Wednesday, 31 January 2018
This almost-bloom almost made it, then got frosted/frozen, then fell under the control of gravity…then….
Here’s the scenario in my imagination: some rodent (probably squirrel) raided the browned bloom, opening it rather like a pine cone.
This is an art-bloom. Not sure what kind of blossom…poppy?
Tuesday, 30 January 2018
Gentle Reader, I’m guessing that if your eyeballs are here, you’re missing Up Helly Aa…yeah, the celebration in Lerwick* is I think the biggest, and it began today.
* Lerwick is in the Shetlands, over 100mi north of mainland Scotland.
Monday, 29 January 2018
These ATL croci have not figured out the timing with the snow. The snow was here…and has been gone a while.
Yet our croci still are a lovely lavender/lilac (perhaps orchid) (but not really violet)…FLOWER-y purple-y color.
Sunday, 28 January 2018
I went out in the late afternoon, thereby dodging rain-rain in favor of drippy-rain. With a ball-cap and raincoat hood on, I looked down more than I should have. And spotted a fairy-garden with a pond-and-bridge. Cute!
Forging along, I found this mini-garden rather unexpectedly attached to the side of a free library. Perfect wee picket fence, ¿no?
Saturday, 27 January 2018
As I headed out on my walk, I discovered this crew with their big crane prepared to lift a new AC unit that’s on the sidewalk by the crane to the roof of the Y. When I returned about 50 minutes later, the crane arm was folded and the crew was letting the leveling jacks down and putting away the jack-stuff (plywood pieces, etc.). I think the installation crew was still working on the roof.
On my loop between crane inspections, I found this purple gate on a little-used alley. I remember the gate, but not the purple.
Things do change….
Friday, 26 January 2018
I’ve been feeling a bit more spry lately (yay!), and today we ventured to the BotGarden to check on the plants and have lunch out.
After eating, we checked out an area that’s been newly hardscaped. For years it had been very underused, to the point of seeming abandoned by the gardeners. As we approached the area, I could see that one of my favorite small beds of succulents and cacti was gone, replaced by a line of boring, identical shrubs.
Oh, no!
HOWEVER, when we got into the redesigned area, whew, the plants from That Very Bed had been planted in many new beds, with vastly expanded square footage.
Whew!
With great happiness, we headed to the orchid conservatory to see what might be in bloom, as OrchidDaze has just begun. [I do not subscribe to their spelling distortion.]
The orchid diversity is stunning. These are tiny and hang down from their vegetation, here perched on a branch.
Compare to this huge branch of many blossoms, all open at once.
And this one is a knock-out for its color…and that it’s the size of a saucer.
Thursday, 25 January 2018
We got exuberant today in the sunshine, and headed over to the BeltLine. Since we were there last, the powers-that-be have put a new set of public art along the right-of-way. I liked the asymmetry of this one.
We headed farther than I expected to (over-exuberance?), to check out the Kroger apartment building across from Ponce City Market. Many crews working, with two cranes, one at each end of the complex, including this load of supplies being elevated to the upper level. I think there’ll be at least two more floors added to this end of the building. Note the old roof-top water tower on the old, neighboring building.
Okay, I am cribbing the title phrase from the redesigned label of our favorite Georgia cheese….
Wednesday, 24 January 2018
I can tell the day-length is stretching (finally), and it seems these hyacinths can, too.
Tuesday, 23 January 2018
Came across a word today I don’t remember encountering before: derp. Seems like I would have seen/heard it before. I found it in a Krugman-NYT headline…and the article text, duh.
Derp means “foolishness or stupidity.” Seems like I would have encountered it, oh?, maybe a thousand times in the last year at least…. Maybe I haven’t been paying attention (hrrrrumph).
Monday, 22 January 2018
I “knew” this plant long before I remember hearing its name. I knew it had nice red berries come autumn. And some bright red leaves. I knew it had stiff woody branches, and no thorns. I knew that the branches were quite rigid, far more than most shrubs.
When I heard the name, I heard coh…toh…neee…assss…ter. Sure, fine. Then, sometime later, I saw the name spelled out, and I tried not to sound it out (as I was told to do, over and over; and over) because I found sounding it out to be misleading.
This is an artistic rendering of a section of an autumnal branch of a cotoneaster. So, again, it’s a distortion of reality…?
Then again, cotoneasters are taxonomically related to photinias. 😎