Category Archives: Lake Superior

Red Sky at Night

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Red Sky at Night, but not a Sailor’ Delight

The last couple of sunsets, such as they were, featured a fiery red ball of a sun. Unlike the pictured sunset, theses sunsets were too cloudy or maybe too smoky for a truly gorgeous sunset. The last couple of sunsets on Lake Superior featured the sun turning blood red, well above the horizon. Likewise, last night as we were driving the last stretch home, the sun appeared as a crimson ball. Unlike all of other return trips from the cabin, it was not so hot that we had to run the A/C on blast and there was the distinct odor of smoke in the air. Although, it could have been just exhaust that I smelled. 😉

Yesterday, we concluded a total of six weeks in the woods this summer. We squeezed every bit of summer out of this last stint. Frost warnings were out for this morning up there. In the three weeks that we were just up there, the fall colors were really beginning to come in. Here, at home, there is not a single red leaf on our maple tree yet. I wonder how long it will take the changing of the seasons to catch up with us? Driving south, it seemed to me that there was more color in the trees, in the lower peninsula than there was in the upper. Probably, because there are more deciduous trees further south than up north.

This post is sort of a victory lap, in that I feel that we accomplished a lot this summer. While, we didn’t get to do one of our epic western road trips, we did get out of the house for most of the season. For 2020 that is saying something, but wait there’s more. For the first time in all of the years that I have been visiting the cabin I actually contributed to its general welfare. Not that all of those mountains of dishes that I washed over the years wasn’t a help.

We got a new porch roof installed. Plus the woodpile was replenished. Although, it was then somewhat depleted again afterwards. Sorry Jane, it was cold at the end. There were other incidentals that were also accomplished. Dan had a great summer too. He finally acquired a sailboat. That was the centerpiece of the first half of his summer and then there was the drone, which rounded out the season.

It was sad that so few members of the family could make it to the cabin this year and those that did mainly made it sequentially. It was a lot more fun on our second go-around with Dan and Britt then it was for our first visit, where it was just the two of us, not home, but still alone. Hopefully, next summer will be closer to normal again. That way we can all take turns sliding off of the new porch roof when it rains. Won’t that be fun? …and three from the Russian judge.

Black-throated Green Warbler

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Black-throated Green Warbler

Dan and Britt launch south this morning. They are headed to Hocking Hills State Park in Ohio, where they’ll camp tonight and maybe tomorrow night, before returning to Brooklyn. We started packing and cleaning after they left. The car is mostly packed now and all of the in-house woodpiles have been replenished. We took a break from domestic activities, because we had a beach day today. This is our last day here, we’ll head south tomorrow. The mercury briefly touched seventy. It was comfortable when we sat out on the red bench, protected from the wind and watched the parade of ore boats coming down. When we went for our walk on the beach, there was a wicked wind out of the south that had blown away all of the dry sand, leaving only the wet sand to walk on. When we turned around from the long-end the wind began sandblasting our ankles. Anyway, it was a beach day, not the best that I’ve ever experienced, but certainly the best in a week. A good day to go out on. It is supposed to rain in the morning, before turning sunny for the afternoon, but we’ll be gone by then, wending our way home on another epic drive in the new RAV4, listening to satellite radio.

The jury is still out as to whether we will have a good sunset or not tonight. Anne caught the fiery ball of the sun floating above the horizon yesterday, but it was too cloudy to capture one of the western wildfire driven sunsets that are in the news. We have enjoyed six weeks up here at the cabin this summer. Kind of a record for us. I’ve stayed up here later in the summer than I ever have before. This long stay has brought more hardships, but more importantly additional opportunities to see and do new things and in this groundhog day of a year, anything new and different is good.