MYSTERY MULBERRY

THE MYSTERY MULBERRY TREE, STORM DAMAGED AND LEANING...

...CONTINUES TO BEAR HEAVILY...

...LOADED WITH FRUIT THIS YEAR (unripe at this time)

Thursday, 7:15 AM.  64 degrees F at the ferry dock, 62 on the back porch.  Wind variable and calm, with occasional very light gusts.  The sky is overcast, the humidity 92%.  The barometer is falling, now at 29.81".  Rain is predicted by this evening, and really seems imminent at present.

   The mystery mulberry tree in the woods across the street is bearing exceptionally heavily this year, and since it was blown partially over a few years back some of the branches are easy to reach.  If I can get to the ripe fruit before the birds and bears I intend to pick enough for a mulberry pie.  Mulberries are sweet and delicious but don't ripen all at once and are soft, so are not a practical commercial crop.  But they are great eaten fresh, in preserves and for wine.

   I call it the mystery mulberry because it appears, by fruit and leaves, to be a red mulberry, Morus rubra (in the Mulberry Family, the Moraceae), which is not known to grow much further north in Wisconsin than Green Bay. In both neighboring Michigan and Minnesota it is only know to occur north to mid-state, and in Canada only rarely in southern Ontario.
    Red mulberry would be perfectly hardy here along the lake but  the native red mulberry is uncommon at best in the state, and the European white mulberry, Morus alba, might be more likely to have been planted here, as it once was a popular tree on farmsteads.  Joan has fond memories of climbing her aunt's mulberry tree to pick berries and being died pretty much blue by the time she came down.

   Perhaps the mystery mulberry is a hybrid between the red and the white, but if so it definitely favors the red parent.  So unless an expert in mulberries renders a definitive opinion, I will continue to call it a mystery.
   It is no mystery, however, how tasty the berries are. 

IN THE SUMMERTIME

TACKING INTO THE WIND...

RONDEZVOUS OFF MADELINE ISLAND

Wednesday, 7:00 AM.  64 degrees at the ferry dock, 62 on the back porch.  Wind E, calm with occasional  light gusts.  The sky is overcast.  The humidity is 93% after .2" of rain fell yesterday evening, and it feels and looks like more.  The barometer is mostly steady.  Rain is predicted for Friday, and clearing for the weekend.  It is a very muggy morning.
   Buddy has an appointment at the vet's this morning for a heart worm  test and a lime disease shot; the former is not very prevalent here, but the latter is a real concern, and not just for dogs.
   For many in Bayfield summertime is sailing time.  We are not sailors, but we enjoy watching the sailboats, so organic and graceful, from the back porch.

A GREAT YEAR FOR FRUIT

JUNEBERRY FRUIT

SUMAC FEMALE FLOWER SP[IKE

SUMAC MALE FLOWER SPIKE

FOURTH OF JULY BOUQET

Tuesday, 8:00 AM.  66 degrees F at the ferry dock, 67 on the back porch.  Wind SSW, calm with occasional light gusts.  The sky is clear with some haze.  The humidity is 91% and the barometer steady, now at 29.71".  It feels like rain, and we may get a thunderstorm this evening.

   We watched the Madeline Island fireworks from the back porch while listening to the Bayfield display, which the big pine trees in the back yard block from view.  It was a nice Fourth of July, with a lot of people in town and the ferries loaded with folks going to and from the Island for the parade.

   There will be a bumper crop of berries, cherries and finally apples, as it has been a perfect year for fruit growing.  That includes wild things like the Juneberry in the garden, which is loaded with fruit.  The birds and chipmunks are having a feast.  I hope a bear doesn't decide to pull the tree down to get the berries; that would be a capital offense.

   The staghorn sumac flowers, male and female on different bushes, Rhus typhina, in the Cashew Family, are just starting to bloom.  The flowers are minuscule, but there are very many in a flower spike and are evident now.  Both male and female flowers are greenish yellow in color at this point.  The male cones will shrivel and disintegrate after shedding their pollen, and the female will turn first pink and then eventually deep maroon, and will stay on the bush through the winter.  The hard seeds have a very acidic, lemony taste, and can be used to make a refreshing cold tea.  Sumac berries are also used for flavor in various ethnic dishes and should be interesting, although I have never used them myself in cooking.

FLAGS FOR THE FOURTH

THE FLAG OF HOME AND HEARTH

THE FLAG OF THE WAR OF 1812

FLAGS AT THE BLACK HAWK MARINA

A FARMER'S FLAGS ATOP MOUNTAINS OF LIME

A  WARNING FLAG

Monday, the Fourth of July, 9:00 AM.  64 degrees F at the ferry dock, 61 on the back porch.  Wind variable and calm, with light gusts.  The sky has clouded over and is partly to mostly cloudy.  The humidity is 80% and the barometer falling rapidly, now at 29.86", predicting thunderstorms for Thursday.  It looks like we will get through the 4th without rain, and the temps will be moderately warm.
   Friends Andy and Judy are coming to dinner tonight and we will watch the fireworks, probably Madeline Island's, from the back porch.  They will begin when it gets dark, around 10 PM at our latitude.  I have no desire to sit on a blanket in the park to watch Bayfield's display.

   I love flags, especially the stars and stripes.  I have taken a lot of photos of Old Glory over the years.  Here are a few of them to celebrate the Holiday with, and from which to draw courage during these uncertain times.  
   The nation seems to be at a turning point of some kind, ready to sweep away the ancien regime but uncertain as what to replace it with.  Not as drastic as the French Revolution perhaps, as I don't see the guillotine being trundled to our Bastille (yet). Hopefully, the heads that roll will be  only figurative, although there are dark times when I wish for the literal.

THERE'S ONE BORN EVERY MINUTE

GENUINE RED CLIFF OJIBWE INDIAN DOLL...

...MADE IN SOUTH AFRICA

Sunday, 8:30 AM.  62 degrees F at the ferry dock, 60 on the back porch.  Wind SSW, calm with light gusts.  The sky is clear, the humidity 81%.  The barometer is falling, now at 30.06", predicting chances of a thunderstorm sometime Tuesday or Tuesday evening.  Yesterday was beautiful, and today should be a repeat performance.
   As P. T. Barnum once famously said, "There's a sucker born every minute."  This sucker was born a whole lot of minutes ago.
   For a number of years now I have been collecting American Indian dolls; Hopi, Navajo, Ojibwe, Iroquois,  Seminole and others.  I am not a serious collector, just an amateur, but I should have known better when I bought the doll pictured at one of the local shops.  It was at a small table with jewelry and other items from the Red Cliff Rez.  I should have recognized it as not Indian, but it had some O.K. bead work and was rather interesting.  I paid $30 for it.
   On closer examination at home I found a hidden tag that identified it as made in South Africa.
I was chagrined.  I was a SUCKER!!!
   It is Red Cliff Pow Wow weekend.  I usually drop in.  If I do, I won't be buying any dolls.

BEACH PEA

BEACH PEA PLANT...

....TYPICAL PEA FLOWERS

   Saturday, 8:00 AM.  64 degrees F at the ferry dock, 62 on the back porch.  Wind calm, variable.  Sky sunny, humidity 64%.  The barometer is falling slowly, now at 30.14".  It is a quiet, pleasant morning.  The weather will be great for the 4th of July Holiday, then a chance of a thunderstorm on Tuesday.

   The beach pea, Lathyrus japonicus, in the Pea Family, the Leguminosae, has just come into bloom.  This plant is a native around the shores of the Great Lakes, and stony and sandy seashores in temperate climates virtually world-wide, including Japan, thus the species name (the genus name is from the Latin for pea).  The wide range of the plants on seashores is due to the ability of the seeds to float and survive for years in water, and then germinate when they are abraded by sand and stones. 
   The flowers are quite beautiful, pink when young and darkening to magenta when mature, but the plant is a very aggressive vine and can't be let loose in the garden, although it is quite easy to pull.  I always let a few grow where they can't cause too much trouble.  The "peas" are not poisonous, but I can't say they are very tasty; they are used in Chinese traditional medicine.  The beach pea belongs at the beach, where it is very welcome indeed.

SHINLEAF

SHINLEAF, LEAVES AND FLOWERS...

...DITTO

Friday, 7:45 AM.  56 % F at the ferry dock, 53 on the back porch.  Wind variable and calm, the humidity 77%.  The sky is crystal clear, the barometer falling gradually, now at 30.15".  Today is a "perfect ten," and it looks like the long weekend will be that also. 
   We sleep with the windows open in the bedroom, and it got cold enough last night I had to get up and put an extra cover on the bed.  That, after a conversation earlier with a visitor on the beach, who was wearing a down jacket and giving me a lecture on Global Warming.  He said the temperature of the lake water had risen 5 degrees in the last ten years.  Where do people get these statistics from?  "Yes," I said, "In another ten years Lake Superior will be one giant fish boil."  I think he believed that, too.

   Shinleaf, the common name for species of the genus Pyrola, has several representatives in Wisconsin; one, P. minor, is an endangered species of sphagnum bogs.  The species pictured is rotundifolia, whose Wisconsin habitat is various to bogs, pine barrens, and northern forests of different types.  Pyrolas are  members of the Heath Family, the Ericaceae.

   All the Pyrola species have been used medicinally for the treatment of rheumatism and dermatalogical problems.  This species follows Canada may flower, Maianthemum canadense, in bloom, and the plants pictured were found in association with it on a shaded roadside in Bayfield.

   Bayfield strawberries are ripe and bearing heavily.  Sweet cherries will not be ripe until several days after the 4th.  Blueberries are still flowering.  Blackberries are still flowering.  Wild raspberries and thimbleberries are setting fruit.