Musings

To celebrate the week’s end, we set off on a trek around the area (broadly speaking!). One of the most scenic spots we stopped at was Munising Falls, tucked back up in a little canyonette the water has carved back in the bluff overlooking Munising Bay. Even in the bright afternoon sun, this little spot was pretty shady. I tried to look around for unusual plant species, but didn’t have much opportunity and didn’t spot any. We did see several robust specimens of parsnips, which I always have to make certain are not poison hemlock. The two are related botanically, as both are members of the carrot family, or were when the guide I’m looking at was published.

The falls got major competition from our lunch spot at the local park in Grand Marais, however, where we had a terrific view of Lake Superior. Mom’s comment: the lake looks superior today!

Toward the end of our route, we stopped at an unofficial overlook of the Manistique River, and I finally could check for wild blueberries. A few plants have a good crop, but most are barren this year, and the berries are small, but, surprisingly, not seedy. I think it would take quite a while to find enough for a pie, though, so I stuck with stuffing my face with a few meager handfuls.

Posted at 9:50 PM | Comments Off on UP Exploration

I heard a biologist once say that freshwater creeks and lakes were in good shape (ecologically) if they had good snail populations. I’m assuming the same is true of bivalves. The populations of both were drastically reduced when the cormorants had taken over the lake a few years ago. Now they’re gone (thankfully) and the lake’s small critters seem almost back to normal.

So, The D took young B out fishing, with hopes of actually catching something!

Posted at 4:59 PM | Comments Off on Water sports

Most of the time we don’t see the sunsets because our snug little cottage is protected by a hill and lots of shrubs from the great northwest winds that zoom down from the Arctic. JCB and I caught this view out walking—the usually hidden western sky.

Posted at 3:47 PM | Comments Off on Sunset fence

Green. ’Tis the green season here in So-Mich. Peaches are green. Lettuce is green (and bolted). Time to pick peas.

Thanks to jcb for taking over my long-time chore, walking behind the ol’ Briggs & Stratton.

Posted at 8:26 PM | 1 Comment »

All this rain, and Lake Clara Meer’s in flood. Just in time for the July heat wave….

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Flooding!

I took a solo walk this morning, the most common route to Piedmont Park, then a loop around the best parts. I noticed the fog (?) sitting on the tall buildings and thought, naively, hey, it might rain soon. Soon was an underestimate. I got drenched within five minutes.

And at the house? Not a drop from that cell!

I found a Bigleaf Magnolia leaf to drape over my hand and camera, the jungle version of an umbrella…. Otherwise, I arrived home dripping!

Posted at 8:16 PM | Comments Off on Rain cell

Nostalgia sign (me), courtesy jcb.

Sometimes I poke around on the web and find something really useful. Yesterday it was a list of Latin phrases, with translations courtesy of Wikipedia. The bad side of this info is that once again my ignorance is revealed….

Then you find a phrase like sesquipedalia verba (words a foot and a half long) and you start wondering how you can work it into a conversation.

Posted at 8:59 PM | 2 Comments »

It’s not just the pack, but the goofy hat, too.

I’m not sure of the pathology of this poor tree (probably an oak?) we found trailside last weekend, but that growth is distinctive even with the bark gone. If I had to guess, I’d say virus, but???

Since I never see myself with my revered and long-lived Mountainsmith pack, I often forget how different it looks from other daypacks—droopy-butt I think was the (endearing?) term once used. I just checked the Mountainsmith web page, and their lumbar packs—which is what mine is, essentially—are all shorties, and lacking shoulder stabilizing straps like mine. I love how this pack puts all the weight on my hips, with nothing on the shoulders. I can carry it stuffed with heavy academic books, and I mean heavy, and I feel the weight, but no strain on my upper body. Just as the pack was engineered!

Browsing the Mountainsmith offerings, if I had to replace my pack (knock on wood!), I might go with something like the Lily model, with important features like bite valve catch, hydration compatible with exit port, and key clip (in no particular order).

I used to think a hydration system was a little too, too, but, having tried it in the hot, humid, Deep South, I’m a total convert. I now use a Platypus set-up that’s like a heavy-duty Ziploc bag that I drop into my pack. The delivery tube is that whitish line on top of my shoulder strap.

The special charm of this photo (TY jcb): me and the tree, we’re both lumpy.

Posted at 1:58 PM | 2 Comments »

Flame or wild azalea? I’m leaning to flame….

I’m guessing some kind of Penstemon?

I pass along a couple of mysteries from Saturday’s high-altitude (or what passes for high altitude in Georgia) walk, up in the Raven Cliffs Wilderness on the divide between the Little Tennessee River and the Chattahoochee River drainages.

I was astounded to find azaleas still abloom, and even one plant with the blooms not yet opened! These delicate tree versions make the yard ones seem, I guess, just what they are: showy. I love the exaggerated length of the flower parts, very elegant!

I’m stumped on the pink tubular flowers, but after digging in my wildflower book and dipping into the web just a tad, I’m guessing its one of an apparently nearly limitless list of Penstemons. Anyone else?

I know this sample’s past its prime, but the busy bee caught my eye. And she was busy! She would walk all the way into each flower, so not even her nether parts stuck out!

Posted at 4:01 PM | Comments Off on Two blooms

Morning mist rising on Lake Clara Meer.

In 1377, a North African we know as Ibn Khaldûn (much longer Arab name) began a seven-volume history of the world, named (in translation) Book of Lessons and Archive of Early and Subsequent History, Dealing with Political Events Concerning Arabs, Non-Arabs, and Berbers, and with Their Contemporary Supreme Rulers. Ibn Khaldûn, born in 1332 in what is now Tunis in North Africa, did a superb job of describing the world he lived in, and perhaps more remarkably, modeled its dynamism. He believed the most prominent source of sociopolitical power lay in a society’s approach to group solidarity and collective action, so that the few who marshaled it better became the leaders, achieved prominence, and were able to establish dynasties. Then, Ibn Khaldûn wrote, “the dynasty collects the property of the subjects and spends it on its inner circle and on the men connected with it who are more influential by reason of their position than by reason of their property.�? Thus, “dynasty and government are the world’s market-place. All kinds of merchandise are found in the market and near it�? (Franz Rosenthal translation, 2005 Princeton University Press edition).

Clearly, the marketplace, or economics, are critical to the formation and functioning of societies. How to explain? And do it in a readable fashion…. This is what I was pondering as I held my mouth the right degree of open for the dental hygienist today….

Posted at 5:52 PM | 2 Comments »