Monday, June 30, 2008
R & R weekend
It's been a week+ since I came back from Sidetrack, but I have excuses...
I was teaching all last week. (That's the main one.)
I headed up to Little Blake on Friday afternoon. I'd spent most of a fortnight getting my act together for the class, and I needed to get my nose away from the computer monitor.
When I looked at the meager photo output of the weekend, I realized that I spent a lot of time reading and meditating on the lakescape, and a fair amount of time cleaning. (Why does an uninhabited place need so much dusting, vacuuming, and washing? And why doesn't anyone do windows?)
Nan noticed a puzzle piece fall out of G'pa W's stuffed chair when we hauled it home last fall for repairs. She'd even seen it a couple times in the van. When I showed her the photo of the missing piece from the GTNP puzzle, she was sure that she had the missing piece floating around in the van somewhere. She captured it and I took it to Sidetrack to be reunited with the puzzle.
Well, maybe not. I changed the label on the envelope to read, "Missing puzzle" and left it with the other puzzles in the lake room.
Since we haven't decided exactly how to repair the heirloom chair ($800 for a total renovation seems a bit much), I spent an eighth of that on a new chair from Ikea.
There were a couple points at which I wished I'd had an extra hand, but assembly was as easy as advertised. And the chair is nearly as comfortable as grandpa's. I spent a lot of time in the chair reading over the weekend.
A couple of the flowers I transplanted from the woods to the retaining wall garden were blooming. They are wild geraniums or Geranium maculatum L.
also called Crane's-bill or spotted geranium.
The lupine that flared last October and then disappeared has left several descendants behind. One's even growing in the pea gravel of the patio.
[Here's why: "When the seeds are mature, and the casings have completely dried out, they snap open with a forceful spiral twist which sends the seeds flying some distance from the parent plant so they might find their own place in the sun."]
The replacements I planted in May are struggling to get big enough to survive the winter. I may go looking for some giant lupines to attract more humming birds.
The salvia are getting to the blooming stage and they are attracting the hummers. The hummers were about the only wildlife I saw that weekend. Hmmm... where are the eagles?
Bring on the noisy Fourth of July!
I was teaching all last week. (That's the main one.)
I headed up to Little Blake on Friday afternoon. I'd spent most of a fortnight getting my act together for the class, and I needed to get my nose away from the computer monitor.
When I looked at the meager photo output of the weekend, I realized that I spent a lot of time reading and meditating on the lakescape, and a fair amount of time cleaning. (Why does an uninhabited place need so much dusting, vacuuming, and washing? And why doesn't anyone do windows?)
Nan noticed a puzzle piece fall out of G'pa W's stuffed chair when we hauled it home last fall for repairs. She'd even seen it a couple times in the van. When I showed her the photo of the missing piece from the GTNP puzzle, she was sure that she had the missing piece floating around in the van somewhere. She captured it and I took it to Sidetrack to be reunited with the puzzle.
Well, maybe not. I changed the label on the envelope to read, "Missing puzzle" and left it with the other puzzles in the lake room.
Since we haven't decided exactly how to repair the heirloom chair ($800 for a total renovation seems a bit much), I spent an eighth of that on a new chair from Ikea.
There were a couple points at which I wished I'd had an extra hand, but assembly was as easy as advertised. And the chair is nearly as comfortable as grandpa's. I spent a lot of time in the chair reading over the weekend.
A couple of the flowers I transplanted from the woods to the retaining wall garden were blooming. They are wild geraniums or Geranium maculatum L.
also called Crane's-bill or spotted geranium.
The lupine that flared last October and then disappeared has left several descendants behind. One's even growing in the pea gravel of the patio.
[Here's why: "When the seeds are mature, and the casings have completely dried out, they snap open with a forceful spiral twist which sends the seeds flying some distance from the parent plant so they might find their own place in the sun."]
The replacements I planted in May are struggling to get big enough to survive the winter. I may go looking for some giant lupines to attract more humming birds.
The salvia are getting to the blooming stage and they are attracting the hummers. The hummers were about the only wildlife I saw that weekend. Hmmm... where are the eagles?
Bring on the noisy Fourth of July!
Labels: June2008
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Watery weekend
After the tears of laughter at Friday night's performance of Spamalot, the four days at Sidetrack were wonderful and watery.
N learned some basic plumbing because the the 20-year-old device (the toilet fill valve) in the toilet tank got clogged up or just wore out. The guy at the Amery hardware store was a great help and recommended the cheap alternative. Once installed, western civilization was saved from decay. Thankfully, there are those around who have more patience and willingness to read instructions than I do.
I got the canoe out and surveyed the lake a couple times. All's well. The water level is a little higher than it was last week, but not back to normal yet.
A big fish washed up in front of Skip's place. It still had a lure in its mouth. Breaking the fishing line was not a path to freedom for this muskie.
At dusk on June 1, I managed to re-set the marker showing where the shadow of the cabin falls on the retaining wall. It's a good 5 feet from the marker for May 1. (And the marker for January 1 is across the courtyard beyond the fire cage in the photo below.)
I did discover that a jack-in-the-pulpit had gotten itself transplanted into the terrace garden with some of the wild geraniums. (I've got to check to find out if that's the proper name for that plant.) It was so small, I didn't see it until Sunday when I was doing a little weeding.
Tuesday dawned cold and cloudy.
And by noon we'd cleaned up, packed up, and driven off. But what a great time we had doing some work (some over lunch at Cafe Wren), reading some books, and lots away from home rest.
Later...
N learned some basic plumbing because the the 20-year-old device (the toilet fill valve) in the toilet tank got clogged up or just wore out. The guy at the Amery hardware store was a great help and recommended the cheap alternative. Once installed, western civilization was saved from decay. Thankfully, there are those around who have more patience and willingness to read instructions than I do.
I got the canoe out and surveyed the lake a couple times. All's well. The water level is a little higher than it was last week, but not back to normal yet.
A big fish washed up in front of Skip's place. It still had a lure in its mouth. Breaking the fishing line was not a path to freedom for this muskie.
At dusk on June 1, I managed to re-set the marker showing where the shadow of the cabin falls on the retaining wall. It's a good 5 feet from the marker for May 1. (And the marker for January 1 is across the courtyard beyond the fire cage in the photo below.)
I did discover that a jack-in-the-pulpit had gotten itself transplanted into the terrace garden with some of the wild geraniums. (I've got to check to find out if that's the proper name for that plant.) It was so small, I didn't see it until Sunday when I was doing a little weeding.
Tuesday dawned cold and cloudy.
And by noon we'd cleaned up, packed up, and driven off. But what a great time we had doing some work (some over lunch at Cafe Wren), reading some books, and lots away from home rest.
Later...
Monday, June 02, 2008
Cafe Wren, Luck, Wisconsin
Cafe Wren is a delightful little place. Check out the web site.
We had great sandwiches and great wifi.
More later.
We had great sandwiches and great wifi.
More later.
