Musings

Finally, we got morning rain…not much and not a soaker, but more than nothing…enough to cover the bottom of the rain barrel a couple of inches deep.

[Note that the barrel is indeed tilted, so that overflow will be on the side opposite the cottage.]

By afternoon, the “wild”flowers seemed to have renewed energy to push toward more than two leaves.

And the black raspberries are in bloom, and the bees busily visited (not pictured). I admit I’ve been watering these, hoping I’ll get a couple of ripe berries before the birds take them. Time will tell.

Posted at 5:18 PM | Comments Off on I wanted to dance

Yesterday, the Guru captured a drone photo of this year’s version of the basil ringfort. This variation has a “palisade wall” of cardboard, a new development, and an inner ringfort with at least two dozen two-leaf basil plants. Between the ringfort and the wall along the upper edge is another row of germinating seeds, “wildflowers” from a seed packet I was given at the baby shower two weeks ago. [Was it two weeks…?]

In addition, there’s a daisy plant in the lower left, and a line of rhubarb in the lower right.

Lotsa product coming along this year! […enabled by frequent watering in this dry dry dry spring.]

Posted at 8:36 PM | Comments Off on Germination 2023

Grass, lupines, and apple trees—these are obvious. The grass is bent because of wind…which is visible in videos from the same drone expedition, but you have to use your “seeing” brain to find it here.

We’re back in a cool phase again—lovely. I see rain will visit Saturday through Tuesday. We need it badly; I do hope it does arrive, and it gives us a thorough soaking.

Posted at 8:29 PM | Comments Off on Green elements

Chives! And blooming! So…delicate. And once snipped, they are a great contribution to salads…veggie sides…chili…and so many more dishes.

Rhubarb! I transplanted these two autumns ago, and the collective wisdom of the internet indicated that I should wait two years before picking. It is time! And these are exceptionally fine stalks…time to pick a new batch…cautiously, so as not to over-harvest. [Restraint!]

In product-to-come news, these are “wild”flowers from a gift seed packet from the baby shower last month…day three since first observed germination…. Not edible, but beauty and aesthetics are also important…. [The sand grains look huge!]

Posted at 10:19 PM | Comments Off on Growth curves

Today’s household headlines (HHs) were the Tim Cook Show and rhubarb, his and hers you could say.

So much red/pink in this rhubarb.

Rhubarb sauce, right, and store-bought kinda macerated strawberries left. Red fruits for dessert.

Posted at 8:18 PM | Comments Off on HHs

This morning I did some grass-whacking around this planting, and oh. my. heavens…the lovely lilac scent. It inspired and lulled me.

Varmit count: 1; one woodchuck…no sign of woodchucks before this afternoon visit. Go away! You are not wanted here.

Pest count: hundreds; scads of carpenter ants serially invading the porch. And removed in discreet (kinda) dustpan loads, at approximately half hour intervals. This is what we do for exercise. Heh.

Posted at 9:16 PM | 1 Comment »

Smoke north of us in Canada (in Ontario, pretty sure) has been reported for days, along with fires much farther out west and out east in our northern neighbor’s territory. That smoke finally arrived today, traveling on a gentle north wind. It smelled like a distant garbage fire…and fortunately faint. We also could see a very light haze.

By this evening, the wind had shifted to coming from the south, and the smoke smell was more ephemeral. The haze, however, seems to have intensified.

Despite such environmental conditions, and the dry dry soil, the lupines really busted out today.

Posted at 8:50 PM | Comments Off on Wind shifts

Despite how dry-dry-dry it is, the lilacs are lovely and, oh, the aroma…I’m so happy to be here to enjoy it, although today’s high is something like 86°F, and that’s way too hot for these parts, especially at the very beginning of June.

Posted at 5:01 PM | 1 Comment »

Which is better? Lupines against the sky?

Or, lupines with moon?

I’m going with: both are lovely.

Posted at 9:36 PM | Comments Off on Figuring angles

Both of us were in the mood to take a break from chores-about-the-property, and I got texting to friends…and when the dust settled we took off eastbound to see them and to do errands. First stop was lunch at a small burger place—with car-hops!—where we could watch a very local ferry zooming back and forth from mainland to island (both Michigan territories) and back. [Note phone check before driving away.]

It’s not quite that simple, as the route, short as it is, crosses an international shipping route. Here’s a Great Lakes freighter upbound toward the Sault Locks. It’s the John G. Munson (made of steel and self-loading; built 1952; 102′ mid-section added 1975–76; owned by Canadian National Railway Co.; IMO: 5173670), if you can’t read the name. Out of Duluth, and most certainly headed back there. [Apologies for cutting off a sliver of the stern.]

We did our other errands and headed for our fun fun socializing stop. We chatted about a huge range of topics, including what this shrub is. iNaturalist (free app; recommended!) says Amalanchier species, commonly known as serviceberry and sugarplum…and many other names. Happy agreement among us with the app ID.

On our return leg, we made a quick end-of-road stop to look across the shipping channel that the Munson will soon pass through. The other side is another country, Canada. Did I know this?—that scholars have coalesced around the hypothesis that Canada is a corruption of the St. Lawrence Iroquoian word kanata, which means village or settlement. Town and country, yup, so efficient, our neighbors to the north….

And just like that, we returned to the cottage, unloaded and stashed all our new possessions, and settled back into our normal evening routine…albeit no longer with any new “Succession” episodes in our future. Oh, Shiv.

Posted at 8:22 PM | Comments Off on Shipping and sugarplums