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Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Leona Learns Local Lanes

 
I needed to go out and take some pictures for my monthly news column this afternoon, so Leona and I wandered some additional back roads. This one is an actual Forest Service road with a number. It ends in a campsite.

wiggling back road

We found a few (very few and small) ripe blackberries. Even a sample is yummy.

blackberries

The flora is definitely moving into late summer mode. The ditches are filled with Boneset. Considered medicinal by natives, but so far no exact uses have been proven clinically.

boneset

My goal was Custer Bridge on the Pere Marquette River. Fairly recent changes have made it a very nice place to hang out, fish, relax. It has accessible platforms and good parking. The old lamprey weir has been removed.

Pere Marquette River

Sunning on the rocks (and maybe waiting for a frog?) was a young northern water snake. There were some young men there fishing, and they were trying to convince the girl with them that it was a water moccasin. She wasn't buying that.

northern water snake

On the way back, this anomaly of autumn showed up beside the railroad tracks. Dried out early from the heat of passing trains? Sumac, turned colors way sooner than anything else. Pretty, but where did the summer go?

sumac autumn colors

In other news: I wrote in the morning and did odds and ends, and went out and took pictures.

See Young Water Snake
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3 comments:

Ann said...

Leona is getting quite the tour. She'll know the area in no time. :) I was thinking the same thing about summer. Where did it go?

Secondary Roads said...

Where did the summer go indeed? This has been such a strange year. Everything, including me, seems to be out of sync.

The Oceanside Animals said...

Lulu: "That looks like a nice walk. Lots of things to sniff, no doubt!"
Charlee: "Like the snake?"
Lulu: "Sure! It's not like it was a water moccasin or anything."