Mason & Oceana Railroad Tour

The Mason County Historical Society put on a great event today. I certainly didn't think I would get to go; it cost more than I can afford. But someone kindly paid for my ticket!

This was an historical tour of Mason County with the primary emphasis on the Mason & Oceana Railroad. We began by traveling in buses to visit several places along the line that ran from Buttersville to a bit past Walkerville. The first stop was at Buttersville where I've showed you a bit of the old grade before. But today we heard much more about the village and the mill, and salt mines, and railroad yards.

This is some of the old grade as it approached the mill- it's the brown stripe near the water. I've shown you some of this before at Conservation Park.

We were visted by several historical figures. Horace Butters told us how he started the mill and what a busy place Buttersville was at that period of history.

Then we went to Pleiness Lake. There we were visted by John and Eleanor Pleiness who owned a blacksmith shop on the shore of the lake.

The railroad didn't have a regular stop there, but the line was about a half a field away. It followed that line of trees you can see.

Then we went even farther southeast to the former village of Fern. This is what's left of the school.

And George Yoke told us how he was injured working on the trains, and how he eventually died as a result of the injury. He also told us several other tragic tales. All that land you can see behind him was once the village of Fern. The railroad ran through the town.

We made one other stop, then returned to White Pine Village where we were served quite a nice dinner and saw some additional media about the railroad and the mills it served.

And that's enough for one day!

Plants Along the Trail

I met up with some members of the trail chapter this morning to meet and train a new volunteer in a low-key way. That all went well. Walked a portion of my section of trail as part of this. It's quite clean- we flipped some sticks out of the way and trimmed a few berry bushes. That's about it.

There were some plants in bloom. I was not aware that there was Bunchberry (Ground Dogwood), Cornus canadensis, in my section of trail. But here it is! Nice find.

There is always a ton of Starflower, Trientalis borealis, in the dry woods. I do think this is the best picture I've ever gotten of it though. Usually, the bright white flower just gets all blown out.

Some of you will think this is the best find. It's a pink lady's slipper orchid, Cypripedium acaule, but it's a very dark pink one. Kind of unusual.

But I'm really partial to this shrub. I know that it grows in the bottomland hardwood swamp along the railroad berm in my section. But I never get tired of finding it. It's not technically rare, but one doesn't find it too often. The leaves are large enough at this point that it was easy to spot.

It's done blooming, and it has already set seed.

The name comes from the flexibility of the wood. It's extremely bendable. See link below for more pictures of the whole bud/flower/seed cycle.

The mosquitoes were impressive. Dan and I chose to leave the deep woods and walked out along an old two-track that I'd never gotten around to exploring. Not too interesting, but now I can say I've done it.

And since I drove right past one, and near a second, garden center, I stopped and looked at plants. Yes, a couple more came home with me. You'll see them in due time.

Not all miles today counted for NCT. Miles walked in 2026: 171.2
NCT Hike 100 Challenge: 58

North Country Trail, Lake County 1.8 odd miles, and another 1.5 old road/dirt road/snowmobile trail. Total 3.2 miles.

See Leatherwood

Bright Pink

Today we will focus on bright pink. First, the two best successes. This is the Dianthus 'Kahori,' purchased in 2023. It has continued to spread by at least a third each year. Look at it go!

The other one I'm quite happy with is the Sea Thrift 'Morning Star Deep Rose.' It is just loaded with flowers.

The other Sea Thrift is struggling. It is a smaller plant, but it only has one flower so far. Last year it had two. This is 'Dusseldorf Pride.' I think there might be too much clay in the spot where it is. That edge of the garden needs some soil amendment. The leaves look like the other one. This close view of the flower came out pretty well, so I'm using it.

Now for the weird one. This is the Bloody Cranesbill geranium. It doesn't look this color at all in real life. It's pretty much the same color as the Sea Thrift, but the camera doesn't see it that way. I tried to get a better look inside a flower. This is blooming all over.

Final show-off for the day is the 'Firefly' Heuchera in the front bed. This is about the only heuchera flower that I think is worth bothering with. The color is lovely and contrasts with the green leaves.

The temperature and humidity were much better today! For my outside work I concentrated on trimming the grass on the edges of the rock garden and cleaning out the spaces between boards in our wooden sidewalk. I'm not quite done but made good progress.

See Pink and White

Sedum Successes

I think I already said that Sedums are the "backbone" plant of a dry rock garden. Well, unless you want cactus, but this is hard enough to weed already without adding prickles.

I just counted, and over the life span of the rock garden I have tried at least 44 different Sedums. Some are great successes, some not so much. Today I'll show you six that I'm very happy with. The criteria for making me happy today is that they are spreading well, are both interesting and visible this early in the season, and have a variety of foliage colors.

First up is 'Dazzleberry,' one of the SunSparkler series. This started as two tiny sprigs from a mail order in 2023. I love the color of the leaves, and it's grown and spread quite well.

This is a puddle that Jean gave me last year. It's about doubled in size. This is S. kamtschaticum 'Variegatum.' Not particularly fancy, but it will have reliable yellow flowers, and I'll be happy if it spreads as much as it suggests it will because I can use it to replace some of the really weedy sedums I have way too much of.

This is 'Ezawe.' It's not very happy in the first location where I put it, but the chunk that I moved here between rocks and in full sun is doing well. This is low growing and tiny. But I like how it fills between rocks.

This is the one my friend Betty gave me a couple of years ago. It's now gotten big enough that I'm pretty sure it's 'Vera Jameson.' This makes me really happy because I had one long ago that died. It took a couple of years, but it seems to be filling in better now.

The last two are both SunSparklers. These are technically hybrids, but I'm calling them sedums. The 'Lime Twister' is hugely reliable, spreading to make low mounds of light green and pink. I've split it several times and have chunks started in other locations. Here it's showing off with the Blue Fescue grass.

And the 'Lime Zinger' is a darker green, and it mounds up higher. I'm not sure you can tell the height in this top-down view, but I wanted to show how nice it looks with the Moneywort. Oh, and it looks like you get a litte mound on the right of S. hispanicum 'Pinkie.' This spreads all over the place, and I also have one that is much bluer, but I can't find its tag right now. It must be in my "to do" pile. I'm not sure if they stay separate varieties in the garden because the little balls just roll all over and then a patch appears out of nowhere. But they fill in small spaces nicely.

We just had a little pop-up thundershower that wasn't predicted at all! I had to go grab tools from where I had left them. It barely registered in the rain gauge, but it must have felt good to the plants after another day over 80°.

Very hot again today. I did errands and stuff and a little bit outside in the morning. Managed to keep moving fairly well, but I'm so far behind on so many things that it's crazy.

I think another time, I should show you some of the Sedums that haven't been such a big success for me. It's not always clear why they don't thrive on my hill, but it might be interesting.

See SunSparkler Sedums

2026- Rock Garden Report #2

I suppose it's pushing things a bit to have two rock garden reports in the same month, but so much happens in the spring that I am going to do it anyway.

This first round of color with daffodils, grape hyacinths, and moss phlox is winding down, and we are entering the next phase with the geraniums blooming, the sedums coloring up, and some of the dianthus starting to bloom.

This is the front view today.

And on May 3.

So the thing about a rock garden is that they are usually meant to feature low-growing plants, so you aren't going to get bright, splashy long-distance views. What I'm hoping for with that kind of vantage point is a mix of areas of foliage color and sometimes larger swaths of things blooming.

Here's the top of the garden today.

And on May 3

I think you can tell that I'm beginning to get a patchwork of various contrasting colors. But the best things are always going to be the tiny details I can share.

Here's a really tiny detail! I THINK the donkeytail Euphorbia has finally produced a couple of babies. Can you see them?

I'll help you out!

The 'Blue Star' juniper has a broken section. I suspect a deer stepped on it. I hope it fills itself back in. I really love the way it looks- so tidy and mounded with the blueish color. I went back to the place I got this on sale last year, but they don't have any of them this year at any price.

And I'll show you one more thing today. (I'm saving the sedums to focus on another time or two- they are the backbone of my dry rock garden plants.) This is 'Cerise Queen' yarrow. Yes, it gets tall, but I am trying it in this space beside the retaining wall. Tall is fine there, and I need something tall enough to hide the cable that holds the wall. As I've learned by trial and error, the spaces by the wall get pretty hot in the afternoons. But this was planted from seed last year, and it looks like it's going to be ok. The name should tell you that the flowers will be a shade of red.

Several of the dianthus did not survive- bummer. A few other plants that did survive are VERY small. We shall see.

The Confidence Campers gave me a gift card at the end of camp. I've decided to spend that on plants, which is why I've ordered a few. And I think I'm going to go buy that other Heuchera.

Today was the first truly hot and humid day of they year. I melted into a puddle of non-functionality in the afternoon. Got to the post office 8 minutes after it closed, so I guess that will be on tomorrow's list. I did get the gardens watered, so they are happy. My body has to adjust to temps over 80. Maybe I can get a few things done this evening.

Took a little walk in Scottville. About 1/4 mile. I don't think that even counts.

See 2026 Rock Garden Report #1