On what should have been a beautiful Lake Superior morning, smokey air was creeping across the big lake from fires burning in Canada. Luckily, most days are filled with brisk clear Lake Superior air.

Amazing butterflies, the Compton tortoiseshell.

Sounds of robust birds singing fill the woods. The chestnut sided warbler, song sparrows, oven bird, indigo buntings, red-eyed vireo and many others sing all day long.

The butterflies are the very best, and the contrast to so few butterflies in urban areas is striking. Every amazing butterfly that lives in June is here. They seem to love the host plants I have planted to get them to begin the next generation of butterflies. There is hope for the future if we could get over our addiction to pesticides and plant pollinator gardens.

Milkweed is a wonderful host plant.

The swallow tail is one of the easiest butterflies to identify.

Seeing the bear, fox and big bucks and deer have been a surprise. After several years of scarcity, they are back, and the squirrels, chipmunks and bunnies are almost non-existent.

Bunch berries will have red berries later in the summer.

June in the north country of Minnesota and Wisconsin are famous for the beautiful but non-native lupine. They grow in patches everywhere. This year I was struck by all the June white plants blooming. and have enjoyed enormous fields of daisies. I especially love the delicate star flower, the false lily of the valley, the hardy Canada anemone, and classic north woods bunch berries. To experience these beauties, you need to get out of your cars and walk!

Star flowers