ROADSIDE FRAGRANCES, AND ROMNEY'S VACATION

COMMON MILKWEED

BASSWOOD LEAF

BASSWOOD FLOWERS

:  Saturday, 7:15 AM.  65 degrees F, wind WNW, calm at present.  The humidity is 85%.  The sky is clear with some haze.  We got a good shower yesterday so the lawn looks better today and maybe the raspberries will plump up.  Maybe our hot spell is broken and maybe not, but it is a beautiful morning.
    The basswood tree, AKA American linden (Tilia americana, in its own family) is in bloom in the woods at this time.  Basswood is a shade tolerant tree which grows in association with sugar maples and other trees of the climax (shade tolerant) northern deciduous forest.  It is fairly fast growing and makes a good street tree.  It is not usually found in great numbers, but it is not by any means rare.  There are a number of species in the genus, both native to North America and non-native, many of which are used horticulturally.  The blooms are sweetly scented, a favorite of bees and make excellent honey.  A large American linden in bloom is impressively fragrant.  The blossoms are followed by diminutive, winged nutlets, which can be messy but are a  small price to pay for the beauty  and utility of the tree. The European linden, Tilia cordata, is also a fine street tree, somewhat smaller than its American counterpart; and, there are a number of good hybrids between the two species. Common milkweed (Asclepias syiaca, in the milkweed family) is also in bloom everywhere, to the point of its fragrance being almost overpowering along some of the roadsides.
    Political commentary: I see that presidential candidate Romney is being criticized by some of his opponents for taking his family on vacation.  I’m not paying for it, and I wish them all a good time.

NEGATIVE GAS MILEAGE, HAY FEVER, ROSES AND TAXES

NEGATIVE MPG?

TIMOTHY POLLEN

MAYBE

Friday, 8:00 AM.  72 degrees F, wind WNW, light to calm, humidity 70%.  The sky is darkly overcast and the barometer is down but I doubt it is going to rain this morning.  We need rain, the raspberries are suddenly ripening and they will be very small if they don’t get moisture.
    On the Fourth this caravan was parked in front of the Ace Hardware store in town.  Huge bus/RV, pulling a full size pickup with an ATV in its bed.  I found out later it was part of the entourage of  entertainer Glen Campbell, who was performing  at the Big Top.  Anyway, I wonder if there is such a thing as negative gas mileage.
    Yesterday was another hot one, and today may not be much different.  Mornings and evenings are pleasant, but mid-day heat discourages serious garden or other outdoor work unless it is absolutely necessary or pays well.
    My watering eyes usually are back to normal after the pines stop shedding their pollen, but this summer of lush growth seems  to give me no respite, the wind-blown pollen of grasses now evidently being the culprit, as evidenced by the photo of the flower head of Timothy, an almost omnipresent species escaped from the hayfields.  That’s how “hay fever” got its name.
    Political commentary: pundits and even the presidential candidates themselves keep tripping over the semantics of Obamacare, and whether it represents a tax or a penalty, or both, or whatever.  As a hoticulturist, I can probably get away with saying, “a rose is a rose is a rose,” and "a tax is a tax is a tax."

SUMAC, ST. JOHN'S WORT AND CANADIAN PIPELINE JOBS FOR US VETS

...SOME VIOLENT WEATHER YESTERDAY...

...CLEARED FOR FIREWORKS LAST NIGHT

ST. JOHN'S WORT

STAGHORN SUMAC, MALE FLOWER SPIKE

STAGHORN SUMAC FEMALE FLOWER SPIKE

Thursday, 8:15 AM.  73 degrees F, wind NNW, light.  The humidity is 73%, the sky mostly overcast but the barometer is on  the rise.  Yesterday afternoon we had a weather cell move through that brought very high winds but no rain.  The temperature fell from the high 80’s to the low 70’s in minutes. A few utility lines went down but nothing more.
    Friends Andy and Judy came to dinner yesterday and when it got dark we took the convertible and parked on Catholic Hill to watch the fireworks.  Bayfield’s were nothing to write home about but we could also see LaPointe’s display on Madeline Island so it was well worth the effort.
    The staghorn sumacs, Rhus typhina, in the cashew family (Anacardiaceae) have been flowering for weeks, putting on a nice display, the male flower heads golden yellow, the female flower heads pink, then turning purple, to be followed by fuzzy purple nutlets that will remain for most of next winter.  The seeds have a lemony, astringent taste, and in the past a summer drink was made from them.  I have not heard of anyone being allergic to either staghorn or smooth sumac, but poison ivy and poison sumac are close relatives so one should probably be cautious.
    The first wild raspberries are ripe along Old San Road, so it won’t be long until we can go berry picking amongst the bears. The common St. John’s wort,     Hypericum kalmianum, in the family of the same name, is in bloom in the fields and it is quite pretty.  There are many, confusing species.  St. John’s wort has a long history of use in herbal medicine as a nervine, and is still used as a treatment for nervous disorders and as a calmative. 
    Have you heard that the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) organization has brokered thousands of skilled jobs for returning vets, working on the Canadian portion of the Keystone pipeline?  I’m glad someone is looking out for jobs and the economy, as the Administration sure is not.

FOR FAITH, FAMILY, AND FREEDOM

 

The Star Spangled Banner

Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen thro' the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash'd out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand,
Between their lov'd homes and the war's desolation;
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Francis Scott Key

GOD BLESS THE USA
PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN 

If tomorrow all the things were gone
I'd worked for all my life
And I had to start again
With just my children and my wife

I'd thank my lucky stars
To be living here today
'Cause the flag still stands for freedom
And they can't take that away

And I'm proud to be an American
Where at least I know I'm free
And I won't forget the men who died
Who gave that right to me

And I gladly stand up next to you
And defend her still today
'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land
God Bless the U.S.A.

From the lakes of Minnesota
To the hills of Tennessee
Across the plains of Texas
From sea to shining sea

From Detroit down to Houston
And New York to L.A.
Well there's pride in every American heart
And it's time we stand and say

That I'm proud to be an American
Where at least I know I'm free
And I won't forget the men who died
Who gave that right to me

And I gladly stand up next to you
And defend her still today
'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land
God Bless the U.S.A.

Lee Greenwood

BLACK KNOT OF PLUM, AND THE AMERICAN KULAKS

ANOTHER HUMID, HAZY MORNING

BLACK KNOT OF PLUM...

ATTACKS PLUMS AND CHERRIES, BOTH  ORNAMENTAL AND EDIBLE

Tuesday, 8:15 AM.  72 degrees F, wind WNW, light.  The humidity is 93% and the sky is blue but rather hazy.  The barometer predicts rain.  We had a “Shakespeare storm” last night …”Full of sound and fury, but signifying nothing.” Except some wet pavement.
    This being a lush growth summer, pests and diseases are also rampant.  Cherries and plums, ornamental as well as edible, are very susceptible to black knot of plum, a serious and usually fatal disease.  If it is recognized when first established on branches it can be controlled with preventive pruning and spraying but that is usually not the case.  The tree pictured here is a hybrid Canada red ornamental cherry.  Cherries and plums are problematical and usually short lived and unless grown for fruit, best avoided.
    Political commentary: The big Obamacare question, “is it a tax or not a tax,” is easily answered by the fact that the IRS will enforce it.  And, it will fall primarily on the “middle-class,”  not on some fictitious “1%.”
    Let us remember that, despite his reputed admiration for the middle-class, Barack Obama has spent his educational and political career catering not to it, but to the lower-class, or perhaps the term should be the under-class, those dependent upon government largess for their survival,  And, he has spent his presidency trying to enroll more and more people in the under-class, through unemployment and government relief programs, thereby creating a larger and larger political base for himself and the Democrat party.
    Let us remember also that Obama is the furthest left president we have ever elected, that he is highly schooled in left wing theory and practice.  Does he see, as Stalin did, the Bourgeoisie as the ultimate enemy? Does he see the independent small business and agricultural class as the great threat to creating a classless society?  Stalin killed millions of Kulaks trying to achieve that end. 
    The power to tax is the power to destroy.  The administration, with the approval of the Supreme Court, by its control of the Internal Revenue Service, now has, through Obamacare, the potential power to destroy tens of millions of our middle-class, the American Kulaks. Stalin starved the Kulaks to death when they did not revolt.  Hitler gassed millions of Jews when they did not revolt.  Will the American middle-class also allow itself and our republic to be fatally weakened and destroyed, without protest?

A BEAR, ICE CREAM, AND WILD PARSNIPS

WILD PARSNIP, ABOUT 5' TALL

COMPOUND LEAVES...

DOUBLY COMPOUND YELLOW FLOWERS MEAN, DON'T TOUCH!

WILD RICE RESTAURANT''S FANCIFUL MENAGERIE..,

...BUDDY DOESN'T POINT THEM!

,  SUNSET OVER SAND ISLAND, SUNDAY EVENING

Monday, 8:00 AM.  70 degrees F, wind WNW, calm.  the sky is about 60% covered with stationary black rain clouds and the humidity is 78%.  It looks and feels like we shall get a shower, although the barometer is way up.
    Buddy and I have been walking a lot on Old San road, just south of town, because it has virtually  no daytime traffic and has a lot of wildlife habitat, including the occasional grouse to point, along the edges.  The five-star Wild Rice Restaurant is at the end of the road, and their entrance roof sports a menagerie of fanciful animals.  Buddy has not pointed any of them as yet.
    A new bear story, told to me by a first-hand witness: yesterday afternoon a large black bear walked through downtown Bayfield, near the candy and ice cream shop.  It attracted quite a retinue of followers; tourists eating ice cream cones.  It finally gained a police escort and was encouraged to "Get out of Dodge." One wonders who is smarter, the people or the bear.  I'd say the bear.
    Wild parsnip, Pastinaca sativa, in the parsley family (Umbelliferae) is very similar to the cultivated parsnip in appearance, but is highly toxic; if it contacts skin which is then exposed to sunlight, it can cause severe burns.  There are a number of edible plants in the parsley family, as well as many which are very poisonous.  It is best to leave plants in this family, which is pretty easily recognized by their doubly compound flower heads, alone.  As far as the wild parsnip is concerned, its flower heads give it away, as there are only a few other, rather obscure,  members of the parsley family that have yellow flowers (I suppose it could perhaps be confused with Tansy, which also has umbels of yellow flowers, but it  is in the sunflower family).  I’ll have to see if I can get these wild parsnips, which are on a vacant lot in Bayfield, mowed.
    Political commentary: most pundits of the right remain mystified by Chief Justice Roberts contrarian decision on Obamacare, although some are crediting him with Solomon-like wisdom.  Perhaps he is too clever,  by half.

AN UNLIKELY MIX, TWIN RACCOONS AND SOME REZ HUMOR

AN UNLIKELY MIXTURE

WHAT HAVE WE HERE?...

...TWO LITTLE RACCOONS, OUT FOR A STROLL

A LITTLE RESERVATION  HUMOR, PALEFACE

Sunday, 8:00 AM.  70 degrees F, wind WWNW, calm.  The sky is virtually cloudless, the humidity 70%, and the barometer high;  another fine summer day.
    Yesterday afternoon, about dinner time, we took a little top-down ride through the orchard country and the Rez.  The very pretty but highly unlikely patch of flowers is a mix of Coreopsis,  common mullein, and Peruvian Verbena, the latter escaped perhaps as long as a century ago from commercial flower fields nearby and reseeding itself ever since.
    Along Hwy. 13 on the Rez, Joan spotted two little black balls of fur, which turned out to be…twin raccoons, out for a stroll.
    And then there was this giant wooden eagle, perched convincingly in a roadside tree…a little Reservation humor (one wonders how many palefaces going to the casino thought it was  real).
    Political commentary: Never On Sunday.