TIME TO GET OUT THE DUCK TAPE

BEACH SCENE

BEACH GRASS FLOWERING

BEACH GRASS ROOTS

MEADOW SWEET IN FLOWER

LINING UP FOR THE FIRST LOCAL CORN

Saturday, 8:00 AM.  65 degrees F, wind N at present, light.  The sky is clear with some haze and the humidity is 80%.  The barometer is up slightly form yesterday morning, at 30.15".  Yesterday was a pleasant summer day and today looks like a repeat.
   We went to the South Shore Brewery in Ashland for fish fry last night.  On the whole a little pricey, but the beer battered walleye was  the best ever, and their craft beers are very good, particularly the Nut Brown Ale.
   Buddy and I went to the beach for a run (I walked) this morning.  We had not been there all summer and I was amazed at the changes in beach topography.  The steep banks of the shore are leveled and covered with beach grass, and the mouth of the Sioux River, which was perhaps twenty feet across, is now over one hundred feet wide.  The beach grass couldn't hold the banks with all the rain we have had, but it has, amazingly, reclaimed it all in very short order.  The beach grass, AKA maram grass, Ammophila breviligulata, spreads by stolons (underground stems) which are as strong as string, and the roots are long and tough.  It stabilizes the sand dunes and paves the way, literally, for other vegetation such as the meadow sweet pictured above.
   The first local sweet corn arrived in Ashland on Thursday, and I stood in a very long line to buy some.  It was perfect and delicious.  Farmer Bob says the harvest is three weeks late this year, but it is worth the wait.
   I read recently that so-called smart appliances, that are connected to the home wi-fi system, can spy on us.   Not visually perhaps but through monitoring use, such as how many times the refrigerator door opens.  New York's Mayor Bloomberg could have fun with that, I guess.  Joan says if she ever sees a tiny camera lens starring at her from the refrigerator she will put duck tape over it.  I understand the new smart TV's  do actually have a camera that can spy on us, like Big Brother, and I guess the computer I am presently using could be hacked and commandeeredd to do the same.  Why any creepy spook from the NSA or the IRS would find it interesting to see me sitting around in my underwear I sure don't know, but I think it's  time to get out the duck tape.