Musings

I certainly have a cupboard full of glassware, but I have to admit that if I stumbled across cocktail glasses like this, I might snag them.

These are from my parents’ cupboard, and when I was a kid and first learned about martinis and martini glasses, I always lusted after having a frosty martini in a glass like this. I’ve yet to have one, even now!

We do our ’tinis here in relatively standard old fashioned glasses, which is like a guy’s club, I guess. Nice style, but not snazzy like this specimen.

In the course of googling associated with generating this entry, I have discovered that the official bartender name of the particular variety of martini that’s currently my favorite is, tada!, a dusty martini! It has a bit of olive brine instead of vermouth. I split on several traditional aspects. I like gin; that’s traditional, although many prefer vodka, and increasingly (shiver), flavored vodkas. I make my martini over ice; that’s not traditional—up is….

Posted at 5:31 PM | 5 Comments »

Honestly, this picture is from today; sorry for the iPhone non-focus….

Atlanta’s in one of those weather quirks that happen every now and then. The high today was almost 70°. What a contrast to the white winter we saw earlier this week in the Midwest!

Posted at 6:11 PM | 2 Comments »

Hey, let’s not do that again soon: drive to Michigan and return on days when major snowstorms are striking.

Last night we hit the road after dinner, and made it south of the freeze zone (and south of Cincinnati, too, because travel there can be, well, frustrating), figuring ice was even more likely to impede our progress than heavy snowfall. Probably an excellent bet….

We returned to ATL under grey skies, but before dark. All well here, except our water was mysteriously off; we suspect vandalism—our bill is paid!

* Here’s the whole nursery rhyme….

Posted at 9:15 PM | 2 Comments »

I find the dry snow skittering across the road rather mesmerizing, like watching a wood-fire crackle. This is not a good thing when you’re driving, but it can help you take a right-seat nap!

Posted at 1:25 PM | Comments Off on Dry road-snow

We arrived yesterday with the snow, not so much a windy snow storm, yet far more than drifting flakes—and enough to make a real accumulation—three, maybe a scant four inches at the house. I had forgotten that a full blanket of fresh snow changes the light when you look across the landscape. And at night, when there’s moonlight, the whole look of the out-of-doors has a surreal quality, a softness and ethereality so different from summer light when the vegetation is full.

Posted at 2:11 PM | Comments Off on Snow light

Today we did like a cable station that JCB designed once: weather and traffic together. Geeze, did we have weather. Spitting snow, creeping vehicles. Oh, fun.

Posted at 9:46 PM | Comments Off on Winter; Midwest; I-75

I couldn’t help it. Yesterday I mentioned the Currituck lighthouse toward the northern part of the Outer Banks. Tada! Here it is.

The compound’s only open for the high season, so we could only scrutinize it from the street. It seems somewhat far inland now; I don’t know if the shore has moved away from it since it was built.

Posted at 5:32 PM | 3 Comments »

Two basically impossible-to-discern facts about the moment this picture was taken (last week): 1) it was windy; and, 2) it was starting to rain.

I was very glad to be standing high and dry on a handy interpretive nature boardwalk, next to the Currituck Beach Lighthouse.

Posted at 8:11 PM | Comments Off on Estuarine life

From the ferries to and from Okracoke last week, we saw flocks of birds on the Sound, but I’m not entirely sure what species. There were minorities of brown pelicans and some kind of gulls (big ones, it seemed), but most were anhingas or cormorants. Actually, after studying the closest bird book (Sibley’s Eastern North America Field Guide), I wonder if they both weren’t there. Most seem definitely like feeding anhingas, but a few seem to have cormorant shapes and colorations (most likely the double-crested species).

Elsewhere, we saw tundra swans glistening even in the grey, fogged muted daylight. I think there were snow geese, too….

Most of the beach shells on the Outer Banks have been hammered between the surf and sand, yet they still make patterns in the multi-colored sand after the tide goes out….

Posted at 7:50 PM | Comments Off on Birds and shells

We’re back from our speedy trip to the Outer Banks (yawn), with many lovely memories. Out of several sobering moments, I retain many visuals of heavy equipment intervening against the dramatic actions of Ma Nature.

Ma is trying to reclaim the land under this old motel, or more accurately, to modify the coastline and make this area beach and sea. Meanwhile, Men and Machines seek to counteract this trend.

Luck, guys.

BTW, I think if people build on the OB and similar places, any financial losses due to weather (e.g., hurricanes, high tides) shouldn’t bounce back in the taxpayers’ lap. Your choice; your risk—and perhaps your bank’s, if it’s willing to lend to you to build in such a place.

Sorry. I’ll stop now.

Posted at 6:22 PM | 1 Comment »