Musings

We got out in the sunshine part of the day, and wandered the passageways of Oakland Cemetery. We found the African-American and the Jewish sections, which I had never entered before. The potter’s field area is, I think, the lowest part, and after the recent rains, pretty damp (aka saturated).

I don’t know the symbolism of the shell. Or at least, I never heard that angels sleep in bivalve shells. I have read that scallop shells are fertility symbols and, in Christianity, represent St James and St Augustine. Those three, with angels, seems both powerful and a mixed message.

Posted at 9:02 PM | Comments Off on Wandering and wondering

This time: the quince. Fully open tomorrow, I expect.

And this was last Saturday.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Another unseasonal bloom

Here are assorted photos from our Piedmont Park and BotGarden wander today. Lake Clara Meer is in flood; our favorite water’s-edge stroll is under about 15 cm of lake.

These 2016 daffodils are here a year early. Those are brilliant red camellias in the background, but this is their regular time to bloom, or only a bit early.

I love this aggressive moss garden on the shake roof at the Japanese garden.

In one of the “hot houses,” I arrived just after the foggers shut off. Ethereal.

I was a bit surprised to find the honey bees are also around, not just the untimely early flowers.

Posted at 6:52 PM | Comments Off on Photo day

Despite concerns about muddy spots, I did a bit more alley-prowling today. I guess the horizontal clapboard is a given. The gate, someone made a choice. Could have matched the clapboard, but that would have meant more sawing. So, the gate has vertical panels. And the two contrast.

Posted at 10:22 PM | 1 Comment »

The Guru headed out with me on a pedestrian wander, and suggested we cross The Big, Noisy Street that I usually don’t go near. On the other side, we came across this urban camp, although we got no closer than this. There are pants hanging from a low branch that are difficult to pick out. I couldn’t tell if the occupier was present.

Love public art. Sure don’t necessarily understand it. This is a small part of an installation called New Endings by Diane Solomon Kempler. It was first installed at the site of Atlanta’s first public water supply for the Olympics in 1996. Now it’s in an out-of-the-way cove miles from that spot.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Finds afoot

We got out for Boxing Day into intermittent sunshine—and shadows. Looks like the locomotive world is getting going again after a down day. We saw a crew-switch at another location, but not here, although it looks like a waiting situation….

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Parked contained energy package

When he was around The Botanist was my #1 apple dessert fan, especially pie, but he’d take crisp or even sauce. He was also my #1 peeler. I did a crisp today and thought of him through nine apples, Cameo I believe they were called. Came out pretty tasty. Yay for Vietnamese cinnamon.

This is a taste of Randall Munroe’s exemplary “Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words,” in which he marshals exceptional drawings and a vocabulary of only 1000 words to explain complicated things. The 1000 (aka “ten hundred”) words apparently include flies but not ants. We gave away the copy we bought, and I think we’ll buy another copy for ourselves…yay, dead-tree books!

Posted at 10:03 PM | 2 Comments »

My, was it ever raining hard. We had lake-puddles in the yard. Until the rain faded and the puddles drained away.

And when there was a break in the precip, I headed out to get some active minutes and fresh air. Maybe in the opposite order.

Poaching in the neighbors’ koi pond, I found a great blue heron. Who decided that I was too close, or perhaps too threatening. And took off. Whatta wingspan!

Great extended family XmasEve event this evening…over in Cabbagetown. Such fun with leeeeetle kids around….

Posted at 9:38 PM | Comments Off on Adventure close to home

I guess the fire-folk figure that it’s raining waaaay too much for the birdies to need their birdbath. This is right next to the ceee-ment fireplug (not shown).

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Pool decorations

Love the homemade yard decorations I find when out and about, especially the ones that don’t look like Halloween-gone-wild. Here’s a copy of the Garden-of-Good-and-Evil gal in a festive, holiday mode. With the holly and evergreen boughs, ya gotta assume she’s pretty darned pagan.

Posted at 9:44 PM | 1 Comment »