Light After the Storm

 
It rained most of the day yesterday, cooling things down nicely.

After I had done my blog post, as the sun was nearing the horizon, the far row of trees beyond my backyard was catching the light.



Every time I start to think there aren't going to be any new moods of my backyard, I have another delightful surprise like this one.

Some of the wind turbines (5 miles away) stand out in contrast to the dark sky.



The sunset wasn't spectacular, but there were a lot of interesting clouds. I was watching them as I drove to work. I'll bet if I'd been on the beach with a view unimpeded by wires and signs and trees, there were some interesting pictures to be had.

	See Moods of My Backyard
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Back to Ogichidaa, and Scott Falls

 
Last fall, traveling with Lyle, I accidentally found Ogichidaa, the Face in the Rock. But now I know where it is, and I wanted Marie to see it. We stopped there on our way home from Marquette.

Lyle and I did not walk all the way to the carving. He had a sore hip, and the stream crossing was wide. But, Marie and I went all the way there. I could reach up and touch it. Can you see the face? It's badly eroded, but for a front view with the telephoto that may show it better follow the link below.



Here's a bit of the Lake Superior shoreline beyond the face. Always wonderful. The only strange thing is a person in the water. Actually, there were a lot of people swimming. Including small children who were not blue.



In fact, we went wading. You know it wasn't really cold if Marie went in.



While we were in the parking lot a lady asked us the way to the waterfall. I didn't know anything about that, and she didn't know about the face. We traded info! A short walk across the road took us to Scott Falls, a lovely little bit of sparkle that creates the creek between the rest area and the face.



I liked that you could go behind it and look out.


And now, I have to get ready and head back to work for the night. Can't say I'm ecstatic, but at least we got all the machinery working before the end of the day this afternoon. That should make things go more smoothly than the earlier shift.

	See Ogichidaa- the Face in the Rock
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Sweet Rain

 
As much as I like the perfect weather we had in Marquette over the weekend, I like the rain too.

It was cooling, and made everything smell so good. Thanks to Facebook, now everyone knows the word "petrichor": that wonderful scent of newly wetted earth.



There were a couple of big thunder/lightning crashes/flashes really close, and heavy rain for a few minutes.



No trailer work today! I'm spending time on an indoor computer project.

	See We Interrupt these Flowers
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Yooper Plant Fun

 
You didn't think I would come back from a trip without plant pictures, did you?

Two of these are common, but I hadn't previously gotten decent pictures. One of them is a good surprise.

The first one is Climbing False Buckwheat, Fallopia scandens. It's related to the horrible Japanese Knotweed, but this is native and not really problematic. Notice that the leaves look like a bindweed, but the flowers are small and borne on stalks, rather than looking like tiny morning glories.



The next one is really common, but I've never gotten such nice pictures. It's an agrimony, I think Tall Hairy Agrimony, Agrimonia gryposepala.



The flowers are often more sparse, and other species of agrimony have much smaller flowers.



But they all have leaves that look like this. The important thing to note is that there are small leaves in between larger ones. Weird, huh?



The focus isn't great (darn- but I may have stumbled on to how to make macro shots focus better), but the seed pods are terrific! They are also talented at sticking to your clothes in the fall.



Now, drum roll please. Seeing this next plant has been on my wish list forever. Then, when I did see it, I didn't recognize it. I've been fooled by so many plants with leaves and stems like this that I didn't even suspect it was something unusual. However, the red berries did tickle my brain that they were not typical. I thought it was some variant of Solomon's Seal. Instead, it's the Twisted Stalk, Streptopus amplexifolius that I've been stalking! I've still never seen the flowers, but this is a start. Note the zig-zag stem.

For any plant people who may be reading, its coefficient of conservatism is 8. This is a high quality plant. And for my future reference, it likes to grow on seepy banks in valleys just like this one at Cut River. That will help me look for it in flower (Or I can drive 6 hours at the right time of year now that I know where to find some!)

	See Flowering Plant, No Flower
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Another Day, Another Air Hose

 
OK, today is just going to be one of those reality checks. Life is not all hikes and hugs and mountain tops and scenic views.

It was back to work for me this morning. Beth said I looked less than enthused. Sigh. I was just thinking about all of the above items. When... BANG... there was a gunshot.

Actually, it wasn't. In fact, this time we didn't all duck for cover because we knew what it was. We all just hit the stop buttons to turn everything off.

Yup, another ruptured air line.



I have to say that the last time this happened (about a month ago) it was pretty scary because we didn't know what it was. We did get the machine shut down, but it was so loud that it was actually frightening. Even the press guys came in to check that everything was OK.

Easy enough to replace, but some new tubing would be nice instead of just cutting off a length of some used stuff.

Probably more pretty pictures tomorrow. Have to share a little more from the trip to da UP.

	See Sure-Tyer
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