Category Archives: Uncategorized

Beauties and the Beasties

IMG_1976 <a
First, the beauties of mowing in midsummer include the scents of flowers and cut grass. The Queen Anne’s Lace is beginning to fade with goldenrod soon to come. The garden beds are overgrown with tomatoes ripening faster than they are needed and a few summer squash are still filling in the ground level. We’re impatient with sweet corn that isn’t quite ripe enough to pull.

And then there are the risks of the field when the weeds have grown tall. A hidden groundhog den neatly trapped the rear wheel of the Snapper mower, bottoming the deck and adding a
“tow out” break to the afternoon chores. Another good assignment for the Gator.

A hornet's nest on a maple seedling lurks in the weeds

A hornet’s nest on a maple seedling lurks in the weeds

The pink tree flag in this picture marks a second-year maple seedling in the weeds. Just below it, and with its bottom nearly touching the ground, is a very active 10-inch hornet’s nest. The photograph fails to capture the path the lucky author used to speed away from the beasties, leaving these weeds (and the nest) to the frosts of October.

Pomona Point Neighbors

My neighbor shared this crisp late-summer view of the Bluecircle Farm from recent aerial photography of the Pomona Point area on Paw Paw Lake.  Pines, spruce, poplars and oak march like ragged battle lines across the grass.treefarm

As Pomona Point approaches its 150th anniversary Bluecircle Arts recently tried its hand at publishing and crafted a brief history of the Point and its neighborhoods.  This is now an e-book: “Pomona Point Neighbors at Paw Paw Lake”   http://www.blurb.com/ebooks/586338-pomona-point-neighbors-at-paw-paw-lake .  The book expanded a March, 2015 post on this blog about the history of the Bluecircle land to tell the resort history of the peninsula.

Snow on the roses

Snowy Bluebird Sophie the snow-loving dog was a lot happier with today’s April snow than the bluebirds in the woods. A stiff north wind and freezing temperatures for a second day brought 4-5 frosty inches to the Bluecircle. The Spring greens of lilac buds and the daffodil patch are already re-emerging in the noon sun but it’s too soon to put the snow shovel away in Watervliet.Greens in the snow

Ashes to ashes, chicks to hens

With apologies to the Book of Common Prayer that directs “earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust” many of the tall but dead ash trees on and around the Bluecircle were felled last week.  All were victims of the emerald death (ash borer) a couple of summers ago.  When the first 10″ trunk snapped in two in a recent storm, leaving a fifteen-foot stump and thirty-foot mass of broken limbs across the path, it was time to get the rest safely down and converted to firewood. That second step will take a lot longer than the first.Peeps 1 mo.

Meanwhile, first in the cottage kitchen and now in the coop five little hatchlings have grown feathers, big feet, tiny combs and a little courage.   “The peeps” are buff Orpingtons and I’m sure they are looking forward to  weather warmer than we’ve had the last few days.  The coop is connected to a wire run but so far the little flock hasn’t ventured more than a few steps from the security of their coop and its heating pad.

 

 

Shadowed snow invades inland

IMG_1833Downwind of Lake Michigan Winter brings many kinds of snow … tiny grains like white millet, wet flakes that hurry down, or light, dry rafts of giant flakes that swirl around the trees.   When the air is cold,  dry and gusty and the blue sky is cloudless the sun can burst from behind a lake-effect snow band bringing sudden blinding whiteness.  Just as quickly it can be enveloped by the snow cloud and dimmed – temporarily.   Yesterday a brilliant morning sun encountered the lake effect and painted gray shadows on the shaded side of falling flakes, making them silent grey invaders headed for the pristine drifts below.

When the cold checks out early

A rainy afternoon made the lake ice into a splash pond resembling mid-March instead of midwinter.  This month the cold was like a guest  you prepared the house and cooked for who then departed prematurely – days earlier than expected.   The snowshoes, long underwear and mittens are collecting dust but at least the refrigerator isn’t full of leftover food.  IMG_1807

Squirrels recovering buried treasure where there was a foot of snow last week look delighted while all cross-country ski tracks around the BlueCircle are either icy or washed away.   The greenhouse lettuce succumbed to persistent clouds and freezing temperatures so gardening season is finally over.

I prefer a snow-covered dog to a wet and muddy one and she would rather delve into snow piles then almost anything else so maybe the next puff of Winter will bring at least enough for that.  Meanwhile there’s time to catch up on indoor projects and plan for Spring.

An arborist’s nightmare

IMG_1671 In the tail-end of a hurricane wind the saw-wielding climber was roped high in one of the “old trees” of Smith’s Landing a.k.a. the Fairview Beach neighborhood. At first view the towering Maple looked sound, and despite the obvious skill (and courage) of the suspended man it seemed cruel that this tree had been selected for removal.IMG_1668 Of the dozens of Ash trees lost here in the last 3 years many still stand as leafless skeletons. Last year extensive removal of mature shade trees and old pines that had the misfortune to grow within “a threatening distance” of power lines further depleted our green space.
Sadly, this tall old Maple had now begun to split between its two main trunks and become unsafe.IMG_1673

Time for a change in the weather

On windy days the shore of the “big lake” gently erodes into the dunes.  The water is still warm enough for wading but a series of crisp, clear nights will soon encourage boots on the feet.   The calendar shows the Equinox has passed and the hours of darkness are again in the majority.  For a while longer the grass will still need mown.  A few red raspberries are scattered on their canes although the “berry patch” has grown wildly and today is a briar thicket.  Pruning, thinning, and restoring order there will wait until frost clears away the weeds and yellow jackets.
IMG_1627

Recovering vines and a dusty bicycle

A vine with battle scars

A vine with battle scars

After a short bike ride on a sultry evening it’s time for an update on the vineyard.   Two rows of grape vines won “official” status by gaining their own trellis wires, and two more short rows are ready to make this step next year.  Frequent spraying apparently left a discouraging taint on the vines since by mid-July the beetles were mostly feeding on nearby weeds and more distant wild grape vines.  The new leaves that emerge after the onslaught of beetle savagery are always small and pale, but vine growth has resumed.  A nearby organic gardner blogged that the thumb and forefinger pinch of their well-gloved hand was the favorite weapon in the bug battle.   I felt overwhelmed by the number of targets and resorted to a pump sprayer and non-organic “perfumes”.

Growth on the new trellis

Growth on the new trellis

So cautious optimism is the tone for the outcome of this year’s war on the beetle and also for my long-delayed return to a touring bicycle.  Wiping the dust off the neglected bike was prompted by the sale of a well-loved motorcycle, hanging its gloves and helmet on the “used to do this” hooks in the garage.  Now 2-wheeled cruises down the country road and the circle home will be shorter, leisurely, and provoke less anxiety from loved ones.  A once-fantasized solo tour of Michigan by motorcycle has been forgotten before it was planned, but cycling opportunities from various campgrounds can substitute so long as there’s air in the wheels and wind on the road.

First gregarious bees, then berries and now the onslaught of Japanese beetles

The entry of Summer in the garden was a-buzzin’ with docile, but abundant ground-nesting bees known as Colletes inaequalis.  Hundreds of females built their sand castle nests in villages in and around the corn patch and adjacent field while males buzzed and swarmed and circled above them through most of June.  Then the first few quarts of Bluecircle black raspberries ripened and were enjoyed immediately – only a cup or two found their way to the freezer.  The swarms of mosquitos that usually pester the picker of wild raspberries were absent from these trellised bushes at first, but as the 4th of July weekend approached an army or two arrived to celebrate the arrival of Chicago visitors to the lake.  At least this year poison ivy, the other hallmark of wild berry patches, has not made its way into the rows.  Fireworks frenzy, as the 4th has now become, appeared to wake the Japanese beetles from their pupae and they marched straight for the succulent new growth leaves of the grape vines.  A precautionary spraying of the vines diverted the first wave to other targets like flowering weeds but today a counterattack with the pesticide sprayer was required.