Musings

Clear, warm, and somewhat humid. Still, we did about eighty minutes of hard work this morning before the sun’s intensity ramped up—mostly cutting and vanquishing grass and weeds.

That’s the cycle of life around here. It’s either too cold for plants to flourish (or grow at all), or we’re in the brief period when it’s warm enough, and they grow with great urgency to make it through the growth cycle and produce seeds before freezing weather repeats.

This goldenrod (probably Solidago canadensis) is late to the blooming game, yet I know it’ll manage to be reproductively successful before the first killing frost.

Posted at 6:38 PM | Comments Off on Solidago souls

I treasure these ground-fog mornings. They only happen when many variables align…lack of wind all night, sufficient humidity, clear skies…and they aligned this morning. The fog thickens, thins, then thickens again over perhaps a half-hour. This was the first phase of thickening, with the earliest dawn light. So glad I was awake for this.

Posted at 5:56 PM | Comments Off on Murky morn

I looked out the window at 6:30am this morning, and saw the thick clouds mostly obscuring the far hillside (it’s hazily visible as the darker area between the white cloud layers) and thought: this isn’t a day for touring the countryside.

Here’s the hotel pool area at 3pm; it’s been rainy and will be again.

We fly out tonight, just before midnight. We checked out of our room at 2pm, and are ensconced in the lobby by big windows facing west, using the hotel internet and enjoying the fact that other people are far from us, although most are masked, as the hotel requests.

You might think this spot in the lobby is rather boring, but we watched three hotel employees wearing suits and dress shoes herd two Holsteins out of the front lawn about an hour ago.

It’s been a extraordinary trip, and we have accomplished what we set out to do. I sit here in a light jacket, and my trusty Apple Watch indicates it’s 54°F here. It will be months before we see the 50s in Atlanta, I think.

Posted at 5:55 PM | Comments Off on There comes a time…

We did a bit of outdoor socializing this evening. We had a storm cell come through before we convened, and it brought the temps down (yay!). So, it was quite pleasant, then the sun returned and the temp rose and the humidity re-blanketed us. That’s the way it goes.

Posted at 7:52 PM | Comments Off on Ice in our drinks

Luckily, I’ve been incorrect about the amount of rain we’ve received this week. I predicted the precip would be elsewhere. Nope. We got some Monday, and it’s raining now. The plants and their people-fans are happy.

Posted at 7:30 PM | Comments Off on Puddle weather

Darned dry although the meteors seem to think there’s a chance of showers several days next week. Along with a cool snap, with highs in the upper 80s, merely the upper 80s. I suspect the showers will be localized and accumulate little.

Posted at 7:41 PM | Comments Off on We shall see

I’m a bit discombobulated from our latitude shift that meant we left the spring of the way north and are now in the summer of the deep south. These directions are based on USA attitudes not continental, geographic perspectives.

Posted at 7:27 PM | Comments Off on Almost harvest time

We did outdoor chores through mid-morning, then de-ticked (one, on me, walking) and bathed. Fuddled around, then decided to head out for A Better Grocery Shopping Experience. We have three choices for that, each about 90 miles away: Escanaba to the WSW, Marquette to the WNW, and Sault Sainte Marie to the ENE. We chose Escanaba.

That means we saw the M of HOMES. Here is Manistique bay, and its stubby lighthouse marking the west side of the river mouth /outflow /channel.

Rain off and on during most of our trek, but the predicted precip didn’t materialize at the cottage until after we returned, perhaps 5pm. Plenty of wind, too, so not pleasant outside at all. Now we’re hunkered down with cupboards full of fine grocs, and even a new small-medium sized fan (for summer heat, although 80s are forecast for next week).

Posted at 7:35 PM | Comments Off on Roaming consumers

I’ve been waiting for this: my first quiet, clear morning artistically generating ground fog.

Yeah, I know eclipses are show-stoppers, but ground fog comes more often, although not frequently enough that it’s not special when it happens. Shown here with this year’s ringfort (aka small, elevated garden), planted with mixed greens (center), amidst a ring of basil seeds. Stand by to see what germinates and survives; give me/it time.

Posted at 5:23 PM | Comments Off on Simple pleasure

I read the prediction yesterday—a 24-hour rain—and wondered if it would materialize, as the last rain prediction we had yielded no precip whatsoever. Rain is what came (and what makes the odd haziness in this image from this morning), and what is still falling hours later. Along with major branches from this ancient apple tree, but that happened last winter/spring when there came a big load of heavy, wet snow. The winter-white is all gone now, leaving downed floral proxy evidence scattered about. [The pile on the right is our accumulated discarded Shrubberies, getting bigger everyday as we do spring yard cleanup.]

Posted at 4:44 PM | Comments Off on Never-ending (slight exaggeration)