Home is the sailor...

No, I'm not a sailor, but we did take a trip up to Michigan City for our early family Thanksgiving. The weather was halfway decent (for a change - we frequently seem to bring rain and wind with us), so we spent some time outside.

One stop was the Galien River County Park, which is a mix of upland and marsh. We ambled out onto the Canopy Walkway, which is 60' high and *sways*. Despite the safety fence, adults are warned to not carry children in their arms on this structure; strollers and backpacks are de rigueur. A l-o-n-g stairway leads from the upland to the marsh (we went down it, but not up), then there is a nice path that took us back to the beginning.

At a different park (don't remember the name), I was taken with this red oak tree. It could be one of many several, but I'm going to guess it's a pin oak.

While wandering around Chesterton, we spotted this vine on a chainlink fence. I was puzzled about the "flowers" until Google Photo Lens revealed that they are the seed pods from a "white clematis".

From our AirBnB, we were able to walk down to the shoreline of Lake Michigan. In the neighborhood, there were several vividly red trees. Only after I arrived home did I realize they were probably Japanese maples, just like the one in front of my dining room window.

Yes, we received some snow yesterday. It's gone already, but a good sign that winter is on its way. I plugged in the birdbath and set out the feeders yesterday. The birds have found them already, especially the blue jays who are actually fighting over the whole peanuts.

Road trip

Sorry for my absence. It's been a couple of busy weeks, climaxed with a weekend trip out of town. My little family has started a newish Thanksgiving tradition: gathering the weekend before Thanksgiving. Then my kids can do what they wish on the actual holidy, be it spend time with in-laws, hunker down at home, etc.

I rent a place (sometimes AirBnB, sometimes VRBO) near where my son and his girl friend live, and the rest of us traipse up there for a couple of days of eating, shopping, hiking, etc. I've abandoned cooking the traditional turkey meal, so we mostly eat out. No one complains (or they don't dare).

This time we drove down to the Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area to view the sandhill cranes. There is an observation deck, but that's as close as one can get to the birds (unless you are one of *those* people). There were *thousands* of them, filling the air with their gargling calls. We may go back in the spring, as that's when they execute their mating dance.

Since it was close by, we stopped to see the Dunn Bridge, which runs over the Kankakee River. My son is into bridges, especially covered bridges, while my daughter, a newish kayaker, eyed the river for a possible adventure.

As you may have noticed from previous posts, my yard art consists primarily of plastic pink flamingos. Recently, I've added red, white, and blue flamingos for summer display, and black sparkly ones for Halloween. My son and his girl friend found some xmas ones, which they presented to me this past weekend. I'm tickled (flamingo) pink!

I don't have much holiday decor, but I may have to get a spotlight or something, to showcase these latest additions once they are outside.

Road trip

This past week we spent a few days in Chicago. My daughter arranged the trip, as a kind of end-of-school-year treat for my granddaughter. All we had to do was tag along. I did make one request: that we visit the Lurie Garden. If I lived in Chicago, I would want to be near this spectacular year-round piece of green space.

The plants are not labeled, but I recognized many of them. And those I didn't got the Google Photos Lens treatment: take a photo, open it in Google Photos, click the Lens icon, and the app will try to match it with other photos. Very handy.

We also visited the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, which included an installation by Nick Cave of thousands of wind spinners. They were mesmerizing. If they sold them in the museum shop, I would have bought one. Instead, I purchased one at Wild Birds Unlimited (I had a coupon!)

Back home, we had another visitor to the backyard, a young squirrel who found itself trapped on the pergola. What you don't see in the photo is Finn sitting at the base of the post, keeping an eye on the youngster.

My next door neighbor has the kind of parents who periodically show up to help her with yardwork. They aren't very friendly, will say hi and that's about it. I'm sure they are wondering what in the world is going on in my yard. If they asked, I would tell them I am waiting on the landscaper to work his magic. Meanwhile, I keep the lawn mowed and trimmed.

Pigs will fly

When the Cubs won the World Series, I had a premonition about the election. Sadly, my fears came true. I don't remember ever bursting into tears over election results before. My one consolation is voter turnout was low, so we are not so much a nation full of hate but one of apathy and/or frustration. Let's hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

To distract ourselves last Tuesday, my SO and I took a road trip to the Toledo area. At the recommendation of a friend, we stopped at Grand Rapids OH along the way. Despite the Trump signs, we enjoyed our visit there. We ate pie at Miss Lily's Restaurant, made some fiber and decor purchases at the Natural Fiber and Yarn Co., and strolled along the Maumee River.

There we found a small but interesting river/water theme garden. Besides the fish planters and red hand pump, a spigot serves as a perch for the birdhouse on the left. (I assume any avian residents of that house are sparrows. Tired of housing sparrows, I donated my bluebird boxes to a local nature preserve group - maybe they will have better luck attracting bluebirds than I did.)

These red, white, and blue samples of garden art caught my eye, as they look like alliums.

Closer inspection revealed that they are made of balled up CHICKEN WIRE mounted on plastic covered rebar! I've been wanting to add a splash of color to my hosta bed, and these may be just the ticket. Even with my limited skills set, I should be able to wad up poultry netting and spray paint it.

My SO identified the gingko trees that line the main drag of Grand Rapids. I know a few things about gingkos - they adapt well to urban environments but the fruit produced by female plants is stinky. I did not know that they are so pretty in fall, tolerate clay soil and some shade, and are known as "living fossils".

I would consider them for my yard, but they are not native and appear to provide no habitat for wildlife here in the states.

I can still enjoy them elsewhere.

The Chicago Botanical Garden was on the way

My SO and I scheduled a road trip to Milwaukee last weekend, and since the Chicago Botanical Garden was on the way, we decided to stop for a visit. Wowsers! We've been to other botanical gardens, but this one is my favorite (so far).

We are at (ahem) a certain age where we forget things. Consequently, even though we arrived too early for the Grand Tram Tour, by the time we made a trip back to the car (what kind of photographer forgets his camera?), ate some lunch (hint - eat before you come unless you don't mind spending a small fortune for a not very exciting meal), made an aborted trip to the gardens proper, returned to the car AGAIN for sweaters, and visited the facilities, it was time for the tour!

Some might think walking the gardens and touring the grounds is redundant, but I disagree. For one thing, on the tour, you learn all kinds of things you might otherwise not. Also, the Prairie is rather large but somewhat repetitious, at least this time of year (hello golden rod!), so the eyeful we gained from the tram was enough. And the tour was the closest we got to the Japanese Garden, as caterers were setting up for a wedding there.

There are 31 different gardens, and we probably wandered through several of them without knowing which were which. Again, a tour, either the Bright Encounters Tram or one of the walking tours, would have been helpful. We had a map but were too busy looking, looking, looking at everything. I was most interested in the Fruit and Vegetable Garden, and we passed through the Crescent, the Esplanade, and the Native Plant Garden on the way. You know how landscaping books talk about mixing forms and textures, and show you photos as examples? Seeing real life displays of these principles is completely different.

The scale of the gardens is another aspect that cannot be appreciated from looking at books. When you have acres to work with, you can plant acres of landscaping. The trick is to adapt the ideas to the space available in the home gardener's own plot of ground. And add some whimsical art.

We spent most of our time among the fruits and vegetables. Having planted apple and cherry trees this year in my own yard, and trying to follow explicit directions spelled out in several books on orchards, I was particularly intrigued by the variety of methods used at CBG. (And thanks to the tram tour, I now know how to pronounce "espalier". At least, I assumed the guide was pronouncing it correctly; she was wrong about "artisanal", saying "artesian" instead.)

You can grow fruit trees on a wall.

You can grow them in a row.

You can grow them on a fence.

You can grow them on a trellis. The trees on the left side were recently replaced and still rather puny compared to their mature cousins across the archway.

With creative pruning, fruit trees can be shaped and restrained in their growth habit. The only way to tell their true age is by looking at the trunks.

In some ways, the Fruit and Vegetable Garden reflected a vision I entertain of my own yard. This berry cage would not keep out woodchucks, but is very effective at discouraging marauding birds. I don't have trouble with birds in my berries, but the sparrows do like the pea plants, to the point where I have contemplated a cage such as this. An alternative idea is to make use of mylar ribbon, which CBG also uses here and there.

I also hope to have bees some day.

And kiwi! I still have the metal pergola that used to grace the patio, and have contemplated setting it up in the yard as an arbor for hardy kiwi and grapes. CBG did both.

The fruit of the hardy kiwi is smaller than what one finds in the grocery story, but lacks fuzz, so is more palatable for eating without peeling. I'm just not sure what I would do with all that fruit.

I have never tasted hardy kiwi, but I assume it tastes like store-bought. The fruit at CBG was not yet ripe, plus there were signs posted to not pick the fruit. If everyone said, Just one taste won't hurt, there would be nothing left in no time.

The sparrows that hang around the outside dining area cannot read, though, and tried to get us to ignore the signs that said to not feed the wildlife. On the right side of this picture, there is a plaque on the railing that describes what one sees across the water. CBG is extremely good at labeling plants and trees, which we really appreciated.

Since the Japanese Garden was off limits, we wandered about the water lilies, which were more varied than I have seen elsewhere. A major water feature is another item on my wish list, but every time I research the idea, I get discouraged by the amount of work they require.

There were very few blossoms this time of year, and I mistook what I now think were seed pods for flowers.

Don't they look other worldly?

We also visited the Bonsai Garden. This was outside, which could have been problematic for photographing, but CBG erected frosted panels behind each one, which really enhanced the viewing pleasure.

This is one area where more information could have been provided, such as the age of the trees.

It was time to go, but I kept getting distracted by this, that, and another thing. Even exiting through the visitors center stopped me on the spot, as I had to check out the planters overhead. The pergola on my deck needs something like this, but with vining plants, to provide more shade.

These coir planters were backed by metal sheets, presumably to protect the wood.

Since my SO now has family in Milwaukee, we anticipate making this trip on a regular basis, and can make the Chicago Botanical Garden a standard stop. We may even join, as membership gains us access to many other botanical gardens around the country, including the one here in Fort Wayne.