Musings

So, midmorning I swept the balcony free of leaves. At 3pm I looked out and found a new crop had recolonized it. I’m looking at you tulip poplars. [Not this taxus, or whatever it is.]

Posted at 8:24 PM | Comments Off on Autumnal changes

I look at a cleome bloom and I just want to smile.

Posted at 8:20 PM | Comments Off on Floral joy

I had this with my coffee and thought, gee whiz, there’s something to post here. Perhaps. [Mitad means half in Spanish.]

But, this is better. We began a new series of evening TV watching. We sometimes use our choices to be a kind of travelogue, or travel abroad that doesn’t require a passport. This choice is “Hotel Costiera,” set in Positano, on the southern Amalfi Coast. So far, there’s not much food in it; drinks, yes, but little chow. [Not ciao.] Pleasant. Entertaining. Mostly in English.

Posted at 7:38 PM | Comments Off on Translation day

I was surprised by how dramatic the flare was at this moment.

Posted at 9:11 PM | Comments Off on Wooo-hooo

Is there a functional reason for the scalloped edges? Are edges more important than middles to the plant somehow (it’s counter-intuitive to me)? Do herbivores tend to avoid the leaves because they assume they are already nibbled?

Posted at 9:14 PM | Comments Off on No-milk scalloping

Today, I found an anole indoors. Does this happen every autumn? Something like that. I gently captured it and released it outdoors. Good outcome. [I am mystified as to how they get inside.]

Last week, on our way up to Lake Superior, we were slow-motoring on a sand road through the visual mosaic of leaf color and sun-n-shade when what should appear on the hood just past the wipers but a mouse. It must have come from an open area at the base of the wipers. Up on the hood, it had little traction, and I hit the brakes hard and zip, it flew off the hood forwards, and I saw it run into the ditch to the left. Another good outcome.

Posted at 7:16 PM | Comments Off on Two critter stories

I liked the colorful early sky, even with the mist on our hotel room’s window.

The morning was quite clear, however, as we continued to avoid the interstates. We encountered a fog bank that continued for several miles southwest of Lebanon, KY.

Later, we found a stunning view of the Sequatchie Valley just east of Dunlap, TN. Below center is what I think is called a parafoil (a huge kite, blue-green in this case).

We mostly took back roads today, like yesterday. This was also true in the greater Atlanta area, where traffic snaggles were abundant. JCB knew assorted back ways that had few vehicles, in contrast to the choked main roads.

So glad to be home, although our time in the UP was exceptional and the drive was lovely.

Posted at 8:17 PM | Comments Off on Bits

Our morning began west of Traverse City, and therefore off our typical I-75 axis. Pleasantly. So, we stayed west of I-75 all through Michigan, where farm stands selling pumpkins and big pots of mums were abundant. Look for mums on the far left between the arch-roofed structure and the RR tracks.

Our trajectory took us through the “heart of Amish country,” Shipshewana, Indiana. Hence: buggies and many farms with paddocks of horses. We even saw a four-horse team on the road, but pulling no farm equipment, only the driver’s platform with an empty hitch-bar.

We decided on a buffet dinner (a vast improvment over Arbys and the like). The offerings of course included red jello. [Not sampled.]

And here’s today’s sunset, complete with windshield flares. No Great Lake in Southern Indiana, even a bay of a smallish lake, although we did pass by Big Lake at some point.

Posted at 7:03 PM | Comments Off on Ah, the Midwest

Lotsa chores, but I made it to the beach in the early-mid afternoon…

…just as the sun was starting to chase the clouds away.

View south from the grove. You can’t see the lake from this angle, but it’s tucked in there.

Proof we got off the property: this is looking across the inner arc of the East Arm of Grand Traverse Bay.

Posted at 9:34 PM | Comments Off on Moving along

I slept in (so no sunrise shot), and I needed it (I like to think), soooo-kay.

Bonus, when I went out for the through-the-trees shot, I spotted this.

Later, I visited the beach, and spotted: leaf that had swimming lessons.

And, similar leaf (scale distorted): no swimming lessons.

I went out for a late-day sun-on-the-trees shot, and the sun went away at the same time I spotted *three deer under the apple tree* (really: there are two you probably can’t spot), which Taylor Swift might want to turn into a song lyric. 🤣

I took a photo of the trees even though the sun was gone. Ya get what ya get, is that the theme of today?

Posted at 7:04 PM | Comments Off on Find a story; make a story (vestiges)