Diversion III

On Thursday we drove about seven hours up into the North Woods to Donna's family's cabin on Soo Lake near Philips, Wisconsin for the annual Labor Day celebration, joining others from Chicagoland and the Des Moines area. We played hard: 27 holes of golf, a couple games of bowling, boat rides on the Party Barge, and a 32-mile / 9-tavern (!) bicycle ride.

We deep-fried a turkey for dinner one night, and with a large fryer on hand...well, the imagination takes hold, in this case producing the Heart Attack Vendo Snack® coming soon to a State Fair near you. Bacon-wrapped marshmallows dipped in a tempura batter and cooked to a crispy golden brown. Humans were, after all, evolved to desire such food, or so we justified the excess to ourselves.

Our cucumber pickles were popular even for breakfast, and our pickled hot pepper garlic green beans were an excellent garnish for Bloody Marys. Eventually (drawing a line from the Bloody Marys) I was inspired to compose a poem, which I shall share with you now.

Bestish whenic
Wiggiloe barquart
Miscontro whatsit
Bel...is...is...is...mo!
Majan wansit
Epsilo Quan
Bersak mediloo
Wiill?
Perserman kicky
Blou
Bloustein
Xsty kwansty
Lonsterry bigaloo berony itsmith
Wanverve

We arrived home last night after dark and awoke this morning to find the lawn overgrown and the purslane again to have taken over the west garden. There are strawberries somewhere in this photograph, and this is not by any means the worst of it. I reckon I have about 20 hours of weeding and cultivating ahead of me in the next few days. The weather is now typical hot and humid Iowa August.

On my morning walk through the woods I came upon a strange sight, but quickly realized what it was: Calvatia gigantea, a giant puffball mushroom.

I found a second one nearby and brought it home. It weighs one and three-quarters pounds and, assuming the interior is still pure white, indicating the spores have not yet developed, I intend to cook it for dinner.

A Blustery Morning

From the strawberry beds past the grapes to the apple orchard, raspberry bed, and on up to the NW corner:

Trillium, which got the state forester quite excited:

A few days too late to come upon these morel mushrooms:

I was tramping in the woods when a turkey hen went up in front of me and I nearly stumbled into her nest, formed into the earth and lined with straw. The eggs were a good three inches long.