Saturday, 12 June 2021
We had a great evening celebrating our three Atlanta family June birthdays. We were tasked with bringing the mint chip ice cream, which the Guru selected. Only the fact that he chose Tillamook, and it is not green caused extensive discussion. Seems like purists would be fine with white mint choc chip ice cream.
Friday, 11 June 2021
I know it’s obvious that a walk in an urban neighborhood is a different experience than a walk in a rural place.
I’m pretty sure this is evidence of a movie/TV shoot being broken down. Takes many, many cables for the many lights and cameras. I saw at six guys doing the breakdown, making these careful coils of cables. Also, about seven houses facing this park had bunting and lawn decorations, plus “homemade” signs about never forgetting 9/11. I’ve never seen such decorations in real life.
And a pretty. With a typical surprise insect.
Thursday, 10 June 2021
At the tail end of our two-day car adventure (after well over 6k miles of travel) we got to endure several traffic slowdowns coming into our hometown (three stretches, and an estimated 30 minutes increase to travel time, so not too bad—except we were tired and ready to be home). It’s rare that we get stuck in rush hour traffic (RHT)…it was during the rush hour, but it was coming INTO town, so it’s a slightly different flavor of RHT than typically occurs.
Pretty sure this is ragweed. No pollen yet, so no sneezing.
Monday, 7 June 2021
Today was Day 2 of three garden-work days. I’ve been doing the usual spring reclaiming of the rhubarb from a non-optimal situation. Plus, it’s really dry this year, so I’m very glad to see the plants looking this good, or this plant—the others are less robust, and the smallest one has merely five small leaves.
Essentially, the crowns need to be transplanted to a new location where they have more sun exposure. Perhaps this fall.
Friday, 4 June 2021
Another foggy, dewy morning, with wisps generated by the arrival of Mr. Sun. This is a few minutes later, when the fog tendrils had disappeared, and the sun highlighted the dew-outlined spider webs across the field. Lovely effect.
We left the compound, and headed up to the mouth of Hurricane Creek. At present, it’s flowing straight into Lake Superior, with its tannic taint clearly evident in the crystal clear lacustrine waters.
We walked the 1.5 miles along the Norse Country Trail* to the Au Sable lighthouse.
On the way back, I detoured to look at this shipwreck. Those are large iron rods that held the wooden beams together protruding above the water.
I also spotted a few of these gorgeous endangered pink lady’s slippers (Cypripedium acaule). They’re orchids and
In order to survive and reproduce, pink lady’s slipper interacts with a fungus in the soil from the Rhizoctonia genus. Generally, orchid seeds do not have food supplies inside them like most other kinds of seeds. Pink lady’s slipper seeds require threads of the fungus to break open the seed and attach them to it. The fungus will pass on food and nutrients to the pink lady’s slipper seed. When the lady’s slipper plant is older and producing most of its own nutrients, the fungus will extract nutrients from the orchid roots. This mutually beneficial relationship between the orchid and the fungus is known as “symbiosis” and is typical of almost all orchid species. [USFS link]
This one had me stumped. I don’t remember seeing it or looking it up before. It’s Polygaloides paucifolia, commonly called gaywings. Given that its range is eastern North America from Georgia north to the Hudson Bay and inland as far as Minnesota in the USA, I should be familiar with it. So, have I forgotten? 😎
* Why is this stuck in my head? Of course, it’s really NORTH Country Trail. No Viking hikers sighted.
Sunday, 30 May 2021
I know these as horsetails. Plant scientists call them Equisetum. As kids, we used to pull them apart at the joints. We had no idea that the dark bands are (technically) scale leaves. Or that the horsetails reproduce by spores.
I think this is a branched Equisetum growing with forget-me-nots. Charming textural combination, no?
Saturday, 29 May 2021
The other day I swept the house. If you’re thinking of moving furniture and the motor noise of a vacuum cleaner, you have the wrong idea. No, I swept the building exterior, that is, the cobwebs and what they’ve caught away from the eaves and windows and sidings…a quite different activity. And now I see I need to do it again. We have a lot of gnats (which do NOT bite or sting, thankfully), and their little gossamer bodies get caught in the webs.
While the above is clearly lupin, I don’t know what this is. I found it on the edge of a wet ditch (essentially a swamp environment). I was too confident that I could ID it from the blooms. Nope. I’ll have to go back and look for the vegetation.
Wednesday, 26 May 2021
Yeah, that title is the prediction for overnight in the clear-sky dark-hours. Lots of blooms in danger. And if the apple blooms are hit, well, no apples come autumn.
Look immediately above the right tree and on the far left. Two sandhill crane souls captured. Two more were in the air, although I did not manage to capture their images/souls.
Tuesday, 25 May 2021
I know this as forget-me-not. [Internet search….] Taxonomically, they are the Myosotis genus. I think this is M. sylvatica, and native to Europe, however frequently I find it around here. Probably another escapee from the great-grandmother garden. Like the lupins.
Totally different scale; could be a farm complex on the prairie during the green season. But, no; up here by the sub-tundra, under a threatening sky that only produced a few drops of rain and no storm.
Monday, 24 May 2021
Oh, good times! The apple trees are blooming!
And the blooms seem especially gigantic this year.
Also, the lupins are coming along.
Overcast this afternoon/evening. We may get rain in the dark hours. Fingers crossed.