woods to the other side of the point. There’s no beach, so no beach strolling, just picking my way through the woods avoiding trilliums (most not blooming), ramps, sticks, muddy spots, and the like. The lake looks swollen to me, even without the beach-less margin. In fact, “high water” does not even come close to the present condition.

The ferns continue to unfurl, as you’d expect.

In the field, I found the first lupine bud, a bit ahead of the masses.

Posted at 10:01 PM | No Comments »

I did a vegetation check this morning. I found two hogweeds I missed in the corner of the field, not a big deal. I also checked on the unfurling ferns. Unfurling.

I went deeper into the woods, turned away from the lake, and picked my way carefully through the greenery, trying not to step on any flowers or unflowering plants. Then, I heard a din/racket/cacophony ahead of me, and stopped to spot the culprit. I think it was the male sandhill wooing the lady sandhill, just him, and she was quiet, walking away from him, this way and that, at a stately, deliberate pace. Meanwhile, the male walked after her, following, and finally doing wing flaps, as if she has to notice him and respond to That. And then quiet, and I couldn’t see them any more. Did they fly off? Dunno. Can you spot the pair along the treeline? Facing left?

Posted at 9:55 PM | No Comments »

THis morning, under dense overcast, I took a walk-wander around the field. I found a clear view of a deer trail heading through the wildflowers, or wild-plants-without-flowers.

The reason for my circuit, beyond stretching my legs, was to check on emergent hogweed (AKA cow parsnip) specimens. Yup: present. Here’s the harvest after about an hour of unearthing them, laid out to desicate before composting.

Late afternoon, the sun finally came out and it was like a different day.

Posted at 8:09 PM | No Comments »

Overcast and blustery…overcast all day, and blustery more and more starting in the late afternoon.

We went to Newbs and got groceries, enough to get us through the holiday weekend. I also picked up two multi-stem pots of basil. I hope I can separate them when I plant them to give them room to fluff out (when it’s not so windy). We also attacked other chores, ho hum.

Posted at 9:44 PM | No Comments »

They’re fading, but the scent is perhaps stronger than it’s been.

Posted at 9:41 PM | No Comments »

Apian proof. [See yesterday.]

Posted at 8:53 PM | No Comments »

I didn’t see any butterflies visiting today, just bees. [Common name: butterfly weed.]

Posted at 10:27 PM | No Comments »

Strawberries verge on the sacred around here. This is the sixth one I ate from today’s supermarket specimens. The interesting thing is the first five had little strawberry flavor (as is typical), but this one had enough that I could almost imagine it approached being sun-ripened.

Posted at 9:21 PM | No Comments »