Thursday, 10 October 2019
Played tag with the fog, as we did yesterday.
Fog_n_flag.
Bright, but valley-fog persists.
Sky clears, but impediments in the roadway.
Clear view of Vermont’s capitol. You’ve heard of tiny houses. This may qualify as a tiny capitol.
Spent hours with good friends who live far away from our home-base(s), in this house behind three brilliant maples. We had a lovely time together, short yet powerful. 💖 💚 💓 🍀
Wednesday, 9 October 2019
Fog mostly obscures bridges over the St. Lawrence River as we leave the “national” capital. You may think it’s Ottawa, but in this province it’s Québec City.
We escaped the dense fog, but continued to see it in valleys for some time.
Finally: clear and colorful.
Pair of facing wood figures by the tracks in Lac-Mégantic. Lac-Mégantic is where a 74-car train derailed and exploded in July 2013 killing over 45 people and destroying more than 30 downtown buildings. We saw many new buildings and more empty spaces. Land along the tracks remains unbuilt, and is now a park with signs detailing the history, nice plantings, and public art.
Metal art by the tracks in Lac-Mégantic.
We approached Mont Mégantic from the SE. That’s the rim of what looks like a crater, but officials indicate is a monadnock. Reasonable signage in the visitor center. Like much of the signs in the province they are in French only. I take this as great sarcasm (or something) on the part of French Canadians, who made the rest of Canada post bilingual signs and official displays.
View from the “rim” to the east. Those bumps on the horizon are northern outposts of the Appalachians.
Mont Mégantic from the SW. Love the quick transition between the lower deciduous forest and the upper pines.
We crossed an international border. Some slight confusion about why people from Georgia are in this part of the world, but that’s to be expected.
We have been seeing moose signs since soon after we crossed into Canada. Or: moose signage. No moose. Thankfully! [They are huge beasties!]
And, unusually, we’re overnighting in a resort that echos a Mrs. Maisel complex without the entertainment facilities, other than…
…fishing and a dock and boats. You’re on your own to enjoy the fresh air. And the moon!
Saturday, 5 October 2019
We started out under cloud cover, with a low line of light in the west that we drove toward. It wasn’t as dark as it looks here, even through my sunglasses.
See it’s clearing and brighter. We saw several ponds in low spots the glacier sculpted in the bedrock of the Canadian Shield sporting beaver houses, like this (left). The rock mostly dates to the long-ago and enduring Precambrian.
We stopped in North Bay because it is used for many locations for “Cardinal,” a Canadian police detective from books by Giles Blunt, made into a TV series starring Billy Campbell as John Cardinal, also with the excellent Karine Vanasse.
This was historically known as the Rapids of the Upper Ottawa. The many rapids in this section of the Ottawa extending to the west made it time consuming to use this river route (through Lake Nipissing and into Georgian Bay) as a bypass to going all the way through Lake Erie, Lake St Clair, etc. This section was particularly troublesome, and many died in the rough waters. In 1950, these rapids were tamed by the dam at Rapides-des-Joachims some 30 miles downstream. They look placid now, ¿no?
With dusk, the half-moon is brilliant. Pardon. [Nous sommes au Québec maintenant.] La demi-lune est brillante.
Thursday, 3 October 2019
I am proud of my tolerance 😀 for today’s murkiness (never any sunshine). I am glad to hear that the high of 98°F that Atlanta and many other places in the Deep South endured today will be tempered within a week or so.
Wednesday, 2 October 2019
Overcast this morning yielded to a bright sunny afternoon, perfect for spending time on the porch and a visit to the beach (no swim, though!).
Gulls or ducks? I’m betting gulls. They are…productive. And there was small flock floating out a ways, white heads made brilliant by the…sun!
Apples are ripening here. Here, after all, is an orchard.
Saturday, 28 September 2019
Lighthouse from afar.
Approaching.
Very backlit.
Yes, it’s very red.
Bonus shot: sunset sky reflected in Manistique River at Mead Creek.
A small sample of this water winter wonderland. Without the winter. For now.
Friday, 27 September 2019
Today was murky, rainy, sometimes breezy all darned day. And last night, too. Definitely this photo is from yesterday….
VOD means video-on-demand (I’m told); thus, this is SOD: sunshine…—does that work?
Wednesday, 25 September 2019
This is an upper window from the only remaining old house in Laketon.
This crossing was the center of a community called Danaher. No old structures remain based on cursory examination from this road. The low ground beyond the railroad is the Tahquamenon Swamp. The railroad runs along the south side of the swamp for quite a ways, at least ~20 miles from east of Newberry to west of Danaher. It doesn’t get much use nowadays, but I remember Mom discussing the complex train ticket to get from northern Ohio to the McMillan station (just east of Laketon). I assume she (or whomever did that trip…her father?) sent a telegram to indicate someone needed to meet her at the station? Such a trip would have included a ferry crossing of the straits…either on foot or on a RR carriage. Much I don’t know….
No flower today. I tried to get a low, low shot to tell if this is a bolete. No such luck. Still, I think it is. Something’s been eating it from the top…insects?
Tuesday, 24 September 2019
Ah, fog in the orchard…
As we drove (we left early), it became fog just about everywhere that was low.
However, when we left the trailhead and moseyed through the woods, no fog.
Chapel Falls. This is just the top from above. Video captures it best…[pan; water-roar].
Previous years we might have called this loop Biting-Insects Trail. Today it was Fun Guy Trail. I am sparing you the other sixty-seven types of Fun Guys we photographed.
Legendary Grand Portal. Yes, the rock has caved in. Still stupendous. Sometime I may see it from the water.
However, I will not do it as a paddle boarder. Kayaker, perhaps. From a commercial tour boat, perhaps.
The Botanist had several plants he singled out in the shoreline habitat. Basswood was one. Extremely large and distinctive leaves.
Also note: 30K steps, 11.6 miles of oft rooty and muddy trail (with gorgeous views).
I’m withholding comment on the doings in DC; we seem to be starting a new chapter, as the saying goes.
Monday, 23 September 2019
Chicory blossom. Chicory roots are processed (roasted? ground?) and used to make a coffee-like drink.
Both this Queen Anne’s lace and the chicory are not native to North America, but are now naturalized. Root also edible. This is closely related to carrots.
Squint at the dots in the field right and rear of the low, green outbuilding. I think six adult deer and one youngster—our local herd….
Subsequently, it cleared and became sunny for the late afternoon…yay!