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
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Nice looking room you have there. We were up on Friday for the day, going back on Thursday afternoon for the long weekend and into the latter part of the next week.
From our vantage point, someone on the north side of Little Blake always puts on a huge fireworks show. They did a couple shell preview last weekend. We've been saying for years "the party's over on Little Blake".
Regarding the eagles, on Friday afternoon there were no less that 8 eagles flying and hovering over something on the east side of our lake. I've never seen so many eagles in one place in the summer.
Our breeding pair of loons is still around. Makes for a nice sound in the evenings. Maybe we'll try to drop by and say hello the weekend of the 4th if you're up there.
From our vantage point, someone on the north side of Little Blake always puts on a huge fireworks show. They did a couple shell preview last weekend. We've been saying for years "the party's over on Little Blake".
Regarding the eagles, on Friday afternoon there were no less that 8 eagles flying and hovering over something on the east side of our lake. I've never seen so many eagles in one place in the summer.
Our breeding pair of loons is still around. Makes for a nice sound in the evenings. Maybe we'll try to drop by and say hello the weekend of the 4th if you're up there.
Well, it's good to know that the eagles, the old scavengers, were nearby with some good carrion.
Some of us will be at Sidetrack this weekend. We just can't make detailed plans since people are coming from Chicago and there are too many variables.
Stop by if you're in the neighborhood.
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Some of us will be at Sidetrack this weekend. We just can't make detailed plans since people are coming from Chicago and there are too many variables.
Stop by if you're in the neighborhood.
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