What's blooming

Strawberry bush, a.k.a. Hearts a burstin' (Euonymus americanus). My mother sometimes calls this plant Wahoo, but the internet says that's the name of a similar, more purplish-blooming plant. That kind of spoils my fun, since I liked to yell wahoo! whenever I found one.

I think this one is Grass-leafed Golden-Aster (Heterotheca graminifolia or Pityopsis graminifolia, I'm not sure which name is the more current.)

This one shows the grass-like leaves.

Great Blue Lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica).

I was about to call this one White snakeroot (Eupatorium rugosum), until I realized that the leaves are wrong for that. It's actually Boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum altissimum). (Thanks Ontario Wanderer for that correction! I didn't realize there were different types of Boneset.)

Same thing, whole plant.

The Ironweed (Vernonia altissima) is still hanging in there. I saw five Monarch butterflies on it at the same time - very nice since we don't see near the numbers that we used to.

White Crownbeard, a.k.a. Frostweed (Verbesina virginica).

A yellow composite that I've yet to figure out the name of.

Some asters I'm not going to get specific about.
The pics aren't as spiffy as I'd like... I set the camera to a tiny spot-meter and kind of forgot. So most of them were too dark, and were grainy and had to be manipulated.
The goldenrod and the ragweed are blooming too, but I didn't get pics of those.

A Yearn for Ireland

I just finished reading Oh Come Ye Back to Ireland by Niall Williams and Christine Breen.  They were a couple living in Manhattan who got tired of the rat race.  They moved to her grandfather's cottage in Kiltuper, Ireland and settled themselves into rural life.  They cut peat from their own bog for fires, grew a garden, and eventually owned cattle.  They went and stayed.
They talk about the old, traditional ways of Ireland  and how they're slowly being done away with.  This was a fascinating book to me since I've recently learned that several of my ancestors came from the Emerald Isle.  Fortunately, there are four books in this series about their lives in Ireland.  
Yesterday I ordered the other three from half.com.  I'm in an Irish phase right now.  It started with a hammered dulcimer concert two weeks ago.  That got me in the mood for reading about Ireland.  I guess the next thing is to actually go there!

Here we go again

For some reason (which I haven't quite figured out yet), the home page whenever I access the Internet from work seems to be that ninemsn page, which is usually a complete waste of pixels on any monitor anywhere in the world. However, the big headline they were running there today which I saw for the second or two it took to upload the next page I visited was another whine about fuel prices. They seem to be claiming it's going to hit $1.30/litre. Given that I'm not likely to have any reason to verify this, I suppose I'll have to take their word for it, even if the source is somewhat questionable.
What I want to know is why all the whining? Well, we all know the answer to that one I suppose (i.e. the media just whines about what everyone else is whining about so they can sell newspapers). However, this doesn't explain the obvious contradiction here. I don't need to read their article to know that at least somewhere on the page, someone is going to be calling for government intervention to peg the price increases. Now this is where I have a problem.
Virtually from the time we're born these days, we're constantly being told that capitalism is wonderful, and communism is inherently "bad". I don't seek to take any position on that particular argument here, it's just what we're told. After all, market forces are supposed to take care of everything, supposed to determine the equilibrium price that will provide the greatest benefit to society, those who can't afford it will just have to work harder, which will in turn benefit society, right? Either that, or they'll just have to go without, which means more for everyone else, which also benefits society, right?
So why then, are so many people whining about this? Essentially all that is happening is that market forces (i.e. supply and demand) are simply having a global effect on the world price of crude oil, which is in turn pushing up the price of petrol. We've known it was coming ever since the US started selling it's industrial revolution to countries like China. This, ladies and gentlemen, is just capitalism doing what capitalism does. So basically, the message is this: quit whining. Either start looking for alternatives (something strangely absent from these media whines most of the time), or just pay the costs, and long live capitalism!

An 8 Year Old's View

We gave the camera to Sam to take with him on a recent school field trip.
Digital technology is so great. I remember my parents getting pretty pissy about me wasting film whenever I took a gazillion pictures of my friends making faces or of my dogs and rabbits dressed up in baby clothes.

But now, who really cares what they're of...

Fall Colors at Gunflint Narrows

Flashing back a little bit here to late September at Gunflint Lake on the Gunflint Trail in northern Minnesota. The vibrant leaf colors made for a stark contrast to the fire-scarred Canadian shoreline of Gunflint Lake. I wanted to share this one with you after shooting it, but it got lost in the shuffle and I forgot about it until now!

Symposium - Day 1

The American Trails Symposium opened yesterday afternoon. Rode my bike to the afternoon session.
The afternoon was visiting at the exhibitor booths. Several booths had not been set up yet. A couple were not manned. Anyway, checked out the exhibit hall. Picked up some information.
In the evening there was the Opening reception. Thanks to Lewis & Clark Outfitters for the food!
During this session, I talked with Scott Linnenburger of IMBA. I had met Scott in Rapid City for Black Hill Fat Tire Festival. We talked about THOR plans, and desires. Later, I met Mary Hanson from National Parks (out of Omaha) Did some networking there.
Ended the evening with a drive to the Big Dam Bridge to take photos. Got some good shots. (Sure was raw out up on the bridge.)

Sunsets

One of the surprising aspects of the wet start to the year has been the number of spectacular sunsets that have appeared. In truth, I've missed most of them by virtue of not having a camera handy at the time, but those I have captured reveal an often ignored side of this type of climate.
In other news, I have to admit that my inspiration for writing blog posts wanes a little at this point. The ride reports will continue of course, but the other things don't seem to hold the same interest. It's almost as if just about every aspect of cycling has been argued, discussed and analysed so many times over that there really seems little left to argue about. I'm sure the inspiration will return when something manages to annoy me, but right now, it just isn't there.