Last Time this Year?

 Remember that I picked up the mower on Friday? Gone Saturday, too wet yesterday. Nice weather today! My goal was to try to get everything mowed once before snow comes.

I got everything around the house.

And most of what we would like to keep mowed down by the road. At any rate, I did everything I could without cutting and chopping out more autumn olive.

I know this looks like a lot of space, and many people ask why I don't let it go to native plants. So I will state again, for those who may not have seen my answer, it goes to autumn olive, spotted knapweed, and sweet pea. There is plenty of native milkweed in the field next door, and I encourage it to grow there. I wage constant war on the autumn olive. We feel like this is minimum space to mow to keep the deer, mice, woodchucks, mosquitoes, etc somewhat away from the house, and hold those invasive plants in check.

I rarely mow it ALL in one day, but today was the good weather window, so...

This was only the second mowing of the whole season. Constant lawnmower troubles (not my laxity this year), and I have a hard time paying for repairs. I may have to get a sturdier mower.

I also managed to dry laundry outside. Yeah, I know the lines are sagging. Not much point in tightening them until spring, at this point.

Also got in some time editing.

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Orange I Traditional?

 Lovely orange and blue sunrise.

And first clothes on the line this year. This usually doesn't happen until April. It would have been better yesterday, but I couldn't talk myself into hanging up wet clothes before the hike at 31 degrees. Today wasn't quite as warm, but things got almost dry. I know this must be boring, but I seem to picture it almost every year. Probably because I love clothes dried outside so much. Anyway, I'm calling it a tradition.

You get a modest post because I worked really hard today on editing and writing.

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Last Outside Laundry Day?

I haven't bored you with clothes on the line yet this year, and I have to do that at least once. I wonder if today will be the last day to dry them outside for 2023.

I edited. I wrote. Vacaction from DMS is up to 5491 words. So far, it seems like the story is working. I'm going to have to struggle to keep it from being boring, though, I fear. I did a few other odds and ends.

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Get Outa the Way!

  You know what they say- "Lead, Follow, or Get out of the way! One should definitely get out of the way of an engine! Several trains went by today- seemed like more than usual. This is Marquette Rail- the line that goes in back of my house, but we were in Scottville when I took this picture.

It was a busy day on the home front. It was probably good to stay out of our way too. We were on a roll! The hiking was limited to a walk to Scottville and back. We went shopping at three stores, planned tomorrow, and did three loads of laundry. I know I show you clothes on the line almost every year, but it's one of my favorite spring milestones. Of course, the new ropes all stretched, but we'll tighten them up later!

We visited with crafter friend Chris, and Cathy. We cleaned out the cars. We thought we would start a trailer project, but didn't get to that except for getting out the extension cord and discussing it. However, we did start another little project. Stay tuned. Will reveal all tomorrow.

And that is enough for one day! Tomorrow is?... some of you know.

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Summer 2019- Batting 1000

 
Summer has had one day so far this year to prove its intentions, and right now it's batting 1000. What a perfect day!

I started by hiking the Litchfield Nature Trail, which didn't even exist when I hiked this section of the NCT. It was all road walk then. Now there are almost 2 trail miles, including a backpacker tent site. How cool is that?



The Ebony Jewelwing Damselflies were out in abundance. The males have the blue bodies.



Wild morning glories in full bloom in some sunny places. Most of the trail was nicely shaded in the woods, however.



Walked that out and back, then ate some lunch and went to do the northern half of the Lost Nation State Game Area.

The northern section isn't nearly as hilly. At least the trail isn't. A lot of the trail follows long-abandoned roads (you can barely tell they were once roads, but nevertheless flatter.)

All of the bridges in Lost Nation are these squared logs. They would be tricky to get across in a full pack.



I met two different painted turtles today, sunning themselves in the trail. Both of them peed on me when I picked them up!



This is a wildlife opening within the SGA. But it allowed me to take a longer shot, so you can see what a beautiful day it was. Hope it was nice where you are too! The one pestilence of the day was deer flies, but I tied my bandana over my head so they didn't keep divebombing my hair.



Speaking of bandanas, you know I love clothes on the line. Passed this (Amish or Mennonite?) home with the clothes out, and I just loved the colorful display of bandanas.



Total miles hiked today, about 9. Celebration, ice cream!



Now I'm back in Ann Arbor, and need to get to sleep soon. Tomorrow is the big book vendor event in Troy. But what a great few days I've had!

North Country Trail, Hillsdale County, Michigan, Litchfield Nature Trail and Lost Nation State Game Area from Way Rd to MI 34, 9 miles out and back.

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Gettin' 'Er Done

 
I'm leaving home tomorrow for a week. There are a whole list of things I'll be doing, and I'm trying to consolidate as many tasks into the one trip as possible.

But, that means there's a lot to do to get ready. You may have noticed it's been raining for a week. So today was my one chance to hack the grass down until I get home again. Did the whole thing... both up by the house and down by the road.



Same weather issue with the laundry. Now I'm good to have clean clothes for the next week. But today was gorgeous- a wonderful day to work outside. Sun!!!!



I took a car load of stuff to the recycle and repacked the bottom layer in the car (the books I'll need for next weekend. The rest of the packing will happen in the morning. I need to leave not long after noon.

And I was determined to work on the trailer just a tiny bit. After all, I wrestled that sheet of plywood out of the barn last week. That was the hard part. So I cut the wood template for the interior brace, based on the cardboard one I made. I'll save the details for a day when I focus on talking about the trailer again, but at least I got one more tiny thing done. And now I know this will work, so I can allow my brain to gnaw on the rest of this piece of the project while I'm away.



And you know I tried to do all the little errands on one trip, but that didn't work. Have to hit the grocery store and bank in the morning.

In other news: I worked on the book a bit this morning, but switched to all these projects because I was just too antsy to get at them. Still a fair amount to do in tomorrow morning with packing and getting food ready to take, but the big projects are under control.

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Crash

 
After a really productive morning (I finished chapter 16 of North Country Quest), I could not make myself do anything all afternoon, so I guess it evens out. Spring continues to cheer me, although I guess we are returning to gray tomorrow. The forsythia is blooming and the sky was mostly blue. Can't beat that!



Clothes on the line. One of my favorite things, as you know.



And a big tom in my backyard with a harem of three. He spread his tail, but I could not get to the camera in time to catch it.



Tomorrow, I can't goof off. I have to get all these presentation projects finished up in the next couple of days. Hopefully, tonight I will sleep well, which did not happen last night and led to the crash today.

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Practically Perfect in Every Way

 
Today was a Mary Poppins Perfect kind of day and it takes priority over more Ohio flower pictures.

First of all, it was one of those days where the weather is just exactly the kind I like best. The air was cool and the sun warm. I awoke (not to an alarm clock!) to the scents of flowers coming through the windows. And birds singing.



Apple trees are in bloom. The sky was blue all day. (Now it has turned gray and a gentle rain has begun, but that is perfect too. The birds are fluttering around in it!)



The lawnmower started right up- first time this year. After last year, when it was the primary project of the spring-summer-fall, that is enough for a Quality Day right there.

I mailed a book order (hooray for book sales!) and got gas, came home and mowed half the yard. And the grass wasn't even a foot high before I did this first mowing!



My laundry dried on the line nicely, all soft and outdoor-smelling. I know I show pictures of this way more than you probably care about, but I LOVE clothes dried outside.



I even spent a little time sorting boxes. I gave away three boxes of fabric, consolidated two other boxes. I broke down three empty boxes and put out a bag of trash. The one downside of that is you can't even tell I did anything. But I have to keep working on that mess even if only in short bursts. So, I get a pat on the head for that effort.

My energy level was high today (an awesome gift on a day off), and I didn't waste it. Crocheted a little more on some small projects.

OK, this post is all me, me, me, but as I said, it was one of those rare days when almost everything is perfect, so I'm going to celebrate it!

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Intersecting Curves

 
One morning earlier this week it was frosty outside and I thought this was an intriguing pattern. Notice how all three lines intersect at the same point in the lower corners.



Have you figured out what this is?

If you have, your mind correctly interpreted that although the lines appear to touch and be in the same plane, it really has three dimensions.

It's my ordinary old-fashioned clothesline. The lines don't really intersect because we know there is a third dimension. If we move to a different location in that third dimension, depth, the lines are actually pretty much parallel (and not nearly so interesting).



Gives a person something to think about, eh? We live in three dimensions and are sure we know what things look like. But what if there is a fourth spatial dimension that we don't know about? If we could move just one step in that direction things might be quite different. Maybe we shouldn't be so sure we know it all.

By the way... if you are wondering why those corners in the first picture line up so nicely, it's not a trick of where I was standing. It's math. X^2 - y^2 = -1 to be exact. Some of you will understand.

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Well, it IS Michigan...

 

Monday



Today



That is all.

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Today, Words are Better than Pictures

 
It's hard to believe that I'm willing to admit that the pictures just can't capture today well at all.

It was one of those perfect days when the air is cool and the sun warm. The kind of day that energizes me. I worked in the morning at the paper, but got one load of clothes on the line before 8 am. I realize this is probably rather ordinary for many of you. Not me. I get a pat on the head for that.



In the afternoon, I got another load of clothes done (I love drying clothes outside), some yard work (like a drop in the bucket of what should be done), and also picked a few berries (autumn olive).





I also took some pictures of something small and green. Stay tuned!

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