Le Jardin Lavaliere

05/27/2026

So much to do…..bring it on!

05/26/2026

There is so much to discover during a morning walk in your garden.

A suburban quarter-acre in the eastern states — lawn, a few trees, a garden bed, and a fence — hosts more species than most property owners ever count.

🌿 The rough inventory:

Mammals (5-8) — squirrel, chipmunk, cottontail, raccoon, opossum, possibly fox or skunk.

Birds (20-40 depending on season) — robin, cardinal, chickadee, wren, jay, crow, woodpecker, hawk, and whatever is nesting in the hedge and the dead branch.

Reptiles and amphibians (3-6) — garter snake, toad, tree frog, possibly box turtle or skink.

Insects (hundreds) — ground-nesting bees, orb weavers, jumping spiders, fireflies, caterpillars, ground beetles, moths.

Soil (thousands per handful) — mites, springtails, nematodes, fungi. The layer that builds everything above it.

🐾 Every management decision — mowing schedule, plant selection, pesticide use, leaf removal — reaches across the entire list.

The deed names one household. The quarter-acre feeds considerably more than that 🌿

05/24/2026

A pretty start to the day.

05/18/2026

Extreme Fire Danger Friday, May 15, 2026
Red Flag Warning Issued For 11 Northern Wisconsin Counties

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR), in conjunction with the National Weather Service, has issued a Red Flag Warning for today, Friday, May 15, 2026 from noon to 9 p.m. for the following counties:

Ashland
Barron
Bayfield
Burnett
Douglas
Iron
Polk
Rusk
Sawyer
Vilas
Washburn

A Red Flag Warning is issued when a variety of weather factors come together to create especially dangerous wildland fire conditions. Warm temperatures, very low humidity, gusty winds and exceptionally dry fuels from lack of precipitation in the region are forecast and can result in catastrophic fires.

Recent rains have not minimized wildfire concerns, as grasses, pine needles and leaf litter can dry out again very quickly between precipitation events, creating hazardous conditions.

In addition to the Red Flag Warning, all DNR-issued burn permits for debris piles and broadcast burning are suspended in 26 counties, with additional suspensions possible throughout the weekend. Find updated information on DNR burning permit suspensions on the DNR's WisBurn tool.

Burn Restrictions — Rusk County
Fire Danger: EXTREME

Burning Permit Restrictions
Due to fire weather conditions, burning is not allowed today. All DNR-issued burning permits are suspended. Burning in barrels, debris piles, and grass or wooded areas with your DNR annual burning permit is prohibited. Campfires, though strongly discouraged, are allowed if used solely for cooking or warming purposes, but please use extreme caution. Consider having small campfires in a designated fire ring or device in the evening hours to avoid burning under elevated fire conditions typically found during the day. Please note-- areas outside of DNR Protection and within the limits of incorporated villages or cities may create their own burning ordinances, as well as set their own burn restrictions.

Additional Comments
Before burning a debris (brush) pile or conducting a grass burn call the Rusk County Sheriff's Department at (715) 532-2200.

Parts of this county may not be regulated by the DNR. This county may contain both DNR Protection Areas and lands where the DNR does not regulate outdoor burning. Lands outside of DNR Protection and within the limits of incorporated villages or cities may create their own burning ordinances, as well as set their own burn restrictions. In addition, although the mapping data and systems used by the department have been produced from sources believed to be reliable, no guarantee is made regarding the accuracy of the user's selected location. It is your responsibility to know where you are burning. If you are not sure where your burn location falls, contact the local DNR office, fire department, town chairperson or local municipal official for clarification prior to any burning.

The DNR has responded to nearly 500 wildfires thus far in 2026, with 45% of those caused by debris burning.

The DNR is asking the public to be especially careful with any activities that could potentially lead to a wildland fire and check any fires from recent days to make sure they have been properly extinguished.

Campfires, ashes from fireplaces, outdoor grills, smoking, chainsaws, off-road vehicles or other small engines with hot exhaust systems have the potential to throw a spark, ignite a fire and spread quickly. Please use extreme caution until conditions improve.

The DNR is at full staffing and preparedness across the state to respond to any incidents.

Check current fire danger, wildfire reports and burning restrictions on the DNR website.

05/15/2026

I was so excited to see the end of the frost warnings but this is a bit too much in the opposite direction.

~Regional Severe Weather Outbreak Monday-Monday Night~

Almost everything is expected to come together for a regional severe weather outbreak Monday afternoon, evening, and into the overnight hours for a large portion of the region. Widespread thunderstorm development is expected to occur along multiple boundaries, like a dry line further south in the risk area, and a cold front further north. A broad, unstable warm sector will allow long-lived intense thunderstorms to occur, potentially into the overnight hours. Initially, large hail will dominate, but by the evening, the tornado threat will quickly ramp up in any discrete supercell. Damaging wind risk will increase around and after sunset, especially in any bowing segments (75+ mph winds possible).

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04/14/2026

Learn something new every day.

A chickadee sleeping on your oak branch right now has half her brain shut down. The other half is running.

One eye is closed. The other is open. The hemisphere connected to the open eye is monitoring for predators. The sleeping hemisphere is doing the deep repair work that keeps her alive.

She'll switch sides partway through the night. The eye that was open closes. The one that was closed opens. The other hemisphere gets its turn.

This is called unihemispheric sleep. Ducks do it. Swifts do it in the air, mid-flight, at altitude, for months. Frigatebirds sleep ten seconds at a time while soaring over open ocean.

The chickadee on your branch weighs less than half an ounce. She survived last night at forty degrees with one eye open and half a brain running for eight hours straight.

🐦 What this means for your yard:

- Birds sleeping in dense shrubs and evergreens are choosing cover — those branches are shelter, not decoration
- A porch light shining into roosting cover disrupts the sleep cycle
- The bird you see at dawn looking alert was monitoring threats all night with one eye

She doesn't sleep the way you do. She can't afford to. 🌿

03/19/2026

Tomorrow morning the sun crosses the equator. Twelve hours of light. Twelve hours of dark.

Tonight is the last night before everything moves at once.

Wood frogs are sitting in leaf litter near their breeding pools right now. They thawed from solid ice a week or two ago and have been motionless since. If it rains tonight or tomorrow, they walk. All of them. Toward the same pools they've used for years.

Spring peepers have been building their chorus with every warm wet night. By tomorrow the chorus crosses a threshold that carries through closed windows and across neighborhoods.

Spotted salamanders are underground, oriented toward vernal pools, waiting for the combination of rain, darkness, and temperatures above forty degrees. All three conditions could align in the next forty-eight hours.

Migratory birds that have been flying north for weeks are landing right now. Eastern phoebes, pine warblers, tree swallows — arriving overnight, navigating by stars, touching down at dawn. Your yard tomorrow morning will contain species that weren't there today.

Robins across the eastern US are days from first eggs. Nest construction accelerates this week. Queen bumblebees are in shallow underground chambers, flight muscles warming. The first queens emerge when ground temperature holds above forty-five degrees for a few consecutive days — which is happening right now in much of the eastern US.

The insect emergence pulse is arriving with the equinox. Your porch light tomorrow night will host noticeably more activity than tonight.

This is the calm before everything.

🌿 What to do tomorrow:

- Set an alarm for six AM. Walk outside. Stand still for two minutes. The dawn chorus will be louder than anything you've heard this year — that's the starting gun
- Check vernal pools, ditches, and wet woodland edges after dark tomorrow with a headlamp — if it rains, the amphibian migration could be underway
- Stock feeders tonight — arriving migrants are hungry and disoriented from overnight flights. Your feeder might be their first meal on the ground
- Leave your porch light off tomorrow night — the equinox insect emergence is the pulse that feeds bats, moths, and every nocturnal predator in your yard. Let them work without distraction
- Step outside again at dusk and listen for the peeper chorus — by tomorrow night it may be the loudest natural sound in your neighborhood

Tomorrow morning. 6AM. Go outside and listen 🌿

02/16/2026

February - the other side of the tree. We are shifting west.

02/16/2026

01/19/2026

This will make it feel warmer!