Rainy day
Monday, 26 June 2023
We did a wee bit of time travelling this evening and watched “Yellow Submarine.” I’m sure I never saw it before. Great music; I sang along with all the songs!
Musings
Rant about water, various
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.
Bloom beauties
Friday, 23 June 2023
We’re in another hot and dry spell. I’m glad I watered these beauties earlier, or I don’t think the blooms would be as substantial as they are. Now I’m back to watering to maintain them—fingers crossed.
Out the window
Tuesday, 13 June 2023
Let’s stick to a hyper-local news cycle: we got more rain, and it lasted a while, but it was so light I wouldn’t call it a soaking rain. That surprised me; on the other hand: what do I know.
Pink/red
Sunday, 11 June 2023
The lupines are just so lovely. I like this bicolor specimen, and I’m not a huge fan of pink. It’s okay, even lovely, but not usually a favorite. Perhaps its the pairing with magenta that sparks this for me….
The BBC published this map showing wildfire data from NASA and “firms” data from the first eight days of June. There’re far more fires than I gleaned from news reports…they’re all over…well not ALL, but many scattered places.
I wanted to dance
Saturday, 10 June 2023
Finally, we got morning rain…not much and not a soaker, but more than nothing…enough to cover the bottom of the rain barrel a couple of inches deep.
[Note that the barrel is indeed tilted, so that overflow will be on the side opposite the cottage.]
By afternoon, the “wild”flowers seemed to have renewed energy to push toward more than two leaves.
And the black raspberries are in bloom, and the bees busily visited (not pictured). I admit I’ve been watering these, hoping I’ll get a couple of ripe berries before the birds take them. Time will tell.
Germination 2023
Friday, 9 June 2023
Yesterday, the Guru captured a drone photo of this year’s version of the basil ringfort. This variation has a “palisade wall” of cardboard, a new development, and an inner ringfort with at least two dozen two-leaf basil plants. Between the ringfort and the wall along the upper edge is another row of germinating seeds, “wildflowers” from a seed packet I was given at the baby shower two weeks ago. [Was it two weeks…?]
In addition, there’s a daisy plant in the lower left, and a line of rhubarb in the lower right.
Lotsa product coming along this year! […enabled by frequent watering in this dry dry dry spring.]
Green elements
Thursday, 8 June 2023
Grass, lupines, and apple trees—these are obvious. The grass is bent because of wind…which is visible in videos from the same drone expedition, but you have to use your “seeing” brain to find it here.
We’re back in a cool phase again—lovely. I see rain will visit Saturday through Tuesday. We need it badly; I do hope it does arrive, and it gives us a thorough soaking.
Wind shifts
Saturday, 3 June 2023
Smoke north of us in Canada (in Ontario, pretty sure) has been reported for days, along with fires much farther out west and out east in our northern neighbor’s territory. That smoke finally arrived today, traveling on a gentle north wind. It smelled like a distant garbage fire…and fortunately faint. We also could see a very light haze.
By this evening, the wind had shifted to coming from the south, and the smoke smell was more ephemeral. The haze, however, seems to have intensified.
Despite such environmental conditions, and the dry dry soil, the lupines really busted out today.
Breathe deeply
Thursday, 1 June 2023
Despite how dry-dry-dry it is, the lilacs are lovely and, oh, the aroma…I’m so happy to be here to enjoy it, although today’s high is something like 86°F, and that’s way too hot for these parts, especially at the very beginning of June.