Indolence

Summery day, starting cool but warming fast.

With Sue off on her southern errands, Pax and I had the day to ourselves—for walking, bike riding...and reading.

Reading The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, by Jacqueline Kelly. Nominally a young adult novel, it is actually a marvelous piece of literature, and I am a bit abashed at not having known of it previously. No werewolves or vampires here, instead lots of good science woven into a coming of age story. As the title suggests, the great Mr. Darwin contributes subtly to the story, which is set in the year 1899, in Fentress, Texas.

Brilliant writing by an author who is also a lawyer and a practicing physician.

Oh, to be a polymath.

Big softshell soaking up the sun on the bank of Whitewater creek.

Sequence

With Whitewater neighbors.  

Prairie thistle.  

Wild indigo.  

Dinner With The Caves

Long-time friends, sailing buddies, iceboat aficionados—whom we have not seen for years.

The early June prairie, coming into its own after the spring burn.

Lovely day with a fine wind. 

Dance to the Music

The daddy-daughter way.  

Breakfast at Tiffany's...

 ...or rather Amalia's, in Oconomowoc, a favorite place, with the Nies clan. 

Then a morning of fun on Victoria Lane while we waited out the thunderstorms.

This evening, the first real taste of what summer can be—hot and humid, with everything growing like mad.

And, let it be known that Maddie has a loose tooth!

How Far I'll I Go...

...from the movie Moana.

Katy's performance, of the above song, at school (very well done), then lunch with her and Will at our favorite little restaurant in Whitefish Bay, and then an afternoon of summer fun.

Here, while Katy and I are playing 'hangman,' Will has decided I desperately need a haircut. 

Back

In Whitewater.  

Long drive. Pleasant hour's stopover in Manitowoc to visit with Aunt Janet. Big traffic backup just north of Milwaukee causing us to exit the interstate and zig-zag home.

The Whitewater yard green and lush. Rosemary bush looking good. One of the new blueberry plants uprooted and gone—who would do that? Garden pretty much a mess with galinsoga still present. Surprisingly, no mosquitoes.

When Lilacs Last In The...

...Boatyard Bloomed. (Sorry, Walt.)

Actually, not fully out, here on the last day of May.

Chilly, gray, and damp. Prepping for travel tomorrow.

Covfefe. 

The Path

It is now possible to walk completely around the house without walking on gravel, which is important when you are walking barefoot, which some smaller people do. About thirty flags, some pretty big and heavy, sourced from Foxtower Road. Dug in, leveled, and backfilled. Fortunately, it was a cool and breezy day, with occasional clouds. Meanwhile, Sue got a lot done.

It was a beautiful day.

Gold Plater

Or, rather, polished old-timer.  

Sails hanked on, deck and coach house scrubbed, topsides waxed and polished. Almost ready to go.

Two breweries on the Island now, and this one in Gore Bay expanded, but closed while we were there. Pax was thinking about applying for a job but then realized they already have growlers.

Beaver work, right on the path between us and Tysons.

Heliotropic

Shift of direction. From cottage to boat.

But not a lot done. First trip to Gore Bay we removed the shrink wrap but then found no key in the "Never Remove The Key From This Place!" place. (We suspect Mark, Norm's assistant, as the culprit, and have high hopes of tracking it down.) Second trip, with the spare key, the power washer failed to work. (Ice damage, I think, and repaired now, I hope.)

So we decided to roust the sails out of the cabin where they were obstructing progress and pretty much everything else, only to meet an abrupt squall from the south which make hanking on sails nothing but foolhardy.

Above, Tyson's creek is still running merrily, though probably not enough to entice spawning trout. Also of note, mosquitoes have made their grand entrance and are now very annoying.

Taste of Summer

Sunny and warm.  Bi-annual Manitoulin Trade Fair in Little Current, just as an outing. (Delicious grilled sausages for lunch there, btw.) Scenic back roads home.

Then, with the trailer hooked up, south-west to Foxtower Road (just a little ways towards Gore Bay beyond the dump and down Pleasant Valley) where we muscled up a load of limestone flags (some with coral fossils still attached) that had been scraped up from the escarpment as part of a drainage ditch improvement project. 

Little Current, with swing bridge in distance. Photo by Sue

Farm, with stones, near Sheguiandah.

Finished porch, awaiting grandkid-made pendants which will be hung from the cedar slab above the couch.

New flagstones in rough position prior to digging in.

The idea behind the new stone path is that it should be possible to walk barefoot from the front deck or from the sandbox, or really all around the house, without it feeling like you are walking on a bed of nails.

Farmer's Market and Finished Porch

Second market of the season in Gore Bay. Limited offerings, but we did pick up some ginger cookies, rhubarb, 3 tomato plants, a whitefish fillet, and some Purvis fish dip. Pax and I got in a good walk too, around the bay from the now defunct Gordon Lodge, to the market, and then to the marina.

Sue finished caulking the porch battens, doing all the touch-up paint work, and final cleaning. And then we got to sit out there after work and before dinner, completely bug free.

Mosquitoes are slowly replacing black flies, which is actually good.

Whitefish on the menu tonight.

All Day Drip

And once again a little fire in the stove.

A trip to the dump an absolutely necessary, but it is never a good idea to go there on a rainy day, as one might imagine.

On the plus side, the peas planted previously are prospering.

Soixante-douze

But who's counting?

Giant, teenage mutant inukshuk just erected at neighbor's place. Only in Manitoulin?

Maja's garden in Mindemoya. She makes a living off this garden, plus a few other minor resources, by providing subscribed, thematic dinners.

Out to Mum's for a celebratory breakfast. Then porch work.( It is almost done. We are closing in. It will look good. And we will be glad when it is over.)

A few breaks in the clouds this morning, but drizzle all afternoon.

Here's a little something John sent today:
"Be your own light. Find your own way—
It should be easy with all those candles."

Perfectly Fine Day

Sunny and pleasant. 

Vernal pool

Non-rolling stone  

Painting battens and staining boards (for the porch). Various bits of yard work. And before you know it, not enough time to go to the dump.

All quiet again, after the long weekend. Few people about, even at the Falls. Real summer season still quite far away. Wind calm. Quite quiet, actually very quiet—in fact the only sound right now is the call of an ovenbird off in the distance.

Washout

Long weekend a pretty soggy affair. Light rain or drizzle all day. I am no longer allowed to complain about dry weather. 

Sue got a lot of sewing done; I moved some logs and read a few chapters of my current book, Sapiens: A Brief History of Mankind.

Murray and Elaine have gone back to Windsor and their concert schedule so Pax and I now walk the shoreline forrest trail all the way from their place to ours. Doing that illustrates how much the forest changes year to year. Trees are down blocking the path and requiring detours in three areas. Left to its natural state the forest here is nearly impassable, though somehow the deer are able to move through it quickly.

I think we are burning more firewood this year than any other. Though the supply is limitless, some fall splitting will be in order.

Additional note: I think I just deleted yesterday. In the blog, that is. One slip of the finger and a whole day gone. That’s revisionist history if anything is.

No, apparently yesterday still exists. That bodes well for the future.

Laid Back Sunday Morning

Steady rain from the pre-dawn hours; continuing, with few pauses, all day. North wind bringing in a noisy surf, sometimes indistinguishable from or intermingling with, the drumming on the roof. No thunder so Pax okay.

That being the case...coffee, newspapers, an omelet, a little music, some sewing, a dog walk, and of course, a fire in the stove. Embers all day in fact rebuffing the north wind.

During an afternoon hiatus we were able to finish painting the ceiling. 

Pax and I encountered no one on our walks, but we did enjoy being part of the tranquility and naturalness of the dripping forest.

Thought About Work...

...then thought better of it.  After all, it's the long weekend.

Sue met with her sewing expert friend in Gore Bay while I met with environmental pal, Therese. Apart from that,  we stopped in at the Burt Farm, took Pax for a walk along the east side of Mudge bay, and drove up to the west arm overlook where we ran into Al Carruthers, who got there on his quad. (He beat us home, btw, by taking the eroded, rock-strewn vertical track locally known as Woods' Hill.)

Bright and breezy, though cool and still moderately afflicted by blackflies.

Too Cold to Paint...

...at least in the morning. Temp in the 30s with a strong north wind. But flat calm and in the 50s by afternoon, so some painting did get done.

The big lake has been fluctuating substantially, so I can't determine the actual level. This evening, in the calm, it is quite high. I was hoping the rain and cold and wind would knock down the black flies, but their numbers, while not high, remain at annoyance level.

This is a Canadian long weekend, so the place is populating up a bit. Just hoping the Tetrazzinis aren't planning on fireworks.