Musings

We are enjoying a string of gorgeous autumnal days, and the deer periodically parade through the orchard, and some even bed down in it overnight. They are staking a claim, I suspect, to fallen apples after the snow descends.

Posted at 7:58 PM | Comments Off on Winter eats

Impending sun: Manistique Lake.

Full afternoon light, cloudless sky: Manistique River.

Posted at 7:37 PM | Comments Off on I see the light

Do I pick flowers, close-up? With the lovely name pearly everlasting?

Or do I pick the maple branch that has changed while its brethern are still green?

Wimpy me. I can’t choose. You get both.

Posted at 8:07 PM | Comments Off on Eeny, meeny

I’ve been watching the creeping color change in the trees, especially the maples. This is my sample maple. Actually, it’s the closest to the cottage, and the easiest to monitor. [I record that bit of spatial bias for scientific honesty.]

Posted at 4:34 PM | Comments Off on Maple sample

Against my expections, we didn’t have rain most of the day, although the sky was overcast, and the lake stirred up by the wind, enough to make the water turbid. Still, not terribly cold.

Posted at 8:38 PM | Comments Off on Small victory

Both of us have felt like hanging around rather than adventuring across the peninsula to check on leaf colors, bear hunters and their dogs, Canada geese flocking, stream levels, and the like. It’s pretty here, no?

Posted at 9:26 PM | Comments Off on Sun sparkle

I’m often amazed at how the photographic image from my phone differs from my live perception of the moment. What I saw—or focused on—was a small area of sunshine on the field at distant center. I can only barely see it here, when squinting. Instead the sky is menacing and grey, which I did not notice.

Posted at 9:26 PM | Comments Off on Dynamic but not a dynamic island

I’m calling this Raggedy Susan. Not a doll.

Raggedy is symbolic of what is happening to summer here right now. Still very pleasant, and, also, this is the time of the summer when the mosquitos are absent—yay!

Posted at 6:43 PM | Comments Off on Marking time

I’m calling this a shadow selfie. Except my shadow, on the lower trunk, is vague. So, rather a failure. [Very warm early morning light—so golden and special—and enough that the shadow should be more obvious. And now, as darkness arrives, it’s lightly raining.

Posted at 7:41 PM | Comments Off on Changeable

Windless nights yield heavy dew, and, even if a wind kicks up when the sun comes, the grass stays wet for a long time. Backlit dewdrops are gems.

Despite most of the leaves still being green, a few have become dramatic harbingers of changes to come.

Posted at 6:35 PM | Comments Off on Clues in nature