Pinks and Chipper

It always confuses me that my peony blooms so late in the season. When I was a kid, we always took bouquets to the cemetery on Memorial Day, and they were always iris, bridal wreath spirea, and peonies. But here, those three plants don't bloom at the same time at all!

This is just a plain old pink peony. Not my favorite, but it seems to bloom most years now.

Another touch of pink- OK, pinkish-purple, is a bunch of house finches that have been visiting the bird bath. The bad news is that I can't get good pictures of them through the screen. The very good news is that this flexible screen is working really well, and I can keep the deck door open most days.

Also pink- the 'Siskiyou' Primrose in the rock garden is beautiful right now. It doesn't get as tall in my poor soil as it was in the pot when I bought it, but that's actually better for the rock garden. It likes to plant itself all over the place. I'm thinking about whether this might be OK. In the former iteration of this garden there were California Poppies that self-seeded all over, and I just let them come up wherever they wanted. The thing is, they are annuals, so they never took over. This one is perennial and spreads with underground rhizomes, so I think it would take over everthing if I let it go. I would like to get it going in a couple other spaces and confine it to those.

And the chipper? Well, it's not really a chipmunk. It's a thirteen-lined ground squirrel, and I was outside without the good camera, so I had to take its picture with the phone. The phone does not do well with zoomed pix. But I did capture it for you.

In other news: I did all the usual project things, had a Zoom meeting, got groceries, and continued weeding the rock garden. The weather was perfect!

See A Quiet Day at Home

Best Photos of June 2022

   
Here are the best of the pictures I took from June 2022. I'm still working on processing trip pictures.

From June 2022, during the big hike, I've chosen what I think are the 10 best pictures to share. Sunshine makes for more nice pictures, but I still have a ton of marginal ones, or just shots that prove I saw something but won't win any kudos.

I am saying these pictures are "best," not because they necessarily tell the story best, but because I think they are simply the best actual photographs. I've left them full size, so you can click on them and see them larger. That always makes photos look better. Two are cropped a bit, and one had the color saturation increased a tad.

I spent June finishing New York and Vermont, and then drove to North Dakoa and started home.

These are arranged chronologically... it seemed to work.

One of the most beautiful places for views on the NCT is Jones Hill. It's not very big by Adirondack standards, but it has the proverbial location, location, location. This is the view to the south with possibly Beech Hill visible across the valley.

And chronologically, only 20 minutes later, the view to the north from the same Jones Hill across the Blue Ridge Range (the one in the Adirondacks) in some mist. Honestly, it's kind of hard to not show ten photos all from that hill!

At Crown Point, NY, on Lake Champlain, this is the Colonial era fort with the new (2011) Lake Champlain Bridge in the background. I like the contrast of shapes and time periods.

You know I'm a sucker for texture pictures. How about going from lush, green eastern mountains to dry cracked mud in North Dakota?

This is some shallows in an arm of Lake Audubon. I liked the various colors of earth and plant material.

I believe I have a few nice pictures of yellow-headed blackbirds from the summer I worked in northern Illinois, but I've hardly seen one of them since then. Not a spectacular picture, but decent.

As you may remember, North Dakota was wonderful for seeing bird life. That doesn't mean I got great pictures, because I'm only a photographer of opportunity. I don't stand around waiting for the right light and spending 30 minutes creeping up on a bird or hoping it will move its head just an inch. Nevertheless, this is the best picture I've every gotten of a northern shoveler duck.

A thirteen-lined ground squirrel was straining to see far ahead from his burrow. It's not the best picture I've ever taken of that critter, but I like the depth in the shot. It almost looks 3-D.

This is just some ordinary grass along the canal, but I like the lighting and contrast of textures.

Finally, this is one of my favorite shots from North Dakota. I just like the shapes defined by the fence and the hill.

Well, I counted wrong. I had one more texture picture, but I think it's not as good, and I've been trying to limit these collections to ten.

In other news: I edited and wrote. What else is new? I must be making progress, the word count goes up.

See Best Photos of May 2022

Mesabi Hike - Marble to Kewatin

 

Thursday, August 6, 2009, Marie and I continued north on the paved Mesabi Trail through former iron mining lands. This view shows how the trail has more interest and topography than a simple rail-trail. You can also see the greenery beginning to cover the raw landscape.



Two of our most interesting wildlife sightings happened this day. First we saw a mammal completely new to me at that time, Richardson's Groundsquirrel. It's more commonly called a Flickertail because of it's nervous habit of twitching that tail.



Not long after that, a gray fox calmly trotted across the trail ahead of us. Unfortunately, the picture isn't focused well. But I was amazed at how unconcerned the animal was with our presence.



I think Marie loves the turtles best of all. This is a common Midwestern Painted Turtle, but it's not covered with pond muck or duckweed, so it was looking nice. I've recently learned that this sub-species differs from the Eastern Painted Turtle in a couple of ways. Easy field mark is that the scutes (plates) of the shell are alternated across it's back.



And, I found another new flower. The blue one. It's Creeping Bellflower, Campanula rapunculoides, and the yellow is Common Tansy, Tanacetum vulgare. Although the blue and yellow are so pretty, both plants are alien.



For the days we followed the Mesabi Trail we loved marking our progress with the gateways to each town.



Marble to Kewatin, Minnesota. 15.8 miles, 63.6 to date for that trip.

	See Grand Rapids to Marble See Spermophilus richardsonii
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It's Almost Always about the Little Things

 
Today started a bit gray, but progressed to warm and clear. I got some minor work done on my car, and thought I was going to take a 3-mile walk while that was being done. But the work stretched to two hours, and the walk stretched to 4.5 miles. So... I just barely made it on time to the place where I could get my little trailer weighed, so I can get it a Michigan license. Talk about a fast refresher course in hooking it up! But I got 'er dun!

But that's not what this blog post is about. I'll show you trailer pictures, probably tomorrow. I'm working on curtains.

What seemed important today is that it's not "sometimes the little things," but rather the little things are simply huge. They can make or break whole time periods, projects, whatever.

My little goodies that made the day for me:

First violets of the year.



First picture of a 13-lined ground squirrel. I'd love to show you a picture of one doing something besides standing upright in the grass. But if they know you are watching, it's about all they do except move like greased lightning if they think you are approaching.


And... the first glass of iced tea. It was hot enough that I wanted it. Of course, I could drink this all winter. But I don't. It just doesn't work for me until the weather gets hot. Then I like it strong with lots of ice.



Cut my hair, ready for warm weather. Off to work in about an hour. Hopefully tomorrow won't be a total zombie Saturday, because I have lots to do.

	See Look Who Woke Up
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Winner! - Edited and Changed!

We have a winner! It's NOT Ratty of The Everyday Adventurer. Julia of Our Simple Life also entered, but the email got lost in cyberspace and just arrived, but is dated correctly before the deadline. The final score, Ratty 4, Julia 6! Rainfield, of My Journey, gets an honorable mention for guessing one of them in a comment.

Shucks, I thought this contest would be fun with just some guessing on the closeup pictures. How can I make the contests more interesting for you, my friends?


Here are the answers:

1.
This one was the fantail of water from the high speed ferry between St. Ignace and Mackinac Island. Ratty guessed fog over a body of water. Pretty close! Julia said the sky.


2.
This is the down on the back of a baby swan. See Fluffy Treats on an Urban Trail". Ratty guessed the fur on one of my dogs. Julia said fox fur. I would have guessed fur too. Amazing how much feathers can look that way, isn't it?


3.
This is the top of a mushroom/ fungus. I don't know what kind. Ratty and Julia both got it right!


4.
Ratty guessed ice on a creek; Julia- ice with water beneath. Exactly!


5.
Ratty said a ground squirrel, and it is. Julia got it exactly: a thirteen-lined ground squirrel! See New Digs for Peabody's Great, Great, Great...


6.
Ratty and Julia both guessed a red-wing blackbird. Right on! See Gale's Pond- A Wonderful Day


7.
Ratty and Julia both guessed a turkey vulture. This bird is easily spotted here by the wings in a V, and the naked head. See Turkey Vulture


8.
Ratty said "no clue". Julia said water. Rainfield actually got this one right! He said in a comment that he saw a reflection in the water. It was branches in a stream, and they turned out to be more interesting than the water strider, the little insect, that I was trying to picture.


9.
Ratty guessed weeds on a pond, and he's right. Julia is closer, saying rushes emerging from water with reflection. Thought this one might be hard. I love how these soft-stem bulrush all dried curly.


10.
Neither Ratty nor Julia had a guess. This is the flicker. See See Two Birds and a Plan


OK! I'm posting this from a dial-up connection at Ester's house, and I have to get on the road again really NOW. Gotta go... I have things to show and tell, but they will have to wait.