Musings

Turns out the electricity came back sometime after midnight and before 1AM. I slept through the signal, but the Guru heard the radio playing dance music. We forgot it was on when the power…went.

So, in the interests of recognized continuity, these are the chives I remember from my deep childhood, probably escaped from great-grandmother’s garden maybe shortly before WWII. Maybe. Without a doubt, they have been here a while. Baked potatoes anyone?

Today’s big excitement was picking the 2016 crop of rhubarb and making a simple compote with a bit of water and more sugar than I expected. No photos of the deep crimson compote…none of that greenish, grayish stuff, just a deep red sauce extracted from these jewel-tones…. The fine genes of our rhubarb are from careful husbandry a decade ago (and more) by the Botanist. [Tomorrow’s chore is to weed the (surviving) five rhubarb crowns and give them the gazinta to get through another summer/winter.]

Okay, an artsy shot. The gate has sentinel white lupines. And outside, to the left where you cannot see, is a robust group of lilacs I do not remember from times past. Clearly, my memory is from years ago, and not from, well, last year.

Sometimes, anyway.

Posted at 10:43 PM | 2 Comments »

Backlit photo number one: an apple tree this morning.

Here’s a high bridge view…freighter entering locks. Nope, didn’t look up the name. Lame me.

Here’s proof we left the country to visit our northern neighbor for a bit.

They are curious/nosy in Sault Mich. All doors must be labeled, even if the label is only slightly helpful.

Backlit photo number two: a fern frond this evening.

Posted at 8:13 PM | 4 Comments »

How does it get to be JUNE so quickly? This is a tiny, emerging maize plant, less than an inch tall. Very early for sweet corn here…relatively warm plus enough moisture equals stimulated seeds.

I learned this as pussytoes, but it looks slightly different from the one in my wildflower book. A different species, I suppose. Tried to photo them the other day and failed as the wind kept wobbling the stems.

I love the lake when it’s glassy like this, such a mirror for the sky. Later I could count the mallard’s ducklings: seven; that’s quite a brood.

Posted at 10:22 PM | 1 Comment »

I mean this two ways…

Here’s a sign from our woods trek yesterday. The way we went there was no bridge out. Mystery signage….

We found this lovely sign today. I don’t remember ever seeing one like this. It is very correct. We speculated that it was to inform fisherfolk and canoeists/kayakers who didn’t know much about the out-of-doors, although the fact that it was situated for people on the road suggests our hypothesis is bunk.

It was windy last night and all day. This morning it rained, but the sun came out by mid-afternoon. The waves are a sign of the windiness, roight?

Posted at 8:17 PM | Comments Off on Signs

Since we drove up the Woods Machine, we felt compelled to play hooky from chores and head for the creeks, ponds, lakes, rivers, and forests of the northland. In this lake we found a fine downed log with a half-dozen turtles aboard, their shells blue-black and shiny in the sun.

In the woods we found many of these. I had to look them up: bluebead lily. I have seen the blue fruits/seeds later in the summer, but never associated a flower with them. It’s about time!

We saw several of these showy orchids, pink lady’s slippers. We also saw a single group of small white lady’s slippers. I don’t remember seeing them before. Did we miss more?

I have no recollection of seeing or looking up these distinctive flowers. We saw just one cluster. If I have identified it correctly, it is in the milkwort family (rural folk thought consuming them would up milk production—in humans and cattle), and is Polygala paucifolia, commonly called fringed polygala or gaywings. Neither term is familiar. My guide notes that its bloom “resembles a tiny airplane without a tail;” not sure I would have made that observation….

Posted at 7:19 PM | Comments Off on Learning curve

The barrel is now in place awaiting rain. I see the playhouse looks…unattended…from this angle….

The late-day sun highlights the woods; you can see these trees are almost fully leafed out. I expect that up at Lake Superior, the trees are less leafed out.

The trilliums are still in bloom on the forest floor, but are reaching the end of their flower-phase. Here’s a lousy photo….

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Angles

Here’s the ___ River at Mead Creek. In my distracted mind, it’s the Fox River and a few miles and more bends downstream from where Hemingway had Nick Adams fish. But it’s not the Fox. Well, Nick Adams didn’t exist, either….

A cluster of birches on the bluff above “our” lake…sturdy against the wind. This morning was a bit rainy (and the landscape needs the rain—dry spring), and the afternoon turned into clear and windy.

And the wind piled the waves inshore…but not as far as I had feared. The beach is holding its own….

This isn’t truly water, only a reflection in the brass chest my uncle made. Looks rather like water, however….

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Water notes

Out and about before the sun fully rose, and I spotted the moon above the roofs, and (apparently) below the service wires. Yawn.

Still out and about as dusk set in, different place, different sky. Enjoying the pink glow and the cloud-shapes.

Posted at 10:22 AM | Comments Off on Eye on the sky

St Michael’s Mount, established by monks from the four-times larger Mont Saint-Michel off the Lower Normandy coast in the 1200s. Evidence still turns up of Neolithic and Iron Age use of this prominent landform. Castle closed. Garden closed. Parking prices steep at £3.50 and £4. Rain setting in, so we drove on. (Honeymoon revisit).

The road destroyed half of this large stone-walled burial chamber (probably Neolithic); no doubt it had been looted centuries before. Still: massive stones. One looked like it had deliberate large pits made in it. (Info on-the-net suggests this is a copy (“cups”), and the original is museum-ed.)

In a nearby field is the Merry Maidens stone circle, which has several names and many stories associated with it. What we see today is in part a fanciful (and likely earnest) reconstruction. Several outlying stones are in other fields. Loved having the rainbow join us.

With rain, you can find…mud on road.

And ducks near ponds. These kindly drifted off the pavement so we could pass, and returned as soon as we were by.

This is Cornish tin mining country. There must have been terrible environmental degradation during that time. These sentinel chimneys (stacks they call them) are scattered about. Most have this shape and the two-toned appearance.

We went to Port Isaac! You may know it as Port Wenn from the British TV series “Doc Martin.” His surgery is to the right. And don’t even try to peek in the windows. Tide was in. Parking costs still high here—and you need coins for the P&D machine, although they tried to offer a smart phone option—but the interface was crap.

Next town over is Port Quin, now mostly ruins and cottages, and not many of either. And the coast path, of course. The building to the left was the pilchard palace, where they aged(?) the pilchards. The row of square holes was for beams that pressed the fish in the barrels, if I understood correctly. Must have smelled just fine all across town. One must have hoped for the near ever-present wind.

View from our room under the eaves (and in our price range). That’s Port Isaac in the bay. And we can hear the wind on the slate roof.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Clockwise Cornwall

The robins were back, plus grackles, sparrows, and more. This cardinal posed intentionally, I’m pretty sure, although she didn’t do a good job of catching the light.

And the light was lovely.

Posted at 6:00 PM | Comments Off on Alight/lit