Musings

Here’s a variation on “rose between two thorns”—dandy between hostas!

To riff on Stephen Colbert, “Meanwhile…our microwave died during dinner prep.”

Bit of a failure…long time coming. I’ve had these shoes for something like 15 years. Mom wore them for a while when she had slick-soled old-lady shoes and couldn’t get any purchase to move her wheelchair. Then they came back to me and landed in the back of the closet. Back in the Before Time, I got them back out one rainy day…waterproof, you know. Love Keens.

Most people I see around this neighborhood are being careful with social distancing. Today, I came across a backyard full of guys (I counted nine) who looked like 30-ish lawyer-banker types, judging by the haircuts and quality casual wear…drinking beer and yucking it up and making a few putts on a backyard putting green (usually cluttered with plant bits and ignored), I’m guessing because the country club is closed. They probably have an in with our clueless governor….

Posted at 7:04 PM | 2 Comments »

The rain came through in the wee hours, enough of a storm front that I never fell back asleep. It and the wind brought down these dogwood petals…

…and these cherry blossoms…

…and made the crepe myrtle bark glow red.

Title is an awkward homage to Dr. Fauci, who used the phrase “burden of infection” this morning in an interview. And probably dozens of other times….

Posted at 7:31 PM | Comments Off on Burden of weather

I got my feedbag mask adjusted better today, plus I think it was a bit cooler out. Will be more difficult when it is hot-n-humid. Poor me.

I have my new research project underway: the Iberian peninsula. I told the Guru I figured we can get there in the next decade. Now I’m trying to figure out the ports and interior transportation network that developed during Roman occupation. Parts of Iberia had/have considerable mineral resources…and had been mined for quite some time. Certainly, by the Late Bronze Age (as elsewhere across Europe…and beyond), the material culture had become quite complex blah blah blah. Anyway, I gotta start earlier than the Romanization to get a sense of its context. Sail on!

Fell in love with these streaky blooms, but this is the only decent shot I took. Hoping the vaccine-development folk are making good progress.

Posted at 8:47 PM | Comments Off on One foot in front of the other

Despite reading about variable viral loads in patients (“How Does the CoronaVirus Behave inside a Patient” by Siddhartha Mukherjee; April 26th, New Yorker), I wore my feedbag model of my cloth mask. I thought the larger breathing pocket would be less of an impediment while exercising. Then, well into my walk, I thought that the exhalation squeezing out around the mask edges might…hmm, well, what if I had the virus, wouldn’t I be exhaling virus travelers right into my eyeballs, increasing my viral load…hmm, let’s move along.

Where pine pollen comes from….

Seasonal mushroom, already nibbled by…wildlife?

Art! Sidewalk chalk art! Stained glass star….

Posted at 6:31 PM | Comments Off on Feedbag model

This appeared overnight; I think someone visited a plant nursery.

I experimented with automatic color correction for kicks…ick…turned very blue. Double ick.

I’m admiring the linear spirals of dark pink in the centers of these lovelies. No color correction needed!

The new green growth is pretty darned yellow. Did not try color-correcting with this one…once is enough.

Posted at 5:35 PM | Comments Off on Natural nature

We’re still in the azalea season…glorious! Especially the big blooms like this.

This is the earliest rhododendron bud I’ve spotted opening. Of course, my dataset is very local and small geographically. Still, it is a dataset.

Posted at 7:37 PM | Comments Off on Turn turn turn

I’m calling this mom, on left, and youngster, on right.

Yesterday, we just saw mom. Today must have been a training run. As in: “Those pesky people are not out and about, so it’s Our Turn! And this is a cool place to hang.” [if you accept the anthropomorphizing of opossums.]

Posted at 5:34 PM | Comments Off on Bonus post (aka Possum post)

Composition probably would be better without being so close, but the bloom’s surroundings were un-aesthetic. Visual version of poetic license.

All the photos I took yesterday of this insect were out of focus, as were the rest from today. I score!

Pretty sure this is a variety/species of viburnum. Not that it matters…those yellow globules-on-a-stalk are just so darned lovely. Name not needed!

Posted at 5:21 PM | Comments Off on Floral stalking (today’s version)

I don’t usually get a glimpse of crepe myrtle heartwood; normally, it’s just clothed in the elegant beige-toned “skin” layer.

I inspected this entire fence, and couldn’t figure out an angle to juxtapose a rosebud with a finial. Keeping that goal for the future….

I don’t know what maintenance this truck is specialized for, but it reeked of chlorine. Maybe attending pools?

Posted at 5:18 PM | Comments Off on More shade

Most often I present photos in the order taken. Sometimes I change the order to better fit the “story” I develop.

Sometimes I just throw ’em at the wall…as it were…no order.

So this trio is tree-branch-shadows, cat-mailbox-with-bow, and flowers. The tree is crepe myrtle, not yet leafed out. The cat looks like a paint-by-number home project…and endearing, with lovely whiskers; the bow…flamboyant…and mysterious. The flowers…hmm, some kind of ornamental super-flowery lavender?…friend to bees today….

Posted at 6:55 PM | Comments Off on No story