Saturday, June 21, 2008

6/21/08 LET THE SUMMER BEGIN


Saturday, 7:30 AM, 55 degrees, wind NE, moderate. The channel is wrinkled. The barometer is down, predicting partly cloudy weather, and the skies are now clear, with some haze. We had showers yesterday, some with winds and hail, and got one-half inch of rain total (welcome rain and no damage).
Eva, Nick and Katie and new dog Ronnie arrived yesterday at dinner time from Denver. They had a good trip, skirting the Iowa flooding. Their pup is a Kansas tornado rescue dog, maybe he should be named Toto?
American cranberrybush or highbush cranberry, Viburnum trilobum, is in bloom, its flat-topped clusters of white flowers quite showy. It will develop persistent edible red fruits, but it is not related to the true cranberry. The genus Viburnum is one of the best for useful and decorative shrubs, and no landscape is really complete without its representatives.
We’re not going to do much today, mostly just relax with family. Joan and I didn’t run off to any wild Solstice parties last night, either…no dancing naked under the full moon (what a revolting sight that would be!), although I wouldn’t be too surprised to hear that something of that nature had occurred somewhere out in the Bayfield boondocks last night.