Wannaskan Almanac

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for July 31, 2024, the thirty-first Wednesday of the year, the sixth Wednesday of summer, the fifth Wednesday of July, and the two-hundred-thirteenth day of the year, with one-hundred fifty-three days remaining.   Wannaska Phenology Update for July 31, 2024 Smooth Blue Aster Symphyotrichum laeve has started to bloom in Wannaska. The flowers open with branching clusters at the top of the plant from upper leaf axils. Usually about one inch in diameter with fifteen to as many as thirty petals fanning out from a yellow center disc, the flowers turn reddish with age. The bracts [/brak(t)/ n., a modified leaf or scale, typically small, with a flower or flower cluster in its axil] surround the base of the flower with four to six layers - narrow, appressed to slightly spreading, light green with a darker green, lance to diamond-shaped tip that may have a dot of red at the apex and few minute hairs around the edge like Ula's navel. The

Here are today's words of wisdom:   1. When one door closes and another door opens, you are probably in prison. 2. To me, "drink responsibly" means don't spill it. 3. Age 60 might be the new 40, but 9:00 pm is the new midnight. 4. It's the start of a brand new day, and I'm off like a herd of turtles. 5. The older I get, the earlier it gets late. 6. When I say, "The other day," I could be referring to any time between yesterday and 15 years ago. 7. I remember being able to get up without making sound effects. 8. I had my patience tested. I'm negative. 9. Remember, if you lose a sock in the dryer, it comes back as a Tupperware lid that doesn't fit any of your containers. 10. If you're sitting in public and a stranger takes the seat next to you, just stare straight ahead and say, "Did you bring the money?" 11. When you ask me what I am doing today, and I say "nothing," it does not mean I am free. It means I am doing nothi

  The story about Chairman Joe and WannaskaWriter’s encounter with the dart-throwing couple from Tennessee was pretty charming. I think it reads like a pilot for a Netflix series. I’m not sure what I’d call it, but episodes would follow an adventurous couple, fueled by the joy of meeting people, to places randomly determined by a dart tossed onto a map. I think it has possibilities; I had pronounced enchantment envy after reading Joe’s account of his Minnesota hospitality and the McDonnell impromptu pizza party. The fact that they never learned the couple’s last name was a clincher. Hi, yo, Silver. Who was that masked man? I’d watch. The lure of Joe’s story stayed with me, and I still felt a little glowy about life the next day when I went to the library. I got my books and settled into a comfy cluster of chairs with two of my older grandchildren to wait for my daughter to finish up. While waiting, I entertained myself, as I often do, by reading book titles, and I said something like t

  Is Jesus my God the way one person is my candidate for president?  Or is my theology less deep? People thinking about the downsides of electric vehicles are like people at the beginning of the last century wondering if they should get a car or stick with old Dobbin who wasn’t fazed by mud or snow and could go all day on a bucket of oats.  The gassy future fills the meditation balloon; memory fills the bags tied to the basket rails- And so we go merrily bouncing along. You can can underline a picture You can also make it bold But even after many tries You can't italicize We should asks questions to show we're interested in the other person.  Questions related to what they’re telling us are best. Avoiding doomscrolling will require a total news blackout. Any new convenience will entail much collateral damage in its creation.  Don’t force it Take a break Take your time  Make no mistake But not so slow That your rival Takes the cake The sky protects from solar rays The doctor min

Hello and welcome to a super hot Saturday here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is July 27th. Hello, as you all know, the fair was this week, so that's what we're gonna talk about. You may be thinking, "It's probably just going to be a normal fair explanation." But, no. It was much more than that. And even my mom would agree. It was pretty hard. Tuesday - Tuesday was the day we got to the fair. When my sister and I got our weekly wristbands (so we could go on all the rides all week), we jumped for joy and went off to ride some rides. That was really fun. We went on the Sizzler, the Soarin'; there was a mirror maze, and my sister made me go on a dragon coaster and that was not fun because when we were going down the little bump, the bar hit my stomach and it really hurt. My mom gave us $20 (total) every day to spend. And on the first day, we spent it all on games. So that was not fun and we didn't have dinner that day. So on Tuesday we learned our lesson not

     People and nations are alike in certain ways. Both start off happy just to be alive. Most live modest lives and are content to be left alone. But some want more. They see what others have and strive for the top, often to their ruin.   Take Japan. When I was young I admired Japanese art and wondered how such a beautiful country could have managed to get two atomic bombs dropped on it. Of course I knew about Pearl Harbor, but why did a small country like Japan provoke a colossus like the U.S into war. My father's oil tanker had been sunk by a pair of Japanese torpedoes in the war so he had given the matter some thought. All I retained of his explanation was that Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor because the US had stopped selling oil to Japan.    An embargo on oil was part of Japan's frustration with the U.S., but it went further back. For centuries Japan had been content to isolate itself from the rest of the world while the shoguns fought each other for control of the countr

Currently rereading , "Blue Highways: A Journey Into America , " by William Least Heat Moon, pages 177-184, Least Moon enters the Chiricahua Mountains, while driving through the desert on a highway he only identifies as 'Blue Highway 9.' "The pavement made another right-angle turn and a deep rift in the vertical face of the Chiricahuas opened, hidden until the last moment. How could this place be? The constriction of the canyon was just wide enough for the road and a stream bank to bank with alligator juniper, pine, sycamore, and white oak. Trees covered the water and the roadway and cut the afternoon heat. Where the canopy opened, I could see canyon walls rising ... hundreds of feet. "Who but an artist could imagine a cool wet forest between rock formations in the desert?" 'Portal' was a few rock formations and not a human anywhere. Three miles up the canyon Least Heat Moon forded 'Cave Creek' and decided to camp along it under some tr

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for July 24, 2024, the thirtieth Wednesday of the year, the fifth Wednesday of summer, the fourth Wednesday of July, and the two-hundred-sixth day of the year, with one-hundred sixty days remaining.   Wannaska Phenology Update for July 24, 2024 Wild Red Raspberry Rubus idaeus is now beginning to sport berries in the Wannaskan countryside. This hearty shrub that survives in a variety of environmental conditions from roadsides to wetlands. Like the Jack pine, it survives areas that have been burned, and new generations spread quickly from seed or rhizome [/RĪ-zōm/ n., a continuously growing horizontal underground stem which puts out lateral shoots and adventitious roots at intervals]. Rubus idaeus plays important roles in stabilizing soils, filtering water in riparian [rə-PER-rē-ən/ adj., relating to wetlands adjacent to rivers and streams] habitats, aaaaand providing its prolific flowers for insects and sweet red fruit for mammals

So...I did not set up an independent country on my island vacation in June.  It was always a possibility, but in the end sanity, somehow, reigned.  Perhaps the amazing beauty of Voyageur's National Park soothed my troubled soul and kept me preoccupied.   Approaching our temporary home for the first time As soon as we launched the boat to head over to our island, it started to rain.  Some people might consider that a premonition of sorts, but not me.  It is hard to see the dark side of things when you have a beautiful lady who always seems to look at the bright side of things by your side.  Partly due to the rain and partly due to the fact that the only map we had was from the back of the brochure we managed to get lost for a bit.  Eventually we did find our little non-tropical paradise and parked our vessel in the protected cove that God had provided. Ah, green blueberries! There was an abundance of fruit on the island, however none of it was ready to eat yet.  There were wild stra