Blue Bonsai, Plus

The news of today is all about the return of the snow. I think we only got about 4 inches, but it's super fluffy.

The best picture goes in the "moods of my backyard" series, and it's pretty nice.

What started the post was a picture I took when I went shopping. Just trees in the parking lot, but I like how they looked.

But just before I took the first picture, a look out the kitchen door showed blue sky behind the white "apple bonsai." Cool!

I did the usual things and went shopping. Not very energetic. My insides are a little jumpy. I don't think it's anything serious, but I may go lie down with a book.

Got news that a friend from college days has passed. More and more of the people my age are fading. It feels weird.

See Three Tales of a Tree

A Point of Reference

 This post may not hold much interest for you. It's a mostly bare flower flower bed with some lines of orange flagging tape staked down on it.

However, it shows the progress I've made this year. I did sit down and make a plan for this garden. Almost all of what I need I just have to move from other places. The orange lines define the sections. I've been weeding out the grass again which had come back since June, but it wasn't as deeply rooted.

Today I moved coreopsis, coneflower, the 'Candytuft' that may or may not be hardy, moss phlox (blue I think), and the pink showy sedum. I put in a bunch of daffodil bulbs I'd pulled out of this bed earlier this year that were not in good places. I also had a bag of grape hyacinth bulbs, and they went in too. I found one bulb that MAY be a regular hyacinth that hasn't bloomed in a while.

It didn't start raining until almost 4 pm, so I got a lot done. I still have some other things to move. Maybe I could spring for some petunias to fill in spaces next year. We shall see.

Here's how it looked in June. Yeah, about the same. I have shown you some of the things that bloomed, but because they were sort of haphazard and uncollected, it didn't look like much. It SHOULD look better next year.



Omer asked me if the dirt was any good there. I reminded him that its gravel underneath but the top 8 inches I carted here by hand in the wheelbarrow long ago when I created this garden.

We've had a nice soaking rain, and it's supposed to clear up and be mild for the rest of this week. Some days in the 50s, but that's nice enough as far as I'm concerned.

I'll leave you with another mood of my backyard. This is not so colorful as some have been, but it's calm, in muted shades of green.

I worked on a lot of things I'm supposed to be doing today. Yeah me. The camera is dead. I'm looking at options.

See Cleaning the Driveway Flower Bed See moods of my backyard

Flowering Trees

 Gosh! I love these days of the full blossoms on the trees.

Here's the crab apple.

And the cherry. Usually all I get is blossoms and no fruit that survives the birds, but who knows?

I totally missed getting a picture of the pear trees. Yesterday they looked nice. Today they are all done!

But my favorite is the apple anyway.

Even though I'm not fond of pink, I love how the buds start out bright pink, but then when they open, they are white.

And, there have been several of these gorgeous spring days. Here's another mood of my backyard. Even though my kingdom has been getting squeezed, I still have this view.

I want you to know that I worked my little tail off today. Tomorrow you'll get to see the accomplishments. But I wrote a column in the morning, did laundry, worked on the house, but got only 78 miles of campsites done. I might get a few more done yet, but I'm kinda beat, and the next 100 miles are going to be a lot of work.

See Just Wow! See Fruity? See all the moods of my backyard

Shadows of Spring

 I loved the sky and shadows across the back yard this morning.

The rest of my daffodils are coming into their own. You've seen them all before, but not this year. These are the lovely bi-colored ones, Narcissus Delnashaugh.

This one always makes me smile because these bulbs came from my family farm in NY. The old-fashioned double daffs were a favorite of my Grandma Leary.

Going back to another two-colored one, this is 'Duke of Windsor,' one of my personal favorites. It spreads very slowly, so I don't get big clumps of it like I do some of the others, but it manages to keep hanging on.

I think this variety is looking the best it ever has. This is 'Pistachio,' which is supposed to be yellow-green. It never is, but this may be the closest it's come. The wind knocked a few of these over, so we now have a little bouquet of them in the house, too.

I wouldn't mind a couple other varieties, but no plans to do anything about it at the moment.

I went to the food bank in the morning, and then worked all day on listing campsites for the book.

See A Riot of Daffs

First Snow and History

Today was the first snow of the year, although it's not amounting to much. Compare my backyard to yesterday! I like the blue dusk, and it looks twice as wintery.

I spent the afternoon in Ludington doing some errands and then research for Vacation from Dead Mule Swamp. This is the Daniel Goodenough house, built in 1888. Goodenough first operated a grocery store, and then became a manufacturer. Here, the house wears a decoration of fluffy flakes. This is part of the East Ludington Avenue Historic District which is stuffed with huge mansions built by the lumber barons.

One of the oldest commercial buildings still standing was built in 1887. This is in "Fourth Ward," the section that was the original center of the city- nearer to the harbor of Pere Marquette Lake. It is currenty a business called Love Wines, a small batch winery that uses mostly local grapes.

Most unusally, I woke up this morning with a blazing headache. I still got my editing done, but it took longer than usual. I felt pretty much all better by about 1:00. Bell choir practice in the late afternoon.

See My Backyard Yesterday

Trailer Repairs - 1C - Insulation

The trailer insulation is ready to have the final interior layer put back on. I will have help with that later this week. I finished this in small work sessions throughout the day so that the fumes weren't too bad. A couple of mistakes were made, but if the ceiling stays up this time, I'll take it.

The temperature was chilly today, but the sunlight was most welcome. Here's another mood of my backyard.

The gazania in the front flower bed just isn't ready to give up for winter. This is not quite open, and there is another bud. I covered it for the night. We'll see if it survives to open.

I edited. I paid bills. I put some garden stuff away. Maybe the first snow tomorrow.

See Insulation 1B See Moods of My Backyard

Spring Yet?

The weather forecasts keep promising that it will be nice this week, but we aren't there yet. The sun did finally come out this afternoon, but most of the day was still cold.

I love the spring colors of the trees, and this view from our deck never disappoints me.

I keep plugging away at my priority projects. Making progress, but nothing of notable value to report.

See What Happened with the Basement

Ice- Not So Nice Today

  Ice is really beautiful, but today it interfered with things I needed to get done. Here's the mood my backyard was in today. The link below lists all posts with moods of my backyard.

The light was so flat and even all day that I took two pictures of this scene, one at noon and one about 5 pm, and they are exactly the same.

After noon, it warmed up just enough to make things less treacherous, so I did a couple of errands, and one more big bag of recycling went in the car. I finished getting the 2022 financial records in order. We lined up 10 boxes of stuff for Om to take to Goodwill this week. And you still won't be able to tell that any significant amount of stuff has left the house. Sigh.

I have an online meeting tonight. In the morning, I just have to shower and do one more errand. Then I'll be on my way to the first stop, Ann Arbor- stay tuned.

See Moods of my Backyard

Piping with Monica

  Today's primary focus was to make a start on the trailer cushions. We also managed to do some other things too. No we weren't doing plumbing, or playing the hornpipe, or even a tin whistle. We started by making the piping trim for the cushion edges.

Somehow, I found this hilarious. Monica was pressing open the seams on the tape we'd just made, and as soon as there was a long enough tail to reach the machine, I started sewing the bias tape around the cord at the sewing machine.

End result: 43 yards of piping for the cushions nicely coiled in this basket, ready for use.

We also got 4 of the 8 zippers for the cushions done, added 2 coats of polyurethane to the plywood in the kitchen (just one more to go before bed tonight- I did one this morning as soon as I got up), sorted the backpacking food into tubs by location (One tub that goes in the trailer right away, one that Sue brings in March, and one that will somehow go west with me later- and we also found and had to fix a counting error I had made), transferred a volunteer project to Monica's keeping (so I get to cross off a BIG ITEM), and discussed some other trail logistics. Oh... and made a decision about something in the trailer kitchen. I think we made some great progress! I get to cross off a couple of small items, but I had to add a few more.

Now 24 BIG ITEMS to complete- (38 done). 42 small ones to do (34 done). 16 days to go.

Oh! And this happened- first snow.

See Almost Food

Fog, Sun, Clouds

  Today was about the weather...We started with thick fog.

But the sun was working hard to deal with it.

For just a little while, the sun succeeded. Best autumn view yet this year, and it's in my own backyard.

The afternoon was alternately blue and cloudy, with some sprinkles. I like the layers of clouds from dark gray to white.

I'm going to a play tonight, but I don't know if they'll allow pictures. We'll see. I'm ready for some theater!

In other news: I edited all morning and worked on the trailer all afternoon. Lots of progress, but no crossing anything off the list yet. Part of the problem is that some things I thought I had crossed off have come back with more work needed. Not trailer stuff, but other things. 35 BIG ITEMS to do (27 done) and 25 small ones (11 done) to do. 38 days to go.

See Ghostly

Trail Work Day

  Loren and I walked my adopted trail section today to do regular spring maintenance. Corky and Koa helped.

OK, maybe they didn't help much, but there was nothing serious to do, so they didn't hinder, either. We did basic lopping and sawing of small branches, and clearing the treadway. I replaced some stickers on posts. There was one tree down that will need a chain saw, so I reported that. I repainted all the blazes last year, so those are all in good shape.

Leaves are just beginning to pop out. Caught leatherwood, Dirca palustris, at just the right time. It's beautiful and distinctive. I was pleased to see how much of this shrub is in this swampy area. It's very difficult to spot among the other vegetation later in the year.

Even got the flowers!

This is why botanists should carry a hand lens. This is a little blue violet, but which one? Even though it was small, I thought it might be great-spurred violet. But a very close look reveals that the two lateral petals are bearded (fuzzy), which means it's just common blue violet. Viola papilionacea. But now, I'll know to check for which petals are bearded to help with the ID.

I got to do one of my favorite things driving home- take a really back road. This is Townline Road at the south side of Gun Lake.

And I'm ending with my back yard from last night. The sun came out, and it's hard to believe this is spring colors rather than fall, but it is. I just love the shades of the trees as they get their leaves.

Five miles of hiking. North Country Trail miles for 2021 ia at 237.

North Country Trail, Lake County, MI, Freesoil Trailhead to Tyndall Road and back. 5 miles

In other news: I edited, I did some odds and ends, and I was interviewed for a podcast about my books. I'm ready to relax.

See Leatherwood