Vacation, Day 3, Shopping

 We had handcakes (leftover pancakes, eaten cold without using silverware) and yogurt for breakfast. By the time we had our tea/coffee and discussed possible birding road trips, it was too late to start on a long drive. We drove to Grand Marais to do some shopping. We Intended to get frozen custard at Sydney’s in spite of the expense. It’s traditional! The street leading to Sydney’s was oddly deserted. At first, I thought it was our lucky day because parking spots were everywhere. Alas, when we drove past Sydney’s, this is what we saw, a building gutted by fire.

Remains of old Sydney's

Horreur! What shall we do? The sign left us hope that there was another location “downtown”, but where? It’s not a big town, but more of a clue would have been helpful.

We went to Ben Franklin for old time’s sake. Sydney’s temporary location was in two shipping containers on the space that used to be a tiny parking lot. Saved! Or not. They didn’t have any Dutch chocolate custard. Shoot. We went to DQ instead.

Our luck changed for the better after that. We went to a new thrift store on the south side of town, Oddz & Endz. It was run by a nonprofit agency to benefit the community. They had some really nice stuff! I bought a Cuisinart induction-ready smallish stockpot with lid for $6, an angel food cake pan for $5, and 8 retro cafeteria-style tumblers for $0.25 each! I have been looking for new glasses for some time. I don’t like the modern designs much, so these were perfect!

Fun new thrift store south of Grand Marais

Jane got a wall basket to hang on her door to collect association fees each month. You may or may not remember that she is the treasurer for her housing association. Treasurer seems to be a lifetime appointment, as several of her predecessors have died. Jane considers collecting the checks and hounding people to pay their dues to be the worst part of her job.

“No, Jane,” I said. “Dying is the worst part of the job.”

So far so good, though. She’s not dead yet. The old basket is wearing out. The “new” basket she got at Oddz & Endz was plenty dusty. She’ll have to hose it off before hanging it up.

We bought calendars at Betsy Bowen’s studio, another annual tradition.

Back at the cabin, Jane fired up the grill. I cut and buttered zucchini and made a foil pack of potatoes and onions. We shared a porterhouse steak and a bottle of wine. All was right with the world.

Jane grills dinner

 

Vacation, Day 2: Warbler migration

 Day 2

I made blueberry pancakes for breakfast. We put peaches from the tree in the high tunnel on them. Tree ripened peaches are the best!

Blueberry pancakes with peaches and maple syrup

We went down to sit on the dock for a while. The rose hips by the stairs to the lake seemed particularly red this year.

Rose hips

The water level was lower than in previous years. There was no fire ban, but summer rain had been scarce. There was a pull-tab can opener visible near the shore, which was amazing when one considers that the phase out of those dangerous and litter-producing objects began in 1975. I remember childhood warning of cut feet from walking barefoot in state parks along Lake Michigan. I put it in the trash where it belonged.

Blast from the past: A pull tab from before c. 1975

I am always amazed by the spring-loaded stems of the water lilies. The bud must not move very fast; I’ve never seen one shoot out of the water as if propelled by a rocket. That’d be something, hey?

Spring-loaded lily bud stem

We also saw a small bullfrog, based on the Amphibian and Reptile Survey of Minnesota, which says the way to tell the difference is that the ridge behind the eye wraps around the ear drum, whereas in the similar green frog, the ridge extends all the way down the back. Now you know.

Bullfrog

I was lying face-down on the dock staring into the water when I heard a disturbance on the shore. A serviceberry tree was dancing wildly among the more stately balsam and birch. All sorts of birds were after the service berries. Some birds were too heavy for the twigs of the tree. They flew from sturdier perches and grabbed berries mid-flight. Smaller birds stood on the twigs eating until another bird chased them away.

The owners of our rental cabin, Dave and Nancy, later confirmed that we were witnessing the flocking of warblers (among other species) in preparation for southward migration.

The mixed flock was fickle. Following signals known only to them, they mobbed one source of food and abandoned it for some other location, all at once.

After lunch, we sat on the deck as the flock came and went. I took a zillion pictures.

Our view from the deck

The bumblebees were busy collecting nectar and pollen from the lobelia in the flower boxes.

Bumblebee with pollen-stuffed leg baskets on lobelia

Some of the birds we could identify. Some we could not. Here’s a partial representation, along with my best guess at species:

Black and white warbler (that one was easy!)

Yellow-rumped warbler, a.k.a., butterbutt--yellow butt is brighter when it flies

Canada warbler

Chickadee hanging upside down to feed

LBJ (little brown job)--beak too thick for a finch or sparrow, I think. 

Male downy woodpecker

Female downy woodpecker

Chipping sparrow (left) with frumpy fledgling

A good picture of a distinctive bird--you'd think the identification
would pop right out of the book! But no.

A bad picture of what may be a yellow-throated warbler

Cedar waxwing--no matter how their day is going, they look like they've just been groomed.

It was an exciting birding day. Happy hour was a bust. I opened a bottle of wine, but the first glass gave me a headache and Jane heartburn. Supper was uninspired. I reheated the pizza. Later we had hot fudge sundaes.

We put together a jigsaw puzzle to pass the time between 7:00 (too early to go to bed) and 8:15 (acceptable time to go to bed).

Jigsaw du jour

Boundary Waters, Day 1

Jane and I have been back from vacation for a week and a half, but I've been so busy getting the garden back under control that today was my first chance to post. Long time readers may recall that we spend the week in northern Minnesota blissfully off the grid.

Day 1

We left my house at 6:50, ten minutes ahead of schedule. Our first wildlife siting was half a dozen sandhill cranes in a field north of Madison.

Following a tip from Diane N., we stopped at a restaurant/convenience store in Hixton that carried Chocolate Shoppe ice cream. The last line of its “nutritional information” is “If you want nutrition, eat a carrot.”  Many of the flavors were odd, like Matcha Green Tea, Maple Nut, Black Walnut, Blackberry Lemon Bar, etc. We both got Zanzimint, a combination of their very dark chocolate Zanzibar™ Chocolate ice cream and (obviously) mint.

Zanzimint ice cream in Hixton

We drove and drove, stopping now and then for food, stretching, and/or bathroom breaks. We got to the cabin a little after 6:00, took the luggage in, put a frozen pizza in the oven, found the bottle of premixed margarita and the bag of ice we just bought in Grand Marais, and sat down on the deck for happy hour.

We didn’t have to wait until the last minute to see loons, like we do some years. Jane was the first to spot them, as she is the one with better distance vision. Binoculars confirmed that it was an adult with a chick. It was getting dark. They were far away. Nevertheless, I took way too many pictures, none of which were in focus or properly lit. Eventually, the pair worked its way over closer to us and out of the glare of the setting sun. The adult dove and dove. As soon as it surfaced, the chick went over to it. Often it was for naught.

Loon adult coming up empty as baby follows

Every now and then, the adult had a fish for the baby. As this picture shows, the baby was not yet eating large fish. We hoped it would be big enough to fly south before the lakes froze over.

A tasty treat!

We ate the pizza and drank margaritas. We stayed up as long as we could and went to bed at 8:30. It’s a long drive.

Blueberries and blooms

 It’s blueberry season. We can’t grow blueberries here. Our soil is all wrong, and blueberries are fussy. I make a point of stocking up on Michigan blueberries in July. This year, I had a yearning for blueberry pie, so I made one. It leaked all over, as fruit pies will, but what remained in the crust was delicious. I don’t think I’ve had blueberry pie since I was in high school. I’ll have to add it to the rotation.

Blueberry pie

The drought continues. We were all excited last Saturday morning when we had an inch of rain in the gage. It didn’t seem so good when we found out that places to the south got upwards of 3”. We could have used that.

Some, but not enough

The harvest continues apace. My vacation with Jane is coming up, and I’m frantically trying to deal with everything from the garden so far before I go. Pretty proud of myself for harvesting some of my carrots before they become the size of tree trunks and just as woody.

Carrots harvested at a reasonable size

The pullets are almost adult sized, although they will not start laying for several months yet. This morning was the first time they came near when I tossed out the scratch grains. They hovered outside the hens, looking for an opportunity to dart in and grab a kernel. So far, they are mostly unsuccessful. They will do better when the 2-year-olds go to their new home at a friend’s house.

Most of the time, the pullets hang around under the cover of one of the apple trees. Here is Brownie II.

Brownie II hiding beneath the Macoun apple tree

It is hard to get pictures of the pullets in the open, as they are always moving. Here is one of the golden-laced Wyandottes, for example, with her heads and legs blurry as she ran by.

Golden Wyandotte on the run

Silvia sort of posed, although I caught her lifting her foot.

Silvia on one leg

Our beehive is going crazy. Terry and I had to put another “super” on the top to make room for the expanding population. It’s going a lot better than last year. Maybe we will even be able to sneak out some honey.

Busy bees

We got Russian bees this year. Here is a photograph of two of our comrades pollinating a female zucchini blossom.

Thank you, comrades!

In spite of the drought, we have insects everywhere. This is a painted lady butterfly on a purple coneflower. If you look closely, you can see her proboscis in the flower.

Painted lady drinking nectar

Tiger swallowtails will let me walk right up to them as long as I’m not holding a camera. I chased this one all over, and this was the best I could do.

Camera-shy tiger swallowtail on beebalm

Over the summer, a truly enormous plant grew behind one of the compost bins. I couldn’t tell what it was from the leaves, so I left it. It is almost as tall as the tractor shed!

Giant multi-stemmed mystery plant

My bet was that it was some nasty invasive, but to my delight, it turned out to be evening primrose! The red stem was a hint, but I wasn’t sure until I saw the flowers.

Evening primrose

This is a close-up of the primrose flower. There are pollen granules on the pistil. Perhaps it will disperse.

Primrose close-up

One dewy morning, the prairie dropseed glittered in the morning sun. I couldn't resist an artsy photo.

Dewy prairie dropseed

The natives that I grew from seed this year are doing well. The only annual I planted was partridge pea. I worried that it would not establish because the stupid deer kept eating the shoots. Dry as it has been, I suppose they go after anything that has been watered. Finally, the partridge pea is winning, though. If it sets seed, it may persist and spread.

Partridge pea flowers

The cup plant shows no indication of blooming this year. I’m happy enough to see it developing large leaves.

Cup plant getting mature leaves

The swamp milkweed is about to bloom.

Buds on swamp milkweed

The first plant in the rain garden to bloom is Great Blue Lobelia. The stripes on the underside of the flower are characteristic of the species. Ecologist that I am, have to wonder how that benefits the plant. And I’ll never know.

Great Blue Lobelia

All of the plants in the rain garden are perennial, so I have no idea who will bloom this year and who will wait. The blazing star seemed to be shooting up some floral stalks. Time will tell.

Bingo was a very bad boy today. He tore up the floor strip covering the transition between the kitchen tile and the living room wood floor. As you can see, however, he is a master of looking innocent.

Bad boy Bingo in his favorite cat tree

 

 

Abundance

 The drought continues. We saw a welcome site on July 12, but it passed through too quickly, leaving us with a scant 0.3” of rain.

Fifth oak in the rain

At that time, the grape jelly was being swarmed with scruffy, damp-looking oriole juveniles. As of this writing, most of them are gone. We see an orchard oriole now and then. They used to move south at the end of June like clockwork. Have they gotten the word about triple-digit heat down there?

Soggy, scruffy juvenile orioles

From the 12^th to the 22^nd, we had not a drop. Saturday night we got half an inch. We didn’t have to water yesterday. Whoop-de-doo.

Many things are starting to ripen, including the tomatoes and cherry tomatoes in the high tunnel,

New Girl tomatoes

Supersweet 100 cherry tomatoes

Zucchini.

Zucchini

And cabbage. It’s early for cabbage. A little tiny bit of me is hoping we don’t get a huge amount of rain all at once, lest these lovely cabbage heads split with the sudden influx of water.

Cabbage

Most excitingly, the high tunnel peaches are getting ripe. Terry found two of them on the ground, bruised from the fall, which prompted us to pick the 18 ripest ones after lunch yesterday. They are beautiful and largely blemish-free, which I find amazing. Yes, they are in the high tunnel, but there’s no shortage of insects in there.

Beautiful, perfect peaches

I harvested a lot of things yesterday. The carrots are big enough to eat. The challenge is to pick them before they get too big, at which point they will be woody, or split, or both. I planted some onion seedlings in bunches in the spring for green onions. In theory, the crowding keeps them from getting big. When I wasn’t looking, though, they got big anyway.

Yesterday's harvest, left to right: 18 peaches, a bunch of pickling cucumbers, 6 standard tomatoes, many overgrown scallions, carrots, 6 zucchini, bunch of cherry tomatoes, one hill of red potatoes, 2 Napa cabbage.

I’m almost to full-blown Putting Up mode. I get a little panicky this time every summer, but what gets done gets done. Terry grilled burgers with foil pack new potatoes and overgrown scallions, zucchini, and jalapeno peppers. Even when I’m overwhelmed, going to the garden to get supplies for supper that day never gets old.

I have a new camera which has a better close-up range than my previous camera. I have been taking too much time playing with it. Here are some early efforts.

A bumblebee with leg baskets full of pollen on a purple coneflower.

Bumblebee on purple coneflower

I have grown purple coneflowers forever, yet this is the first summer that I noticed that the anthers (pollen-producing boy parts) develop in a ring from bottom to top.

Circle of pollen-producing structures (yellow) on purple coneflower

This is a skipper butterfly on beebalm, apparently not realizing that the flower is for bees.

Skipper sipping pollen from beebalm

I had a hard time getting everyone in focus for this one. A spider is wrapping silk around a metallic green sweat bee. A video would have been better, but I’m not there yet.

A spider industriously wraps a sweat bee in silk

I hope that you, too, are enjoying the abundance of the season!