Musings

I left early, as in I’ll walk for an hour and a bit, and be home by eight—another overcast morning (whew), yet humid humid humid. That’s a prescription for early outdoor exercising, if at all possible. Rumor is overnight the weather will change. I won’t be ready for the hot-sunny real thing.

So there I was one foot in front of the other, no coffee yet, trudging at a good pace (is that still trudging?), when I realized that pink and white feathery plant bits were smashed into the blacktop beneath my feet. I looked up: mimosa-in-bloom.

Later, nose down once again, I spotted stump transformation underway. Go fungi!

Posted at 7:55 PM | Comments Off on Invasive mugginess

Perhaps a dozen times I’ve driven this route across the field…the first time there was no path—it was “virgin” grass. Each day, I’d drive it twice, over perhaps ten days. The grass height between the tires, where the tops are brushed by the underside of the pickup, is shorter than to the sides where it was untouched. Grass learns fast, it appears.

I hadn’t ever shot straight down on a lupine. [Got that out of my system, ¿no?]

I got this one right: it’s false Solomon’s seal (Maianthemum racemosum). Edible; didn’t know that.

Dined outdoors at proper social distance with the neighbors. Great sky. We got a special invite because the hunter-fisher-gatherer-gardener had success out on the lake this morning, and they shared. 🧡 A walleye, sometimes called yellow pike. In Canada, it’s a pickerel—although it’s not taxonomically a pickerel.

Posted at 9:48 PM | Comments Off on Learning curves

I do enjoy these dewy mornings. Conditions weren’t quite right to foster a fog layer in the field…. Love the long shadows.

Of course, it meant that I got darned damp even with knee-high boots during my Eradication and Weight-Loss Spading Fun. It was clear yesterday, although I didn’t acknowledge it, and unavoidable today, that I will not finish removing the infestation. I did a good hour-and-a-half yesterday and today…hard push…just too many invaders. Ah, well, that’s often the way of invasive species removal programs; if I went for burdock and milkweed, too, I’d be…well, let’s just not go there.

Found this busy, noisy bee doing bee-business. On a pink-shaded lupine. Mid-afternoon.

I assume the feather is for luck, good winds, continued health, all that fine sentiment. And for safe travels. Our numbers here at the end of the road have dropped a notch again (safe travels!). Uptick expected Saturday—yay!

Posted at 5:33 PM | Comments Off on Critical assessment

See those broadleaves among the skinny vertical grass blades. My quarry. Hours of digging remain. This is what weed control can look like.

Enough work. Off to Gitche Gumee on this blue-sky day.

For I don’t know how many years, the mouth of Hurricane Creek has taken a hard bend (sometimes east, sometimes west) before flowing into the Big Lake. This year it’s just a straight descent over the dark rust-red sandstone.

We also ducked (haha) in to check the Refuge, although it was “the heat of the day,” not considered the best for critter-watching. We saw the usual assortment…swans, geese, ducks, and a few other feathered critters we/I didn’t recognize. Several turtles. Two work trucks, yet no tourists whatsoever!

Most swans were bottom-up feeding, although we did see two sleeping (head under wing), and managed to catch this pair heads-up.

Posted at 6:50 PM | Comments Off on Under a blue sky

We ventured farther afield…took US2 along the north shore of Lake Michigan. The lake is HIGH, backed up into the rivers that normally flow into it. Of course, until just recently it was very low, and many people are not old enough (raint-raint-bwaaah) to remember normal levels. Such is life in the time of climate change.

One chore was to stop at this hardware. One small tank truck, one SUV, and otherwise a line of pickups. And more pickups on the other side of the parking lot. An unconscious social statement? Probably pretty clogged inside (narrow aisles), but I didn’t go in.

We drove into rain after the hardware, and it is still with us. After everything was unpacked, I finally got a bit antsy and put on boots and headed out for a walk…and found the first lupine in bloom. White! And not a single other plant that I saw even has a bud!

Some kind of pussytoes, the flowerheads weighted down by the rain. I just read in the cyber-land of miscellany that pussytoes (Antennaria sp.) are in the daisy family (Asteraceae), and these plants are connected underground, and so are one, or clones, however you want to describe it. Plants are not animals.

Speaking of plants and seasonal progression…I nabbed a handful of chive-tops to put in tonight’s salad, and discovered they’re already sending up buds. I almost missed that transition, too!

Two because: one to town, one around the property….

Posted at 5:24 PM | Comments Off on Two expeditions

You expect if you revisit the same spot at different times the light will be different and other things, too. In this case, morning ducks…

…became a pair of afternoon loons.

I almost think I can see that the foliage is more leafed out, but that’s probably my imagination. Happens fast here, however. [Sorry, the loons ride low in the water, so they are difficult to spot…persevere.] 😀

Posted at 9:08 PM | 3 Comments »

After coffee and whatnot, this was my morning exercise…more eradication of cow parsnip. And a few odd burdocks that I came across. Quit when sweat rolled off my nose and the mosquitoes joined the blackflies. Enough!

And at the end of the day, after a fantastic meal shared at the proper distance, I went down to the water to get a shot that I hoped would capture the way the distant shore was alit. Kinda. The geese took off when they saw me coming; the dog came later and didn’t chase them, although that’s what it looks like. Later I saw her biting the waves breaking on the shore. Young dog behavior. BTW, two pairs of adult geese, each with four goslings. 💩

I selected these two shots and then realized the sky was so different. And between: bright sun. The last three days we’ve been hearing we’d get some rain during the past 24 hours, but nooooo—rather dry, except the way-too-high water in the lake. 😧

Posted at 9:19 PM | Comments Off on Changeable sky

Rain this morning, and more coming.

The creek will rise.

A rose is still a rose…

…even if it’s a big plant with lots of blooms.

Posted at 6:57 PM | Comments Off on Precip reigns (haha)

“Found objects” is a bit of a stretch, although it gets at what I’m thinking…. A chipmunk is not an object. You can quote me.

Artsy rock. Is this an Easter thing, to paint rocks and put them out instead of eggs?

Cement pond. The maroon color is from an Acer palmatum looming over the pond. Interesting light filter.

Another metallic paint study: burnt orange this time.

Posted at 8:40 PM | 3 Comments »

The light was spectacular this morning, making this rose have gem-petals.

What a color combo! I don’t know what this is named.

Dogwood leaves. With oww-wees even before they’ve finished growing.

Finally, here’s the fallen façade. There’s a stump above, and I’m guessing the growing tree popped the rocks, then the tree was removed…but the tree removal could have popped the façade. Your hypothesis?

Posted at 8:20 PM | Comments Off on Fallen façade fiction-writing