Musings

We had overcast this morning. All things considered, it wasn’t bad out, just not bright.

Then, the sky cleared and, whew!, lovely. Solar gain even made the porch toasty, so I read out there for a while.

Meanwhile, inside, the wood stove was cranking (there is no slow or super-slow setting), and it was beyond toasty. In a good way.

We even made a quick run to the PO (Amazon Prime in the hinterlands only goes so far—sometimes—and yet sometimes they deliver to the house via brown—a curious variation?), and to the groc store—yoghurt needed!

Posted at 9:46 PM | Comments Off on A fine day

I loved the orange at dawn. So clear.

An hour-and-a-half later, it was like a different day, perhaps a different world. A fog (cloud?) set in, and the dawn tints gone, and the color palette diminished.

By mid-afternoon, it was seriously overcast, a solid layer of blue-grey above.

At the beach, well, no beach, and a south wind sending the waves kicking up the leaves that had been floating aimlessly yesterday like poetic dabs on the lake. No more.

And by full dark, it was spitting rain. Sigh.

There’s a saying in these parts along the lines of “if you don’t like the weather, wait five miniutes,” or an hour. This was a day that fit that to a “T.”

Posted at 9:02 PM | Comments Off on Wait five minutes

When you find a cycad seasonally decorated by falling leaves, you know…something…perhaps that the seasons turn? the cycad is not in its natural habitat? that more research is needed? Ahhhhhh….

For the record, I make these comments without reverence (or reference) to the fact that officials/decision-makers delayed the start of the MichSt–Mich foooootbl game because of white-stuff*. That’s an official weather category: white-stuff. I want it to go into remission for a couple of weeks. Please.

* Possibly, the reported “white-stuff” might have been rain? I comment from hundreds of miles distant….

Posted at 10:40 PM | 2 Comments »

This was the southeast morning sky—sunlight trying to peep through beneath cloud cover…

…and this was the southwest evening sky…but not the same cloud cover. It got sunny for much of the middle of the day, and thus the porch achieved a fine level of solar gain. Time to close it off again, however, as temps are dropping.

We walked down the road a bit and discovered that since we’d been staying “on the place,” we’d missed that a large maple limb fell across the road. Don’t know who chain-sawed it and through the pieces into the ditch, but thanks. Still overcast….

White pine pinecone. Or white pine cone. See, sunny. Kinda.

Posted at 6:35 PM | Comments Off on Sky to the south

Still this morning after the turbulence of the last two days. The caulk fix the Guru implemented on the rain barrel is holding!

Not yet seeing milkweed seeds floating around, as the pods are still desicating.

Found this bold lichen on the neighbors’ gate. Tough surface, but a bit sheltered.

The afternoon sun warmed the porch to the mid-70s, warm enough to dine here. Outdoors the temp dropping fast toward an overnight low in the upper 40s.

Posted at 6:29 PM | Comments Off on Photo pretties

Yesterday was rain rain rain, and the wind kicked up overnight—woke us up kind of wind. That kind of wind sure makes us edgy!

By morning the rain/wind had slacked off (mostly), and there was a kinda normal several hours (glorious sky; see photo), as the temperatures rose to the highest point maybe by 11am. Then the wind kicked up and the temps have been dropping to a predicted overnight low at maybe 7am breaking 40°F. The wind wind wind means there are small branches down under all the trees and a live maple branch came down at the neighbors’, narrowly missing a pickup. Safe!

Sad story of life: the raccoons have somehow raided the last of the corn (less than a dozen ears, I think) in the same neighbors’ garden. We people got almost all of it, however. 😋

Posted at 5:03 PM | Comments Off on Wild weather

The story of today is right here. Rain. Drippy rain. Not so cold, just continuous moisture. Good for the late garden plants. But.

So, we hopped in the Prime, and headed out to defray boredom. First stop: winding drive down to Seul Choix Point and its lighthouse on the north shore of Lake Michigan. The latter dates back to 1892, and is still used, but most navigators are using digital/satellite systems, making the light more confirmation than a sole guide.

To me, this kind of view is Essence of UP. Maple trees bending to make a tunnel over a gravel road through the forest that I can toodle along, with a smile on my face. Special this day: drippiness.

We popped out on the Lake Superior shore near Marquette. These are two of the Picnic Rocks in the Marquette Harbor.

And this is the view southwest into the upper harbor from Presque Isle Park, a rugged point extending into Lake Superior. This is an immense ore dock. Rail cars are moved out onto the top of the dock, and their loads are dumped into spaces in the dock, then emptied into a ship (called a boat around here) in 20-ton lots. The name is “ore,” and I think of ore as the material that is rock-with-mineral as it is mined from MotherEarth. But, here the “ore” is taconite, pellets of 70% iron that has been separated (mostly) from the rock that contained it at or very near the mine.

Posted at 9:46 PM | Comments Off on Essence of UP

Oh, I thought, so picturesque…the crocks on the neighbor-deck with a new-fallen leaf.

Then, later, I looked under our maple, and sure enough, this is the day the leaves began to fall. There were the odd two or three here and there before…but today they came down by the dozen. And not because it was super windy, or even more windy than usual (mostly).

Down at the beach, I caught the eagle soaring out of a tree back from the beach, and looping around the point to leave me alone. Eagles are loners, most of the time.

Follow-up on the weather: sometime before sunset, the weather went from hot/rather humid, to cooling off more than it has in quite some time (very early in Sept). It’s now in the lower 60s out…and dropping. Extra blanket tonight!

Posted at 9:06 PM | Comments Off on Change day

Gorgeous sky…as thunder rumbled. And rumbled. Yes, rain did arrive, but not much, although enough to cool it down.

Posted at 9:29 PM | 1 Comment »

Our rainy, muggy, steamy August continues, and this new (maybe two months old) mulch is supporting a healthy crop of fungi. All locals are reminded to carefully clean between their toes. 😀

My weather app indicates sunset will be at 8:18pm; too cloudy to see it….

Posted at 8:04 PM | 1 Comment »