Thursday, 31 March 2011
Can you figure this out?
Operative words are desarrollo garantizado. That’s development guaranteed, if your Spanish is limited.
And the plate sandwich with the Starbucks stopper? A science experiment on the garantizado assertion….
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
Despite all the recent rain, this sturdier shrub still presents perkily, while the azaleas, with their softer, larger petals, are weighed down by the water.
Tuesday, 29 March 2011
JCB special I “borrowed,” I liked it so much….
I guess technically this would be a side light, but I always enjoyed the architectural detail, too. Wouldn’t want a house with ’em, mind you (would feel like the world could peek in at me at will), but I enjoy looking at ’em now and then.
Monday, 28 March 2011
On this day some years ago, M came into the world. Happy birthday, M! And, here’re some wet azaleas! Just for you—and all my Internet friends—share everyone!
Sunday, 27 March 2011
Are these flowers…glowing?
The wee hours had all D&S characteristics: it was a dark and stormy night…and we were fine by morning when the rain had quit and there was daylight.
Mid-day we ventured out, under overcast skies and cool temps—cool for us these days. I found this flame azalea (I think) at Piedmont Park, where the lake is fu-u-ull, but not flooding.
On the way back, we stopped at George’s, a bar/restaurant in the neighborhood, because the Guru read a recent glowing review of their burgers. We had the standard burger, and enjoyed it, but didn’t quite feel the glowing part. Because of the non-perfect weather—yet fine for us—we had the patio to ourselves by the time our burgers arrived—unimpeded people-watching!
Saturday, 26 March 2011
I figure I’d best interrupt this long series of flower-illustrated posts—just to remind you that the floral cycle-of-life has other stages. And, by the way, this is from this morning.
Friday, 25 March 2011
Just what do you call a white redbud that doesn’t make you sound…logic-challenged?
Thursday, 24 March 2011
Cooped up. And I did it to myself. I’ve had a “chore” hanging over me, and today I attacked!
Trouble is, this wasn’t the chore that was on today’s to-do list….
Sigh. (Can’t say it hasn’t happened before, though, haha.)
Wednesday, 23 March 2011
Azaleas ready to pop, after dark.
He had taken to smoking cigarettes and every time he made one we all stopped to watch. In his vest pocket he carried a sack of Bull Durham smoking tobacco with a round tag with a bull on it hanging out. He also had a thin packet of cigarette papers called LFFs—Loafer’s Last Friend. He would hold a paper curved in his fingers of his left hand and fill it with tobacco. He had a way of holding the sack in his right hand so he could pull it open and shut with his teeth. When the bag was back in his pocket, with the bull showing so we would remember jokes about it and laugh, he would roll the cigarette and seal it by drawing his tongue along it. Then he would h’ist his leg and strike a match on his tight pants.
This was what I liked most to see. He would stretch his duckings leg till the blue was almost white. Then he would draw the match toward him, barely letting the head touch the cloth, and it would flame up a reddish yellow. He would hold the match still till the flame was clear yellow and then light his cigarette. He let me try in, but I did not get my duckings leg tight enough and the match stick broke.
Lots to like here: “cigarette” is never nicknamed or shortened, LFF’s full title is presented blandly, the solid sentences, the graphic imagery. But, mostly: the detailed observation.
How much of Owens’s technology and terminology is…historical quaintness now?
Passage from William A. Owens’s 1966 This Stubborn Soil: A Frontier Boyhood, pp 159–160 in my paperback Vintage Book edition.
Tuesday, 22 March 2011
There are some days I feel like I’m spinning my wheels, and, sure enough, I have a hard time putting my finger on what I got done.
Today I met a somewhat higher standard, but not a particularly rigorous one. I did track down a few dust bunnies (maybe more like dust-ponies), and I did venture out for some groceries, and, um—see what I mean?
I did find a super-helpful 2010 article by Tina Thurston that helped me understand the Bronze Age in Italy and Europe; she combines archaeological data and archaeological theory, rather than being cowed by the writings of the ancients…. Yippee!
Thurston, Tina L. 2010. “Bitter Arrows and Generous Gifts: What Was a ‘King’ in the European Iron Age?” In Pathways to Power: New Perspectives on the Emergence of Social Inequality, edited by T. Douglas Price, and Gary F. Feinman, pp. 193–254. Springer, New York.