Musings

We’ve got some great neighbors. They gave the Thai basil love while we were gone, and, bzzzt, look at the size of that plant—one, count ’em, one plant.

The color you see encroaching on the basil…. The yellow on the left is a blooming miniature French marigold—the only one of the flat that survived. The red at the left foreground, that’s the fruit of a volunteer plant of that decorative (I swear) teeny, lumpy pepper that I planted last year. Self-seeding can rock.

Anyway, I think I’ll snip back all the blossoms and see what the plant does. It may be frustrated and burst forth with leaves. Or the heat may subdue it. Or?

Posted at 8:52 PM | Comments Off on Science check on the Thai basil

Every day is a good day to contemplate Tahquamenon Falls and the white noise of the pounding water.

I found today an especially good day for it.

Posted at 8:14 PM | Comments Off on Listen and let stress roll away

Buildings at Whitefish Point, on a sunny day, recently.

I spent quite a while today confused about why the flooding was so bad in VT—and not in NH. My sense of geography is not the best, as I tend to think of those two states as joined at the hip, as it were—at least sharing a river. As in, place where rainwater drains from the landscape.

Late in the afternoon, I finally investigated, just a bit, discovering that the track of the center of the storm went through VT—and not NH, hence the differential.

All of this pales when I consider The Real World.

Posted at 10:49 PM | 1 Comment »

This picture is courtesy of The Guru; I wasn’t there at the Seney Refuge when this was taken….

I had one of those where-did-the-day-go Sundays.

Hmm. Bits of life from today to report? Savory pancakes for dinner. With roasted corn and spinach. I was going to add some basil from the front garden (admittedly, there’s no back garden), but I couldn’t convince myself that the taste would be yummy. So—veggie pancakes of a sort.

Posted at 8:29 PM | Comments Off on Fast and flavorful

A good general elevation for Atlanta is about 1000 feet. Follow I-75 south about 85 miles to Macon—it’s an easy rolling run across the Piedmont. Downtown Macon’s elevation is more like 400 feet.

The Prius notices that elevation change. I averaged perhaps 51–52 mpg Macon-bound (ahem, exceeding the speed limit, too, a bit—I admit, in the interests of science—truth was, I was running late). Northbound, not so much. At the speed limit, I got more like 46–47 mpg.

And what was I doing in Macon? Spending the day at the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame. Long story, but I was in meetings, although during our afternoon break we went upstairs and shot some hoops on the half-court (or was it half a half-court?).

Posted at 10:22 PM | 2 Comments »

Evolution, both in genetics and behavior, are patchy.

Evolution in the sense of change over time, must have spatial variation, as the change is not instantaneous; it must ramify. Therefore, it is patchy.

And that’s enough on a Friday.

For the curious, here’s the WikiPee link for the S word.

Posted at 6:20 PM | Comments Off on Am I a human skeuomorph?

Photographic memory of the northland….

Periodically I try for a still life photo. The light was most-excellent in person, and looks like crap here.

Meanwhile, today was catchup—laundry, a bit of shopping (especially grocery), pay a stray bill that can’t be paid online (but it’s coming, we’re assured), breathe deeply—that kinda thing….

Posted at 8:38 PM | Comments Off on So-o-o glad to be home!

Homeward bound, we stopped for an early lunch at Tellico Grains Bakery, oh, yum. Highly recommended. We also bought a boule of sourdough home with us.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Energizing stops far from the Interstate

Cells in this tomato went wild. Even under the watchful eye of The Botanist. Maybe now that the cataract surgeries went so well, the tomatoes will stay on course.

Some of CousinS’s cells went wild. Today, surgeons went in and removed them. We were glad we got to see her, even for the less than two minutes that we shouldered past the closely watching nurse to visit—S was awake, and I felt much better for having seen her and hugged her husband, D, too.

Posted at 10:22 PM | 2 Comments »

Once again I have learned that it takes a good three hours to close up the Green Cottage, even without the water draining steps (that’s for next time).

Now we are back in civilization, or at least a part of the world that has storefronts bearing this particular trademark.

Posted at 6:28 PM | 1 Comment »