Wednesday, 23 August 2023
Five is a cupcake birthday. Today’s highlight was without a doubt a fifth b-day party. Seven adults and one b-day boy…who slept for half an hour before waking (slowly) to open his presents…while waiting for the adults for finish their leisurely dinners. All is well. He liked the rock-decorating kit best, I think; it came complete with rocks (and glitter, googly-eyes, paints, etc.).
Tuesday, 22 August 2023
Tromped through and around in the field and discovered that the infestion of these thistles has, big surprise, increased over last year. I also discovered that my work with The Beast, while it didn’t eliminate the invasive grass, it did keep it from going to seed where. I cut. However, I didn’t manage to cut all of it down, just most of it and the thickest patches. I’ll take that progress, though.
Little known fact: I called these plants prickers when I was a kid. I must have gotten that term from The Botanist. It’s the technical term for the wee and annoying thorns they sprout on stems, leaves, everywhere.
Apologies to Sky Watchers: dull overcast during the final daylight hours; no even boring sunset.
UPDATE Apologies to botanists: the thorny parts are called prickles; I in turn created (pretty sure) a term for the whole plant: prickers.
Monday, 21 August 2023
I went out the door with my eye on the red-pink orb hanging low in the sky, and kept watching it through the vegetation as I steamed across the road and up the hill to the Best Spot To See The Sunset. And saw the orb get swallowed by cloud layers. Yet, still pretty without the orb.
Later in our walk, after a serenade by two pairs of sandhills and a deer count exceeding a dozen, we enjoyed views of the moon’s waxing crescent.
Sunday, 20 August 2023
Warm night last night, only down in the high 60s. Tonight it’s almost that cool now, heading down to the high 50s. I suspect I’ll sleep better tonight.
Feeling for the people of SoCal, Baja, and that area; they probably aren’t sleeping well at all.
Saturday, 19 August 2023
This evening.
Last night. A bit later, yes. Big, big (natural) color difference.
Sigh.
Friday, 18 August 2023
The wind blew itself out, as Mom used to say. The lake level is lower than when we left, but the point still isn’t as pointy as it was.
Still haven’t been able to return to my before-10am outdoor work schedule. It’ll come.
Thursday, 17 August 2023
It was windy all last evening, then the rain came in at something like 2am, still with the wind. I did not sleep well, but I did sleep. Sometime late morning the rain quit, and the sun even came out once or twice. We sure did need the rain, and I guess the wind assured that the rain got everywhere, including under the trees and on the were-wilty lilacs. Now it’s quiet again, but it wasn’t much of a work-day or a fun-day.
By the way, this is deer-trimmed mint…in bloom.
Wednesday, 16 August 2023
We treated ourselves to smoked menominee. Thank you, fishy. Usually we get whitefish. The two species are cousins (and both in the salmon group). I was surprised that (today anyway) I liked the menominee better than the whitefish we had last time.
Windy now and building since late this afternoon. Supposed to continue all night. Rrrr.
Tuesday, 15 August 2023
As to today’s military vehicle sightings: we saw flatbeds in sand camo paint, empty…the reverse of yesterday.
And we found a whole dashboard’s worth of rubber duckies and their friends. It did perk up Ohio.
Much farther up the road, we got a good view from the north shore of Lake Michigan. If we could see around the curvature of the earth, we’d have a very distant view of Chicago (more or less).
And we have arrived! Very dry, so dry that the lilac leaves are hanging limp, and the grass is mostly brown.
Monday, 14 August 2023
We’ve seen military convoys now and then on the move on Interstate right-of-ways here and there, now and then. Today was the first time either of us could remember tanks on flatbeds that were not also military vehicles. It’s another thing our military is outsourcing, perhaps, skeptical me suggests, because outsourcing money comes from a different pile than straight military that’s easier to recharge (or get the votes to recharge).