Trillium sessile
Sunday, 11 March 2007
If I’m right, this is a toadshade, a kind of trillium with a very poetic name.
Found it right here in Atlanta, surprisingly.
Musings
Segway padding
Saturday, 10 March 2007
Every once in a while I spot one of those Segway scooters, but this guy, wearing the knee and elbow pads and the helmet, sorta makes me not want to give one a try. Of course, if you want to Segway off-road there’s a model for that now, too.
Castle 4 rent
Friday, 9 March 2007
Even in Atlanta you can rent a castle! The Brits would probably laugh at us for calling this building a castle, but, here in the Sunny South, we boast about it!
Spring-light
Thursday, 8 March 2007
Somehow the sunlight seems richer and more lush now, prior to the spring-forward time change—which will have no adverse affect on my Mac! Yea!
Synesthesia
Wednesday, 7 March 2007
Finished Daniel Tammet’s autobiography Born on a Blue Day (2006). He’s got both Asperger’s syndrome and synesthesia. The former is a mild form of autism (so They say, but nothing about it sounds “mild” to me), and the latter makes him associate colors and other physical attributes to numbers (“one” is a bright white light). The volume starts with more on the synesthesia, and ends with more on his life. I kept wondering what the synesthesia is like in his adult life, as I couldn’t find much on that.
Anyway, it’s quite readable if you’re interested.
And an antidote to ponderous reads on the Archaic-Formative transition in Mesoamerica….
Today’s vocabulary:
euryhaline
an aquatic organism able to tolerate a wide range of salinity
Blue skies…
Tuesday, 6 March 2007
Gorgeous day here in the Piedmont, nearly 70°F this afternoon—(almost) unbelievable. The ornamental cherries and their relatives have begun to shine. We even saw a few of the petals drifting in the breeze.
Helicopter season
Monday, 5 March 2007
As I understand it, the natural woods around here had no maples (and thus this season lacked maple syrup), but we do see some planted in yards and parks. Oh, glorious spring to yield so many helicopters!
Nose adventures
Sunday, 4 March 2007
Magnolia liliiflora, or Japanese magnolia, although the species is from China.
From Carl Hiaasen in Nature Girl (2006, pg. 188):
Thirty years in the seafood business combined with grossly irregular bathing habits had cloaked upon Louis Piejack a distinct and inconquerable funk. Were it cologne, the essense would have included the skin of Spanish mackerel, the roe of black mullet, the guts of gag grouper, the wrung-out brains of spiny lobster and the milky seepage of raw oysters. The musk emanated most pungently from Piejack’s neck and arms, which had acquired a greenish yellow sheen under daily basting of gill slime and fish shit. Nothing milder than industrial lye could have cleansed the man.
I shivered reading that and the image of standing on a wharf awash in the odor of sea-ness filled my mind and nose. You can tell Piejack is a bad guy, right?
Overall take on the book: loved the character and adventures of Honey Santana. A good read.
Today’s vocabulary:
fetor (Br. foetor)
a strong, foul smell
We usually use fetid (Br. foetid), the adjective, rather than the noun form….
Dry beeches
Saturday, 3 March 2007
The beeches hold their leaves even when the greening begins in other species….
