Old Hikers Never Die...

How would you finish that one-liner? You know, like "Old wrestlers never die, they just lose their grip," or "Old frogs never die, they just croak."

I was at a vendor even in Cadillac all day today. I did fairly well, and met a whole lot of new-to-me authors.

These two ladies were in the area from Virginia. The lady on the left, Karen, still leads short hikes on the Appalachian Trail and sometimes helps with trail work. She is my age.

The lady on the right, Ann (you can see her walker beside her) says she isn't hiking much any more, but... are you ready... she's 93!

It was 11 hours non-stop. I'm beat. All good.

Oh, the actual end of that joke? "Old hikers never die, they just trail away."

Speaking of other old hikers, Nimblewill Nomad who currently holds the record for the oldest thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail at 84, is going to support at friend who is 91 and is hoping to take the record away from him.

Pretty much, we just don't know how to stop.

See True Blue Gumby II

Three New Rock Garden Plants

Two of these are not new, new. I did buy them this year, but was waiting to test their survival before posting.

The other one was recently given to me by author friend, Jean. This is Sedum kamtschaticum 'Variegatum.' At least I'm pretty sure that's what it is. I'll know more certainly after it blooms next year. It stays low to the ground, while another of the S. kamtschaticum's - ellacombeanum, gets a little taller. I have a lot of the second one, and it's one of my favorites. This one is supposed to spread easily, so that will be good. The leaves aren't particularly colorful, but the buds are orange, opening to yellow flowers. Sounds good!

I moved a patch of 'Dream Dazzler' over one space and replaced it with this one. I previously had two purple ones too close to each other. I spend a lot of time trying to decide where things should go to look good in the long term.

On this topic, when I visited Dow Gardens a few years ago, I was astonished at how well the plantings were planned. The designer had to be able to envision how various trees were going to look together after 100 years. And they succeeded!

This one isn't really a rock garden plant, but I wanted something taller near the retaining wall in this space that really doesn't show up well. And I needed something that will hide that cable.

This is Yarrow 'Cerise Queen' which will have magenta blooms if it decides it's happy there. The location is part shade and part hot sun with the heat bouncing off the retaining wall. But so far, it's at least growing. I've killed a few things that can't take those interesting conditions.

I'll end today with a tentative sharing of a plant that I'm trying for the third time. It should absolutely be happy in my rock garden. But I've killed two of them in the past. I don't want to jinx it by sharing. (Wink) This is Mt. Atlas Daisy, or Garden Gnome, Anacyclus depressus. I got it just before I went away in June, and things got pretty dry. But it survived that and is growing. If it lives, the flowers are great! The buds are a deep red, but when the flower opens, the petals are white on the inside. Anyway, I'm hopeful, and I didn't spend very much on it, so it was worth another shot. And the leaves are an interesting texture too.

I edited, I worked on volunteer stuff, I spent a huge amount of time on some marketing materials, I got back to a project of my own since the ADK data is done (well, I still have some files to upload, but I'll putter at those.) Just a few things to get ready for the vendor event tomorrow at Cadillac.

See Rock Garden Report

Rock Garden Report 2025- #2 (September)

I finished the third weed-through of the year for the rock garden. Not sure if I'll do another full one or just spot weed. It probably depends on how long the fall stays mild.

I think today I'll just show the progress over three seasons. There are a few new plants I haven't shared yet, but I'll save those.

Here is the straight-on view from the lawn today

August 2024

And just to keep reminding myself of the progress, June 2023. Amazing!

Here are the views from the deck- upper portion today.

And lower portion today

August 2024- pretty much the whole thing in one picture

And August of 2023.

No wonder this is making me so happy. It really is starting to look like something of beauty.

Finished a big volunteer project today, consulted at length with someone on an editing job. Started another necessary task. Did a few other things.

See Rock Garden October 2024

Turtle Rescue Quiz

This is WAY late in the year for my first turtle rescue. I guess I just haven't been driving where the turtles were crossing. But this was a great one.

Let's play a guessing game. What kind of turtle is this? Well, it's a fast one. After I picked it up out of the middle of the road and took it to the side where it was headed, it moved off into the woods faster than you would think possible.

You might be able to ID it from that picture if you really know your turtles, but this should help. What do you see about the shell? It's got a fairly high dome, and it has little spots. The fact that it's pretty clean helps with that ability. So often they are muddy or covered in duckweed.

How about the underside? The plastron has this pattern.

How about a look at the head? Nope.

Well, maybe just a little bit. And now, you can see the definitive ID criteria. Just barely.

Did you see it? That bright yellow chin will tell you for sure it's a Blanding's Turtle, Emydoidea blandingii. They are at least "Of Special Concern" in Michigan. Wikipedia lists them as Endangered, but the MSU web page does not show them with that status. They can stretch that neck out very far so that they almost look like a dinosaur. This one did so once, but I couldn't move fast enough to get a picture.

The thing is, Mason County is a bit of a hot spot for them. I see them quite often, and I've seen big ones. I'm sure the first one I ever saw was a rival for the state record. And you can see that this one is not small. Maybe 9-inch shell front to back which is fairly large, so maybe it's a female.

The oldest one known is 90 years old, and still laying eggs.

The DNR says Michigan has 10 species of turtle. I've seen 6 (maybe 7) of them in the wild. Pretty cool!

We had some good rain today, but I managed to walk to the post office this afternoon- 2.5 miles. Worked pretty solidly on a number of projects.

Miles hiked in 2025: 356.8.

See First Turtle Rescue 2017

A Few Prairie Plants

I tried to do some on-the-fly botanizing in North Dakota and saw some familiar plants and learned a couple of new things.

This one I knew, but I'd never seen so much of it in bloom naturally. This is Stiff Goldenrod, Solidago rigida. The leaves and stems are very... stiff.

Here's another one I knew, but I'd never seen it when the berries are this ripe. It's Snowberry, Symphoricarpos either occidentalis- western or albus- common. It's an important food for wildlife. They will give humans a stomach ache, being mildly toxic.

I've always seen Gumweed in bloom. It's a common roadside plant in the prairie. This is probably Grindelia squarrosa, Curlycup Gumweed. Looks similar to a dandelion from a distance, but up closer you can tell the leaves and stems aren't like dandelion at all, and the flowers have a central disk as well. Yes, they feel sticky.

Lots of this tree was planted in North Dakota as windbreaks. It's not as invasive as our Autumn Olive, but it's not great. This is Russian Olive (or Silverberry) with the fruit. And you can easily see the difference in the two plants at this stage. The Autumn Olive berries are round and red. These are olive shaped, and although they will turn orange/reddish, they don't look anything like the others. Elaeagnus angustifolia is the name, which is another clue. Any plant with "angustifolia" in the name has narrow leaves, and these leaves are longer and narrower than the Autumn Olive.

Now for my best botany find. This is completely new to me. WINNER! This is Silver Buffaloberry. It's related to the olives, all in the family Elaeagnaceae, But this is Shepherdia argentea. The berries were ripe. The Native Americans gathered them to pound into meat with various other things to make pemmican. I had to try them.

YUM! I did learn that a lot of locals just shook their heads and said "no thanks." Web sites say they are bitter. I found them to be more tart, like wild currants. I ate quite a few! It's a small tree, also with white leaves. (Note "argentea"- silver - in the name.) They would make a yummy jelly or sauce to use with meat.

No new plants at home, but I found something very cool this afternoon that I'll probably show you tomorrow.

Kept busy all day- computer stuff, editing, picked up my sales stuff from the people who carted it home for me from Paradise, sorted books, ordered books, prepped for Saturday, blah, blah. Busy day.

See Silver/Gray Plants