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| LUPINES EVERYWHERE CLOSE TO THE LAKE |
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| PAGODA DOGWOOD BLOOMS |
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| ...AND GRACEFUL SILHOUETTE |
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| RED TWIG DOGWOOD FLOWERS |
Saturday, 9:30 AM. 56 degrees, wind NNE, calm. The sky is overcast but the barometer predicts clearing skies. We got about .25” of rain last night.
The trip to Milwaukee was fast, but we did what we needed to do, and even had dinner with cousin Susan. The Urban Forestry Conference meeting was O.K., and I think we are on the path to planning our activities for the next three to five years, but it is not easy to bring fifteen or more people from different backgrounds and professions, even under the best of circumstances, into some semblance of agreement on ideas, tasks and issues. This of course is the basic problem with any democratic process, but the alternatives are usually not very good. We encourage everyone to see the “big picture,” but when we do we usually loose track of the details, or even the underlying concepts of our mission. I think that is why a military background is so helpful in government and business. One is taught to understand the mission, but to compartmentalize one’s own role in the mission and focus on it. Otherwise we end up not seeing the trees for the forest, everyone an architect and no one a builder.
Milwaukee is still changing downtown, old industrial and commercial buildings are still being torn down, or rehabbed to today’s purposes. This has been going on since the early 1960’s. Our meeting was held in a recently rebuilt Pabst Brewery building, one that Joan recognized from the days she worked there long ago. It was very well done, inside and out.
Lupines are now blooming everywhere in proximity to the lake, none being seen until about twenty miles away from the big water. The alternate leaved, or pagoda, dogwoods,
Cornus alternifolia, are in bloom now here and there in the woods. The red twig dogwoods,
Cornus stolonifera, are also in full bloom.
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