Monday, 5 June 2023
Today’s household headlines (HHs) were the Tim Cook Show and rhubarb, his and hers you could say.
So much red/pink in this rhubarb.
Rhubarb sauce, right, and store-bought kinda macerated strawberries left. Red fruits for dessert.
Sunday, 4 June 2023
This morning I did some grass-whacking around this planting, and oh. my. heavens…the lovely lilac scent. It inspired and lulled me.
Varmit count: 1; one woodchuck…no sign of woodchucks before this afternoon visit. Go away! You are not wanted here.
Pest count: hundreds; scads of carpenter ants serially invading the porch. And removed in discreet (kinda) dustpan loads, at approximately half hour intervals. This is what we do for exercise. Heh.
Saturday, 3 June 2023
Smoke north of us in Canada (in Ontario, pretty sure) has been reported for days, along with fires much farther out west and out east in our northern neighbor’s territory. That smoke finally arrived today, traveling on a gentle north wind. It smelled like a distant garbage fire…and fortunately faint. We also could see a very light haze.
By this evening, the wind had shifted to coming from the south, and the smoke smell was more ephemeral. The haze, however, seems to have intensified.
Despite such environmental conditions, and the dry dry soil, the lupines really busted out today.
Friday, 2 June 2023
There’s a hole in the boat! Well, yeah: catamaran…by definition a vessel with twin, symmetrical, parallel hulls. Less draft and less resistance plus greater stability than a monohull.
This one docks in Munising, and takes tourists along the Lake Superior shore to view the Pictured Rocks—multi-colored sandstone cliffs with blue and blue-green waters lapping at their knees (as it were).
We didn’t take a boat tour today (our mission was farther along in Marquette (new watchband)); perhaps we will sometime soon.
Thursday, 1 June 2023
Despite how dry-dry-dry it is, the lilacs are lovely and, oh, the aroma…I’m so happy to be here to enjoy it, although today’s high is something like 86°F, and that’s way too hot for these parts, especially at the very beginning of June.
Wednesday, 31 May 2023
Which is better? Lupines against the sky?
Or, lupines with moon?
I’m going with: both are lovely.
Tuesday, 30 May 2023
Both of us were in the mood to take a break from chores-about-the-property, and I got texting to friends…and when the dust settled we took off eastbound to see them and to do errands. First stop was lunch at a small burger place—with car-hops!—where we could watch a very local ferry zooming back and forth from mainland to island (both Michigan territories) and back. [Note phone check before driving away.]
It’s not quite that simple, as the route, short as it is, crosses an international shipping route. Here’s a Great Lakes freighter upbound toward the Sault Locks. It’s the John G. Munson (made of steel and self-loading; built 1952; 102′ mid-section added 1975–76; owned by Canadian National Railway Co.; IMO: 5173670), if you can’t read the name. Out of Duluth, and most certainly headed back there. [Apologies for cutting off a sliver of the stern.]
We did our other errands and headed for our fun fun socializing stop. We chatted about a huge range of topics, including what this shrub is. iNaturalist (free app; recommended!) says Amalanchier species, commonly known as serviceberry and sugarplum…and many other names. Happy agreement among us with the app ID.
On our return leg, we made a quick end-of-road stop to look across the shipping channel that the Munson will soon pass through. The other side is another country, Canada. Did I know this?—that scholars have coalesced around the hypothesis that Canada is a corruption of the St. Lawrence Iroquoian word kanata, which means village or settlement. Town and country, yup, so efficient, our neighbors to the north….
And just like that, we returned to the cottage, unloaded and stashed all our new possessions, and settled back into our normal evening routine…albeit no longer with any new “Succession” episodes in our future. Oh, Shiv.
Monday, 29 May 2023
In less than a week, we’ve gone from the buds are opening to the petals are falling. I can deal.
Sunday, 28 May 2023
I’ve found the apple-blossom display so stunning I have been distracted from finding other beauty. Today, ah, well, the progression of time is obvious. I saw the first petals falling like supple, oversized snowflakes. It’s trite, perhaps, yet an honest summation.
Saturday, 27 May 2023
We took an early evening stroll, and spotted both the East and West Herds. That’s what I’m calling them. White-tailed deer. This is the East Herd, numbering at least eleven. This specimen did a version of King of the Hill, although it may be a Queen or Princess; I do not have gender info. Posing, anyway.
Returning to our property, we found the first blooming lupine of the season—by that I mean with color, as there are buds everywhere. I think the earliest ones last year were in this same spot. Don’t know why…better exposure doesn’t work…perhaps to do with local soil conditions and moisture? Dunno.