Chickens and Puppets

 Today was pretty amazing. People were buying! I sold a lot of books, and Jean sold even more.

Here are the two chicks she brought this year. They are both Silkies. This is Cocoa Puff.

Jean writes "Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror, and childrens' books about chickens." I get to listen to her say that a thousand times a day while she listens to me say "I write mysteries, mysteries for kids, and three books about the North Country Trail." If you think we are sick of listening to each other... we are actually sick of listening to ourselves. But this is how you sell books.

This is Lola, daughter of Laya who is in one of Jean's chicken picture books. Kay-Kay is in the other book. She sells a ton of these.

As I mentioned yesterday, there are lots of kinds of entertainment available. This puppet was walking around inviting people to come to his show.

It's pretty much impossible to get pictures of new things at the event. Vendors who don't have multiple people manning their booths are really tied to the spot, especially when it's busy as it was today. Jean and I have an excellent location for our spaces, which we get to keep unless we don't sign up some year, then we would lose those spots. None of this is complaining... mostly just explaining why this year's pictures look pretty much like every other year.

Jean and I are simply talked out. We came "home" fixed some dinner and have retreated to separate spots to read for a while. We like each other just fine, but we'd both be perfectly happy to not have to say another word to anyone until tomorrow. This is a great event, but you need a fair amount of stamina to participate.

9-5 again tomororow, then 9-4 on Sunday. Paradise, Michigan!

See Wild Blueberry- Take #4

Wild Blueberry- Take 4

 Jean and I rode together in her van to the Wild Blueberry Festival again this year. Pretty sure this is my 4th year doing this event. We had to play serious car tetris to do it. Something like 35 books titles between the two of us which is about 10 tubs of books, 8 sand bags, 5 cold drinks, 4 bags of food, 3 tables, 2 canopies, and a chicken in a carrying case. O wait... make that TWO chickens (Lola and Cocoa Puff).

Another trip over The Bridge! The festival is in Paradise, MI, in the UP. The Bridge is always awesome.

Once again we are generously being hosted by Steve and Brenda Begnoche. Brenda made stuffed pepper soup, I brought a cucumber salad, and Jean made her beautiful focaccia bread again, but I got a good picture of it this year.

We set stuff partway up- canopies and tables. The books will go out in the morning. We'll finish up in time for the opening. The weather is looking great for the whole weekend. 9 am-5 pm Friday and Saturday. 9-4 on Sunday. There is always entertainment of various kinds (music, magic, jugglers, etc), games like a "fish bowl" door prize event, and great blueberry food- pancakes, pie, etc. Not to mention the nearly 100 vendors. Plenty to do for everyone.

Stop by if you are in the eastern UP! You can pet the chickens. Jean and I are right next to each other. (and buy books)

See Welcome to Paradise

White-Lined Hummingbird Moth Again

 The last time I got any pictures of one of these was in 2013, so I was really happy to have one flitting around the yard today.

They move so fast you can hardly get a picture. There are several hawk moths, or hummingbird moths. They are big- 2-3 inches across. And although they look similar, the two you see most often are in different genera. This one is Hyles lineata. They are in the same family. Here are my best pictures from today. The other one has clear wings.

That was its back. Here is the side view.

And the ventral view. This one was out in the daytime and hanging around white flowers. Supposedly they like bright colors in the day, but white flowers at night. So my Moon Garden may attract them when I get more flowers there.

I did all the usual things. Of course went to the hardware store to exchange the wrong part I bought Monday for the correct part. Job not done, though. Zoom meeting this evening.

Many frustrating things, but that is not what this blog is about! Tomorrow I head for Paradise and the Wild Blueberry Festival with too few books because the order did not arrive.

See White-Lined Hummingbird Moth

My Mystery Weed

 I have a tentative ID on my mystery weed. I'm pretty sure the seeds for this came in on the skid-steer Doug used to clear autumn olive for me. (Along with a bunch more pokeweed) Here are the early leaves that I showed you on July 1.



It has continued to mystify me, and image searches were bringing up highly unlikely matches. Those programs are useful, but you need to apply some additional knowledge to the issues.

So, after it started with those pale and slightly succulent toothed leaves. it began to grow a whole network of branches with tiny buds on them. This is July 15. Google was still trying to tell me some exotic plant.

I tried again on July 16, getting a closer view of the stems and buds. Same result.

But as the plant grew, it began to look suspiciously familiar with this very rounded shape. I still didn't know what it was, but I was pretty sure I knew where I'd seen it before. Somewhere in the northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan, maybe near Kalkaska, in the fall. I have pictures, but don't know where to easily find them.

Here are the stems and buds now.

I'm pretty sure I've now identified it as Cycloloma atriplicifolium, Winged Pigweed, or Plains Tumbleweed. Believe it or not, it's native to central North America, although the Michigan Herbarium lists it as alien in the state. However, it's found in almost every county.

I am torn between ripping it out, or letting it continue until fall. If this is indeed what it is, it's very pretty in that season. But the rounded plants do break off and tumble along in the wind, spreading the seeds. But I could just get rid of it before it tumbles its way across the whole county. I wouldn't mind keeping a couple of plants in this disturbed space.

In other news: I edited a lot, did some volunteer stuff, watered all the gardens, and decided I should make the house look less like a pig sty. Some progress was made.

See A Different Mystery Plant

Tall and Purple

  This is going to be a report on the Sedum and Sedum hybrids in the rock garden that have turned out to have purple leaves. And some are taller than I expected, but that may be an anomoly.

These are not in full bloom yet, so you may see them again.

First up is the 'Oriental Dancer.' I'm really happy with this. It was one small stalk last spring, and I wanted a tall plant there.

I also bought this one last year as a broken-off discount table item. It's 'Night Embers.' This one is supposed to be tall, but something chomped it off early this year too. Looks like it's going to bloom anyway though.

On the other hand, the final three are ones I bought this year that I did not think were going to be tall. And given another year in my poor soil, they might not be. That would be fine. But here is the 'Blue Pearl.' At least this time, I'm sure it is the plant I ordered, but I'm still wondering if there are two different ones with the same name- this one and a 'Sunsparkler Blue Pearl.' Anyway, if this gets large in this location it's fine.

I bought two others at the same time, both hybrids. This is 'Peach Pearls.' I like the red stems, and if ends up only moderately tall it can stay in this location.

The last one is 'Banana Split,' and tall won't work in this space. So I'll need to see what this does next year. As a reminder (and you can see more in the link below) I thought the last two were going to be more similar in shape to the 'Coraljade' that I have. And given a year in the ground rather than their first summer out of a nursery pot, they might be. In neither case did I expect the leaves to be so dark, although that's not really a problem. Stay tuned.

I haven't gotten very far with the current weed-through, and I need to get moving on that. I want it to look nice when the next round of sedums start blooming.

Worked my part time job this morning, edited, did odds and ends in the afternoon. Humidity slowed me down again.

See Some of the New Plants