A CAMPFIRE PICNIC, AT LAST!

LOTS OF SMOKE TO KEEP THE MOSQUITOS AT BAY...

AND LOTS OF GOOD FOOD AND COMPANIONSHIP...

...AND DWARF CORNEL BERRIES TO BOOT!

Friday, 8:45 AM.  64 degrees F, wind variable, calm to light.  The sky is filled with rain clouds and we may get a thundershower like we had last night, and which gave us a trace of rain.  The humidity is 88% and the barometer has dropped to 29.81".
   After an all day trip to Duluth yesterday we were happy to go to the Larsen camp for a cookout, the first of this damp, mosquito plagued summer.  Larsen family, friends and neighbors gathered around the campfire and picnic table and we all had a great evening.  Except for Buddy, who had to stay at home with his "lampshade" on.  He missed out on a lot of fun with three other dogs but that's the way it goes.  I hope we can get his stitches taken out today or tomorrow.
   A bonus to the evening was finding lots of  ripening  dwarf cornel berries, AKA dwarf dogwood or bunch berry,  Cornus canadensis, growing along Blume Road.  Note the simple, entire (un-toothed) leaves that grow in a whorl, the characteristic leaf veins and the bunch of red berries. The berries are edible but not worth the trouble.
   This plant is very similar to the flowering dogwood, Cornus florida, of the south and northeast US, except for its diminutive size, no more than a foot tall.