LUPINE BLOOMING OUT OF SEASON
WEEPING WILLOW STILL HANGIN' IN THERESaturday, 8:15 AM. 44 degrees, wind W, calm with fog just lifting from the channel. There is 4” of rain in the gage and the barometer predicts partly cloudy weather.
We returned to Bayfield from Langlade late afternoon yesterday. The weather was cooperative and we did some walking in the woods, but not a lot, as we had serious visiting to do. We did see lots of turkeys, deer at night, some grouse and a few eagles.
Old buddy Tom Moran is a friend from childhood and we have kept close all these years. His companion Barb has become a close friend in the last few years as well and we enjoyed being with them in Tom’s new digs on Island Lake. Tom’s cousin Brian Miller is almost as old a friend, and he and wife Carol are expats from Alaska now living in Langlade on the Wolf River, but I think their hearts are still up in the Klondike. Landlubbers, they built a sixty foot steel hulled sailboat in their back yard in Anchorage, hauled it to the ocean and sailed it to the Baja with the intent of going around the world, but fortune intervened and that’s as far as they got, but did manage to escape with their lives. Their Alaska sons now winter in Wisconsin (who would think it?) to escape the dark winters, but go back during the spring and summer months. There were plenty of stories of grizzly bears encountered on the salmon streams or on the way to the outhouse. A twelve, or preferably a ten gage shotgun with slugs is a constant companion. Another old friend of mine, Bill Ballering and companion Emeline live in nearby Mountain. I, Tom, Brian and Bill all worked together at one time or another on pipeline, tunnel and other construction jobs, and when we get together the time and the tall tails tend to fly. As I reflect upon it, we are all probably lucky to still be alive. We are a rather raucous bunch when together, and relentlessly politically incorrect. I looked around for hidden microphones at times but the FBI evidently doesn't bother to put them around North Woods campfires. Lucky went along and had a good time running in the woods, eating leftover steak and comparing masters with the other dogs. There are unfortunately no photos of our trip because I was sold the wrong memory card for the new camera. Today’s photos are from the camera’s internal memory; the old weeping willow on Rittenhouse and Ninth Street is about the last deciduous tree still with leaves. The lupine is blooming on Eighth Street, just a wise guy like the rest of us, I guess.
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