Musings

Fogginess, obscuring sunrise.

Quiet lake riffle, with yesterday’s sand-scalloping gone.

Lake view.

Posted at 9:17 PM | No Comments »

I stepped out, headed for the beach, and saw this five steps away from the door. Wha? This dig-up is a new pattern, not quite chipmunk. [Much later in the day I saw a black squirrel, not seen in these parts for decades due to diligent hunting by our neighbor Hunter-Gatherer, who recently passed on…hence: population rebound. I suspect a black squirrel is the digger.]

Here are our current main crops, other than weeds haha. That’s a new rhubarb bed in the left foreground (sporting first-year growth), and a stately apple tree with many drops on the right-center. Spring and fall crops….

Down on the beach, I spotted this scalloped appearance from the wave pattern and the sorting of the different sized sand grains. I think I’ve seen it a few times before, but it’s rare.

Later…. The water barrel is full from rains in the days before we arrived, although we did have a few sprinkles late today. I thought I’d make a clever image with the reflections and the feather off on the left margin both in focus. I forgot it wasn’t possible haha. Anyway, the feather is proof that the barrel is a part-time birdbath.

Posted at 7:07 PM | No Comments »

So, I stepped out onto the balcony late this morning to do a goat-check, even though they’re ranging where I can’t see them (this is a good thing with regard to their goal of vegetation clearing). I indeed couldn’t spot them, but I got to hear a light rain begin. That’s rather a magical moment, when it goes from not raining to raining.

Posted at 8:19 PM | Comments Off on Bewitched by precip

The temp and humidity were so lovely this morning we left the “kids” and walked in the park—nice sky, with a sheen of algae.

We even saw the great blue heron, here hunched on the platform for the inoperative oxygenation fountain.

Posted at 9:01 PM | 1 Comment »

The whole time I was growing up, Dad threatened to get sheep to manage the lawn so he could avoid mowing. That’s our MO today, except the crew is mostly goats and one billy-sheep.

Goats being goats, guess the favorite napping location. Unfortunately for him, he tipped the table over descending, so unless we take pity on him and right it, that’s the end of table-napping.

The Goat Guy who wrangles this crew says it’ll take them on the order of a week to chow down our ivy and kudzu and other nasty vegetation that sprang up after the trees were removed (remember that?). I guess that long turn-around time is why Dad never substituted sheep for the mower.

Posted at 9:38 PM | Comments Off on Insta-pet

8:45am. Let me draw your attention to the wave action product. I was surprised to find two sticks perpedicular to the waves, although one is parallel, which is what I remember seeing ?every? time. I arrived too late for the sunrise, but I could see the far shore more clearly than I have seen for days. Yay.

3:45pm. Another short shower. I raced around closing windows, but not too much as the temps were dropping from the oppressive 79°F, so I wanted to capture whatever cool the breezes brought.

Not much wind, but it came up and blew lightly in from the west. Change, to the south. Oops, switched again, to a bit from the north. See: the window closing dance.

After the storm drifted away, it actually felt cool. Cool: magic. [Still sticky, however.]

Posted at 8:43 PM | Comments Off on Another switch-up day

IMHO, the sky shows that the AQI is at a reasonable level this morning. Yay.

At the beach, I discovered that our last day of rain brought down one of the dead birches. The trunk is remodeling the beach.

AQI was rising by evening time. Darn.

Posted at 9:01 PM | Comments Off on New day

Dusk with goldenrod, 9:13pm.

Sky over the lake to the east, 10:07pm.

South sky, 10:11pm.

Posted at 10:32 PM | Comments Off on Night lights

People in places with changeable weather often pay special attention to the changes. The striking red sunrise reflects the smokiness, although the AQI was below 50 for part of yesterday, today: higher. And hot, hot overnight, whew, so that the downstairs only got down to 78°F even at dawn. Sticky. And we smelled smoke off and on all morning.

Around two, rain came in ushered by a moderate wind, so we hustled about to close windows. Fortunately, the temp dropped so that by 6pm it was down to 70°F on the front porch (!!!). Thankfully, now it’s quite pleasant—the humidity is lurking around 82%, and the AQI has dropped to the low 50s.

Yup. Lots of weather variation….

Posted at 8:46 PM | 2 Comments »

The before-the-sun sky seemed a bit clearer, yet still slightly obscured by the Sky-Smoke deity.

We took a wee drive north to see if the Lake Superior shore breeze would seem even clearer. It did, a bit.

Posted at 8:51 PM | Comments Off on Improvement