Musings

Bright this morning, but hazier as the day went on. I couldn’t tell if it was a “normal” weather pattern or the smoke.

Posted at 9:11 PM | Comments Off on Or both

Overnight rain. This honeysuckle (probably non-native) is already fruiting.

Another view of the odd skies the smoke is producing. More rain expected after midnight.

Posted at 8:01 PM | Comments Off on Air quality

The story here: I spotted many “black”birds congregated in the top branches of this dead elm. But. I took so long fumbling with the phone to get the camera on and pointed, that many flew off to the left. Another time.

Here I attempted to capture the visual contrast of the darkness under the trees, and the light in the distance in an open meadow(?). I like that dark under zone, which really isn’t well illustrated here.

Update: The haze I reported on Monday is Rocky Mountain fire smoke, even though I couldn’t smell smoke (too high? too dissipated?). It was even hazier today. Still no smoke smell.

Posted at 6:37 PM | Comments Off on Tree tales

I’m proud of myself. I headed out to the deep morning shade to find and remove phototoxic cow parsnips. This one is old enough to bloom, and is on the neighbor’s side of the fence. I figure it likely spawned the ones on our side of the fence. Bye-bye, mama.

This evening, we took advantage of a free concert at the Erickson Center. This is most of the crowd, and I’d say it’s very large for the middle of almost-nowhere. [Don’t ask me about the cement pad—don’t know what it’s for; the band played from an elevated, roofed stage behind where I was standing.] Darned fine Celtic and Celtic-inspired music by a trio from the Marquette area.

Posted at 9:38 PM | Comments Off on Win-win

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 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

Almost ripe is not ripe enough. That lower berry is getting there. A bird may well nab it before it’s fully ripened. Greedy buggers. [Black raspberries.]

I’m working on late-day sun protection for the “sun” porch, since we’ve lost so much of our vegetative protection to MaNachur. Seems pretty uptown for this cottage.

Posted at 7:00 PM | Comments Off on Timing

We received a bit of rain this afternoon, but I didn’t think it amounted to much, so I checked the soil profile. It was lightly moist deeper than I thought. So: yay for MaNachur. [The sandiness of the soil makes it look drier than it is.]

The new moisture should help these grapes along. They’ll never get very large; these don’t. However, they do seem small for mid-July, reflecting the recent dryness.

Posted at 8:44 PM | Comments Off on Ag check

Probably the title would be more accurate as morning in the country or on the ex-farm. This field is too weedy to make usable hay. But I adore the bedewed spiderwebs.

These must be about the palest sweet pea blossoms I recall seeing. There is a small cluster of about a half-dozen plants with these “bleached” flowers…perhaps I should mark them and get seeds later. Naw; not going to happen; too many other activities with a higher priority.

Posted at 8:29 PM | Comments Off on Morning on the farm

This specimen is a member of the potentilla genus, but not what I think of as potentilla in my vast ignorance. Still, it’s a fine pale yellow.

A computational presentation of a daisy. Elevation of the everyday.

Posted at 9:30 PM | Comments Off on Flower drama