Harbor Beach

A little north of my home is Harbor Beach, a pretty city with a large man-made harbor. After some blood draws for testing today at the local hospital, I had breakfast at Al's Restaurant and I wandered down to the beach.

There's a very long "T-shaped" dock, with several benches for sitting, stretching out into the harbor. Clicking on photos will enlarge them.

Looking west towards the beach and the city.

Side view of the long dock.

Looking north.

Looking south.

East end of the dock.

Canadian and American Flags at the dock entrance.

 

The air has been super saturated with moisture for the longest time creating some beautiful sunsets and some very foggy days.

 

 

Before I moved here I took very small divisions of a few of my plants from the garden in Royal Oak. I transplanted them into the north woods which I fenced so I could let the dogs run. I thought the combination of the dogs and the fence might work to keep out the deer and so far it's working great. It's only the beginning of the second summer here but some of the Hosta are really enjoying life in the wild.

 

I am not going to remove all the native plants from the woods; instead I will try to keep the larger native plants under a little control in order to make the garden look somewhat natural. My rule in R.O. was: - if the plants cannot survive the dogs running through them, then they don't belong in the garden. Tough plants will make it. Worked back there and I'm sure it will work here as well. However, my dogs are medium sized Icelandic Sheepdogs which are between 16" and 18" tall and weight between 25# and 35# and don't do much harm. Perhaps larger dogs like Labs might be more destructive.

Along the margins of the wild north gardens are the branches and trunks of dead trees and shrubs I removed in order to open things up to the sun, wind, and rain. That north forest was virtually impenetrable before I move here. Machetes would not have been able to work there because it was so overgrown. I never burn vegetation and branches I remove; instead I cut things up and let nature recycle the nutrients in them for future plants and animals to use.

Clearing things out I found old tires, cooking pots, lanterns, fishing plugs, dozens of old glass bottles, some intact, a few broken. I tossed the broken ones in the garbage and cleaned out the intact ones and put them on shelves in the pole barn. I wonder if glass bottles are eventually going to be 'rare' antiques, things from the past. If so, what I found might one day, perhaps decades from now, be worth something.

 I read somewhere that the Pacific Ocean is littered with hundreds of thousands of tons of plastic. How incredibly sad for marine life and what a statement about the possible future. Are there just simply too many of us?

 

The daisies (above) are 'wild' and work perfectly in my opinion. Scattered in amongst the domesticated plants are some jewel weeds (below); hummingbirds and butterflies love their orange flowers which appear later in the summer.

 

 

The dogs never tire of watching and wondering what I'm doing. Very puzzling behavior, dad!!

 

Kata and Kria - best buds

Kria, Korpur, Kata, Totty, Bear, Pila

 

I just read an interesting article on the internet on why some people don't like black dogs. Honestly, Korpur is one of my best dogs ever; he has a wonderful temperament. I wish I could clone him.

Dileuvian?

Is there such a word?

While we exist between the extremes of Texas, too much rain, and California, too little rain, we have had a lot so far this year which means I have only watered once. That's the good news.

Along the edge of a field of soybeans, I've been watching with interest a line of what I had thought was a red flowered grass. It's not. A grass. But rather a common garden 'weed' which I have removed from gardens I've had in every place I've ever lived. It just goes to show you that sometimes those 'weeds' are beautiful as long as they are in the right place.

The contrast between the red flowers along the far edge of the field and the blue-gray grass flowers in the foreground of the first photo below is interesting, isn't it? Clicking will enlarge photos.

I got out of the car, waded (almost literally) through the wet grass to get the above shots. I'm only guessing but I suspect it may be some kind of Persicaria.

Back on the road again, I soon saw Dame's Rocket, another old fashioned garden plant with a delicious almost lilac-like smell, growing along the road. I dug one plant to join another plant I had dug earlier from another spot closer to Harbor Beach. I've had Dame's Rocket in the garden of my Royal Oak home for many years. If they live, and they should, it will be nice to have these beauties back again. Pretty lilac-purple flowers, they smell nice, they self seed, and they are at least biennial if not perennial. I'll add some photos of Dame's Rocket later.


On the way back from breakfast and the grocery store, I saw this field of Lupines. This spring I planted some purchased seeds of the 'wild' native prairie species in my wildflower field and I'm hoping that some will make it. While most of the Lupines in this field are similar in color, there are a few white, reddish, and even some more intense blues or purples.

I suspect that originally the person who planted the seeds planned on either harvesting the seeds or the plants for selling but abandoned the idea. Regardless, there are more flowers this year than last year.

Royal Oak Farmers' Market and Fritatta

When the day is completely overcast, just before the sun should rise, we often see light on the horizon shining 'under' the clouds. Like this: -

"My" Mondrian in shades of gray. Classy, eh!

I wanted one last time to visit Fritatta where I've spent many happy hours. I knew that moving away from Clawson would be hard; there's no place in Detroit and definitely no place in the Thumb like it. Clicking on photos enlarges them.

 

After a great cup of coffee and a salmon frittata I went to the old Royal Oak Farmers' Market. As a kid I used to stop there on the way to and from school for apples, pears, grapes, cider, etc. It's wonderful to see it still going. Across the street was the old Martin bus station which we also used to walk though - when no one was looking; for some years now it has been a great fish market - Superior.

Gardening

I've fallen in love with Melanie's Garden and Oregon. Check it out: - @gardenflute   (You can copy and paste this into your browser.)
Melanie, David and Bastian are the new guardians of Tully, from Totty and Calvin's February litter. Clicking on photos enlarges them.

I'm envious of Melanie's garden and the weather in Oregon. Here in Michigan we are still recovering from a rough winter; the garden is just gearing up now.

I went out for breakfast yesterday; as I began driving down my 'driveway', a doe ran in front of my car. I was going very slow so there was no danger of a collision. Following her was a fawn. I stopped. The doe finished crossing the road to my left but the fawn dropped like a rock into the foliage on my right next to the road.

Bambi?

Immediately after I turned around after taking only this one quick photo, the fawn scampered off into the brush from where it came. I'm sure mom and fawn were reunited later.

Kermit

Kermie's grown a lot. It's hard to believe he was only a tadpole last summer (hehehehe).

Lizzie just got back from a vacation - her first I believe. Her sableing is on a par with sister Tully. (Check out more recent photos of Tully on Melanie's "blog".)

Lizzie

Lizzie, Dad-Dr. Robert, Mule! (Francis?)

Lizzie

Alan Turing - Hero

I watched The Imitation Game tonight. At the end the credits said that Alan Turing committed suicide on June 7, 1954. I realized that today is June 7! I'll drink to him and for him before I go to bed.

 

 

This and That

This is Grimur a gorgeous and very interesting Icelandic Sheepdog male who is now nine weeks old and the last of his litter to be available. I wish!! Clicking on photos enlarges them.

Grimur

 

Grimur

 

Grimur

Here's Sandi's email address. sandidunn@mac.com

Looking west out my kitchen window at my 'backyard' I realized that I have within a few feet of my window a pair of robins with a nest and nests for a pair of vireos, a pair of house wrens, a pair of tree swallows, and a nest for a pair of bluebirds. I also have several nests in my front yard as well.

Tree Swallow

 

 

Some of my dogs soaking up sun in the front yard. Life is good!

Bear likes photos taken showing his right side!

Here are two of the latest photos of Calvin and Totty's recent litter of pups.

Kippa

Tully

 

Tully is showing early signs of what I call sable - darker hairs covers the predominant coat color like a shawl or mantle. Compare her to Calvin (Kross Gola Kelinn), her dad, below.

 

Photos of Kelinn by Kristine Hynes

Notice the sableing. One word: Gorgeous!

 

Tully's dad has long fur; Tully will have shorter fur. The slightly larger male Icelandics are sometimes described as "wolf-like" in appearance while the normally smaller females are often called "fox-like".

 

Tully has a shorter coat like her mom Totty below.

Birds and Barns

There were hordes of small flying insects over the bluff last weekend; feeding on them were swarms of swallows. The birds were moving too fast to single any one bird out of the swarm. I just pointed and clicked to get the following shots. I don't have a telephoto lens. Duh.

 

At first I thought they were all tree swallows, probably because I have two nesting boxes with families in them and have been watching their antics for several weeks now. In the first photo below you can see the tail of a tree swallow - straight across; in the second photo you can see the forked tail of a barn swallow. Their chests are colored while the chests of tree swallows are white. Clicking on photos enlarges them.

 

I've talked about the native viburnum bushes in my north forest which flower about this time of the year and produce red berries that show up in the autumn, persist through the winter untouched, and finally are eaten by migrating birds in the late spring. I'm guessing they need to age before they are palatable; probably the aging improves the flavor or reduces the toxins. There are several cedar waxwings in the center of the photo below; they are among the very few birds I've seen eating viburnum berries.

Yesterday evening I went to The Barn Theater in Port Sanilac (http://www.barntheatre.net/ ) to watch the Woody Allen play "Don't Drink the Water". The semi-converted barn cum theater is set in a lovely historical 'village', a peaceful and beautiful venue. The audience was virtually all geezers like me and we all had a good time.

 

 

Upcoming presentations include: "Wait Until Dark", "I Hate Hamlet", "Night of the Living Dead",  "Having a Wonderful Time, Wish You Were Her" (no typo), "James and the Giant Peach" - for the kids, "Outgoing Tide", "Musical Comedy Murders of 1940", and the Black River Bluegrass Boys - the Black River is nearby. A very ambitious schedule, don't you think? I plan on seeing most of the productions; the prices are reasonable. Of course I was out past my bedtime and the dogs missed me, at least I would really like to think they did........

Always beautiful and changing sunrises, eh? The wild daisies in the foreground are just beginning to flower.