Another Bug Bite

 This time, I know exactly what bit me. I picked up a piece of log, and got bitten for my efforts. Something jumped away, and this was the culprit. Here's the deal though. Praying mantises can bite, but that's truly what it is, not a sting. They don't inject any venom. They just bite if they feel threatened. No clue if it is a boy or a girl. But it has wings, so it's fully mature. The log was hollow, so it probably thought it had a nice safe place to hunker down until I intruded. Not a serious injury to me, and I apparently didn't hurt it either.

Also, today, for the first time ever I noticed that the maple behind the mulberry had turned orange. In 1990, The mulberry was small, and I planted the maple as a tiny seedling. It's actually starting to look like a tree rather than a sapling. Only took 35 years, eh? Last fall, I worked on clearing some of the brush around them (autumn olive, what else?), and I hope to do some more this fall yet.

I worked on all my projects. Wrote chapter 28 in Vacation from DMS, 750 words. Omer and I watched a movie this evening.

See Bug Bonus

Once More Unto the Breach, Dear Friends

 "Once more unto the breach, dear friends." George V was a mighty warrior in the Hundred Years War.

Hopefully I'm a mighty warrior in the lawmower wars. It seems as if an awful lot of posts have to do with keeping a mower running.

Today's victory is that I successfully took the mower to the mower hospital. I really need a more heavy-duty machine. Meanwhile, I'd like to mow once more before the snow arrives.

As Shakespeare continued that speech to the end, "Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'" Of course, I always picture it being delivered by the aging actor in the Fantastiks, not by a rousing King Henry.

I unloaded the wood that was on the trailer so I could use the trailer, pinched a finger, did a lot of editing, and wrote chapter 27: 1051 words in Vacation from Dead Mule Swamp.

We had the door open today, it was so nice out. Probably rain tomorrow, but still warm.

See Small but Surprisingly Satisfactory

New to Me- Gorgeous

 Some of you know that our local state park, literally the most popular one in the state, is mostly closed for the next 10, yes ten, months for some major renovations. The area south of the Big Sable River is still open to walk in. This is in the same general section as where Cathy and I often walk, but west of those trails.

The other factor is that the weather was more like early September today. 74 degrees. Sunny, but windy. I wore shorts! So after a frustrating couple of hours in which I determined that the lawnmower fix is beyond me (pay attention, all you people who think I can do anything), I decided to bag it and take a hike before bell practice.

I knew there were a couple of ponds back there. I suspect they are former sand pits from the Sargent Sand mining company. But I'd never actually been there. I parked off Piney Ridge Rd, and took an unmarked but well-used trail. Came over the ridge to be greeted by this.

Pretty sure it had vistors earlier in the day, but I had it all to myself. A trail went up along the edge.

Soon I was bushwhacking. Loose sand and dune grass. Lots of hills. Very pretty.

Love weathered roots.

Some of the area is wooded, and so I was walking through that for part of the way. Found the other pond- not quite as pretty, although it might have been if I'd had time to go closer. There were occasional bits of old road or trail-ish things that might have been made by animals or visitors. But I was bushwhacking more than trail walking for sure.

The view of that first pond on the way back, from the top of a dune was really nice. It's good size- about 42 acres. It would be fun to walk around, but that isn't all state land, so I don't know if I'd get in trouble for doing it. The other pond is totally on Sargent Sand property.

And just so the maple leaves don't get too uppity from being the only ones featured this fall, here's an oak leaf. Probably black oak. It's sometimes hard to tell when all you have is a leaf. They can be rather variable.

I edited, wrote 680 words in Vacation from DMS, worked on pictures, got groceries. A good day with things accomplished and some fun.

So, the walk was only 2.1 miles, but I think the difficult footing should count for something. It was a lot of fun exploring somewhere new.

Miles hiked in 2024: 514.3

See Piney Ridge Hills

Flashback to Africa

 Way back in 2010 when I was showing you Philadelphia Flower Show pictures, I thought of doing a post of masks from the Africa exhibit. It was one of the most popular of the show. But I never got around to it. Let's do it today.

This is sort of an unusual one.

Remember, these are at a flower show. Everything has to be made of natural material, primarily plants, although feathers have been used on some of them. The colored beans are clearly seen on this one.

This one seems suggestive of a lion face.

Here's maybe a good one for Halloween. Definitely a haunting spirit kind of vibe going on.

This one goes to the dark end of the hues.

And just because I like the geometric patterns of the woven grass, I'm throwing in a shield too.

We had a power outage this morning, but they got it fixed sooner than expected, so that was good. I got a late start on the day due to not sleeping well again. But I did get my Mason County Press column done. I wrote 1020 words in Vacation from DMS, and worked on several other projects as well. No walking though.

I REALLY need to get my act together and try to fix the lawnmower tomorrow. Can you tell I don't really want to do this? (I hate engines... if there were any way I could keep this mess cut without a motor, I'd do it- well, I own a scythe, but I'm not really tough enough to pull that off anymore for the amount of space we need to clear to keep the autumn olive, deer and mosquitoes at bay.)

See Flower Show 2010- Textures

Flashback to Flower Show 2010

  I was SO good today. I worked on all my projects a little bit. I put away all the mess created by moving and fixing the table. I added 800 words to Vacation from Dead Mule Swamp.

One of my projects has been to try to organize pictures better so I can actually find things. Got to the SD card with the 2010 Philadelphia Flower Show. There are so many wonderful things at each of these shows that I never show you all of them. Today I'll share a few that I didn't in 2010. That said, the pictures on the old blog entries are gone because the server where they were is no more. I'll try to restore those over the next few days. The link below is to the first entry with the theme of the show which was "Passport to the World."

First up for today is this study in green in the China exhibit. It features moss, spider chrysanthemums, Cypridium orchids hanging down, and what I think might be a 'Melted Wax' echiveria. When the plants aren't labeled, I'm often doing nothing more than making educated guesses.

I guess I'll focus on yellow/yellow-green today. This was one of the entries in the category of "Porches." There are often themed entries like window boxes, a reading room, potting sheds, front yards, etc. If you've followed the flower show entries over the years, or if you attend, you know what I mean.

I THINK the bright yellow-green here is 'Neon' Pothos, or Philadendron. I love how it contrasts with the New Zealand Flax (not a flax) which is the red/purple spiky stuff. Lots of good textures going on here too.

I don't have much of a clue what any of these plants are, but they were in the Africa display. I try to take pictures of labels, but sometimes things aren't labeled, and sometimes, I just don't find them or get a photo.

Actually, the things in the lower front may be artichokes, and the upper back may be Leucadendon 'Inca Gold.'

There is a reasonable chance that I will get to go to the 2025 Philadelphia Flower Show. Really looking forward to that. It's one of the highlights of my year when I get to attend. I believe I've been to nine of them. Every once in a while, there is a sort of dud, but each one is guaranteed to be different!

See Passport to the World

Not Quite, but Quite All Right!

 I didn't quite do a "whole thing" of several things I like. But I did enough, and it was all great.

I started writing my Mason County Press column for this month and realized I did not know enough about access places to the Little Manistee River, and I could not find the info on line. Road trip!

The leaves are coming down; the peak color is past. But the sky was blue, and there is still plenty of lovliness. This is the Little Manistee from Old Grade Campground off of M-37. This is as far upstream as you can paddle from. At that, it's going to be iffy for the first few miles. The water is mostly 5-8" deep.

This was taken from the road bridge at M-37. Love the eelgrass.

I'm not as good at fish ID as with most other wildlife, but I think this is a trout of some kind.

I found the piece of road that I had wanted to take Omer on last week. This is Little Manistee River Road. It's mostly a 2-track, but I love it.

One of the actual Forest Service campgrounds along the river is Bear Track. Here's the view upstream from the landing.

I also discovered today that the parking for 6-Mile Bridge is up and away from the actual bridge. I followed the trail that said "to parking" which seemed mysterious because it was going away from the bridge. There's a nice view at the top of the hill. Yes, the river is down there somewhere.

Enjoy some red maple leaves.

Finally, here is another view from where the river valley gets deeper, near Chicago Boy Rollway.

Oh, the things I didn't quite do? Well, I didn't follow the river all the way from source to mouth. Close. Maybe I'll finish that quest another time. I didn't even get to all the campsites along this portion of the river. I think some of them are not accessible by vehicle, and they also don't have signs as you are paddling (this info comes from two separate sources), so I'm not sure how to locate them accurately, but I tried. I also didn't finish the article. I'll do that in the morning. I wasn't planning for this to take all day, but it's OK. I had a lovely time, learned a lot, and I do need to write an article.

One thing I did do? There was a couple just taking their kayaks out at 6-Mile Bridge. They were going to roadwalk the 4+ miles back to 9-Mile Bridge where their truck was. I gave them a ride. It was already after 4 pm when they started walking.

I only managed to walk 2 miles. Most of what I needed to do was from the car with quick hops out and in. But the FS Campgrounds are already gated, so I had to walk in to those to check things out.

I do love days like this.

Miles hiked in 2024: 511.2

See Leaf Peeping Part 2

Feels Like Fall

 Up until now, it has really seemed like summer with great colors. Today, fall really settled in. The sky was gray and there was a breeze. That fall "nip." Not that it was unpleasant. I walked to town to do all the usual errands. This maple is beautiful.

I know these aren't really primary colors, but they are very complementary with the bright orange, prussian blue, and avocado green.

I tried a recipe for muffins that is supposed to be free of all the things that are bad for you. They are apple oatmeal. Well... they taste just like warm oatmeal with apples mixed in. I'd rather fix the oatmeal and apples. That is a lot less work and mess than these were. Not a keeper.

Some of you will be happy to hear that 726 new words appeared in Vacation from Dead Mule Swamp today. It took me a few days to get back into the flow of the MS, because I didn't make detailed notes for what I had in mind for the upcoming chapters. Then I had to find the research pictures I had taken so that the story could move ahead. It's approaching the crisis of the book where the real crime occurs, and that is going to be tricky to pull off. But, I'm back in the groove.

Also edited, put the repaired table back in place, and did a bit on other projects.

Miles walked in 2024: 509.2

See Mason County Garden Club Program

Mason County Garden Club Program

 There was a good turnout for the trail program at the Mason County Garden Club. The food table was really attractive, and the snacks were yummy.

The general tables were nicely decorated too.

Afterwards, I did two loops around the School Forest, and managed to get 3 miles. I love that there is a real, forested trail right in town, but it doesn't have features of interest or much topography.

I managed to get some editing and stuff done in the morning, but the above took the whole rest of the day.

Miles hiked in 2024: 506.3

Ludington School Forest, 2 full loops, 3.2 miles

See Mason County Flower Show

Table Fix

 This "rustic" drop-leaf work table broke a while back and dumped a load of stuff. What broke was one of the braces that swing out to hold up a leaf.

I managed to ignore the whole mess until last week when I needed to get something out that was stored under the table. Big mess.

This is not a valuable table at all. I don't know how old it is, or where he got it, but it was my Dad's "garden table." He did sll kinds of sorting and potting and whatever on it. It spent a lot of summers outside on the kitchen porch. That brace probably had some dry rot going on. The leaves are warped, and it has been fixed multiple times in very ugly ways that made it functional. I continued the tradition!

It did take me a couple of days to get something to replace the pin that held the bracket. But once I got myself in gear, it was an easy fix.

As an example of how it had been previously fixed, the hinges must have pulled off at some point, and they have been inset and bolted right through the top. I suspect Dad did that.

Still, it's very functional. It's a good size, and it was Dad's. So hey.

Well, you know what a table that is clear is good for, right? Yup, I had a puzzle I'd never yet done. Actually, I have a couple of them, but this seemed a reasonable number of pieces and it would fit on the center part of the table.

I did do a reasonable amount of work before starting this, so I'm not going to apologize for the goofing off!

Chocolate is good for the soul... to eat or to puzzle with.

Tomorrow, I am giving my trail program for the Garden Club.

See Changing the Season

Nordhouse and Bells

 Cathy and I took a hike today at Nordhouse Dunes. I should be spending more time working, but the colors are peak, and the weather is phenomenal. I really can't stay inside. This is the road into the Dunes.

The trails have names now, so we took the Nipissing, Middle, and Algoma Trails for a loop of about 4.4 miles.

This passes Nordhouse Lake which is often completely dry at this time of year. Three years ago in October, it still had water. Not this year!

Loved this line of ferns

And a gnarly oak tree. Looks spooky enough for October, right?

The witch hazel is in full bloom, and the sun made it look great.

There was even one branch with a fruit from last year still attached.

Managed to do some work, hike, do bell practice, get groceries, and go to the hardware store. Starting to get in gear to get back to writing the next mystery.

Here is the second bell choir piece from Sunday, "This is My Father's World." I think it's one of the prettiest pieces we've ever done.



I've made it to tired. Didn't sleep well last night.

Miles hiked in 2024: 503.1

Nordhouse Dunes Wilderness, Nippising, Middle, and Algoma Trails. 4.4 miles

See Nordhouse Dunes Hike