The sky tonight was filled bursting lights from fireworks and in some places, nature’s lightning added to the sky show.
Fireworks on the Fourth
Picture of the Day for July 3, 2021
With the temperature predicted to be in the 90s tomorrow and being the holiday weekend, this beach probably will have a lot more visitors enjoying cooler waters of Lake Michigan. Whitefish Dunes State Natural Area preserves the largest Great Lakes dunescape in Wisconsin. The area consists of active and stabilized sand dunes, including Old Baldy, the tallest dune which rises 93 feet above lake level.
Beach at Whitefish Dunes
Picture of the Day for July 2, 2021
The feeding young ducks are enjoying the water and with the warm holiday weekend, there probably will be more people playing in the water too.
Feeding Ducks
Picture of the Day for July 1, 2021
Shooting Stars are a native wildflowers that slightly resembles the fireworks my neighbor was shooting off this evening. There are over a dozen species with colors of purple, pink, rose and white. Seedlings takes three to four years to blossom.
Shooting Stars
Picture of the Day for June 30, 2021
At the tip of the Door Peninsula, the Washington Island Ferry provides a way for vehicles and passengers to reach Washington Island, a 22 square mile island in Lake Michigan about seven miles from the tip of the peninsula. Another ferry takes passengers from Washington Island to Rock Island, a 912 acre state park were vehicles are not allowed to be brought over to the island.
Washington Island Ferry
Picture of the Day for June 29, 2021
The brightly colored orchid like blossom of the Gaywings is a small woodland flower in the Milkwort family. The flowers are about a half inch to an inch wide and the plant only three to six inches tall. It was thought that cow’s milk production would increase by eating this plant.
Pretty Little Gaywings
Picture of the Day for June 28, 2021
This log cabin was built by Thomas Goodletson in the late 1850s on Horseshoe Island across the bay from Ephraim in Door County. It was later moved across the ice from the island to the village and Thomas and family continued live in the cabin until the late 1800s. It was later used as a honeymoon suite for a local hotel before it was moved again in 1974 next to the Pioneer Schoolhouse as part of the museums run by the Ephraim Historical Foundation.
The Goodletson Cabin
Picture of the Day for June 27, 2021
In the 1850s, Belgian immigrants began to settle in the southern Door, northwest Kewaunee and northeast Brown counties of Wisconsin. They brought their religion tradition of roadside chapels with them to a wilderness area with poor roads and few churches. Some of the old chapels still exist today as well as some new ones. Most are a wooden building, that at first glance might resemble a privy, if not for the cross near the door. This Saint Donat Chapel is one of thirty remaining roadside chapels which was built from stone. It is believe to have been constructed a few years after Charles DeVillers settled his land in 1856.
Stone Roadside Chapel
Picture of the Day for June 26, 2021
The Ridges Sanctuary is a 1,600 acre nature preserve and land trust in Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin which also operates an orchid restoration project. There are over twenty five native orchid species there and during a visit there earlier this month, the Ram’s Head Lady’s Slipper was supposed to be blooming. After seeing the Yellow Lady Slippers earlier in the week and with a name with ram head, I was expecting a large blossom. But instead this Wisconsin Threatened plant flower is only a half inch to an inch long so it was very hard to spot in the woods as even the small spider in the photo appeared to longer than the blossom.
Ram’s Head Lady’s Slipper
Picture of the Day for June 25, 2021
Although the longest daylight of the year was Sunday with the start of summer, the latest sunset in my area was tonight. But the sun was later in rising so even though the latest sunset, the day was already a minute and two seconds shorter since the start of summer.
Latest Sunset
