San Salvatore - Monday, September 28, 2020

 Seasons in the country are measured by planting time and harvesting times. The corn is starting to be harvested and so are the sugar beets. I think the soy beans must be pretty soon. This recent harvest of sugar beets was in a field near my home. Clicking on photos will enlarge them.

Seasons are also measured, by me at least, by what plants go into the ground, which ones can be transplanted and when, and which ones are starting to flower. The Colchicums have started and will stretch out for several weeks now. Their leaves often start to grow in late fall, stay green all winter and then really grow in the spring. By mid-June the leaves are starting to die back. While they are green they build up energy which is stored in their fat bulbs all summer. They estivate, summer hibernation. Then in early fall the flowers start to appear Amaryllis-like sans leaves. 

This white variety above is one of the earliest to flower and produces many small flowers from each single bulb. The bulbs of all varieties are very close to the soil surface often protruding just a bit. 

This very showy double pink one starts to flower a week or so after the white one starts. All the varieties spread easily; this one however, is the slowest to spread.

This pink variety below multiplies quickly and becomes a carpet of pink in places. It's growing in really hard packed poor soil and does just fine. I have a lot of clayey soil which makes gardening problematic.

This large champagne-flute shaped Colchicum below has to be a favorite. It produces several flowers over a long flowering period and multiples freely. It also does very well in my hard, dry, clay soil. I do periodically have to divide them and even slightly re-bury a few that have pushed up above the ground however.

 

The hummingbirds have been coming through in large flocks bickering over the feeders. Now there are only a few very rare stragglers. The advantage? They have the feeders to themselves. I wonder if these are lately fledged babies from this summer. I keep the feeders filled up especially now. I had two frosts here last week already. Traveling this time of the year could be a problem for flower and nectar loving hummers. Cold can kill flowers reducing nectar supplies and, perhaps, even kill late arriving hummers too. The straggler spend a lot of time at the feeders filling up. They also tend to hang around a reliable source of food a while .

One of the problems with moving away from everything I was familiar with is the lack of easily accessible business and stores and health care providers. I miss that until I travel back south and experience the noise, smells, and congestion. I've only be "gone" a short time; things have changed a lot. I think that people who live there full time means the changes seem slow and gradual.

I also miss family. Recently though I ran into Daniel and Lorenzo. It was wonderful to see them and to re-connect. I hope one day they might be able to come and visit here. Lorenzo was very resourceful and offered me some positive help with a problem I had. I discovered that Daniel also has a place on Lake Huron but on the Canadian side. He said exactly what I have always wondered; who is on the other side of the lake (for him the US and for me Canada) looking out across the water. He sees sunsets, I see sunrises. I think he said that he travels across the Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron to get to his place. There are times recently that I wish I lived in Canada - know what I mean. I hope I can explore that option one day.

Trusses - Monday, 9/21/2020

 It seems like (and it actually was) a very long time to wait for the next stage of construction. The problem, I was told, is that because of the Corona virus, no construction happened for several months. Then when it did start, there was a backlog of construction, some unfinished projects and some new ones. There were also a lot of supply end construction businesses with loads of back orders and new orders waiting to be processed. And that took time. Those supply businesses are still behind. And because of the delays the costs have skyrocketed. Fortunately, even though my costs were surprisingly high, the orders had been placed and the prices were locked in. 

Regardless, the trusses came early this morning and the men showed up not much later. I'm hoping that progress will progress.

I "discovered" Brunnera on a garden walk about a year ago. The one I noticed was the "wild" green type and I loved it so I asked the nice lady if I could have a division. (See the first photo below.) Then I ordered several green plants and scattered them around the north forest with the Hosta, aka rabbit and deer lettuce. I also bought some variegated types. So far, fingers crossed, the deer/rabbits ignore them.

Jack in the pulpit fruit

Monarch on Buddleia

Colchicum

Colchicum

Trusses arrived, workers too. They're doing a lot of really professional looking work. Watching the progression is fascinating. Looking at Brian Howard's plans is one thing - very interesting. Seeing actually seeing how things fit together is another. Clicking on photos will enlarge them.

Flock of Flickers - Wednesday, September 16, 2020

 While I was talking with Matt today a large flock of Flickers came through on the way south. Flickers love ants and, well, ants are, for the most part, buried in the ground under snow in the winter so flickers migrate south unlike most woodpeckers who stay here and feed on insects in tree trunks. Clicking on photos below will enlarge them.

Sisters Totty and Pila

(Totty was giving me a raspberry so I took another photo)

Totty and Pila

Last year I bought several small white feeder goldfish. They all lived and grew. This spring they reproduced; an abundance of small goldfish ensued. I was beginning to be concerned about the coming winter. Were there too many fish to survive reduced oxygen levels under the ice, I wondered. Then along came for the first time here a solution, an unpleasant solution. Talk about great camouflage! Within the past week the numbers of goldfish are way down - I think. I won't be sure unless and until the fish start coming back up to the surface and feeding again. Now they're too terrified to come up for food. For now I may have stopped the predation by increasing the netting coverage.

Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)

Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)

Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)

Two signs of fall, flower-wise: the blooming of the species sunflowers and the beginning of the flowering of the various Colchicums.

Colchicums

Colchicums

Colchicums

Colchicums

Sunflowers Helianthus spp

Speaking of sunflowers - Sadly even here far from California, Oregon, Washington and several other states, the sun has been clouded over by the western forest fires. Thank you dear leader for withdrawing from the climate accords and refusing to admit or even mention climate change. Will we survive these crises, one wonders. Now we understand how what happened to the Germans, happened.

Monday, September 14, 2020

Pre-Sunrise this morning: -
No construction for almost three weeks. We are waiting on the roof trusses, due this week, and the windows, due on the 30th. Clicking on photos will enlarge them.

Yes the twin fawns are cute. However, there are no predators to keep the deer numbers in check, in balance with their environment, so they multiply exponentially. Last year the doe here had twins also, the year before she had triplets, twins before that also. Vehicle accidents kill many but there are still way too many. Thus the number of lyme diseases in humans increase; deer and small rodents are carriers of ticks and therefore the disease.

Even though I'm not overly fond of the hibiscus family, I somehow manage to always have some representatives in flower. The maroon leaved plant below I got at the Port Huron Farmers' Market last year.

This is a pure white flower, also hibiscus family, 

from a Rose of Sharon bush.

And my cream-white hollyhock, another hibiscus.

The central pillar of anthers/pistil are the hibiscus clue.

What I know for sure about the following photos is that they are sunflowers, perennial wild sunflowers (Helianthus spp). I had assumed, always risky, that they were Helianthis giganteus but then I noticed the petioles were long and the species description says they are virtually non-existent. Then I found Helianthus grosseserraratus which sounded better. Until I found that the two species often hybridize, as do many of the other sunflowers. That happens enough to produce a variety mentioned as Helianthis x luxurians. At which point I said to myself, I don't care. Really. I found it a few years ago near a farmer's field and it's no longer there. It's a sunflower with personality, often reaching more than ten feet high.

One of my favorite Hostas, a species I think, I found at the Port Austin Farmers' Market this past weekend. And finally one of the last dahlia flowers this year perhaps, frosts coming soon maybe.

I just noticed a garden bouquet of fall blooming clematis, a European variegated elderberry, and volunteer rudbeckia. (I wonder if the berries are edible or could be used for jellies like our American species.) 

Followed by concord grapes which can be used for juice and jellies, a platycodon - which was somehow missed by the deer, and a sedum, which also escaped the notice of deer and rabbits perhaps because it was so close to a rock.