Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
AUGUST 23, 2021 – I first cordoned off the crime scene. I accomplished this figuratively, visualizing a “NO GO” zone (except for myself) within a 20-foot radius of the base of the sign. Next, I examined the sign itself for clues. Except for the popped rivets and 90-degree bend in the stake, the sign itself …
AUGUST 22, 2021 – Yesterday I took a hike in the tree garden of Björnholm. It was my inspection since our recent three-week road trip to New England. The day was beautiful—warm, sunny, with a breeze off the lake and reaching into the woods With hand-clippers I tamed the more aggressive raspberry bushes that had …
AUGUST 15, 2021 – (Cont.) The surrounding beauty was created by millions of years of geologic forces and biological evolution. We spent much of the day hiking through this dynamic painting, absorbing at every step, the dramatic scenery. As nimble as she is intrepid, the harpist who wins wild applause when she tames the most …
AUGUST 14, 2021 – As a biting fly in the car kept me alert, we hurtled west on I80 across Pennsylvania and Ohio to Friday’s destination just beyond Toledo. The day had begun in Cragsmoor, NY, 90 minutes from Manhattan. Our proximity to Gotham reminded me of things that people back home in Minnesota have …
AUGUST 7, 2021 – For me and a family member of far greater stature than I, today starts yet another year around the sun. Yesterday, I closed out my 66th year with an excursion up the Connecticut shore from Old Saybrook to Watch Hill, RI, then back to our base in Chester. Highlights included a …
AUGUST 3, 2021 – Connecticut is a cornucopia of parks, nature preserves, bubbling brooks, secluded ponds, and old growth trees. It’s a nature-lover’s paradise. Yesterday, as our son Byron and his wife, Mylène headed out for work, I Googled, “How many state parks in Connecticut?” Answer: 139. I had to narrow it down to “State …
JULY 27, 2021 – Yesterday, I visited our good friends Jack and Linda in their Japanese garden—a national treasure. They themselves are a national treasure. (See 7/27/2019 post, “It is Zen.”) Two years later, the world has changed, but Jack and Linda’s Japanese garden still provides respite from that wild world. As we sat in …
JULY 25, 2021 – Yesterday I walked along a wide logging road on our back acreage and noticed how well the many red and white pine seedlings had done this year, despite the paucity of rain. Most of the three- and four-year old seedlings have doubled their height. Because of this growth, the pine are …
JULY 18, 2021 – Deer are a danger. They feast on gardens and new pine shoots, and they’re all too eager to ambush motorists traveling on country roads. Deer total cars, and we see plenty of deer totaled by cars when we drive to the Red Cabin in northwest Wisconsin. One-mile stretch of highway is …
JULY 16, 2021 – Grandpa had been a fisherman, as I knew from the rods and reels that hung on the back porch of the cabin. There was also the large fishing net that always got snagged on stuff in the green boat box down by the dock. Then there were his stories about canoe …
JULY 14, 2021 – I like to photograph nature. Or rather, I like to frame scenes and objects within nature’s infinite collection of light, lines, color, and compositions. I remember seeing my mother, a painter, often forming a frame in the air with her thumbs and index fingers to “capture” a potential painting. I find …
JULY 11, 2021 – One of the downsides of nature is that it can get under your skin. I experienced this recently when a thorn spiked my finger—through leather gloves—as I cleared wild raspberry bushes from pine seedlings in my “tree garden.” After an expletive the sharp pain subsided. Later, I made my way back …
JULY 2, 2021 – I love Mother Nature—her beautiful sights and sounds in infinite varieties. But to my affections she’s indifferent. Even when I shower her with praise and adoration, she rains on my parade or, alternatively, refuses to rain when my tree garden needs it most. It was in the tree garden yesterday where …
JUNE 20, 2021 – In WW II my father-in-law was stationed aboard the Moonlight Maid guarding the Aleutians. I know the name, because a large envelope bearing my father-in-law’s name was addressed “c/o” the ship. Inside the envelope were several sheets of “onion skin,” the first entitled, “CALL TO STATIONS.” It listed lifeboat assignments. “Robert …
JUNE 16, 2021 – Over the weekend I was visiting with my sister and brother-in-law while sitting in front of the family cabin. Our perch atop the pine-guarded bank that rises sharply from the north shore of the lake afforded a wide-angle view of the water, shimmering from sun and wind. Suddenly the wind changed …
JUNE 12, 2021 – Yesterday while sitting on our dock, my wife and I spotted an eagle catching a thermal. I kept my eye on the bird to see how high it would fly, how far it would glide, and ultimately . . . what it would eat for dinner. Eagles in our neck of …
JUNE 5, 2021 – Yesterday I planted more trees. Seven balsam to be exact. The entire operation was complicated. It started with the nursery that grows trees from seeds to seedlings. Move on to the media by wh ich the nursery markets its products and add the systems by which those products are processed, packaged, …
MAY 18, 2021 – Surrounded yesterday by Mother Nature, I found her more compelling subject than yet more consequences of Republicans drinking too much Kook Aid. An email at 10:06 a.m. told me my order of seedlings had been delivered. I’d been on a biz call while sitting inside the front of the Red Cabin …
MAY 7, 2021 – Before heading for the Red Cabin yesterday, I decided to give the yard a quick haircut. As I pushed the mower to the front, a lawn service guy hired by the next-door neighbors approached along the boundary. I greeted him, and he responded in kind. After a couple of rows of …
MAY 6, 2021 – I know most people are disgusted by ticks. I too wish ticks weren’t part of nature, though I know they’re part of the “grand tapestry” of life on earth. But . . . a little past midnight one night, a wood tick caused uncontrollable laughter. When our kids were very young, …
MAY 4, 2021 – Yesterday on my hike inside “Little Switzerland,” I cut a beeline off the bend of a border street, down a steep slope, and across the eighth tee. Recent rains had brought out “a bunch of ants”—my pre-ant education terminology—as revealed by multiple, unmistakable “ant foxholes” dotting the tee—as it were. As …
MAY 2, 2021 – Yesterday brought the annual spring plague of gnats at the Red Cabin—not tiny gnats but mosquito-pretenders, with long fuselages, and noisy propellers. In swarm formations, they sound like the entire Luftwaffe re-enacting the Battle for Britain. These ugly critters assemble in hovering clouds, first next to the bench swing where you’d …
APRIL 30, 2021 – Yesterday morning I hit the road for the Red Cabin. Beth arrives tomorrow, when local temps are forecast to hit 79F. I fled early to stake out planting areas for the several dozen, two- and three-year birch, balsam, and hemlock seedings I have on order—more trees to join the hundreds of …
APRIL 18, 2021 – Most “lake people” nowadays have a light-weight aluminum dock installed by easy-to-manage sections or by its own big wheels mounted under the front. In either case, most lacustrian dwellers hire out the task to a friendly, local service for a not-so-friendly fee. I don’t know of any research into the possible …
APRIL 17, 2021 – Yesterday, as my wife and I headed out of town for the Red Cabin, she read aloud from her newsfeed. This fueled an intense discussion about The Trial and The Latest Shooting. We speculated about reaction to next week’s verdict in The Trial. Will Minneapolis—the central part of which is already …