Nice Marmot.

Nice Marmot.

As I said to a friend of mine, throwing 3 fingers into her face… “THREE THINGS.”

I gave a ground squirrel a grape.

I saw an ermine for the first time in life. In the wild. Surrounded by curious children as it wavered onto a sandy beach. (it was in the throws of death. for sure.)(if i may……. cutestthrowsever.)

And third.. A Panfish nibbled my fingertip.

Those are the three most important things.

…(this next bit is more than important.. but is achievable at any time i please. i don’t know when i’ll see a short tailed weasel shuffling off his mortal coil in front of a gaggle of children next….)

Last weekend I discovered the best gas station meats this side of the Mississip.
I am a huge fan of cured meats in general, but there’s really a lot to say about a spicy sausage strategically placed at the front counter of an ethanol based establishment.
Especially if you’re out in the country.
I make sure to purchase any and all precariously placed bangers/jerkys/kielbasas.
Today, when I returned to the Kettle Moraine area(a trip to Ottawa Lake), I bought two to share.
I should have bought a billion.

I’m so glad they came with labels, because this is a place I’d like to be. ASAP.
BEST MEAT.
I’d like to add that I’d never heard of a Landj√§ger before.
Shows how much I thought I knew about salami.

From Wikipeeds. “Landj√§ger, (in both the singular and the plural, which means “country hunter” or gamekeeper ‚Äî originally a kind of mounted police in some German provinces) is a semi-dried sausage traditionally made in Southern Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Alsace (where the name in French is gendarme).”
Oh, and in Austria, they make them with horse meat. I don’t know why, but I draw the line at horses.

And balut. Yeeeeeeeeeeeeesh.

I discovered, when I got back home to tend to my garden, that what I had identified as the giant weed tree adjacent to my magnolia, had bloomed.

It’s the most charming weed!
(it’s not a weed)
(it might be a weed.)
(i am not a botanist.)