This and That

 Last weekend we drove to Madison to check out a cove on Lake Mendota. It was a pretty spot, though small. It was a nice day. We took a decent walk, but the path was more overgrown than we like. We went for coffee in Middleton, our first time in that community. Looks interesting, and we want to go back. We visited the National Mustard Museum, interesting and fun, but we didn't buy any mustard.

Raymer's Cove, Lake Mendota, Madison, looking east

The west side of the cove, only a few feet away

The water is very clear

A drift of native Columbine

Close up of the flowers

The weather has been hot during the day but quite cool at night. I haven't needed to run the A/C all that often, and I've been opening the windows at night. It has been getting down to the 40's and 50's. I'm loving the low humidity.

I finally got a few succulents out on the balcony. Several are sitting in the big blue pot, which makes them easy to water. They were just doing terrible inside. The white pot in front is empty. It's a squirrel deterrent.

We have a pair of Blue Jays that come by to beg for unsalted peanuts in the shell. Sometimes they squawk and sometimes they chirp. I'm familiar with the squawk but the chirp is different. It sort of sounds like "serp" "serp". Each time they "serp" they pop up with their body. Cute.

It must be time for unusual bird sounds. One night there were several Great Horned Owls calling with a raspy "begging" chirp, probably young ones.

Some of my orchids are growing lovely new roots and leaves, a good sign they will bloom later or next year. Six of my new ones are still blooming. My first orchid, the mini white, is growing a new bloom stalk! 

I have one disappointment. The lovely mini purple has root rot. I have clipped off all the dead roots, cleaned it up, sprayed with hydrogen peroxide, and dusted the bad spots with cinnamon. It is now sitting in a jar, suspended over a little water with its roots barely touching the water. It will probably drop its flowers early. The leaves are wrinkled. That's a bummer because it is very difficult to rehydrate orchid leaves. I am hoping for new, hydrated leaves and plenty of new roots. Phalaenopsis orchids usually grow one or two new leaves per season, but they can grow many roots.

Purple mini

Wrinkled leaf

Very poor root system

In hospital

My daughter and her hubby are stopping in next month for a few hours. They attend a race in Plymouth Wisconsin, which isn't too far away. They love races, and attend the Indy 500 every year. We are planning a weekend together later.

Spring Is A Struggle

 Spring should be great, and it usually is, but sometimes I have a cloud over my head. There is a sense of foreboding that I can't quite put my finger on. And then it hits me. Chrissy died on June 1st. Of course I didn't forget, but in trying to navigate the loss, sometimes I still trip and fall. When I'm alone all day I get moody. Weekends are good because hubby and I are busy.

We drove down to Hartford last Sunday. Hubby said he wanted to reminisce. I actually ran into one of my daughter's former co-workers. We hugged and chatted. She had recently moved back to the area from another state. I told her we moved to Ripon. She said she might visit.

Hartford has a few changes. The BP gas station we used to go to all the time is now Citco. The company hubby worked for that sold out to the Minnesota company that eliminated his shift and all his pay is now named that company. Figures. We don't know how many people left or stayed.

So, we had our look around. We want to go back to Holy Hill. We went in late winter but there was so much ice on the path we could hardly walk. Another place I miss is Lapham Peak, south of Delafield. We walked Harrington Beach State Park but it was devastated by straight line winds this spring. They lost about 170 trees. Weirdly enough, that very Sunday we were in Hartford, straight line winds tore into Two Rivers (way north) and flattened dozens of trees there. 

So....what happened to the places to walk up here? Why are we walking down there? The South Woods trails are not maintained and are full of ticks. The parks here are small, not much for walking. Rush Lake nature area was interesting. There are more places we found in winter that were impacted by severe flooding. Hubby has a 4 day weekend starting Friday. Not sure what we are doing. In any case, it's been fun going back to places we frequented for the past nine years.

In other news, I have a new way to eat ground beef. I take an Egg Life wrap (because I don't eat taco shells) and press a thin layer of ground beef onto one side. Then I plop it meat side down into a frying pan and brown, flip over to brown the "taco" side, then remove and add toppings. I like it because its crunchy.

That's all for tonight. I'm making hubby pizza so I need to get started. 

Big Yellow

 Before I continue with the minis, let me pause and reflect on how awesome these yellow flowers are and how shiny and glossy the gorgeous dark, reddish leaves are on this medium-size orchid! Hubby picked this one, and it is outstanding!

Orchid Spotlight ~ Phalaenopsis Mini Hybrids

 I love these miniature orchids! The first one pictured below is my first orchid. It bloomed almost continuously even though I knew very little about how to care for it. I bought it several years ago at the Walmart in Hartford. I believe it is a Phalaenopsis Equestris, or a hybrid with that parentage. This type of plant stays small and blooms profusely, often for months and even more than once per year. The petals are a different shape than the larger moth orchids. Mine was showing signs of mineral depletion in the leaves, so I cut off the bloom spike. It is now getting a premium orchid fertilizer. I look forward to blooms again after its much needed rest and rejuvenation.

This next mini is a cute one with pale yellow flowers that fade to white. They have tiny magenta freckles and a magenta lip. I'm not sure of it's parentage because the flower is different than the Equestris. It has lovely slender, pointed leaves. It is also done booming and is under rejuvenation. I bought it February 21, 2026 in West Bend, at Sendik's grocery store.

The next mini is the second one in the picture above. I named it "Paintbrush". It is a multiflora, meaning it has side branches on its flower spikes. It finished blooming a couple weeks ago and is now rejuvenating.

This next mini is a recent purchase. I really wanted a purple one but that one had crown rot. I chose this one instead. I call it "mini pink fairy" because the flowers seem fairy-like to me. We bought in Sheboygan. It is a very small orchid with generous masses of flowers. I believe it is also a multiflora. Many of the mini orchids have striped petals. 

I have more that I will show in the next post. 

This is the fertilizer I bought. Since my tap water is so hard and alkaline I buy distilled water for this fertilizer. 

• Famous Michigan State Formulation of Orchid Fertilizer
• Urea Free Fertilizer for Orchids
• Recommended for use with reverse osmosis (RO), rain or tap water low in alkalinity

I'm going to sign off for tonight, actually morning, as it's nearly 2 am. Nite!

Fixing Sad

 Hubby is getting better, and that made me feel better. 

But a part of my day has been missing, people are missing, a daily Internet get-together is missing. A year ago in April the creator of a Facebook group I joined in 2016 passed away. He was so loved by everyone. He was there every day, to say good morning, to welcome new members, to encourage us as growers, to comment on our pictures with his vast knowledge of plants, to make sure we were kind, to keep out politics, to gently enforce group rules. We would comment on each other's posts, support each other, and make friends. He was always there, until he wasn't.

The group has not been the same. People stopped posting, well, some people are posting, but many who have shared their lives and succulents for the past 12 years (the group was created before I joined) have not been posting. The group was not the same. We were like a community. So Thursday, the last day of April, I wrote, in honor of the group's creator, here are some pictures of my succulents. Let's see your plants! I miss him and I miss all of you!

People are responding! Some people are still missing, maybe they will respond later. People are thankful for my post and more are posting each day. It is a joy to see the group become more active. Sometimes recovery takes effort, and instead of just thinking about it, you need to do it.

We had some cold weather and now it has warmed up again. We still have some cold nights forecast. Today was beautiful, sunny, windy and warm.

We found an interesting place to walk. It's a wetland management area, with a network of levies to walk on. It is a large area and we will be checking the maps for more places to go. For this visit we were near Rush Lake, only a few miles north of Ripon.

As a reference, here is the Fish & Wildlife Service website: https://www.fws.gov/wetland/leopold 

The orange area on the map is where they have counties with management areas in the state of Wisconsin.

We set off for a walk. Hubby was still coughing so we made it short.

I imagine these fields will dry up after the floods recede

A broken Robin's egg?

Way down at the end of this waterway is a large tree with an eagle's nest. I also don't know what that gray dot is in the sky, slightly to the right. Dust on my lens I guess. It's only in this picture.

Zoomed in to see the nest

Cropped to see an eagle sitting on a branch!

Cool looking wooded bridge

This building must house a pump because quite a bit of water was rushing through that big, brown pipe

That big, lone tree would look neat in the morning mist or something

We headed home after this.