100, Not 100

Took advantage of the beautiful weather to get in a little hike today. Went to the all-too-familiar Timber Creek trailhead on the NCT. Closest to my house.

It's way too early for any signs of spring. Best I can do is some signs of wildlife. At least one pileated woodpecker has been going nuts. Several dead or dying trees were totally shredded. I'm identifying the culprit by this distinctive pattern in one of the trees.

Evidence of Yellow-bellied Sapsucker presence with these parllel lines of holes in a piece of bark. Also a woodpecker. I saw a Downy woodpecker but got no picture. Only other wildlife was a squirrel.

The trail was almost completely clear of snow. There was some yet in the bottom of the "bowl" the trail passes.

I did find one fungus on a stick. It's probably amber jelly roll, Exidia recisa.

My goal was to walk 6 miles- on my way to increasing the mileage this spring. This is just proof that I made it to 8th St, the three-mile mark before I turned around.

So, this puts me over 100 miles for the year, but not 100 on the NCT. No worries; I'll get there.

Miles walked in 2026: 105.9
Hike 100 Challenge 2026: 17.6

North Country Trail, Lake County, MI. Timber Creek north to 8th St and back. 6 miles

BONUS SECTION: Today is Palm Sunday, my most favorite Sunday of the Christian calendar. I had a YouTube playlist with a lot of music specific for the day, but guess what? It's gone, of course. Very strange. My Christmas list is there, but this one and Easter are gone. I managed to recreate most of this one.

If you too like Palm Sunday and the Triumphal Entry, here's the link (I hope) to my list. Palm Sunday Music. There are 17 songs (one is repeated because I like both recordings, although neither is the one I had in the old playlist).

See 1.4 Miles, Two Counties

Anton Seder Puzzle Finished!

The 2000-piece puzzle is finished and not a moment too soon. I need that table to do the taxes, and I sure need to get cracking on that project! The puzzle was a gift from Omer. Very nice, Om! Puzzle, botany, hard enough to be a challenge.

This is an art work by the German artist Anton Seder (1850-1916). His work is considered Art Nouveau. I had not previously heard of him. Most of his work seems to be detailed panels of naturalistic themes. Here's the whole puzzle although the colors look richer in real life. It seems to be unnamed.

In general the theme of this piece is botany. It's stuffed with plants, some of them with Latin labels.

This is more like 50 or more tiny puzzles. I quit trying to count all the different spaces. Some are as small as 1x2 inches. There are about 10 of what I'd call major sections. Thus, this became a giant sorting puzzle. Ask yourself, "Is this maroon piece with strawberries on the edge like this maroon piece with gold leaves?" Once you got all the similar pieces together, it wasn't too hard to assemble them. Then you just needed to connect the sections.

Here is one of my favorite panels with a woodland scene.

Most were more stylized plants like these three parallel panels with lilies.

I liked this one a lot with the Prussian blue background and daisies.

This one was the hardest. There was so much tiny detail that even sorted it was hard to find the connections.

It won't get to stay up long because, as I said, I need the table.

I edited, I worked on some projects, I finished the puzzle.

See Leaving the Puzzle Behind

Philadelphia Flower Show 2026- Phoenix Rising.

I feel totally passive-agressive about this exhibit. It's one of the large ones, done by Laurel-Brook Gardens of Pennsylvania and Delaware.

The description talks about what can happen when nature regenerates after a fire.

I really, really loved the display- rustic, full of flowers in gleeful abandon. But this would really, really never happen without someone making it be so.

This angle shows some rusted farm machinery and the end of a bridge. Flowering cherry trees, redbud, daffodils and more are blooming.

Here's another beautiful angle with things that would never grow together.

Here's the other side of the path to the bridge. There is native wild black cherry, some dwarf crested iris (which you can't see clearly), balsam fir (although an ornamental variety) and daffodils which could conceivably have naturalized.

Now for some plant closeups. In this section there is the ornamental balsam, blue moss phlox, daffodils, and Mount Airy fothergilla (a garden cultivar of witch hazel). None are truly native.

Here is Dwarf Crested Iris which is native and grows wild some in Michigan but especially a bit to our south, so perectly suited for a Pennsylvania show. This is a high quality wild plant.

And last, this is is a Heuchera that I want. Technically Heuchera are native to North America, but they've been tinkered with so much that the cultivars aren't anything like the native plants. The variety is 'Topaz Jazz.' It's combined with a yellow yarrow (ornamental) and some yellow daffodils.

Here's what I find disturbing about this exhibit. It's not that they've combined all kinds of things that don't grow together or even that they've mixed ornamentals and natives. That's really standard procedure at the Flower Show. We want our fantasy plant fix!

What I object to is the implication in the description that this will happen all by itself if we'd just let the land heal. It's sort of "New Age" nonsense. I'm sure most of the people who visit have no idea this is nonsense, and I get that. I HOPE the exhibitors who appear to be garden professionals don't think this would happen.

My old farm machinery is surrounded by spotted knapweed, various uninteresting grasses, autumn olive and some ditch lilies. That's what has happened in about 60-70 years of letting the land go natural.

I worked on various projects today. Got a lot done. Way too much to do yet. I've been asked when I'll get back to Moose in Boots. I don't know. Many things much more pressing on my list right now.

See PFS 2026- American Landscapes

Clear Springs- A Clear Choice

Whenever I have to go to Muskegon, I try to make time to hike some or all of the trails at Clear Springs Nature Preserve at Montague.

Yesterday, I left the house early enough that I had time to walk all the trails there by walking fast. There are a series of loops that all return to or near the parking area. I only missed a few little connectors, and didn't have to do very much twice. I like that.

One area has been selectively logged. I looked on their web page, and this may be to remove diseased red pine.

It was too early for even hints of wildflowers. I've been pleasantly surprised the last few times I was there to find some nice plant material. It was pretty junky when I first found it. Perhaps they have been trying to remove invasives.

Maybe the anteater is also eating alien plants. She was there in 2012, and she's still there!

Carleton Creek (or Landford Creek depending on the map you look at) runs down the center. This was the site of a small fish hatchery in the 1950s. The creek was dammed at one spot and it creates this nice pool. Later in the year this gets clogged with algae, but it's clear and open in March.

Not sure why I never noticed this giant before. This is a red oak that has to be at least 10 feet dbh- diameter at breast height- which is how trees are measured.

I'm getting to like the East Boundary Trail. It's the farthest from the traffic on US 31. You can hear that from anywhere in the preserve, but it's really loud on the west side.

At any rate, I hustled and did the West and East Boundaries, Rim, Spring, Pond Side and Crest Trails.

Miles walked in 2026- can you believe it? 99.9

Clear Springs Nature Preserve, Montague, MI. all trails 3.6 miles.

Oh, and an unexpected job. The kitchen sink peed all into the cupboard. Nearly totally clogged pipes. Cleaned out the gunk, reinstalled, cleaned that part of the kitchen. Last time this was done was 2016. Homeownership is not so much fun anymore.

See other hikes at Clear Springs See And the Solution

Scouting Out the Dental Landscape

Today I traded a lot of money for the first step in getting that molar replaced. I decided I did not want to live without it. Not having it put a big dent in the places I could chew.

First off, they took a new x-ray, and where I've pointed the yellow arrow shows where the bone regrew after the extraction and procedure to help the bone grow. They were very happy.

Basically, they drill a hole in the bone and screw in a post. There are animated videos on youtube if you just want the basics, but I found one of the whole, for real, process. Considering how invasive this is, I feel pretty good.

The post has a cover on it to protect it until this part of the whole project heals up- maybe another two months. Then my regular dentist will put a tooth on the post.

The funniest part? They screw the post in with a little ratchet set just like a mechanic working on your car!

I've circled the little dark round thing behind the two well-filled teeth. That's the cover. It will also serve to keep the gum from growing all around the post while the bone heals. So this is called the implant, and the fake tooth is called a crown when they do that.

The scouting? Buddy Bill may have an implant done and this way he can hear my advance scouting report before he has to commit.

I left home early enough to get in a hike on the way to the dentist. I'll show you that and report the miles tomorrow.

My brain is a little foggy, so I haven't tried to do anything this afternoon that took a lot of mental power, but I sort of puttered at a project. The jaw and tooth area isn't very sore at all. This dental surgeon is very good- same one as last time. I did make some cream of mushroom soup for dinner, and had a little ice cream. I'm supposed to skip hard crunchy things for a while.

See How Did Things Go at the Dentist?