NATURE, THE GREATEST MAGICIAN

A FOG BANK...

...ROLLING IN, OBSCURING MADELINE ISLAND

QUAKING ASPEN...

...FLOWERS ARE  NOW IN FULL BLOOM...

 ...THESE ARE FEMALE CATKINS

Monday, 8:00 AM.  32 degrees F at both the ferry dock and on the back porch.  Wind NNE, mostly calm with light to moderate gusts.  The sky is cloudy and overcast and there is mist in the air, the humidity 92%.  The barometer is still rising, now at 30.21", predicting rain tomorrow and continued cool weather and mixed skies through tomorrow, then warming into the high 40's and 50's during the day with mixed skies the balance of the week.
   Buddy and I went to the beach yesterday and almost froze to death, the temperature a full twenty degrees lower than Bayfield and the wind blowing a gale out of the northeast.
   It was worth it though, as we saw LaPoint on Madeline Island disappear in an advancing fog bank, then reappear and then disappear again, as though it was a subject in some great magic show.  It always amazes me the way the seascape can change with the atmosphere,  nature the great  magician wielding its wand.
   I also had the opportunity to observe close at hand the flowers of quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) in the Willow Family, the Saliceae, the flowering branches of which are usually too high to reach.  They were in full bloom, the male and female flower catkins are on different, male and female trees (dioecious).  Those pictured are female.
   The hillsides will soon turn a wispy gray, as all the poplars come into bloom.
   Nature is indeed the greatest magician.