The end of September brings the sun setting almost an hour earlier than the beginning of the month and the sunset will continue getting earlier for several more months. The waters of Lake Superior will get colder and the sun may glow off of ice instead of water.
Superior September Sunset
The Cranberry River is very peaceful where it enters Lake Superior. A variety of fish can found in the river, including rainbow trout, which might have been the fish I spotted about 30 feet from the mouth.
Mouth of the Cranberry River
These stone petals might be too heavy to blow away like many tree leaves did today, but this “flower” didn’t survive the bigger waves.
Rock Flower
The leaves are turning color but the weather was dark and cloudy so not a nice day for an autumn Sunday drive for leaf peeping, so hopefully the sun will come out before all leaves fall off the trees. Last October, these tree shone with their fall colors during a walk through the woods.
Autumn Woods
There wasn’t for sunshine today, so the blossoms of the tansy would have to provide the yellow color. Common tansy is another invasive plant from Europe and Asia which forms a dense cover and outcompete native plants as well as being toxic to humans and livestock when eaten. Tansy has a long history of uses like medicinal and an insect repellent.
Common Tansy
Whenever I am on a rocky beach, my eyes look for that special pretty rock. And when I reached for this odd marking rock, a wave came in and spun the “rock” around. I realized my rock wasn’t a stone, but a baby turtle instead. And it would get brave enough to stick its head out about the time another wave put him in the spin cycle again. Finally it managed to get out of the reach of the waves as it crawled away from the water across this Lake Superior beach.
Turtle Not a Rock
Turtle Beach Stroll
Here is part of the turtle’s journey across the beach.
After the main cascading section of Siskiwit Falls, this little drop is a peaceful spot to listen to the water rushing by on its way to empty into Lake Superior.
Siskiwit River
Those dang Asian lady beetles have returned in full force and some were biting me when I was picking apples today. I prefer other types of insects, like this poor dragonfly that would get swamped by water when a wave rolled in but somehow it managed to hang onto the rock.
Wet Dragonfly
The first day of autumn does have areas of the state showing colorful foliage already even if the peak fall foliage may be several weeks away.
Autumn Starts
I think this might have been the first time this dog was at the beach as it didn’t seem to know what to do about the waves coming as it would jump back very quickly when ever a larger wave rolled in.
Dog Visiting Beach
