Wannaskan Almanac

Summer is  hydrangeas. White, lime green, pink, blue - Massachusetts hosts them all. Last year the fellow who helps us out in the yard butchered the hydrangea bushes that flank our cottage door. Cut them down to a nub. You might have heard me the day I noticed.  Now it’s mid-summer. No blatant announcements from the sun. It’s still hot here in the Northeast, but I am picking up seasonal subtext. July’s double-dip cone has dripped down onto our arms. And, if summer is the year's tall glass of refreshment, it’s mid-August - that hairline crack in time where the light starts leaking out.  Still I’m having fun. The other day Jim and I went bike riding. This was a big deal for me. I had broken my ankle a few years ago after falling off my bike, and I’ve been late getting back in the saddle. Because a steep gravelly incline had caused my fatal fall, we headed for the flat, smooth, wide asphalt of the nearby Cape Cod Canal. Anyone who rides the canal knows the fierce headwinds. ...

  The Palmville Globe Volume 2 Number 28 Man Makes Metric Conversion Joe McDonnell, 79 and a resident of Palmville Twp, Minnesota, recently started using the metric system. "The US seriously considered switching to the metric system in 1975" McDonnell tells the press, "but due to citizen resistance we have the current hybrid system. This system is inconvenient for left handed people like myself when it comes to measuring cups. The measures Americans prefer are visible when the cup is held in the right hand. Every morning I measure ten ounces of water for coffee, and finally realized ten ounces is almost exactly 300 milliliters (295.73) which number I can read while holding the cup in my left hand. I have memorized that equivalence." In a follow up communication McDonnell reports that using the metric measurement has eliminated spills. "I used to tip the cup while twisting it to read the old 'Imperial' measurements on the back side, but no more," he...

Hello and welcome to a cool Saturday here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is August 8th. My big adventure last weekend was setting up a canopy tent I bought at Menards the prior weekend. I've been analyzing, calculating, and trying to woo the hubs into a 3-season porch renovation - heck, why not four seasons ?! - for at least two years. It's a tricky thing, wanting to put a porch on the upper level of a split-level home. So, we settled on a compromise. Instead of a spendy remodel, we'd test drive my fancy notion of rest, relaxation, and party-hosting inside a tent on our current deck. I got in on the ground floor of this investment/experiment for a reasonable $230. To celebrate, I added an outdoor area rug for another fifty bucks. I'm not sure if it's a result of getting older, or supporting technical higher education (Mechatronics) in my current job - maybe it's both - but, gosh, I grabbed that instruction manual with gusto and had at it. There were a few misha...

       People may die at inconvenient times for the living, but death is in priority class and will have its way. Our friend Catherine Stenzel died on March 18, right between the feasts of St Patrick and St Joseph, so the 18th will alway be St Catherine of the Forest Day.      Catherine had requested that her ashes be spread in her beloved Forest under a blasted and very old pine tree. The old friends who made up the spreading party could not get their acts together until May 17. Two months had gone by. Was Catherine's spirit hovering about anxiously? I doubt it. What's two months in the infinite sea of eternity?      Catherine did not request a celebration of life. That was for the living and that didn't happen till August 1, last Saturday, when most of the people who wanted to be there could make it.      The event began at 1:00 at the Shêdeau, the guesthouse at our place. Most of the people who came were from Joe Stenze...

      Bill Mason "Path of The Paddle":       

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for August 5, 2026, the thirty-first Wednesday of the year, the seventh Wednesday of summer, the first Wednesday of August, and the two-hundred seventeenth day of the year, with one-hundred forty-eight days remaining. Wannaska Phenology Update for August 5, 2026 Wild Red Raspberry Rubus idaeus —miskominin in Anishinaabe—is now ready for picking throughout Wannaskaland. Red raspberry is ubiquitous throughout much of Minnesota and frequently found along roadsides and hiking trails. Its fruits are readily and widely decimated by both birds and mammals, resulting in widespread seed dispersal. It establishes quickly from seed, after which vigorous and aggressive rhizomes often create dense colonies. In Anishinaabe tradition, miskomin means "blood berry", carrying teachings of resilience, gentleness, and women's health. The Raspberry Moon, Miskomini Giizis, rises in mid-summer when berries ripen, and this moon teaches that ...