Musings

Chapel Lake, view west across south end.

Today’s adventure was a loop walk around Chapel Lake, in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. The breeze was offshore and we could hear the wind in the canopy as we walked through the mostly maple woods. We saw two little snakes (snakelets?; possibly hatched this year?; one probably garter/garden; other unknown), no fur bearers, only a few other hiker/walkers, no campers, many chipmunks. Notable plant species include Doll’s Eyes and moosewood (no time to find links). We also saw Chapel Rock.

Posted at 7:29 PM | 2 Comments »

Archive photo, New York state, January 2003 (borrowed footwear; my down coat).

Yes, today is the first day that I’ve considered digging up a sweater—just in time, eh?, as fall* begins just before noon….

Soon we’ll be making snow angels?

* In honor of the seasonal change, I scraped my wooden cutting board, so it’s ready for another year (or so).

Posted at 10:05 AM | 2 Comments »

Archive photo, mid-December 2006.

Our weather has yet to bring the promise of fall, and the dessication of the grasses. Our vegetation looks like very late summer, but still like summer. I’ve seen a few hints of autumnal change, but only a few.

Around here, it’s like there was no Ike.

Posted at 5:23 PM | 1 Comment »

A wicked afternoon storm came through yesterday, filling the gutters and sending a few vagrant streamlets into the house around the old dormers until the patch-crew arrived (thanks, Guys). Can you guess how glad we are that we will be getting a *Real Roof tomorrow? I know it’s true ’cause the supplies arrived this morning.

Posted at 12:05 PM | 2 Comments »

The framing guys crack me up. There’s a singer (which might have annoyed me before I lived in Mexico), a quiet guy (the balance?), and the third guy, who seems quite normal.

This is the view from the framed in dormer looking up at the top of the roof. It doesn’t show how complicated the angles are on the back side, where lots of roof planes meet.

The second most exciting thing about what this photo shows, after the framing, is the tar paper, which means we have a much more durable roof than a flapping tarp provides—especially for summer southern pop-up afternoon rainstorms. The ones yesterday missed us to the north. There’s a cell to the south right now. Next? Who knows?

The Sheetrock™ you see straight ahead is in the interior stairwell (now with zipwalls top and bottom). You’re not supposed to see into the stairwell from here!

After the framers leave, we’ll be praying for sheetrock (well worth the read).

Posted at 1:45 PM | Comments Off on I love framing

Elected and hopeful officials and local businesses comprised most of the Curtis parade, as near as I could tell. I saw two bands: Newberry High’s marching band (in matching t-shirts), and these folks from downstate….

Here’s a gem of a passage from Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Links, originally published in 1923 (this from a 1959 paperback edition I found stashed on a shelf in the cottage, page 54)….

“You do not play the golf, M. Poirot?” inquired Bex.

“I? Never! What a game!” He became excited. “Figure to yourself, each hole is of a different length. The obstacles, they are not arranged mathematically. Even the greens are frequently up one side! There is only one thing—how do you call them?—tee boxes! They, at least, are symmetrical.”

Take that, Tiger!

In the meantime, it’s breezy and sunny and did I mention breezy? The grass is sufficiently vanquished, the gas tank is refilled, and most of our food has been consumed. Guess what this means about tomorrow?

Posted at 7:55 PM | 1 Comment »

I’m not even going to comment on the willpower it took not to nab this ’mater.

Our neighbors are out of town, and I went over this morning to check how their veggies were doing. Sadly, in combo with the lack of rain, the bright sun has hammered them—all the leaves were terribly limp. So, I took the dishwater over (remember, watering restrictions and drought in these parts). It wasn’t much. I am happier now, since we one of those summer-afternoon pop-up storms nailed us this afternoon, delivering some blessed precip (not much, but we’ll take whatever arrives!).

The beautiful rain had another impact, however. The Blue Tarp is showing its age, and JCB spread a plastic dust cloth on the dining room floor to catch the drips….

Posted at 6:08 PM | 2 Comments »

Pan from ATL Bot Garden

I understand that the US builds flood control barriers for what is at the time of construction (and that this assessment is not regularly adjusted is part of the problem) thought to be a “100-year” flood. Of course, that’s theoretical, but it is a label that provides perspective. I also understand that in Holland they build for 1000-year flood events.

HUGE difference.

Meanwhile, at one earthen levee along the Mississippi River:

Officials spent nearly six hours choking off the leak caused by a muskrat burrowing in the soft ground early Monday.*

Six hours, mind you. Now, I’m not the most knowledgeable at natural history, but a muskrat? This is not an unexpected species (Wikipedia has its range as across the continental US), and its habits are well-known. Will we soon be hearing that we taxpayers must ante up X-gajillion dollars because of ONE MUSKRAT?

This from an AP story in the NYTimes this afternoon, dateline Winfield, Missouri.

Posted at 4:23 PM | 2 Comments »

We watched the layered sky become all grey and dark as the storm came in from the west yesterday. Thankfully, it took the edge off the intense heat that had built up throughout the day. I had to pick up loose newspapers from the neighbors ditch, which had been loosened by the gusty winds (they’re laid in a mosaic-blanket between the rows and held down—when it works—by weeds and strategic bits of soil, and function to hold in moisture and control unwanted vegetation).

Today, however, we’re back in the humid soup that stands in for atmosphere in this part of the world during this season. Still, my stalwart helper and I managed to put in almost two hours this morning adding more newspapers around the tomatoes and between the rows of peas—these are rather intellectual veggies, nourished by the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, and the odd copy of the State News. Before I quit, I also picked lots of strawberries; someone’s going to be making jam or slicing berries for the freezer next week (not me!).

Posted at 9:11 PM | 3 Comments »

The summer heat has arrived with a vengeance. At 10:30 am, it was already 88°F.

Posted at 10:55 PM | Comments Off on Summer temps