Thorny Issue

Thorny Issue

Thorny Issue © 2008 Bo Mackison

Thorny issues?
Thick thorned branches cut off my path.
Cobwebs patched between the barrier.

But deep in the woods,
the colors were brushed with swirling
purples, mauves, and cool blue-greens.

Reminiscent of a satin quilt
I slept under as a young child.
A bit of sun in an opening in the tree canopy.

Quiet, though.
The birds were silent.
The breezes were holding silent.

I held my breath, silent also.

High Waters

Lifeguard Station - No Swimming during Flood

Lifeguard Station – No Swimming during Flood ©2008 Bo Mackison

Weather. 2008 has already given us enough crazy weather, and there seems to be no end in sight. Usually by mid-June, we have been on the Madison lakes for six weeks – fishing, boating, tubing. But this year has been unusual, weather-wise. First a crazy winter with a record breaking 100+ inches of snow, then a spring that didn’t arrive until the end of April, and now so much rain and flooding that the Madison lakes are effectively closed for recreation.

Lake Mendota - Sun Setting on Flooding

Lifeguard Station – No Swimming during Flood ©2008 Bo Mackison

Boats are still allowed on the lakes, but the entire chain of lakes is under a “no-wake zone.” The swimming areas and beaches is usually filled with people by now, but no one is playing in the water these days and the beaches are all underwater. I’m not complaining, though. I may be inconvenienced, but that is all. In Madison, most of us are counting our blessings and keeping our fingers crossed.

On a slightly different note, the Mississippi River is expected to crest on Friday in my hometown – Quincy, IL. The bridge is closed heading into Missouri there, and at numerous other sites connecting the states of Iowa, Illinois and Missouri. In Quincy, people have come from around the country to help fill more than 750,000 sandbags. These bags are surrounding levees and threatened utilities. The water treatment plant is surrounded by thousands of these sandbags and people are praying they will hold back the river. If they don’t, Quincy residents have access to three days worth of city water. Then the city of 45,000 would have to rely on bottled water.

One man brought his teenage children to Quincy this week from Colorado Springs, Colorado to fill sandbags. He said he wanted them to have the experience of helping others who are dealing with a natural disaster of this proportion. College students who attend area schools have returned to many river communities from their Chicago homes to help sandbag the levees. 300 Amish from the Amana Colonies in Iowa are helping. The National Guard is there sandbagging and providing needed services.

It’s heartening to hear the many people coming together to help each another. The Red Cross and other agencies are providing needed services and are asking for all the help they can get.

A big thank you to everyone who making an effort and making a difference.

***

As of 1 pm: 4 levees have broken, farms and houses flooded for 25 miles south of Quincy. The water treatment plant is still open.

Capitol at Dusk

Capitol at Dusk

Capitol at Dusk ©2008 Bo Mackison

Walked around the Capitol Square on Monday evening. It wasn’t your typical mid-June stroll – I had on jeans and a heavy sweatshirt – but it was a pleasant night, a tad windy. I dragged my tripod and camera around for a couple of hours. Shot the sunset over Lake Mendota, the flooding in the Tenney Locks area, and finally wandered around the Capitol.

Set this up at dusk just as the Capitol Building’s lights turned on, and managed this shot while positioned in the middle of Washington Avenue. The drivers of the passing cars were kind enough to avoid hitting me and my tripod, though “my Sherpa” was keeping watch.. No editing this time.

Wildflowers Blooming in the Prairies

Spiderwort

Spiderwort ©2008 Bo Mackison

Spiderwort is a common plant throughout Wisconsin, blooms from now until September. If you want to enjoy this flower, you have to visit before mid-day and each flower only lasts one day. It becomes droopy in the afternoon, and shrivels and disappears into a sticky, liquified mass by nightfall.

Bitsy Yellow Hearts All 'Round

Bitsy Yellow Hearts All ‘Round ©2008 Bo Mackison

The Prairie Rose is another frequent Wisconsin flower, blooms from late May through late July. I love it under a macro lens – lots of bitsy yellow hearts spring out of its center.  In late summer, the flower heads transform into rose hips which are small, edible fruits. They stay on the plant through the winter and provide food  for birds and small mammals during the snowy months.

Native Americans collected the hips and used them medicinally, often as a treatment for headaches or stomach problems. The Native Americans and early pioneers used the wild rose for food, and a “health food” at that. Rose hips have 24 times more Vitamin C per unit than orange juice.  People still collect the hips for vitamin supplements, the rose petals for rose petal soup and rose petal jam is also made using a combination of the petals and lemon.

White Wild Indigo

White Wild Indigo ©2008 Bo Mackison

This is the White Wild Indigo plant. It rises 3 to 6 feet from the prairie floor and is currently waving its long flower covered spires across the prairie landscape.  The sap of the wild indigo has a blue dye and was often used as a substitute for the true indigo plant. It was also used as a treatment for lung diseases by Native Americans in the northcentral United States, though in larger quantities it is poisonous.

Columbines in the Garden

Red Columbine

Red Columbine ©2008 Bo Mackison

I have collected seed from these columbine plants and grown them every year since I have had a home of my own. The original plants were cultivated by my grandfather in Illinois. I gathered seeds from his plants beginning in 1979 and have grown them in several gardens in Milwaukee and Madison.

Wild Columbine

Wild Columbine © 2008 Bo Mackison

They bloom from late May through early July and are a favorite with long-tongued bees and the hummingbirds.

Red Columbine

Columbine © 2008 Bo Mackison

Even the bumblebees get in the act to get the nectar, though they cheat. Since they can’t reach the nectar because of the columbine’s long slender tubes, they bite holes in the ends of the spurs to get some of the sweet stuff. More than one way to beat Mother Nature . . .