I Like Seals

This juvenile chickadee is one of MY chickadees. I say it's mine because I feed it sunflower seeds, Niger seeds, and fresh water. I am using my old Bundt pan as a bird feeder on my deck. I took this picture from the driveway where this tree is growing. Chickadees are one of my favorite birds because they are so feisty and trusting and industrious. Plus I like birds who tell me their name. Chick-a-dee-dee-dee.

And here is a salty coming into port. One of the Vista fleet boats went right up to it and then turned around as if to show the larger vessel the way into the canal. I am sure the two boats didn't come as close together as it appeared to me from the shore. I would have liked to be on that Vista fleet cruise.

Walking in front of Fitger's brewery I thought for sure I saw a seal on the beach. I know seals are marine animals. Turns out somebody left a cushion on the beach. Now I looked it up and of the 33 species of pinnipeds (seals, sea lions, walruses) there is one fresh water species in a lake in Siberia called Lake Baikal. I wish we had seals in Lake Superior. I like watching seals frolic and nurse their babies.

 

As Stunning As The Drake

Thimbleberries are ripening here in Duluth and boy howdy, are they ever delicious. I ate a handful while walking a path by Tischer Creek. Thimble berries taste just like raspberries. I am tempted to snack on raspberries I see hanging over sidewalks in town but that just seems wrong. I would hate to be yelled at. I planned to pick blueberries this year for jam but I was told most were damaged by the frost and we should let the bears eat the rest. Bears have been coming closer into town because they are hungry. The Superior National Forest made a new rule today saying all food must be hung high in a tree or in a bear proof barrel at all campsites and that includes the BWCA. Bears have been stealing backpacks and food at campsites. Last week I talked to a lady from Ely and she said the same thing about bears coming close to her house.

These are chokecherries near Tischer Creek. Last week in Vining I spent 20 minutes out in the hot sun picking what I thought were chokecherries. I would have picked more but I was hot and tired. Now I'm glad I didn't. I took them home and boiled them in water for an hour and mashed them with the potato masher. And they're not even chokecherries! I suspect they were unripe currents. I threw the juice out. I don't want to poison myself. Shucks. I was going to make apple/chokecherry leather. I guess I can still make the leather with whatever berries I find and am sure I know what they are. My Grandpa always said, "Don't taste a berry unless you see the birds eating it first." He gave me terrible advice there. Who has the time to watch a berry bush or tree all day waiting for a bird to come by? Besides, hungry birds will eat buckthorn and I know for sure buckthorn berries will give you the runs.

Here is a bee on some very pink Echinacea. I like orange best but pink is pretty too.

Such a cute little pollinator. This is at a public garden off Woodland and Kent Road. I just love walking by this garden except the traffic is fast and loud on Woodland Road. I have to pay attention or I might get run over.

The Mountain Ash has orange berries which would look so pretty on a Christmas tree or a wreath or even in a vase. There is another chokecherry tree to the left of the Mountain Ash. This is on Skyline Parkway near Enger Tower. My Mom liked Mountain Ash trees but she didn't like the way the birds ate the berries and then stained her concrete sidewalk with their droppings.

This was a most cooperative Momma Mallard duck sitting in the sand under the bridge by Twin Ponds. She is just cooling off in the wet sand and taking a  nap. I have never met a more cooperative bird for taking pictures than this one.

She looks exhausted. Her bill is tucked under her wing. She was probably up all night partying or taking care of her babies. Her colors are subdued and neutral yet she is as stunning as the drake.

 

The Popeil Story

 Ron Popeil (pronounced propealel) died today at age 86 after a medical emergency at a hospital in Los Angeles. Normally I wouldn't even notice his death but I have been paying more attention to him since last week when I found a really old item, still in the original dusty box, in a kitchen cupboard way up high above the kitchen sink in a house in Vining, MN.

 

What I found was a really old doughnut maker manufactured by the Popeil Brothers out of Chicago, Illinois. The confectionary contraption looks to be  in good shape inside. Somebody could still make doughnuts with it. I remember my Grandmother on my Mom's side making doughnuts once but that was the only time I saw someone make doughnuts at home. Actually doughnuts are one of the few sweets that don't tempt me very much. A home made brownie? Yes. A home made cookie? Yes. Cheesecake? A double yes to cheesecake. But a doughnut? Meh. Unless it was a home made doughnut, then I would try one. Anyway, I looked up the Popeil Brothers Company just for the heck of it. Turns out I had heard of them because they are Ronco! I'm sure you have heard of them too!  RIP Mr. Popeil.

Less

 Robert Petkoff wrote Less and he won a Pulitzer price for his fiction plus plenty of other awards. The story is about a somewhat forgotten author whose career peaked in his 20's. Now he is 50 and his ex-boyfriend is getting married to another man. He is invited to the wedding but he doesn't want to spend his birthday watching his ex get married so he goes on a world tour/vacation. He gives lectures about another famous author with whom he had a relationship 25 years ago. So he goes on a vacation and he does have some fun but he also runs into some trouble. He meets old friends and many of them want to tell him about the wedding that he missed but he doesn't want to hear it. Some of his situations get pretty funny but they're not funny to him in the moment because he is a worrier. A sandstorm in Morocco ruins his camel ride. All the students he teaches at a German University come down with the flu so he thinks he is the carrier of the flu virus. He accidentally breaks his foot on a tropical island and when he is in the hospital a dog runs off with his favorite suit jacket and ruins it. As I read those last three sentences back I realize the situations weren't funny but they were funny to me as I read them. I thought this book was a charming piece of fine literature.

Proper Cup Of Coffee

I spent a week in Vining recently. I stayed at a house with my cousin. Cats live outside this house. The house had five huge sacks of catfood and about 12 empty sacks of cat food on the porch. I woke up early. Trying not to disturb anyone, I took my toothbrush and toothpaste and went out into the yard to brush my teeth and spit into the grass. No matter if I got up at 5 or 6 or 7 in the morning, the cats were there waiting for their food. They looked at me so intently and, frankly, with malice in their eyes. I am not a fan of cats and I really don't like barn cats. But I was given such intense evil eyes I put the toothbrush in my mouth and brought out the sack of cat kibble and fed them. The tom cat is the orange one on the right. All these cats have short ears that fold over at the top.

This photo has four black and white cats. Three are at the pie plate of kibble and one is lurking in the background. 

After brushing my teeth it was time to make the coffee. This house had no traditional coffee pot but I did find this old coffee pot. The metal is thin and it consists of three pieces. The bottom one is shaped like a coffee pot. The middle one is shallow with holes in the bottom to hold coffee grounds. The top one is solid at the bottom but the top is open and this could hold water although I don't know why it would. I guess there might have been a lid to the top piece but I couldn't find it.  I heated water in the teapot, put grounds in the middle section, put the middle section on top of the bottom section, poured hot water into the middle section, and covered it with the top section to keep the heat in. In a few minutes the coffee was ready. My old fashioned percolator at home takes 7 minutes to perk. This is much faster. The first day I used it the kitchen was dark and I didn't measure the coffee. Lordy! That coffee was TOO STRONG! I could literally feel the caffeine enter the veins in my arms.

 

After the first morning I measured the coffee with a spoon. I came to like this little, antique coffee pot. How many of my relatives have sipped coffee made in this pot? Coffee is made quickly and I don't have to bother with paper filters. I suppose paper filters would make clean up easier though. Nothing like a proper cup of coffee from a proper coffee pot.

 

Welcome to the Goddam Ice Cube

 I read Welcome to the Goddam Ice Cube: Chasing Fear And Finding Home In The Great White North by Blair Braverman because it was listed as a book about Alaska. Although Alaska is mentioned during those three years Blair worked as a dog sled guide, the book is also about Norway because she lived there too. Cold is mentioned. Wildlife are mentioned. The tundra is mentioned along with fjords and glaciers and ice floes. At least half of the book is about her experiences as a young woman in a hostile climate dealing with Neanderthal men and their sexist and sometimes criminal behavior. Blair meets nice men too but this one coworker in Alaska takes the cake. He (Dan) takes the creepy, stalkery, clueless, rapist cake. I really hope he read the book. Even better, I hope all of his significant others read this book too.

Flying Objects

This morning I walked to a grocery store and on my way I saw some cool things. This monarch caterpillar looks like the fifth instar to me. This is a collegiate caterpillar because it lives on the University of Minnesota campus.

And this is a collegiate bee of some sort because it was buzzing some Joe Pye weed also on the UMD campus. I do not know bees very well. Bees have been mean to me so I tend to avoid them.

I took six shots and I was lucky enough to get a bee in action although not all of it is in the frame. This new phone of mine has a great camera. I really like photos where the important things are sharp and clear and the background is blurry.

This monarch was found in front of the Cathedral Of Our Lady Of The Rosary.

 

Chaga

Today I went on a phenology walk with the MN Master Naturalists and also the Mycological Society members. We split into two groups. The leaders of one group were older and I had hiked with them before. The leaders of the other group were younger so I hiked with the millennials. Someone in the other group found this and they called it coral. It's a plant, not a mushroom, and it looks like the coral I have seen on coral reefs. I have never heard of such a plant before. We walked for an hour in the woods in Boulder Lake Environmental Learning Center. An hour long walk in the woods was perfect for a hot afternoon.

Someone in the other group also found Indian pipes which was cool.

When we got back to the meeting place on time the other group was still missing. One of my leaders took out his drone to see if he could see them in the woods. He got this very nice drone for only $600. I mentioned the drone footage I viewed of the Glensheen mansion. He knew the guy who did that footage and also the footage of a drone flying through the Bryant Lake Bowl. You can see the drone footage of the Glensheen mansion or the Bryant Lake Bowl on YouTube. This guy uses his drone on his farm. He farms nearby. He has pigs and goats. He uses the goats to fight invasive species. He hopes to start a business turning buck thorn into goat meat. He also has chickens and pigs. He calls his pigs his rototillers. He said pigs can dig up stones and tree stumps better and faster than any machinery. He said he made a proposal to the city of Duluth to use goats and pigs to clean up the invasive species in parks but the city didn't go for it which is too bad because I think it sounds like a great idea. Also, he named his pigs Bacon and Ham.  LOL

Our group found quite a few lobster mushrooms. See that patch of orange to the left of center in this picture? That is a lobster mushroom.The drought is negatively impacting mushrooms too. The lobster mushrooms are bright orange and they have smooth undersides.

Here is the lobster mushroom sautéed in butter for my supper with onion and a vegie burger. Delicious! I haven't eaten lobster in over 3 decades but I didn't think it tasted like lobster. In fact it didn't have much taste at all. I prefer bella mushrooms to lobster mushrooms.

The best find of the day was this hunk of chaga on a dying birch tree. Chaga is actually a fungus. The fungus attacks a birch tree and, once infected, the tree will die within 8 years.  I had heard of chaga before and I wanted some. He asked, "Does anybody want some?" I said I did and asked if it was hard to get off. He said it might be hard to get off and I might need a knife or a hatchet. Another millennial in the group said she might have a hatchet on her. Who says they might have a hatchet on them? In my opinion you know or you don't know if you have a hatchet on your person. Before she could look for her hatchet he pulled the chagas off the tree and gave me it me. It came off easy. The outside was black and the inside was light brown and looked like cork. Chaga smelled like soil. He kept a small piece for himself. Now I have chaga! If my chaga was liquid I would have about a cup of it. This fungus is worth between $200 and $2000 per pound! I put my chaga in a paper bag and I am going to dry it in my hottest room for a few days. After it is dried chaga is stored in a paper bag in a place with a consistent temperature. I think my refrigerator would be a good place. Chaga, once dried properly, lasts for years without loosing any of it's minerals or healing properties. I told a lady from Ely that the next time she saw me I would look twenty years younger. I was joking. I know chaga is supposed to fight cancer and inflammation so I think I will brew myself some chaga tea some day. I consider myself very lucky to be out in the woods today with this group of very fine mushroom pickers!

 

Sculpture Art

I have been off the grid traveling from Duluth to Vining, MN and back again. Note to self, taking Highway 2 out of Duluth will NOT take you to Highway 210. I didn't figure that out until I got way too far north in Grand Rapids. So then I angled south west. I stopped to buy gas is Remer, MN which is where the attendant offered to take a picture of me holding hands with Sasquatch. From that moment on I decided to get a picture of any and all roadside art on my week long journey.

I stopped to buy lunch in Menagha, MN, home of the Finns. Here is a picture of Saint Urho who drove the grass hoppers out of Finland. His legs seem short for  his body but he is a handsome Saint. 

This statue of my favorite Minnesota tall tale, Paul Bunyan, is in Akeley outside the Paul Bunyan museum. Is it just me or is his left arm a little bit long? I have a friend who lives in NE Minneapolis with the SAME beard, the SAME jeans, the SAME plaid shirt, and the SAME blue eyes. Paul Bunyan looks like he lives in NE Minneapolis. Paul Bunyan dresses like a millennial.

Vining is famous for their sculptures. Here is a cockroach in a pair of pliers.

Here is Ole the Viking standing tall in Alexandria, MN. Thirty years ago I used this statue in giving directions to a friend of mine who grew up in Afghanistan. I laughed out loud when he said he found Ole and pronounced Ole like a bullfighter would.

This statue of a grain bin with a face is in Foley, MN.

Last, but not least, this well used pencil is outside the Paramount Theater on West Saint Germain in Saint Cloud, MN

 

Someday, Someday, Maybe

 Did you ever watch the Gilmore Girls on television? You know that show with the fast talking mother/daughter duo? The couple of women with hyperlogia? One of the stars of that show, Lauren Graham, wrote Someday, Someday, Maybe. And she reads it in the audiobook version which is what I listened to on my phone. She is a fast talking woman and she talks fast in this book. The dialogue totally reminded me of that show. Once I shoved my phone in my pocket without closing the cover. The phone rubbed against my pocket and changed the audio play speed from normal to 1.5 and although I thought she was talking faster right away I really wasn't sure for a few minutes until I finally took my phone out of my pocket to look. The story is about a young actress living in Brooklyn trying to make a go of it. The story line is funny just like the Gilmore Girls. Lauren Graham is a talented writer and actress and producer but she does talk way too fast.

Bioblitz

I attended the 9th annual bioblitz at the Sam Zim blog today and I had a banner day. I chose the spider group so I got to spend the whole day with a spider expert who teaches at Bethel University in Mankato. Around the Welcome Center we found a grass spider, a parasteatodam, a sheet web spider, a filmy dome spider and a wolf spider (see picture). I thought wolf spiders were huge but I guess they come in all sizes. This one was very small. We found dozens of wolf spiders today. I almost stepped on a toad and a wood frog.

We saw a dwarf spider, a ground spider and a lichen moth (see picture).

This is the carcass of a fishing spider stuck to the siding of the Welcome Center. I guess I didn't realize spiders shed like this when they grow larger but it makes perfect sense now.

We drove a few miles away to an agricultural area. We parked between a pasture and a hay field. Here we found a Bronze jumping spider, a flower crab spider (which was bright yellow), a cob web weaver spider, a daddy long legs (which is not actually a spider), and a four line plant bug. I learned that black widow spiders are found in Minnesota but only in Houston County and they are only found down inside gopher holes. Then we saw a female dicsissel fly by with food in her mouth. This dicsissel is a lifer bird for me so this was a banner day. There is a dicsissel irruption this year. We saw bobolinks and a sedge wren and a savannah sparrow, a warbling vireo and a sedge wren. Then I scooped up a spider using the spider net that he could not identify. He took it to preserve it. He planned to soak it in clove oil for a week for more and then surgically extract the reproductive organs and look at it under a microscope. If it turns out to be a new state record spider he said he would give ME partial credit because I scooped it in the net! OMG! Just think of the street cred this would give me! Fingers crossed this is a new state record. This guy already has 50 to 60 state records.

Then we found an assassin bug. That is my finger and also that yellow spot is assassin bug manure. Sh*t happens! We also found a dwarf singer orb weaver, a metaphoria spider, and a mesh weaver. We found a long jawed orb weaver and it was a male. He told me the long jawed orb weaver males hold their sperm in these protrusions from their mouth. The sperm is sucked from the abdomen by the negative pressure in the mouth protrusions which totally sounds like science fiction to me but he swore it was true! 

This is an arabesque bog weaver spider.

Back at the welcome center at the end of the day I found a phoebe nest with babies in it. The group had a recap of the day. The bee group found a frigid bee. The plant group found dog vomit slime mold. The name alone makes me wonder what it looks like. The gall group (not gull but gall) found 60 NEW species today. The bird group found golden winged warblers (which I have yet to see) which is excellent for a middle of the day birding group. They said because of the drought this is tough year for butterflies. Someone found a primrose moth which are a beautiful moth in bright pink and yellow. The primrose moth sleeps during the day inside the primrose flower which is where they found it. All together the 55 people in attendance found between 400 and 500 species.

I forgot to play bog bingo but I had a banner day today.

 

Alaska

 In preparation for an upcoming trip to Alaska, I read James Michener's book, Alaska. I thought I read it before a long time before, like 35 years ago. I wasn't sure I had read it before until I got to chapter ten which is the story about salmon. When I read the part about Nerka, the sockeye salmon whose life is described in detail from hatching to death, I KNEW I had read this before. So in my first reading I guess I identified with the salmon. In my second reading the animals were still important but I got a lot more out reading about characters such as the Danish explorer, Vitus Bering (after whom they named the Bering Sea) or Cidaq, a native who is sold and abused by Russians. I never realized how shabbily the people who lived in Alaska were treated by the politicians in Washington, D.C. and, just as bad, the business interests in Seattle who wanted to reap the benefits of the Alaskan natural resources but keep all the cash in Seattle. I loved rereading this book. Michener is a fine writer but he writes BIG  and thorough books. This one had 5, 424 pages and it took me 15 hours of reading to finish it.

Xylophones

 Today I visited my new favorite garden center which is not near my house but on my way back from my stream monitoring assignments. I think the people who named it didn't have much imagination because the name of the place is A + Garden Center. What this place lacks as far as a cute name is more than made up for in the beautiful displays and luscious plants they have for sale. Walking into one of their two greenhouses is like walking into paradise. They have trees and shrubs and annuals and perennials and house plants and herbs and succulents. They have garden ornaments and fairy garden supplies and mulch and soil and rocks and garden tools and grow lights. Even though this place is in Saginaw and not actually in Duluth, the drive is worth it. The service is also excellent. Today I was walking out and I saw peacocks. I have been here twice and never noticed the peacocks before. How is that possible? This is molting time for peacocks. I am so tempted to reach in and grab a few of those lovely tail feathers.

These peacocks and fancy chickens enjoy luxury accommodations which include xylophones!

McQuade Harbor

Today the weather was calm and the breeze slight so I thought I would be brave and attempt kayaking in Lake Superior. Starting in a safe place like McQuade harbor seemed like a prudent plan because, frankly, kayaking in Lake Superior scares me. The harbor was calm and safe and I got in without falling in the water.

I paddled past the piers made out of giant boulders and into Lake Superior (also known as Gitchi Gummie or the saltless sea). The water was choppier that I thought it would be. In the distance I could see Wisconsin but I can't see Wisconsin in this photo. I was bobbing up and down in the swells. My ride was fascinating and terrifying which are two of my favorite conflicting feelings to have.

Getting back alive was my main goal so after 25 minutes of paddling I headed back. In the distance is a big rocky pier on the right. The entrance to McQuade harbor is right before that big pile of rock.

Here is where I put in. You can see the Scenic route of Highway 61 above the boat landing.

A flock of Canadian geese also like this harbor.

I forgot my dry bag today so I stop at the dock to gently set my phone down just in case I get wet. I also put my water bottle and towel on the dock. The towel is to protect my bare legs from the sun shine. I wait for the anglers to leave before I get out of my kayak. The water is cold!  I make it out of my boat with relative grace for a change. What a nice ride! I could do this again. Or I could try the French River landing which is slightly closer to my house than this one.