Friday, 19 February 2016
Easiest closeup flower photo of the day: this hyacinth was in an almost eye-level planting by the sidewalk. A bit frost-nipped….
I smelled a combination of honey and orange…looked for the flower and found this unassuming specimen. Sorry I can’t post the lovely scent.
For no apparent reason, I include this knobby tire/wheel, aka tire with toenails, as I once heard it put.
Happy spring, or almost-spring.
Thursday, 18 February 2016
Mahonia spp. I’m used to yellow flowers and blue “fruit,” but this one has yellow fruit.
Yesterday I encountered a word I hadn’t remembered encountering before, but of course I had…and forgotten. The word is carnyx. Synonyms are war trumpet and Celtic horn. Apparently it was ritual instrument used in warfare. Only a very few have been found—and only one in the British Isles: the Deskford carnyx.
I saw that carnyx in a display at the National Museum of Scotland, along with a reconstruction (with a tantalizing red tongue). And I saw the word carnyx in the accompanying explanatory materials.
However, I focused on getting a decent memory-photo (bad reflections), and thought about how big it was—serious mixed media and complex metallurgy techniques, it seemed to me—still does.
The Gundestrup caldron, found in northern Denmark, has a panel showing a trio of carnyx players (Open Commons photo). This helps us know how it was used. Read more on this page by acoustics professor Daniel A. Russell. He also details many of the times illustrator Albert Uderzo used versions of the instrument in the Astérix series.
Holding those tall pipes must have been tricky while walking. The much later, stubbier bagpipes made music-while-marching much easier, I would think.
I’m guessing carnyces fit into the group of instruments that create vibrating columns of air.
Wednesday, 17 February 2016
The sun does blast the leafless trees during winter.
[No connection to the next photo.]
This weird top has extra-long sleeves that act like fingerless gloves. And are equally as strange as fingerless gloves.
Tuesday, 16 February 2016
I got fascinated with archaeological features of Cornwall and figured out how to call up Ordinance Survey maps that note them. Turns out there are standing stones, stone circles, barrows, ring forts, promontory forts, the whole assortment that are known from the Neolithic landscape elsewhere in the British Isles. And beyond. Those Ancient Ones were busy-busy.
Monday, 15 February 2016
Weather report: Overcast. Grey. Bleak. Cold. Penetrating cold.
So, we mall-walked. And looked outside, hoping for outdoor improvements.
Sunday, 14 February 2016
We aren’t into saints, but we do respect romantic love. We splurged on dinner ingredients, a treat for each other. We picked never-frozen Georgia shrimp, and I sautéed them in Euro-butter right before serving…mmmm.
This may not look like it, but it’s public art—a closeup of the “veneer” on a concrete platform for a trash can next to a nearby sand-volleyball court (no beach).
Saturday, 13 February 2016
I had a chuckle over this Porsche-style parking technique. That rear tire is almost on the sidewalk.
I really liked the light today—winter-clear. And a backlit palmetto (?) leaf—always eye-catching.
Here’s some prismatic light distortion…coming through the windshield and then a pickup’s side window.
Headline noted today: Papa en México. I laughed; papa means both pope and potato, well, and dad/papa. So, if the popemobile were very sun-heated, he’d be a hot papa (your pick—pope or potato…).
Friday, 12 February 2016
Today we repeatedly juxtaposed old and new, sun and shadow. We didn’t set out to do that…it just…happened.
We drove a stretch of the Old Dixie Highway, and saw a bit of Old Dixie, noting eroded soils, falling-down wooden buildings, weeds in droves, aging pecan groves, and rising fire-ant hills.
We also wound through back streets of Social Circle and Madison, trying to avoid the new construction and the upscale. We went by the HS of SC and saw the football players dispersing after practice, all headed, one by one, to jacked up shiny pickups. Where has all that money come from?
The highlight was visiting the new-old house of family (see cat in “cat-through”), and attending a dinner celebrating ninety big years.
Thursday, 11 February 2016
I found a horsetail hedge today. Actually, I’ve seen it before, but it didn’t occur to me that what I was seeing has an alliterative name.
Speaking of horses—and carriages—here’s a mounting block, I assume more recent than the days when it was needed, and thus for show. I would have expected the name to be on the street side…. Maybe the owner prefers to look out his (her?) front door and see his (her?) name out by the street, creating a feel-good (possessive?) moment?
Wednesday, 10 February 2016
I found a mildewed low-end sedan with Michigan license plate and this sticker, and a Marines front plate. I thought: Paradise is too small for a dealership, but maybe it had a used-car lot? G__gling suggests the sticker refers to a downstate business. Ah, well.
This visual could also inspire a short-story. Usually the curbside sports equipment are basketball nets; this is the first volleyball I remember seeing. Different ball-handling….
