Going Native on Front Street, Perrysburg

Here is why we need pollinators. We had the best ever raspberry crop this year, thanks to the flower by flower work of the new bees:

To get native pollinators you need native plants. It will be sad to lose daffodil, tulip, lily of the valley, forsythia and perhaps even lilac,  in return for wild bergamot, anis hyssop, rattlesnake master, mint, grape vine anemone, bee balm, black eyed susan, milkweed, trillium and wild lupine. The work has barely started and already the garden is a jungle of wild insects.

Here is the most exotic one I hope to lure in. It is an enormous cecropia moth, in full daylight, downtown on a native locust tree. It was larger than the palm of my hand:

And here is what 150 pounds (68 kg) kg of honey from one well fed bee hive in just 4 months, looks like:

Native plants grow best in their own locale, but unfortunately native animals like to eat them too.

Indiana Images Last Weekend

The Indianapolis Art Museum has a travelling treasure show of 700 year old exquisite Ife copper cast heads found only 70 years ago in the grounds of a Nigerian royal palace. They left no written record at all – not to be missed if they come to your local museum:

Ife Copper Casting

Dashing out to get to the Norville wedding we passed an eyecatching sculpture and I neglected to note the artist’s name.No problem – back in Ohio my free “Google Goggles” ap for my phone scanned my photo and in no time at all told me it’s “Mobius Ship” by Tim Hawkinson from CA. A good play on “Moby Dick” and “Mobius Strip”.  Technology gets better all the time.

And then back by night on US highway 24 just in time for deer hunting season. They suddenly appear out of the dark. I’m still recovering from the shock. This one was worth $3000 damage to our insurance company. Quick braking and a small swerve right probably brought the impact speed down to around 55 mph and perhaps prevented it coming in the window.  Everyone in Ohio and Michigan has their similar story. Worst is when it comes in the window and is still kicking!Even though the road was wide open with no trees it was very hard to see until a large head appears trotting across front of you. The only answer I can imagine is to restrict our driving to daylight hours, or at night at least use high beam lights as much as possible.

Riverside X-Country Ski Trail – Optional short and steep bits

 

The trail can be started here at the East end of Riverside Park, West Front Street, Perrysburg, with a nice climb that a well waxed ski can handle easily.

Follow that with a smooth glide down to “Water Street”

and then go West.

The optional “Belazi Bayou Drop-In”

Cross the road to the treatment plant and you come to where the deer showed me this path: “The Channel Chute”. The drop-off was too steep for the one snowshoe explorer who followed but you can branch left for an easier fun descent through the trees, alongside the remains of the very old channel for the long gone water mill at Louisianna.

Carry on North, then West on the ice, if safe, under the Maumee Bridge, around Fort Meigs either CW or CCW, and back home for hot apple cider, ginger and possibly Tulamore Dew Irish whiskey.

Map to follow later.