Wednesday, 5 July 2023
We had a bit of a cloudburst this morning that filled the water barrel—almost filled it, actually.
The day was rain-free, although often overcast, until late afternoon when we had off-and-on pitter-patter, and right now it’s sprinkling again. That pattern made doing yard work difficult, although the plants are MUCH happier. I’ll bet the grass won’t be crunchy tomorrow (which is an improvement).
Tuesday, 4 July 2023
Such a surprise to see a grouse on our road by our property…and she was “purring” to wee ones in the grass behind her. Safe travels!
Monday, 3 July 2023
The beach sand retains clues. See the fawn and adult deer tracks. And mine. I don’t know the dog-like one…not a raccoon or similar with an elongated foot. I didn’t know, so I just went in the water.
Day two of decent air, not much haze and no smoke smell. Yay.
Sunday, 2 July 2023
Previous summers I have had multiple opportunites to take foggy morning photos. This year I suspect it’s been just too darned dry for the fog to form. So, I was excited this morning to see the fog thicken as the sun rose, and went to to capture images. Since I now have a clear path from my activities with The Beast, I headed out into the field for a different perspective than I usually get from near the cottage. After this shot, and a few more steps, I scared up a sleeping deer, which huffed-snorted at me for the indignity.
Also, the day stayed cool longer in the morning, which made my almost-an-hour with The Beast easier to endure. Still humid, though….
Thursday, 29 June 2023
The smoky haze continues to hang here; you can barely see the other side of the lake (approximately three miles). Thankfully, yesterday and today it didn’t smell smoky outdoors.
Meanwhile, on land, the lupine blooms have mostly become pods—still green—as Fabaceae do.
Wednesday, 28 June 2023
This is what I think of as the standard, even ubiquitous milkweed leaf shape on this property.
Lately, I’ve noticed that a minority have this narrower leaf shape. Without a doubt still a milkweed….
I haven’t seen enough monarch action to see if they notice a difference.
After poking around in details online, I think the first one may be Asclepias syriaca, and the second Asclepias meadii, but that’s an off-the-cuff assessment.
And I thought a milkweed is just a milkweed. My ignorance.
Yeah, I know the light is totally different. The colors of the two are slightly different, with the broader leaf plants “greener,” and the narrower leaved ones, slightly more blue-green. IMHO
Sunday, 25 June 2023
This yesterday-photo better illustrates the lake level than one from today would. Today has been breezy and variable, with 8-inch rain—as in drops eight inches apart…meaning enough to note but not enough to make any difference to the vegetation or even a measuring device. Note that there is beach, or enough sand exposed to be called beach, for the first time in, what?, two decades or more? I forget.
In my youth (yes…), the beach at the point (this view; this point) was sometimes twenty feet wide. You might be thinking “climate change” and that probably is not wrong, but more, it is the result of the lake outflow being far more heavily restricted, which has the effect of raising the lake levels. For years, it has been much higher, like on the order or two feet, than in the past. This means increased erosion, among other things.
Our lake is shallow, historically usually less than eight-to-ten feet across much of the basin (which is on the order of three by six miles), so people with their big speed boats, that is: MUCH bigger than the rowboats that we used to use, have been much happier with the greater depth, while…blah blah blah. I’m for the historic levels, but I’m probably in the minority of landowners with lakefront property.
Tuesday, 20 June 2023
Ya leave for two nights and the critters and varmints and infestations set in. Aphids are sucking the juices out of (a minority, I admit) the lupines. Arrgh; it’s tough to be a human molding the world. [Hello, Anthropocene.]
Sunday, 18 June 2023
With our fine cuppsa-joe in hand, we strolled across the Fox River bridge rather early in the morn, meeting these googly-eyed statues of two of the four fox-sons of Papa Charlemagne. The St. Charles (Illinois) Chamber of Commerce website tells the story of Charlemagne’s command to his offspring to take care of the EuroAmerican settlers of the valley. I find it a fanciful and strange tale.
Upriver a short way, we came across this statue, also with rather paternalistic words, although I rather liked the figure’s presence.
We continued up the riverwalk to the older train trestle (green), now with a walking bridge nestled alongside (brown). Our friends said long ago when they were children, the daring among them might cross on the trestle…this was long before the river was cleaned up and the walking trails developed. And condos built and development and resurgence…and gee, it’s great someone spent tax dollars to clean up the river….
In the afternoon, we attended a fine party and BBQ, and still later, we caught the smoke-altered sunset en route to our overnight location in Wisconsin. A great time was had by all.
Saturday, 17 June 2023
Saw lots of green growing plants outside the car windows today, row crops to forests, with several kettle moraines for good measure. Here’s a yucca from the garden we ended up in.