7/20/09 WHEN IS A WEED NOT A WEED?

Monday, 7:15 AM. 56 degrees, wind W, calm. The channel is glassy with patterned dimpled areas. The sky is blue with some haze, and the barometer predicts mostly sunny skies.
The common, or great mullein, Verbascum thaspis, in the Scrophularia family, is a common plant of roadsides and fields, and is often considered a farm field weed. It is uncommonly prolific and beautiful in flower. It is a biennial, the first year’s growth being a flat rosette of fuzzy gray-green leaves, and the second year it shoots up a tall, rigid flower stalk, sometimes branched, which gives it another common name, “candles.” It is native to Eurasia and North Africa, and is much grown in gardens, particularly in England, where it has many horticultural varieties. It has many uses in herbal medicine, as it is strongly antiseptic, and before modern antibiotics was much used in the treatment of the coughs caused by tuberculosis (consumption). Oil of mullein is still used as a treatment for children’s ear problems. I use the hairy leaves as a poultice for skin infections caused by cuts, splinters, boils, etc. But the main virtue of mullein is its roadside beauty. Birds love the hard little seeds.

7/19/09 NO, YOU DON'T SMOKE IT

Sunday, 8:30 AM. 59 degrees, wind W, calm. The channel is glassy, the sky clear and the barometer predicts mostly sunny skies. Looks like a “perfect ten” day.
The dogs had a fine time at the beach this morning. Fireweed, so-called because it is a pioneer plant that often comes in after a fire, is tall, imposing and quite beautiful. There are a number of closely related species of the genus Epilobium in our region, this one probably being E. angustifolium.

7/17/09 DOGS AND BEARS

Saturday, 9:00 AM. 56 degrees, wind WNW, calm. The channel is calm, the sky overcast, and the barometer predicts sunshine.
Daughter Greta arrived from Columbus, stopping in Menomonee, WI on the way to enter one of her two dogs in a field trial. They are trained to stay in their crates. Lucky tolerates them.
Lucky went to Blue Ribbon Kennels for a shave, haircut and bath, and looks quite handsome and a lot thinner.
There evidently is a rogue bear in the neighborhood, as the DNR was around with a bear trap yesterday, although I don’t know where they ended up leaving it. Evidently hungry bears are not hard to trap in what essentially is a large barrel with a spring loaded trap door. The barrel is transported on a trailer that has a winch, the trap is left in a likely location, and when the bear is in the barrel the winch is hooked up and all put on the trailer and spirited away. I once asked a DNR bear guy if the bears returned, to which he replied, “always.” I asked where he took the bears, and he said, “as far south as I can drive and still get back before dinner.” I asked how long it took for a bear to get back, and he said, “usually before I do.” This was all a bit facetious, but probably not far from the truth.

7/17/09 LEAVES OF FIVE, LET THEM LIVE

Friday, 8:00 AM. 52 degrees, wind E, moderate. The channel is wrinkled. The sky is overcast, there is another .2” of rain in the gauge and the barometer predicts more rain, although it seems to be clearing.
Virginia creeper, or woodbine, Parthenocissus quinquifolia, is in the Vitaceae, the grape family. It is a vine, climbing on trees, shrubs or rocky banks, fences, walls, etc. The flowers, growing in dense clusters called corymbs, are insignificant in appearance, but the fruits are very obvious, looking like small blue-black grapes. The leaves turn brilliant orange to maroon in fall.
Unfortunately, the plant is often mistaken for poison ivy, and I would amend the childhood mantra, “leaves of three let them be,” with “leaves of five, let the live.”

7/16/09 WHY DOES THE ASPEN QUAKE?

7:45 AM. 56 degrees, wind W, light with stronger gusts. The channel is dark and wrinkled. The sky is mostly cloudy, which the barometer also predicts.
Bayfield streets have been torn up every summer for the last five years, replacing hundred year old infrastructure. Ninth Street is completely devastated, as has been Fifth Street and parts of others. The Coup de grass will be in a couple of years when the business district has its turn. Anyway, it is all necessary and gets done when money is available from the usual sources.
One of my favorite activities while having morning coffee is watching the distant quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) leaves dance in even the slightest breeze. The mechanism which allows this movement is a very long, flat leaf petiole. No other tree that I am familiar with really has this characteristic, for which I can think of no survival advantage. The quaking, or trembling, aspen is the most widely distributed tree in North America, occurring throughout most of Canada to the tundra, in New England, the Lake States, and the western mountains south into Mexico. They are mostly of medium height and short lived, but provide browse for deer and other mammals and the buds and seeds are the food of many birds. They are very important economically for pulp wood, sprouting again from the roots when harvested. Their golden fall leaves are iconic to the Rockies. All told they are one of the most important trees in the economies of man and nature. But why do they tremble and quake? I can think of no other reason than for my pleasure.

7/15/09 "OH, YE OF LITTLE FAITH"

Wednesday, 7:45 AM. 64 degrees, wind SW, light. The channel is slightly wrinkled, the sky is cloudless at present, but the barometer predicts more rain, which we got a full 2” of yesterday afternoon and evening.
The birds are singing exultantly, and the ground has soaked up every drop of rain. I will not have to water street trees, nor fertilize (thunderstorms fix atmospheric nitrogen in the raindrops).This has been the driest spring I have experienced here, but we are on the road to normalcy. The bird bath is brimming, the rain barrels are full, and I should have had a little faith in the barometer, which after all has to be right at least some of the time.

7/14/09 JUNEBERRIES IN JULY

Tuesday, 7:30 AM. 60 degrees, wind W, calm. The channel is glassy. The sky is mostly overcast, and the barometer again predicts rain, but I will believe it when I feel it.
The Juneberries, Amelanchier Canadensis, also called serviceberries and shadblow in the East, are ripening. They have a sweetish, apple-like flavor, and indeed look like apples, but are so small that it is hard to make any progress picking them. The birds love them. There are several other closely related North American species of Amelanchier, and a number of varieties, a few of which are grown commercially for the fruit, which makes good preserves.
Amelanchiers also make good small street trees for northern cities, hardy, blooming early, easy to control and with good fall color.
The drought is now serious, and I have to get a crew together to water young street trees.

7/13/09 MAY THIS TOWN BE SAFE FROM GYPSY MOTHS

Monday, 7:30 AM. 64 degrees, wind WNW, moderate. The sky is clear with some haze, and the barometer futiley predicts rain.
We are under aerial bombardment this morning, not by foreign enemies, but by the State of Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, which is spraying for Gypsy moths, dive bombing Bayfield at treetop level. The assault has been going on now for two hours. They are depositing fungus spores that will kill the caterpillars of all moths and butterflies (what will happen to the Monarchs, Swallow Tails, etc.?).
This seems like “Déjà vu all over again, ”since this is what we experienced in our little town in New York years ago, until the State of New York gave it up as a wasted effort. The State of Wisconsin has a current account deficit of $6B and yet chooses to spend hundreds of thousands on a program that states in the East abandoned years ago.
This reminds me of the guy in New Jersey that put a sign over his front door that read, “May This House Be Safe From Tigers,” and when his neighbor pointed out that there were no tigers in New Jersey, replied, “See, it works.”
I have ‘t seen a Gypsy moth or an egg mass in Bayfield in ten years. The Department of Agriculture must be doing its job.

7/12/09 ACHILLES' HERB

Sunday, 8:00 AM. 56 degrees, wind WNW, light to moderate. The channel is wrinkled, the sky blue with some high, thin clouds and the barometer predicts mostly sunny skies. It is a most pleasant morning, but we are in a drought, and I watered heavily again yesterday.
The yarrow, Achillea millefolioum, is a common roadside and field plant, and the Achillea species and varieties are one way or another circumpolar in the northern hemisphere. The golden flowered plant is a cultivated variety, the white is wild. It’s genus name is after Achilles, who tradition has it used it as a compress to staunch the bleeding of the wounds of battle, thus also the names military herb, and woundwort. It has a lot of other herbal uses, internal as well as external. Don’t plant them in the garden as they become very weedy, otherwise, wild or cultivated these are good and useful plants.

7/11/09 LUPINE SEEDS, DOGBANE AND A LIFE LESSON FROM THE GARDEN

7:45 AM. 59 degrees, wind WNW, very light. The channel is dimpled, the sky is cloudless except for a few on the eastern horizon. The barometer again predicts rain but it doesn’t look likely.Yesterday afternoon I harvested lupine seed pods for the condominium project beach area, and came across this huge patch of dogbane, Apocynum andraesomifolium, in the family Apocynaceae. It exudes a white latex sap from broken stems or pulled leaves. The common name seems lost in antiquity. It has the same use in herbal medicine as digitalis, the important heart stimulant. It is violently poisonous if ingested and must not be used except by medical practitioners.
I have started to clean up the perennial garden (again) cutting back plants that are through blooming and pulling weeds. It is a daunting task but easier if one is decisive and brutal (a life lesson, there).

7/10/09 A WELCOME CHINESE IMPORT

Friday, 7:30 AM. 70 degrees, wind WSW, very light, the channel is almost calm, the sky is nearly clear with some haze, and the barometer predicts sunny weather. A real warm day lies ahead, with no rain in sight.
The Japanese tree lilac, Syringa reticulata, is a very hardy small tree, beautiful in bloom and very useful as an ornamental street tree. The Pekin lilac is rather similar but more shrubby.
The species and varieties that can be used as small decorative street trees is very limited, due to the rather strict requirements for street trees, and this one fills the bill nicely.

7/09/09 HERE WE GO 'ROUND THE MULBERRY TREE

Thursday, 7:30 AM. 56 degrees, wind NW, calm. The channel is calm, the sky mostly overcast, and the barometer predicts sunny weather.
The robins are thrashing about in the mulberry tree across the street, although the berries are still unripe on the lower branches. It is a white mulberry, Morus alba, of Eurasian origin. Originally it was brought to the West to feed the leaves silk moth caterpillars for a silk industry, which never developed. The trees escaped into the wild, and many were also planted for their fruit, which is bountiful and delicious.
Mulberries are seldom grown commercially, since the fruit is hard to harvest from the large trees, but many farmsteads had mulberry trees for fresh fruit and preserves. Joan recalls climbing high up into her aunts’ mulberry tree with her siblings and cousins, picking berries for pies and jelly, eating plenty in the process and becoming stained blue outside and presumably inside as well.

7/08/09 A SWEETER CICELY, AND LUCKY GOES TO A FISH FRY

Wednesday, 7;:30 AM. 55 degrees, wind WNW, light. The channel is lightly wrinkled, the sky is partly cloudy with high thin clouds. The barometer predicts clear weather, and it looks as though the rumor of rain was unfounded.
At first I thought I had found another species of Ozmorhiza, sweet cicely, but upon closer inspection, it is the same mentioned back on the 26th of June, now completely mature in flower (long-lasting, very pretty).
Lucky has overstepped his bounds. The Radke’s up the street reported that Lucky invited himself to their fish fry two nights ago, scratching on the kitchen door to take his place at the table. Thankfully they did not give in to his demands, as did Sherman a while back while cooking sausages on the grill.
I met a lady who works for the Park Service walking this morning, she picked up a black, spiny caterpillar which she thought to be a black swallow tail butterfly larvae. I am very ignorant of such things. Enough out there to keep one interested, as long as life lasts.

7/07/09 DROPHEAD WEATHER AND SMOKE TREES

Tuesday, 7:30 AM. 56 degrees, wind NW, light. The channel is calm with a few wrinkles. The sky is clear with some haze, and the barometer predicts rain.
The American smoke tree, Cotina obovata, is native to the south-central states, and I am unfamiliar with it in the wild. It and its Eurasian counterpart, C. coggygria, are much planted for their oddly decorative smoky blooms, orange fall leaf color in the American species, and purple summer foliage in the Eurasian species. It is closely related to the sumacs and poison ivies, but is not poisonous. It can grow quite large and is very hardy.
The beautiful weather continues but it will probably rain later in the week. Bayfield businesses are off to a good start to the tourist season, which only lasts about 90 days (not much time to make expenses and a little profit). The new scooter rental business seems off to a good start as well, they were flitting all about on the holiday weekend. They are an alternative to bicycles for the less athletic on our hilly terrain. They are much less intrusive than the noisy, destructive ATV’s. I myself prefer a four-wheeled convertible, or as the English call them, a “drophead”.

7/05/09 UNUSUAL FLOWERS ON A SEE-FOREVER DAY

Monday, 8:00 AM. 62 degrees, wind W, light with stronger gusts. The channel is wrinkled, and the sky cloudless. The barometer predicts rain but it appears unlikely today. It is a see-forever day, at least to the far off Penoke iron range from the top of 11th street.
The fluffy-flowered shrub is false spirea, Sorbaria sorbifolia, of Asian origin. It is valuable in the traditional landscape because it follows the lilac in the bloom sequence and is quite showy. The conical bloom is the female flower head of the staghorn sumac, Rhus typhina. The male and female flowers are borne on different plants

7/05/09 CLOUDS AND SUNDROPS

Sunday, 8:00 AM. 65 degrees, wind W, light. The channel is calm, the sky clear and the barometer predicts rain. Another beautiful morning.
I awoke early and took Lucky to the beach. I took a trash bag along since I assumed there would be lots of litter after yesterday, but there was very little to pick up, people are really pretty respectful. We watched the La Pointe fireworks from the porch, that was enough for us this year.
The yellow flower is sundrops, Oenothera perennis, also called evening primrose. It is in the evening primrose family, the Onagraceae. This one is on the beach, but it is a rather common plant of dry soils.

7/04/09 OUR LIVES, OUR FORTUNES AND OUR SACRED HONOR

Saturday, 8:30 AM. 62 degrees, wind WSW, calm to light. The channel is calm, the sky almost cloudless, and the barometer predicts mostly sunny skies.
"OUR LIVES, OUR FORTUNES, AND OUR SACRED HONOR"
That’s what the fifty-six signers of the Declaration of Independence pledged on the first Fourth of July, 1776. What was their reward for such patriotism?
Five of them were subsequently captured, tortured and killed. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Nine died from wounds or the hardships of the war.
Carter Braxton of Virginia saw his shipping empire destroyed by the British navy, and he died a pauper.
Thomas McKeam and his family were hounded into poverty.
Dilley, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heward, Ruttledge and Middleton had their properties looted.
Thomas Nelson Jr. urged General Washington to shell his own home at the Battle of Yorktown because the British were using it as a command post. It was destroyed, and Nelson died penniless.
Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed, and the British imprisoned his wife, where she died.
John Hart was driven from the bedside of his dying wife, his property destroyed, and his thirteen children scattered
(the above information is adapted from text by Fight Back Wisconsin)
Abstractions like “freedom” and “independence’ are seldom truly appreciated until objectified by their absence.
How many of us would, today, pledge “our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor” for these abstractions?
How many of us would stand with their neighbors and fight at Bunker Hill?
How many of us would have the courage to wait with Francis Scott Key, a prisoner on the deck of a British warship, for the dawn’s early light and the sight of those “broad stripes and bright stars?”
How many of us would ride through the enemy lines, the wrong way, to join Travis, Bowie, Crocket and the rest in certain death at the Alamo?
How many of us would sing, “let us die to make men free,” amidst the carnage at Gettysburg?
How man of us would endure the stench and death of the trenches of the Great War so that Frenchmen might be free?
How many of us would charge up San Juan Hill with TR?
How many of us would say “nuts” to surrendering to the surrounding Nazis in the dead of winter at The Battle of the Bulge?
How many of us would help raise the flag at Iwo?
How many of us would not surrender during the retreat from the Chosin Reservoir?
How many of us would follow the Code of Honor and give up the opportunity to leave the Hanoi Hilton before the others?
How many of us would march with Martin?
How many of us would stand with the Poles and Hungarians throwing rocks at Russian Tanks;with the Gipper at the Brandenburg Gate, defying the Evil Empire; with the Chinese people in Tiananmen Square, the Iraqi crowds pulling down the statue of Saddam, or with the protesters in Tehran?
The 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence would have, I am certain.
The Fourth of July has magic in it: two principal authors of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, first comrades, then bitter enemies, and finally reconciled in old age, both died on the Fourth of July, 1826, the Declaration’s fiftieth anniversary. Jefferson’s last words were, “Adams still lives.”
And indeed, the Declaration and its signers still live in spirit, and inspire us today to stand and if need be to fight for our guiding principle, unique among all the nations of the earth, “that all men are created equal, and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among them being life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” To these holy abstractions may our Creator give us the courage to pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

7/03/09 FLEA FLOWERS

Friday, 8:30 AM. 60 degrees, wind WNW, very light. The channel is glassy, the shoreline trees of the Island casting their reflections far out onto the water. The sky is partly cloudy and the barometer predicts more of the same. It is a fine day.
Pictured is a common native plant of fields and roadsides, the daisy fleabane, Erigeron philadelphicum. There are white flowered species of Erigeron as well. This one may be a garden escapee, as fleabanes are somewhat used in the garden. Fleabanes are in the Aster family and look quite similar but the composite flowers are much smaller and more delicate. Its name is said to be derived from the fact that the small seeds look like fleas, but I find no mention of it being used to ward off fleas, as the appellation "bane" would indicate, although it does have some uses in folk medicine.

7/02/09 COWS AND PARSNIPS

Thursday, 58 degrees, wind W, light. The channel is calm, the sky overcast but the barometer predicts sunny skies.
The cow parsnip, Heracleum lanatum, is a tall (3’-10’) showy member of the parsley family (Umbelliferae) that grows in rich moist soils in northern latitudes. There are quite a few growing along Star Route and the north branch of Pikes Creek west of Bayfield. I have no idea why it is called cow parsnip, as it is not likely to be found in cow pastures. This plant looks a lot like Angelica atropurpurea but is much larger. The parsley family is huge and many species are hard to identify one from another.

7/01/09 THE BEACH PEA, FOOTLOOSE AND FANCY FREE

Wednesday, 8:00 AM. 50 degrees, wind WNW, moderate. The channel is surprisingly calm. The sky is overcast but it has quit raining. There is .25” of rain in the gauge but the barometer predicts sunshine.
I have been reading a novel set in Scotland, which describes the persistent cold rainy summers in the Highlands, always a fire burning on the grate and the Aga going. Sounds familiar, except that I have run out of firewood, and must lay some in before August gets here.
The beach pea, Lathyrus japonicus forma spectabilis (crimson flowered) is a common native, very showy wildflower of beach dunes and areas near the lake. The species name, japonicus, indicates that it is a circumpolar species, growing in like situations many places in the northern hemisphere and beyond. It can be weedy in the garden but is more than welcome. One can imagine the plentiful seeds awash in seas everywhere, landing on sandy beaches and becoming established, a real world traveler.