Three Women

I found Three Women by Lisa Taddeo to be tasteless and a little boring. This book gives the true stories of three women's sex lives. Ten years of research went into telling the story of Lina, Sloane, and Maggie. Lina is in a dull marriage. She has tried counseling. She has tried talking to her doctor. She begs her husband to be romantic but he just won't. She gets divorced and has an affair with an old boyfriend. Sloane is happily married and they own a successful restaurant together. Sloane and her husband enjoy having sexual relations with various third parties. She feels guilty about this. Finally there is Maggie, the saddest story of all. Maggie was 17 and a junior at a high school in Fargo, North Dakota when she was groomed for sex by her 36 year old male English teacher. He also coached her debate team. He seduces her. They spend hours on the phone together. She comes to his house when his wife is away and his two young boys are asleep. He toys with her emotions. They have inappropriate encounters in his office during the school day. When his wife finds his phone and sees her text message, he calls off the relationship. Maggie is devastated. She has panic attacks and anxiety. She goes to college but can't handle it because of her mental health so she drops out. She turns to drugs and alcohol and psychotherapy for relief. She takes four kinds of mood stabilizers. Three years after their relationship is over he is voted teacher of the year. She decides to finally report to the police. An investigation ensues. At the trial she tells the truth. For emotional support she brings the scapula of her recently deceased father for emotional support. In response he carries a rosary. He lies on the stand. His wife lies for him. The other teachers lie for him. Even some of Maggie's friends lie for him. Few people believe Maggie and he is acquitted. These three sad stories about three white women make up the entire book. I wish I hadn't wasted my time finishing it.

Wild Flower Hike

Today I went on a wild flower hike at Boulder Lake Environmental Learning Center which is the same place I went snow shoeing last winter. My drive was 35 minutes. Our leader was a master naturalist and he is into orchids. He said orchids call to him. He found this very rare coral root orchid right next to the learning center parking lot. This orchid (see the little red sticks?) do not photosynthesize at all. They get all their energy from the fungus that grows on it's roots. This orchid lives below ground for years and years. When the orchid feels it has enough energy, it will come up to flower. So it lives underground from 4 to 8 years and then sprouts to flower and form seed pods. I never heard of this before. The fungus doesn't benefit at all from this arrangement. I thought all plants photosynthesized. I don't understand how this fits into the plant kingdom although I can't place it in any other kingdom either. A bald eagle flew right over our heads while we were here and a pair of Eastern Kingbirds were fighting.

This is sarsaparilla. The white blossoms look like a round firework display and the leaves above are bronzed.

I can't remember what this purple flower was but we saw a yellow warbler, a chestnut sided warbler, a veery, and a blackburnian warbler. I looked out in the pond and saw something swimming. Another lady spotted it in her binoculars. Two otters swam by and frolicked on the shore.

We are still walking down the gravel road away from the center toward the road. This is a columbine, one of the few spring flowers that are red.

We left the road and are hiking on a poorly maintained show shoe path. The walking is difficult. This is a nodding trillium. There is a blue jay that keeps yelling at us for some reason.

I thought he said this was a nodding lady slipper but I must have got that wrong. Maybe it's a pink lady slipper that hasn't turned pink yet.

This is bellwort. We also saw lots of flowers on blueberry bushes, service berries which are the same as June berries, strawberries and chokecherries.

Here is what I came to see! Isn't she lovely? This is a pink lady slipper. We were told to wear boots that could get wet. Most people had wellies on. I wore my waterproof hiking boots because they are more comfortable. While I was taking this photo water rose up and got into the shoe lace holes on my left shoe leaving me with a wet sock. I also picked up 9 wood ticks. But it was worth it because this is one beautiful orchid. With my binoculars I could see dozens of these pink blooms in the distance.

These are carnivorous pitcher plants with flower buds swelling. These will bloom later in the summer. We saw maiden hair fern, reticulated fern and interrupted fern. And we saw Labrador tea plants. I drank Labrador tea once. It wasn't very tasty.

Our walk was supposed to be 90 minutes but we were out there over 100 minutes. On my way back to my car I stopped to take a picture of these painted turtles.

After our hike I drove to the public access to eat my lunch. I can see why they called it Boulder Lake. Actually it is a reservoir. The water level is very low. The learning center has 1800 acres. The property is owned jointly by Minnesota Power, the University of Minnesota at Duluth, and the Department of Natural Resources. Some private lots are sprinkled in here and there. I watched people fishing and they were pulling in some big northern pike and walleye. Boats were coming in and out. This place is so beautiful I ended up hiking around and looking at stuff until 5:30. The plant of the day is the pink lady slipper, the animal of the day was the otter, the butterfly of the day was my first yellow swallowtail butterfly of this year, the bird of the day was that eagle that flew so close to us, the reptile of the day was a leopard frog that I almost stepped on, and the fish of the day was a northern pike that I saw a young guy catch and he let his friend's two elementary school aged children net and hold and release.

 

Lupine

 

Things are blooming in Duluth. I figured out this shrub in my front yard with the yellow blossoms is Siberian peashrub which is considered to be a noxious, invasive weed. I just moved out of a house where the front yard was lined with Amur maple which is another noxious week and now I find I have the same problem here. The difference I am not the landowner. These shrubs are all over in Duluth. There are four houses with this shrub lining the sidewalk on my block. The gray house in the background is my neighbor's. Their house used to be a local grocery/candy store. They don't have any noxious weeds. These nice neighbors landscape with local plants only. 

Lupine are starting to open. I went on a six mile walk today. On my way there I didn't see any lupine. On my way back I see them in four places. How did I miss them?

This is my view from Skyline Parkway. The lupine are visible in the center of the photo. In the background is Lake Superior. Not visible in the distance are sailboats and yachts. Today would be a great day to go sailing on Lake Superior.

Other things in bloom are lilacs. Duluth has a lot of lilacs. Some people say Duluth has the longest flowering lilacs of any other city. Also in bloom are lily of the valley. I picked one and held to my nose as I walked. I love the smell of lily of the valley. Crabapples are still in bloom plus apple trees and plum trees. The air in the city smells great! Tomorrow I am going on a wild flower walk at the Boulder Lake Environmental Learning Center. I am crossing my fingers we find Lady Slippers blooming.

Funny, You Don't Look Autistic

 Michael McCreavy was so entertaining in his book, Funny, You Don't Look Autistic: A Comedienne's Guide To Life On The Spectrum, that I could not put it down. I read the whole book in one day. Michael talks about his life growing up in Ontario with a neurotypical older brother and a younger brother who is also on the spectrum. He had loving parents who accepted their three sons and helped guide them through their lives and encouraged their passions. He wrote about how he dealt with bullies at school. He said taking improv classes did more to improve his social skills than any of the social skills classes he took in school. Although I think he is too young (22) to write an autobiography, he did a great job of it.

North East Wind

The wind blew from the northeast today pushing the surface of Lake Superior into Duluth and causing some wonderful (or should I say winderful) waves that I couldn't help stopping to admire their power.

When a wave came in just right water would pop 20 feet into the air along this corrugated iron sea wall and spray me in the face. A rainbow would briefly appear on the way down.

 a

Watching waves roll in is captivating for me.

 

Laughing Boy

 I read another Pulitzer Prize winning novel. Laughing Boy by Oliver La Farge won the prize in 1930. This story is about the Navajo nation in 1914. Laughing Boy is a young man who has been accepted in his tribe as a man. He has talents in horse racing and making jewelry with silver and turquoise. He is at a communal dance when he meets Slender Girl. They fall in love. They go to Slender Girl's house which is near a town and are married. Slender Girl works for a preacher in the town while Laughing Boys tends his horses and makes jewelry. He builds her a loom and she begins to weave blankets. She struggles with her weaving at first but with his help her work on the loom improves. Slender Girl has issues because she was taken from her family at a young age and sent to a Christian boarding school. She was forced to give up the native ways. In a series of bad luck events she knew she had to return to the native ways and Laughing Boy helps her do that. Laughing Boy is a philosophical man. I enjoyed reading about this young loving couple and the joys and sorrows of their relationship.  

The Answer Is

 Alex Trebec was  never going to write a book about himself. But after the outpouring of good will after he announced he had Stage IV pancreatic cancer, he changed his mind and wrote The Answer Is . . . Reflections on My Life. He does tell his whole story from  his childhood in a mining town in Ontario where his father worked at a hotel kitchen. He talked about getting into trouble in school. He joined the Canadian military but refused to get a hair cut so he was in the military for only two days. He talked about college and working as a radio announcer. He talked about his mother and his sister and his father. He talked about his good fortune in the game show business and eventually emigrating to California where he met his two wives and eventually had two kids of his own. Although he doesn't smoke or drink very much, he found that his chasteness was off putting so he took up swearing to balance things out. He sounds like a very nice, humble man. He loves to travel and when he does he thinks up new clues for the show. He even writes about some of the contestants on the show. I enjoyed reading his story.

A Visit From The Good Squad

 I didn't know A Visit From The Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for fiction before I read it. Frankly that surprised me. I thought it was a good book but not that good. What do I know? This book had a ton of characters. In thirteen chapters, some of those characters came back and others didn't. One chapter was done entirely in power point and was done from the perspective of Allison, the daughter of Sasha and Drew and brother to Linc. Linc has Autism and they all live in a house out on the edge of a desert. Allison lays out in slide format the differences between her Mom and her Dad. One slide lays out what her parents are most likely to say if she does something. Another slide lays out the details of Linc's obsession with pauses in rock songs. This is a really odd yet revealing way to get to know a family. Benny Salazar is one of the main characters in the story. He is a music producer. Many of the characters are either in the rock and roll industry or the advertising industry. Some stories take place in San Francisco, New York, Arizona, Italy or Kenya. This book is all over the place. The timing of the stories is from the 1970's to the near future. Most of the characters do some extremely wild things in their youth but grow up, settle down, and are more mainstream. Although I can't decide if it is a collection of short stories or a novel, I did enjoy reading it.

Traveling Wood Tick

Tuesdays are my day to monitor my streams. Today is 40 degrees warmer than yesterday so I decided to take a long walk. Here is a view of the Us Kab Wan Ka river upstream of where I monitor. The water is coming towards me from the top of the picture and moving to my right. As I walked along the gravel road (free of wood ticks I was hoping) I heard my first of the year ovenbird, white throated sparrow and red-eyed vireo. I also saw my first, second, third, and fourth Monarch butterflies. What a pleasure to watch the orange butterflies fly by. Grasshoppers with physical coordination problems would fly up and hit me smack dab in the chest. Or maybe the strong winds caused that to happen.

Here is another view just a little closer to my car of the same river. This time the water is flowing from my left towards the right and bending into a sharp turn away from the road. Today was windy but a nice day for a walk. On my way home I got a car wash. I parked in the car wash parking lot to apply the once a year wax. As I am spreading wax on the roof of my car I see a wood tick crawling on my roof. Did that wood tick come from this road, travel on the car for 20 miles, and survive a car wash too? The grass around the car wash is new and looks to be mown and fertilized so I doubt this is a local wood tick. I am just glad this wood tick didn't bite me.  

 

An Elderly Lady Is Up To No Good

 This book was short but oh, so funny. An Elderly Lady Is Up To No Good was written by Helene Tursten and translated from Norwegian to English by Marlaine Delargy. The story is set in Oslo when an elderly lady has an apartment free from rent in a large apartment building. This rent free deal was made when her father died which was 60 years ago. No one thought she would stay in the apartment this long. At first she lived with her mother and her older sister. She supported them by working. When they both died she took in boarders for many years saving her money to have enough to live on in her retirement years. She has enough money to not only get by but to travel the world. She does love to travel. Now she is 88 years old. She has no family and no friends. She is smart and creative and devious and she lives her life to the fullest. Normally I don't like crime books but I liked this one.

Disappearing Moon Cafe

 In this historical fiction novel, Disappearing Moon Café, Sky Lee writes about five generations of Chinese Canadians living in Vancouver, British Columbia. The original immigrant was hired by an organization in China to return the bones of Chinese railroad workers who died on the job. He looks for graves sites and collects the bones so they can be transported back to China as is the custom in their faith. He marries a First Nation girl who was brought up by her Chinese step-father. Their son works at the Disappearing Moon Café in Vancouver. From there the story continues highlighting the struggles for Chinese Canadian men and women within their own families and with the community. Some of these families keep some dark secrets and the results would not have been as terrible if the secrets were made public. Some of the parents were unbelievably controlling in regard to their child's choice of a spouse and whether the new couple had offspring. I thought this was an interesting story but it was hard to keep track of the characters as the novel jumped back and forth in time.

Hidden Valley Road

I was talking with a psychiatrist once and  he told me that, in his opinion, the worst mental illness to have is schizophrenia because medication doesn't help very much. The other mental illness have drugs to alleviate the symptoms. So when I read Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind Of An American Family by Robert Kolker, I knew I would be reading a tragic tale. The author got his information from Lindsey and Margaret who are the two youngest and only female offspring of Don and Mimi Galvin. Don and Mimi had twelve children. Twelve! Ten of the children were boys. Six of the boys were diagnosed with schizophrenia and/or bi-polar disorder. The mental illness had an incredible impact on everyone in the family. Don worked in the Air Force and the family settled in Colorado. They took up falconry. The family went to church every Sunday with the boys wearing suits and ties and the girls wearing dresses. From the outside they looked like a successful family but that was far from the case. Most of the boys showed symptoms when they were 19 or 20. Some showed symptoms earlier. These children were born between 1945 and 1965. The stigma of mental illness, although bad now, was worse then. Psychiatrists didn't agree on treatment. Some experts blamed the mother. Mimi wasn't having any of that. She kept pushing doctors to do better to the extent that some felt she cared more for her sick children than her healthy children. The thing about schizophrenia is if the illness doesn't kill you the medication you take for it might. I have to applaud Lindsey and Margaret for being brave enough to tell this fascinating and tragic story of their family.

Today's Walk

Today was a nice warm day to I decided to take a scenic walk on the lake walk. I put on my Chacos and left the house. I parked by the Holiday gas station on London Road right where Highway 35 ends. There is a parking lot behind the gas station for people to park who want to use the paved path. The path leaves the parking lot and heads down the hill to cross the railroad track and go under London Road. The air is nice and cool in that tunnel. I headed west toward the lift bridge. As I walked the North Shore Scenic Trail went by. I have seen it go by a couple of times this year already but it was empty. Today the train had people in it. Did I wave to the people on the train? Yes I did and many waved back. People on bikes and skate boards and roller blades and electric scooters passed me. One guy on a bicycle was wearing a blue backpack on his back and sticking it's head out of the backpack was a Scotty dog. Sailboats and fishing boats were in the water. The air had that fresh piney smell. From a distance I saw an ore boat come out of the canal and head out. I walked past this sculpture garden. This sculpture is called "Green Bear" and it's from Duluth's sister city, Petrozavodsk, Russia. The bears are facing each other with a tulip in the middle.

This one is called Water and Friendship and is from Ohara-Isumi city in Japan. The air is perfumed sweet with the blossoms.

This one is called Arising. After leaving the sculpture garden I got into the very busy sidewalks of Canal Park. Traffic was backed up and tourists were everywhere enjoying the nice day. I saw people dining inside and outside in restaurants and distilleries. Shops were open. People were eating ice cream cones and drinking iced coffee. The food smelled delicious. I thought about the many times I came to Duluth as a tourist and how much fun I had.

Here is the Vista Fleet heading out. Did I wave to the passengers as they went by? Yes, and they waved back too. A fishing boat equipped with downriggers left the harbor followed by a sailing yacht and three jet skis. Each jet ski had two people on it. Jet skis are loud and annoying but they look like fun and I would like to try one some day but not on Lake Superior. I would prefer a smaller lake for the first time on a jet ski. It was time for me to head back to my car. As I walked along the train went by again. Yes, I waved. Families were having picnics on the shore or off of the trail at one of many picnic tables. Near Leif Erikson park the azaleas and tulips and hyacinth were in bloom. This is a very pretty place. Some people were playing Frisbee in the lawn spotted with dandelions. Two grackles were harassing a crow who complained loudly long after the grackles let it alone. I saw song sparrows and robins and ring billed gulls. As I approached my car I was sad the walk was over but 6.8 miles is enough for this day.

 

The Long Petal Of The Sea

 Famous author Isabelle Allende wrote The Long Petal Of The Sea. I have read other books by her. This story is historical fiction about dictatorships. Starting out in Spain during the Civil War in the 1930's. After serving in the war as a physician, Victor flees the country with his brother's widow, Roser, who is pregnant. They sail on the SS Winnipeg which was hired by a poet, Pablo Neruda, to take refugees to Chile. To gain entrance on the ship, Victor has to marry Roser. Both of them agree this is an arrangement to get to Chile and not a real marriage. They plan on getting divorced in the future. Victor and Roser and her son thrive in Chile; Victor as a physician and Roser as a pianist and music teacher. In 1973 the United States supported a coup against the leader of Chile (who happens to be the author's godfather). Another dictator takes over and the family has to flee to Venezuela. The story of Victor and Roser demonstrates resilience in the face of adversity over many decades. The story also reminds me of what an easy life I have lived so far. I was sad to come to the end of it.

Dear Girls

 Ali Wong wrote Dear Girls; Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets, And Advice For Living Your Best Life. She wrote the book for her two girls which I think is a pretty fine idea. She writes about her own wild childhood and how she trapped their father. She writes about working as a female stand up comic. She writes about being Asian. She writes about prejudice and misogamy. She writes about sex and she is very funny. She had me laughing out loud. I don't think she should let her girls read this book until they are 22 because she writes very explicitly. This was some really raw stuff. I listened to the audio book. I usually drive or walk as I listen to books. I had to actually turn my phone off while walking a busy section of the lake walk in Duluth because I didn't want children listening to some of the things that were coming out of her mouth. I mean, it's good to be open about sexuality but, wow. If vulgarity offends you, this is not the book for you.

Lab Girl

Lab Girl is a tremendous non-fiction book written by Hope Jahren. Hope is an award winning geobiologist who grew up loving science. She grew up in Minnesota near the border with Iowa. Her father was a science teacher at a community college and he let her play in his lab. She loved playing in the lab and eventually made it her career. In the book she talks about her studies and her career. She has created labs in Georgia, California, Norway and also in Hawaii which is where she lives now. She met another science student at her first job as a professor named Bill. She and Bill hit it off and she has kept him employed in her labs. Their relationship is like a very close brother and sister. She also has a husband and a child. The book mixes information from her life with information about plants. She starts out with the seeds, goes on to the roots and the stem and the leaves. I can tell from her writing that plants are her passion and it is a joy to read the work of someone who is so enthusiastic.

Solutions And Other Problems

 Years ago I read Hyperbole And A Half by Allie Brosh. I also followed her blog by the same name. She is a graphic artist who does her drawings with the Paint program. She is extremely funny so I borrowed her newest book, Solutions And Other Problems as soon as I saw it was available. This book is part humor and part memoir. The author dealt with some pretty tough issues after her first book was released. She quit her blog and fell silent for many years. Her sister completed suicide, she got divorced, and she also had a health scare. Life isn't always fun. With her graphic art she takes everyday moments and makes them relatable and poignant. She also writes about her childhood and, for instance, that time she duct taped her girlfriend to an office chair in the driveway when they were both five years old. Hilarious. I loved this book. I think reading the hard cover book would have been better than reading it on my phone because I would be able to see the illustrations better.

In Search Of April Raintree

Beatrice Mosionier is an indigenous Canadian author and she wrote In Search of April Raintree. This book is common in Canadian high schools and is often required reading in Canadian literature courses. This is a historical fiction and a retelling of the author's childhood growing up in Norway House, Manitoba, north of Lake Winnipeg. She did not have a happy childhood in the 1970's and 1980's. April and her younger sister, Cheryl, are taken away from their parents and delivered to two different foster homes. While April favors her mother's looks and could pass for white, Cheryl looks like their father and she looks like a Metis. The two sisters are all they have in the world. The story was very powerful.

  

Warm Day

 

Today is a warm day. Today is so warm, in fact, that these two deer decided to cool off in Tischer Creek on the UMD campus. The deer on the left has it's hind legs on the left bank while it's head is down to drink water. The deer on the right is standing in the shallow stream while it's head is also bent down close to the other deer's head to drink water.

Air And Water Quality

 For my second field trip on Saturday with the Master Naturalist  convention I had to drive north again. We met at Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center again. This time we met under a bird feeder where we saw chickadees, evening grossbeaks, rose breasted grossbeaks and blue jays come to feed. I was told to bring my water boots. After a introduction we all caravanned in our cars to the Sawmill Creek where it meets the road. We went into the classroom down there to learn about how to monitor the stream for turbidity, temperature, oxygen saturation, depth of the water, speed of the water, ph of the water, recreational suitability of the water, and to collect any creatures we could find in the water. We were split into groups of three and given an Ipad to record our findings. We shared a probe inside a long PVC pipe that recorded the ph and oxygen saturation levels. We had a secchi tube for check for turbidity. We had a thermometer for the water temperature. We also check the ph with ph paper and it came out the same as the machine. We took photos of the stream with the iPad. Then came the fun part of searching for and collecting critters.  We had nets to hold downstream as we kicked at the rocks. I saw a frog and my partner caught it. It was a green frog and a big one too. 

We caught a mayfly nymph. It had six legs and three tails. Between the legs and the tails we could see it's gills opening and closing rapidly. We put the mayfly nymph in an ice cube tray under a plexiglass shelf that had a hole cut into it. We put the iPad on the shelf with the camera pointing through the hole. When I had the critter in view I enlarged the creature and then snapped a picture of the iPad with my phone. Maybe someday I will  make a similar plexiglass shelf to hold my phone so I can take pictures of tiny objects enlarged.

We caught four native crawfish and a dragonfly nymph.  Here they sit in the bottom of a white Rubbermaid tub. We had a great time messing around in the creek. We put everybody back before we left to go back to the classroom.

Back at the classroom we sat outside on benches and shared our findings. We learned that Wolf Ridge was involved in a study about acid rain in cooperation with the Canadian Government and the EPA since the 1980's. Acid rain used to be a big deal back in the 1980's and this spot here on the North Shore had the most serious acid rain of any other place studied in Minnesota. This is because it was the furthest east location in the state. Acid rain affected the northern regions the most because they had the least soil. In central and southern Minnesota, the soil and the plant materials in lakes can counteract that acid. I was surprised to learn that the source of the acid rain in Minnesota, Canada, and the northeastern states was from the oil refineries in Texas. Since scrubbers have been added to refineries and smoke stacks acid rain is no longer a problem. Also we used to have a big hole in the ozone layer because of the ingredients in refrigerator units. Now that refrigerators use other chemicals, the hole in the ozone layer is closing. It's nice to hear some good news for a change. Wolf Ridge has a great program for kids, mostly six and seventh graders, and I was glad to hear they will open up again for classes to visit this fall.

Geology Of The North Shore

 This morning I drove 30 minutes to the Flood Bay Way Side Rest which is just east of Two Harbors and the Superior Shores resort. I was here for another field trip with the Master Naturalist convention. I was glad I brought my raincoat because we did get some very light rain. It was so nice to see people that I only see once a year at these conventions. Right away we learned that Two Harbors actually has three harbors. Flood Bay harbor faces northeast so it gets the least protection from the strong winds. This bay does have a good sized wetland with it which is sliced down the middle by Highway 61. We learned how the wetlands help Lake Superior and a little about the history of the Ojibway and Dakotah people who lived here prior to European settlement. After walking back from the wetland we returned to the shore and learned about the Lake Superior from the perspective of a limnologist. She told us how the introduction of rainbow trout has decimated the populations of native brook trout. The sea lamphrey problem has pretty much cleared up now. Lake Superior does have a problem with zebra mussels but the lake is so cold the zebra mussels don't stand a chance of thriving here. We heard from a professor of geology and she pointed out the magma flows that form every point of land sticking out into Lake Superior. Each of us received a rock collection box with labeled rocks already in it and a copy of Sparky Stensaas' book Rock Pickers Guide to Lake Superior's North Shore.  We had time to pick rocks and ask her to identify them. Lastly we had a rock skipping contest. I did manage to skip a few rocks and win a prize (everybody won a prize of a bag of M and M's). 

Botany Of The North Shore

Today I went on a Master Naturalist field trip called Botany Of The North Shore. We met at Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center which is a 90 minute drive from my place. Once there we moved to their new Lake Superior campus which just opened. We were the first group to enter this property which has never been developed so it has a high diversity of plants. We had 15 people in our group. All of us were vaccinated so although we had our masks in our pockets we didn't bring them out. The weather was perfect.

This clump of white flowers in the rock is called Virginia Sassafraxe.

This little fern is only two inches high and is called the Rusty Cliff fern. I was looking at this fern book, Ferns and Allies Of The North Woods, for identification purposes when I noticed the author, Joe Walewski, was also our leader on this botany trip.

This is a variety of sundew which is a carnivorous plant.

And these yellow leaved star shaped plants are butterwort, also a carnivorous plant. We saw all kinds of lichen today. One was called rock foam. Another was caribou lichen which looked like rock foam but didn't sit right on the rocks but on top of other plants instead. We also saw map lichen which is circular and yellow/green in color. If you look closely you can see black dots and black lines connecting the dots inside the yellow. Today was a good day. Tomorrow I have two more field trips to attend.

 

The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao

 The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao was written by Junot Diaz. The author won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2008 for this book. The author and Oscar were born in the Dominican Republic. The story is about Oscar but also about Oscar's mother and Oscar's Grandfather. Oscar's Grandfather was a physician. The Grandfather was an acquaintance of the dictator El Jefe. In some respects this book has historical facts about the Dominican Republic. When El Jefe asks Oscar's Grandfather to bring his daughters to a political event, the Grandfather does not obey because he knows they will be raped. El Jefe eventually tortures and kills him. Throughout the book a Dominican curse known as fuku. The curse affects the lives of the Grandfather, Oscar's mother, and Oscar himself. Oscar grows up in New Jersey with his older sister Lola. Oscar is overweight and nerdy. He enjoys reading and science fiction. He lacks the social skills to make friends or attract women. The book  is narrated by Junior who dated Lola and was Oscar's roommate when they were in college. Where Junior has the typical Dominican machismo, Oscar is the complete opposite. Oscar treats women with respect. Oscar and Lola go back to the Dominican Republic to visit their Grandmother. I enjoyed this book. I listened to the audio version. Sometimes the language went from English to Spanglish to Spanish so I didn't understand all of it. I enjoyed the characters in the book and the descriptions of the neighborhoods in New Jersey and the Dominican Republic. 

Stream Monitoring

 

This is one of the streams I monitor. This steam is called Us Kab Wan Ka which is an Ojibwa word for artichoke river. The river has Jerusalem artichokes which is some kind of sunflower with an edible tuber. The stream is 19.7 miles long and drains into the Cloquet river. That sand bar on the left wasn't visible two weeks ago because the water was much higher. The river is Grand Lake Township.

This is my view from a bridge on the Cloquet River. The Cloquet river is 104 miles long and the major tributary to the Saint Louis River. On the left is a grassy island that is almost connected to the shore at the top. The farmer who owns the land is able to get his ATV vehicle to the grassy island and run up and down the length of it sometimes. I think it would be fun to kayak around here when the water is slow and when the water is warmer. Right now the water temperature is 45 which is cold enough to seep through the plastic of my kayak. This water is always very clear. I have been able to look down and see fish swimming by.

The Picture Of Dorian Gray

 Oscar Wilde wrote The Picture Of Dorian Gray. Published in 1890 this story was first published in a magazine and heavily edited. Yet the story shocked people and was highly criticized as indecent. This is the only novel Wilde ever wrote. Most of his other work was writing poems or plays. In this story Dorian Gray is a 17 year old man when his likeness is painted. Dorian is a handsome, impressionable and narcissistic young man. Fearful of loosing his good looks he decides he would prefer that his portrait grow old instead of him. And it works. The portrait changes. When Dorian breaks a young girl's heart, the portrait gets a sneer on it's face. Every sin Dorian commits is evident on the portrait. Dorian has a friend, Lord Henry, who is hedonistic so Dorian follows his path and ends up leading a sad and lonely life. This was an interesting novel about villains and evil and corruption. I think the best part about it, besides the villains, was the surprising ending.