Colorful Planters

 I have been hunkered down all day working on maps and editing. Mostly maps. Here are some pictures from a couple of weeks ago. These planters are in Onekama.

This one has coleus, blue lobelia, a sunpatiens, and an elephant ear. Shows what a beautiful effect you can get without buying expensive plants.

This one has tuberous begonias and a grass.

And a closer view of just the two types of coleus.

And now I'm going back to maps. I want to get two more days worth done yet tonight.

See Onekama Township Parks

Two Moderate Successes

 Two of the plants I'm trying to get to grow in my gardens are alive. I won't call say, "and well," because they are struggling, but there is hope, and neither one cost me money, so, hey.

First is the Anise Hyssop. This hitchhiked here with a plant from Betsy. I moved that one, and it bloomed, although the flowers aren't in focus. And the flowers are very small.

Betsy gave me a second stalk of it this year, and it lived, but no flowers.

You may remember that I was trying to get the Bigbract Verbena to grow in the rock garden. Well, it's alive. It's certainly not as lush as in the cracks in the paved road shoulder. Maybe it needs more harsh treatment.

And a freebie... an attractive camo grassphopper! S/he's not very big, but is an adult because it has wings.

I edited quite a lot today, did laundry and am working on the maps for the hike. It's a huge job, and I really shouldn't have left it this late.

See Bigbract Verbena

Obsessed with Maps

 Months ago, I mentioned that I hoped to do a fairly long hike this fall. I had started planning and got a decent start. But that's all it was- a start.

Now, that hike is looming! I need to leave home on September 8. Will go to the NCTA and Buckeye Trail joint Trail Fest, and then head south from there to hike.

I feel that I need to do my own paper maps. There is a FarOut electronic map and a guidebook, but I'm not really comfortable without paper too. And I'm planning to hike 350 miles. That's a lot of maps at the scale I want.

I had finished the overview maps. They look like this, and help put the trail in the landscape. That's important, because most of it is pretty remote, in the Daniel Boone National Forest, and it's not like you can just find a nearby town to help locate the trail. There are only 12 of these maps for the whole trail. They also have the elevation profile for each day.

The real problem is the detailed topographic maps. There are 31 hiking days, and I have 26 maps done which gets me through 6 days. Long way to go.

All that to say I spent most of the day sitting at the computer. Can you say stiff?

I also spent a good chunk of time editing. Oh, and finished cleaning up the bathroom/toilet mess.

See Off and Running to the Next Adventure

Only Three Trips to the Store

 There is a joke going around these days that is actually pretty funny.

How did Jesus' parents know that he was divine while he was yet a child?

He only went to Home Depot once to complete his first carpentry project.

Here's the situation. The upstairs toilet has been leaking for quite a while, but not badly enough to do anything except keep a towel under the tank. Last week, I decided to tighten the bolts that hold the tank to the commode. Nope. One of them disintegrated under my fingers.

I had made the first stop at the store before I started removing the old bolts. Assumptions will always get you in trouble, right? I assumed that because both toilets were installed when the house was built that they would be the same. Remember I just fixed the other toilet last year. That one has two bolts, so I bought a two-bolt kit. Nope, this one has 3 bolts. Number two trip to the store.

Yesterday, I took off the tank and replaced the gasket (good timing- you can see the old one is pretty deformed) and the bolts. Everything sealed up nice. I filled the tank partway with a bucket to be sure nothing was leaking. So far so good.

Then I went to hook up the water line. As I was tightening it, the fill valve tube broke in half.

Trip number three to the store this morning for a new fill valve. That went in with no issues. It seemed like the old one hadn't been changed that long ago, but from the blog post, I see it was 11 years ago.

Look through the water and you can see the three shiny new bolt heads, and the new fill valve on the left.

The mess is almost all cleaned up. Working on getting the rust stains off the floor.

I got groceries while I was out and stopped at Cathy's so she could dig a sliver out of the bottom of my foot that I couldn't quite access.

Edited, did dishes, and am back to working on prep for the Sept-Oct hike.

See Fix It and Then...

Random Flowers

 Here is the 'Banana Split' Sedum in full bloom. It's WAY too tall for its space, but it may not be that tall next year, so I'll leave it alone for now. I like the dark leaves and pale yellow flowers.

After umpteen years, the wild Orpine is blooming. The deer think it is candy, but keeping it in prison has done the job this year, and I think this is only the second time it's bloomed. This is a native sedum.

In theory, I have a lot of naked lilies. The original patch was down at the other house. I moved some up here and they are in the beds with the day lilies. But, they don't like to be moved and it takes them several years to get established. I think they bloomed a couple of times, but now those ones haven't bloomed for years. Not sure why. This year, the original patch down by the road bloomed. This is really an amarylis rather than a lily. In the spring it has a shock of strappy leaves which die back, and then in late summer the naked stalk comes up nearly overnight and blooms.

It was supposed to rain while I was gone, but it didn't. I came home to several unhappy plants. I don't think anything is dead, but some are sad. And something dug up two of the Gazania. I've replanted them. We'll see how they do. And now I'm watering everything.

Worked my little job in the morning. Walked to the library. Started that home repair job that I bought parts for twice last week. Had it almost back together and something else broke. I'm not going out again today. Maybe I'll get it finished tomorrow. Sigh.

Miles walked in 2026: 294.4
Road walk to town and back.

See Naked Lily