Musings

The rain overnight stopped by morning, leaving the lake three inches higher, the rain barrel full…

…and the orchard and field vegetation tipped over from the weight of the moisture. [BTW, this is the lupin cluster that a deer nipped the other day.]

We attended a hearing that began at 9am in a county courtroom, presided over by a judge who was over in Sault Ste. Marie (because, we heard, all the county’s judges owned land on our lake, or had loved ones who did, so had to recuse]. The topic was the county getting in compliance with state law about managing our lake levels. Most attendees were more concerned about the actual lake levels than the legal issues; many wanted the levels to be higher later in the fall to facilitate fishing by sportspeople using very large (IMHO, aka relatively deep draft) watercraft.

The upshot was: the county needs to get in compliance, which means the legal lake levels are the issue—and so the judge ruled (if I properly understood what happened).

By the end of the day, it was sunny and pleasant, but the air quality seemed reduced—distant views are somewhat obscured by moisture and/or smoke particles, or perhaps even the arrival of Saharan dust.

Posted at 10:03 PM | Comments Off on A different day

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

I’ve been enjoying this small field of pussytoes, but the light is not helpful for photographing. At all; ever.

I worked on weed removal for a while, mostly thistles. Bye, y’all.

Posted at 9:36 PM | Comments Off on Our plant friends

I didn’t anticipate any more photos of the lupin pair that I’ve posted several times, until I saw them this morning en route to the beach this morning. Nipped in the bud. Or almost the bud. By deer, I’m sure.

Also deer-nibbled: apple branches that were low enough for the herbivores to reach in the winter starvation times.

At the beach, the water level has dropped since we arrived, but it’s still waaaaay too high IMHO.

Orchard view: petals are dropping, and leaves continue emerging, so that the petal-white is becoming overwhelmed. Still pretty, lovely, and wonderful, however.

Posted at 10:32 PM | Comments Off on Nibbled &more

I did some outdoor chores this morning, which turned out to be a good decision because trace smokiness arrived in the afternoon, which meant I’d rather not be outside…so, instead I read some, and fidgeted with odds and ends of screen-and-internet activities.

Let me apologize for the run-on sentence/paragraph above with a morning photo of a gull and a pontoon boat offering visual interest in this lake view.

Posted at 9:32 PM | Comments Off on In the details

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!

Across the orchard, almost all the blossoms opened, and some of the petals began to fall in the late-day breeze.

With even better scent, the lilacs began to open.

In non-vegetation news, I was out just before the the sun descended…I didn’t stay to photo the setting.

Posted at 8:59 PM | Comments Off on Blooming day

These tracks were in the water this morning the whole length of “our beach.” Big, so perhaps a great blue?

Also, it’s forget-me-not season. I’ve been unable to take a shot that’s in focus until this one—which is close.

Here’re the ferns by the door, but the view from the cottage into the yard.

Posted at 10:05 PM | Comments Off on Unthemed

We headed to Manistique to have a better grocery selection than are offered at nearer stores, and began our adventure with lunch, followed by a stroll on the boardwalk (mostly paved) along the Lake Michigan shore to look at the lighthouse. It’s rather stubby and unprepossessing; good thing it’s painted red.

And just to the left, moments after the photo above, I caught a gull taking flight. Look! No horizon in the background, and this was merely perhaps an angle of 40° different.

Next stop: groceries. I guess a version of the shopping-after-lunch plan was in the air, as we saw both parties that were eating when we arrived at the lunch place at the grocery place. Great minds? (Snort; I don’t think so, just restocking after a long holiday weekend.)

Back at the ranch, I got the grocs put up, then headed out to check on the lake and just wander about. The barberries next to the cottage are in bloom. Indeed, we watched a (smallish, dark) hummingbird busy with the flowers just yesterday.

I checked the lupin pair pictured yesterday, and the development is noticeable. This is about 30 hrs after the previous photo.

I just went out to close up the entry porch, and realized the buckets I put out to drain and dry now seem to be a convention. I used the buckets to water in the new top-dressing I added to the rhubarb in the bed I created last fall down at the stone house. The plants’re small, yet doing well, and all survived (a major coup).

Posted at 9:47 PM | Comments Off on Slow kind of busy

I postulate that this is one of last year’s spotty fawns. It hangs with about five others, and they all have this tawny color at present. I think it hasn’t lost all its winter fur. I got to enjoy watching this visitor’s slow progress around the cottage as I sipped my first cuppa coffee (photo through screen, cancha tell?).

The lake was so still this morning; this was 8:20am.

Mid-afternoon, I found this lupin with just the barest bit of purple showing. Also, around the orchard are many more buds than I saw three days ago.

Posted at 9:51 PM | Comments Off on Color commentary