Musings

I could write something about fall-blooming anemones, that is: nice flower-talk….

Otherwise, I’ll get into the non-existential (or is it existential?) crisis of the Southern Ocean’s potential transition toward persistently reduced sea ice coverage resulting from rising salinity. Is the latter (link) too boring? Too hard to grasp? Possibly; you have my sympathy—but such salinity shifts and the attendant oceanic changes are way toooo important to dismiss. Important as in global climate change. Bonus: follow the link and you’ll read about polynyas—I’m betting it’s a new vocab word!

Posted at 8:54 PM | 2 Comments »

Today was between two nights with rain, and I hear tonight’s weather events will include storminess. Fun (sarcasm). 🙃

Posted at 8:14 PM | Comments Off on Drama

This morning’s murky sky was from moisture; in fact, it may well be raining across the lake, as the trees there are scarcely visible. BTW, this log was out in knee-deep water yesterday—shows the power of breaking waves.

These bushes are heavy with blossoms, denser than we remember from previous years. Of course, the blooms additionally are heavy with rain accumulation. I can’t remember what The Botanist called them; with a little help from plant recognition software, I’m pretty sure they are Kolkwitzia amabilis, beautybush to everyday folk.

Posted at 9:32 PM | Comments Off on Dead birch no-society

The predicted heat streak really hit us today. We were lucky, however, as the windiness tempered the heat (to some degree 🤣). I thought this barrel reflection did a good job of showing the turmoil in the sky. I truly enjoyed my 4:30pm dip in the not-so-warm lake.

It may get down to 69°F tonight, so tomorrow will be another hot one.

Posted at 10:06 PM | Comments Off on Heat treatment

We had rain in the wee hours, then an overcast dawn-time, then a break. In that relative calm, the gulls wheeled around the cottage, then landed and strutted in the grass. They were looking for fishflies, I suspect…’tis their time of a feeding frenzy.

I found this boletus on my way to the beach during the calm.

The lake wasn’t as wavy as I expected.

As I returned to the cottage, the wind kicked up and tipped over the lupins this way and that, when some were already bent by the overnight storminess.

Late in the afternoon, the sun came out and it got relatively warm, while still steamy. The high was 79°F, I think, so lower than predicted (we’re supposed to have an overheated weekend), because of how the overcast, etc. played out. I doubt we’ll have such relief tomorrow.

Posted at 10:02 PM | Comments Off on Windy, rainy, humid…

Yesterday we left idyllic lake-side life, scented with Canadian wildfire smoke, to arrive in clear skies and no nearby open water.

We abandoned lilacs and lupin, and now breathe the sweet scent of gardenias. BTW, the temp here is 80°F, with the AC running, while up north it’s 62°F and my cousin has a fire in the fireplace.

Posted at 6:56 PM | Comments Off on Latitude change

The on-shore wind was pretty strong all day, kicking up waves.

Nevertheless, these dandies managed to hold their fluff-n-seeds, and keep them from sailing away.

Around 6:30pm rain rolled in. Now, the rain barrel is nearly full (after just having a skim of water on half the bottom), and it’ll be overflowing before midnight. This is very good, as things were getting far too dry.

Posted at 10:11 PM | Comments Off on Windy day

The lilacs are opening! The lilacs are opening!

The orchard has blooming clouds of apple blossoms!

The earlier photos show the strange overcast sky–partly due to smoke that blew in from Manitoba. It also rained for a few minutes, and the drops pasted apple petals to the rhubarb.

These are, I assume, survivors from my great-grandmother’s garden. They’re called Narcissus poeticus or poet’s daffodil, and are considered the first daffodil mentioned, way back in early Greek records. I did not know this until I burrowed into internet info.

By mid-afternoon, the Canadian smoke had abated and the sun came out. Hopefully, we won’t have smoke tomorrow….

BTW, here’s the lupin duo I’ve been tracking. As you can see, their brethern are also showing color, although most of the lupin in the orchard still have small or tiny flower-spikes.

Posted at 10:05 PM | Comments Off on Flowers!

We drove in rain a ways, then just on wet roads, but we only had heavy overcast when we crossed the bridge. Note in the lower left, just over the railing—blue skies!

And even sunshine at the cottage! (…although now there’s a light overcast again…and a low of 41°F predicted overnight—yowzah!) BTW, my weather-and-more app indicates we have a day length of something like 70 minutes longer than we did where we were yesterday morning. Sure enough: it’s plenty light out even now, as I post.

The lake level is pretty high, at least according to my memory, which goes back to the 60s, heh-heh. We have been notified of a meeting early in June about agreeing on target lake levels winter and summer…wonder how contentious it’ll be….

Posted at 8:55 PM | 2 Comments »

I feel like Atlanta has slammed into summer, with robust heat and humidity mantling the city and slowing me down. This photo reminds me of the cool of the beach at Provincetown, on Cape Cod, two weeks ago.

Posted at 9:15 PM | Comments Off on Ah, memories