Pickled Beets…

…First step—plant seeds.

After some serious weeding.

Hoping for a shower to set the seeds (and the grass seed along the driveway) but got instead what could be described as either a gully-washer or a duck-drownder.

Over Groan
Impossible, for sure—and yet,
How overgrown a yard can get,
When left a month in warm and wet.

Road Day

Back In Wisconsin, a bit weary, but with two drivers (which permits naps and reading), not impossible in one swell foop. Interesting to be back in the land of abundant clouds and rain. Exuberant growth.

Sweetgrass—time to harvest?

Redbud,, still going strong.

Care for a flower in your soup?

Wildly enthusiastic witchhazel. No need for a witch hunt here.

And, beautiful big blue.

All Three Sails Bent On…

…Heliotrope—the cleaned and refurbished main, mizzen, and genoa. (Some heavy lifting getting them on deck, up the masts, flaked, and covered.). The boat is now all dolled up and ready for a wet bottom.

Also went to the dump.

Pollen now pigmenting the bay.

In other news, the Squarespace app has been repaired.

Lilac Time

Lilacs have been in bloom for about a week, and as the climate suits them, they stay in bloom a long time. Lilacs and Manitoulin are a match made in nature.

Manitoulin lunch—spicy local sausage, pickled egg, cheese, and Clamato juice

Very chilly north wind this morning, but full sun all day warmed things up, and wind switched west. Black and white warblers have joined the black-throated greens, and our resident winter wren is back and in full voice. Saw a monarch butterfly on the Lane, but don’t know how to explain its presence.

While the pulling boat got a coat of varnish on its brightwork, quite a lot of trimming and mowing got done.

Windrider

Windrider re-rigged and re-floated.

Mast raised, rigging run, motor started—all without incident or assistance, or squabbles, just by moving slowly and methodically.
Later, after lunch and naps, an odd little squall/thunderstorm came at us from the north and seemed to build right over us, providing moderate rain from 3:30 to 5:00. Rain appreciated by all us living things.

In other news—still doing this blog through Chrome on the laptop, not as usual through the Squarespace app on iPhone. But, apparently and unusually, Squarespace seems to be listening to me during this software glitch interlude: “We’re currently investigating an issue with image upload on blog posts - thanks for reporting this to us. Our Engineering teams are prioritizing a fix for this as we speak.”
 

Water Levels

Lake Michigan and Lake Huron (which includes Georgian Bay) are one body of water, connected at the Straights of Mackinac. Total surface area about 46,000 square miles. The odd thing is, the level of this huge body of water can fluctuate as if it was a puddle. Between 2013 and 2021 the surface level changed by seven feet. That’s a lot of water.

Above, a photo taken when we first arrived this year. When we departed here last fall the rocks were not visible. Now that they are, I’m using them as my water level gauge. As of today, they are still visible, although historically the level of the lakes rises all spring and early summer.

While we’ve had very little precip on Manitoulin, weather apps and radar apps keep showing bands of storms coming across Wisconsin, Lake Michigan, and the state of Michigan. Which makes me hopeful the the rocks out front will not be visible when August comes around.

BTW: yesterday’s photo was of the rosette of a giant mullein, a non-native biennial that very successfully occupies disturbed landscape. Each plant can produce 250,000 tiny seeds that can persist in the ground for 100 years. First year the rosette, second year the seed stalk which can reach 7 feet in height. Some folks plant them as ornamentals, but the common species is considered invasive. It’s okay to pull them out.

Still Having Problems With Squaresapce

The web hosting business Squarespace is good in some ways, and mostly I like having the app on my phone, but occasionally Squarespace updates things without testing them with real users. Now appears to be the third or fourth time I’ve had to troubleshoot their mess-ups. In every case they first accuse me of stupidity before actually fixing the bug. So this could take a while.

Meanwhile I’m using Chrome on my laptop to post blogs, which is not so convenient.

Here’s a photo I was able to upload using the laptop. Lots of iterations of the plant in the photo are around now, especially along the waterfront.
Any guesses? ID tomorrow.

Way Too Easy

New main halyard on Heliotrope in just a few minutes without complications or multiple trips up and down the ladder or to the hardware store.

Mimi’s stitches connecting old halyard to new held admirably over the masthead scheave, and the line ordered last November proved to be just the right length.

Along with that, a new capacitor was installed in the electric log splitter, and the darn thing worked. The replacement was ordered last November in vague hope it was the right one. The rewiring was also an educated guess. But, by golly, splitting can recommence.

We think we found last night’s fallen tree, about where expected, far side of the Lane across from the new neighbor’s driveway.

Best Marine Toilet…

…in Canada. Sturdy installation, lever action, new hoses.

All it took was a little planning, the right tools, a cooler temperature, and the right attitude.

Very warm, but with a mighty wind.

Just heard a big tree come crashing down. Up towards the road and the north. No sign of it now, but tomorrow we explore.

Summery

No rain here, not even clouds. Where go I, the clouds do part. Dark clouds on the way to Gore Bay, but when we got to the boat the clouds dissipated and the sun beat down.

Epic fail on connecting new hoses to the new toilet—small space, wrong tools, and too hot. Confident of success tomorrow, if cloudy, but hopeful Norm and Mark will beat me to it.

More Boat Work

The old girl is quite demanding this year, but will be in fine fettle when we’ve finished, all shipshape and Bristol fashion.

Black flies are gone, pushed out by mosquitoes, who arrived in force.

The screened porch is a marvelous haven.

Prominent birds: black throated green warbler, oven bird, great crested flycatcher, jay, raven, flicker, crow, herring gull, loon.

Foggy Morn…

…followed by a sunny and warm day—the first day of the Long Weekend. Overnight, from zero to all out…coffee shop open, candy shop open, fishing expo at the park center, crowds at the falls.

Just bird song, rustling leaves, and lapping ripples here on Serendipity. But Mark and family came by to finish up Pine Box work and have lunch. Mimi played many rounds of Uno.