Nailing the Spring Color Palette?

 More posed pictures of colors in the rock garden today, but I didn't have to work very hard to find all these angles. It just blows my mind that after only 2 years of work the mid-spring displays are so good.

Still more flowers from the past are popping up and blooming. This is one of the other miniature daffodils called 'Rip VanWinkle,' and it has more buds to open yet. Behind it you can see pink moss phlox and violets. (And there are two other varieties of daffodils that have buds, neither of which I've seen bloom in years- stay tuned.)

This one is pretty amazing. This is a view I've featured already this year, but now it has pasqueflower (still blooming after a month!), pink moss phlox and violets, the white grape hyacinths behind that (still blooming after two weeks), and behind that the white wall cress is starting to bloom. Behind that are violets and the bronze ajuga (dark maroon) in bud. The flowers should open in a few more days but the dark bud stalks are interesting too.

Here we have violets in front, a maroon Sempervivum in the middle, a rock and the moneywort which continues to survive for reasons I can't quite understand. It even spread a little this year. You can just see the 'Lime Zinger' sedum starting to grow above that.

I did show you this combo before, but now the 'Firecracker' sedum is larger and there are more blossoms on the purple rock cress. I like how there is a general feel of colors in the soft-focus background (including blue grape hyacinth which are popping up all over- all are welcome because the leaves die back quickly, so it makes way for summer plants).

This is the space I was so happy with a couple of weeks ago when I bought the Lewisia. I continue to be happy, and believe it or not, the Lewisia still has buds! But, it will eventually run out of flowers because it's a spring bloomer. I just couldn't resist the bright variagated 'Wandering Jew' (or as the politically correct sites are now calling it, 'Wandering Dude'). It's not hardy, so it will have to come in for the winter. It's usually a house plant. It should grow and cascade down beside the 'Black' Sempervivum. I got it for only $2.49, so even if it only survives this one season... not bad!

Last colorful medium-range shot for today. This includes a new plant, a sea thrift, in front of the Kaydee daffodils which are also looking fine yet. Various sedums, Sempervivums, blooms, and other foliage in the background.

That's enough for today. I've started weeding through, but haven't gotten to all spaces yet.

I have been making the rounds of local greenhouses. There are still two that I should visit that aren't far from here. Of course, most of them only have a few rock-garden-appropriate plants, and I've already bought most of the common ones. Thanks to some birthday money, I've been able to indulge my cravings a bit. There are things I can order, but I want to be careful about that. A lot of plants that come in the mail aren't in great shape, or they are VERY small for what you pay.

Anyway, I'm thrilled. Another day, I'll take you through my new acquisitions.

It's still a little early to weed the front bed. Hostas and some other plants are just poking through the surface and I don't want to inadvertantly kill things.

I did pretty well on the regular tasks today too. Editing, gardening, house stuff, blah, blah.

See Lots of Color!

One More Lag Day

 We'll do one more day of the blog lagging behind real life. Tomorrow will be back to current events. Almost certainly flowers tomorrow. They are looking very nice.

Yesterday began by getting up much too early. Our township does a "cleanup day" where you can bring anything (we try to get rid of big stuff that won't recycle this way). But it's always the same day as one of our NCT Chapter hikes. I had some stuff on the trailer, but I really wanted to take more. I was too tired on Friday after getting home from backpacking. But I made myself get up early and collect some additional things. It should have been more, but I just didn't have time or energy. We need to do a better job ahead of time to make an appropriate collection.

Anyway... I got rid of a small trailer load. If I leave home early enough, I can get there in time to be first or second in line and then I'm home in time to make the hike.

Then it was off to Bowman Trailhead where we had 33 people show up for the hike! And 4 dogs and a ferret.

There's nothing particularly special about this little wetland except that I like it. It's there every spring. It's connected to no larger body of water. But these ephemeral pools do big duty as nurseries for frogs and friends.

Most people walked as far as the turnpike through another wet area that our chapter built last year. (A few went farther before turning around and a few didn't go that far). It's looking good. Pete and crew did good work, and that section is no longer awful to walk through in spring. I think there must be a clay lens under the surface that collects water. You can see how it puddles beside the turnpike.

There were a few wildflowers blooming. I saw hepatica and spring beauty. The best were some nice patches of trailing arbutus. It doesn't always show off the flowers this nicely.

I put my nose to the grindstone today and managed to accomplish a bit on quite a number of projects. I got the tent waterproofed and most of the camping gear packed up. I need to get more silicone to spray my little tarp. I have no idea when it was last waterproofed.

Miles hiked in 2025: 165.7. Hike 100 Challenge: 72.5 miles.

NCT- Bowman Trailhead (Lake Co. MI) south 2.75 miles and back for a total of 5.5 miles

See Ready to Roll

Day Two- Much Better!

 Day Two- yesterday- was much more pleasant. Although the sun never shone except for about 5 minutes, it was warmer (upper 40s maybe into the 50s), and the sky did not leak on us.

We enjoyed breakfast sitting outside in our little chairs. I have almost all cold-soak meals because it eliminates the need to carry a stove. But David had a stove, so I got to enjoy a hot cup of coffee. I wasn't about to turn that down!

We were on the trail at 9:10. The first part of the day was not hilly at all. The trail follows the Manistee River Bluffs, passing by many more oxbows. No sun to make the water blue, though. Most of this area is accessible by vehicles, and there are multiple campsites that are used not only by hikers but all sorts of campers. We passed through one encampment with a trailer and 3 tents with four guys standing around a campfire drinking beer for breakfast. They were friendly, but not our thing.

I've probably showed you a picture of every time I've passed it. This is the marker on the Cadillac-Traverse City Indian Trail. I've been to all the markers and wrote a newspaper column about it last year. This is where I completed my 100 miles last year. I'm not there yet this year.

One really nice trail picture with the ground covered with emerging Trout Lilies.

The final miles of the day were hilly again, and very muddy. But we got 'em done, although not very quickly. David's walking stick is a hollow tube, and he's a horn player. He celebrated our completion with a couple of good bugles!

We hiked 8 miles to the car, then grabbed some late lunch at a little restaurant. I was tired, but the whole trip was not as physically difficult as I thought it might be. My back is a little sore, so I have to work on carrying the weight, but the miles were no problem at all. We did a total of 15.5 for the two days. I know this is about what I was hiking in one day a couple of years ago, but I'm still working my way up again.

When he sends me the pictures he took, there may be one of me I'll share.

Also, the chapter had a hike today, which I'll probably tell you about tomorrow.

Miles hiked in 2025 (at the end of yesterday):160.2. Hike 100 Challenge: 68 miles

North Country Trail, campsite along the Manistee River to east end of 12 Road near Sherman, MI. 8.0 miles

I will show you one thing I had to do today... deal with a pile of wet gear. You can't ingore that or you'll have it all moldy.

See Who Wants to Be Dry?

Day One- Who Wants to Be Dry?

 Hmmm. Well, we sort of wanted to be dry, or even warm, but that didn't happen. It rained hard at first, then off and on the rest of the day and all night.

We started at Baxter Bridge and hiked west (NCT trail east). This is the section high above the Manistee River.

I was hiking with David Snoek who hiked quite a few miles with me on the NCT hike a couple of years ago.

The rain made all the views dull and gray and brown. But here is one of the many oxbows on that section of the river.

There wasn't a lot of joy in that hike. We were wet. The trail was wet, the sky was wet. We made it 7.5 miles and camped at one of the many sites that is accessible by vehicle along there. We huddled under a tarp to eat dinner. But we were cold and wet and just crawled in out tents and sleeping bags after that.

My tent:

Daves tent:

Not too exciting, right? We've had to move the dates of this little jaunt many times for various reasons, always hoping that we could catch some good weather. The joke is that we managed to pick one of the very worst weather days in the past couple of weeks to hike! But we got the miles in.

Stay tuned for day 2 tomorrow.

Miles hiked in 2025: 152.2. Hike 100 Challenge: 60.0

Baxter Bridge to campsite along Manistee River bluffs. 7.5 miles

See October at Highbanks

And She's Off...

 Remember Modestine? Nickname Teeny. She and I, and friend David Snoek are heading out in just a bit for a one-overnight backpack. This is still part of my regimen to get in shape for the summer.

Also, I have to keep up my reputation for "what is she up to now?"

The bad news is that the only sun we are going to see is from that little pillow that was a gift from blogger friend Lin. The good news is we won't be too hot. We may get wet, or not... the rain is supposed to stop around noon which is about the time we should start hiking.

I'll be back tomorrow with pictures from our hike. And some more NCT miles for the year, of course.

Link below will explain her name if you care.

See Meet Modestine