The Flower of the Day, the Swamp Milkweed, is new for us this year. It showed up on our beach several days ago, and is, of course, related to the Common Milkweed.

The summer for us has settled into a nice routine -- walks, checking out wildflowers, daily chores, reading, enjoying friends, watching the evening news (better not comment), looking forward to those who will be coming to visit, and church on Sunday.

Another important part of our summer routine are the boats that pass before us on their way to the Sault St. Marie locks, into Lake Superior, and then on to Duluth, MN or Thunder Bay, Ontario. They mostly are loaded with iron ore and grain at Duluth or grain at Thunder Bay, before again passing by us on their way south. There are two kinds of ships that travel the Great Lakes -- lake ships (those that travel only on the Great Lakes -- some which are quite large -- over a 1000' in length) and foreign ships that travel over 2200 miles and raise 600' in elevation from the Atlantic Ocean to Duluth or Thunder Bay. The foreign ships are smaller than the lake ships and generally carry grain.

The two ships with the unloading towers are foreign ships -- one is from Germany and the other from Athens, Greece. The ship with CSL on its side is Canadian -- the Roger Blough is U.S. The picture of the Roger Blough was taken from the ferry as we were coming back to the island.

And a last minute add on -- last night's light, thunder and wind show snapped off the top of a cedar tree and deposited it on our incinerator. Fortunately, it didn't hit the power line that was close -- or the cabin.

We hope all is well with you and we want you to know that while the summer is good for us, we nevertheless look forward to just being with you again. Much love to all.