Musings

Arose this morning to outdoor temps so low we had frost on the roof, although not on the grass (…small favors). We are clearly in autumn, yet winter is making a reminder-bid.

Had laid a fire in the wood stove (really a coal stove repurposed) last evening, so fired it up when I came downstairs. Soon the place was warm, and I’ve kept a small fire going all day. We’ve been toasty!

Afoot during my afternoon walk, these two didn’t notice me for quite a while; I was downwind and not moving much. I was interested that the fawn saw me first and jumped, which mom noticed, then looked around to see why. And they both turned tail and leapt back to the field on the right, where a half-dozen of their buds were grazing.

Posted at 5:08 PM | Comments Off on Simple pleasures

Another super-variable day (gauged by the weather). Began rather clear. Love the water-barrel view of the pending dawn.

Midday, I walked the swamp. The clouds look more threatening than they were.

And later, lots of blue. This view is up the trunk of a maple, showing the still green interior leaves, with a hint of the coating colors on the exterior.

I found this a disjointed day, feeling mostly either like a Friday or a Sunday, although it did feel like a Saturday for a bit, too.

Posted at 9:18 PM | Comments Off on Sky watch

When I realized that deer families are single moms with fawns, I also realized that these Mama/Papa/fawn yard ornament groups are marketed to people who know no better. Or don’t care: they’re CUUUUUUte!

This trio is so old, and must have inhabited this or another sheltered environ for so long, that they have accumulated sizable lichen colonies. Poetic?

The color in the treeline in the distance was far more stunning than here; I couldn’t get the program to make them pop (meaning: I don’t know what I’m doing).

Posted at 6:32 PM | Comments Off on Think closely

For today’s big outdoor adventure we walked through a woods…

…by a creek…burble, burble…

And popped out of the wilderness to see A Big, Huge Lake!

Sooooo gorgeous. The water was so clear. Along the shore, it was beige-ish through the blue water tint, then further out: trending to aqua…then almost midnight blue way out where it’s deep. Fantastic color graduation. With breaking waves. And SSSSUUUUUNNNNNshine!

Then, we retraced our route to return to the trailhead; no loop possible (without walking an impossible gajillion miles).

Posted at 9:31 PM | Comments Off on Special date

Well there’s a computational photography experiment that was a flop. Portrait mode with spotlight. Not a real spotlight, but an apparent one. Clearly, this technique does not work on a complex subject like these tiny flowers.

However, I do laud such experimentation.

Yes, lots of important current events…just not aired here.

Posted at 8:20 PM | Comments Off on Experimentation

Sometime during the night the wind went silent and I found the change almost eerie. For today, almost entirely sunshine! Yay!

Nurdles are lentil-sized plastic buttons that manufacturers buy to transform into bottle and other shapes to hold their products. An estimated 53 BILLION end up in the ocean every YEAR. Critters think they’re food, and you know there is nothing good about that.

If you can’t find it in yourself to worry about nurdle pollution, think about the plastic bits that are torn and worn away from the whipping action of weed-eaters.

Back to a positive note: sunny day! ☀️

Nurdle photo-story by Annaliese Nurnberg and Gianmarco Maraviglia, “‘Mermaid Tears’: A photographer documents one of the most dangerous marine pollutants,” in the Washington Post, dated 5 October.

Posted at 5:47 PM | Comments Off on New vocab: nurdle

Please do not say we were avoiding chores. We say we were getting out of the house and doing a bit of City Shopping. We got take-out lunch from the Lockview, including broiled whitefish for meeee. Mmmmm. We drove to a nearby parking spot where we had a view of the downstream end of the locks. There was no traffic up- or down-bound.

It wasn’t as dark as it looks here, just low late sunlight. And wind. Gusty wind. I walked into a couple of gusts where I had to really work to keep my pace even. Not scary gusts, but: still. [Lady Mallard scared me taking off again. This has been happening for what? Two weeks? She needs to fly south, I keep thinking.]

Posted at 7:02 PM | Comments Off on Lockview, swampview

With Covid raging, presidential hi-jinks, and enabler shenanigans, let’s focus on sunlight! We had it all day! Soooo wonderful.

The first photo is mid-day light streaming into the living room. This one is nearing sunset. Such warm colors! So calming. And this is good.

Posted at 9:06 PM | Comments Off on Breathe

Walking around the orchard these days, there’s an uneven chorus of dull, rather quiet thuds. Apples falling.

I don’t remember Dad telling me about this tree, but since the deer are avoiding the drops, I’m guessing this is a pollinator—so: for the pollen and not the apples. I guess the pollinator trees are somewhat like the drones in an ant colony. Somewhat.

There’s a poetically named Lake of the Clouds west of here; this is Lake under the Clouds. There wasn’t much sunshine today, but we had constant cloud-cover (shown here), and even some rain.

Posted at 10:02 PM | Comments Off on Nearby

I’m not burying the lede. Our lede. We went to the Refuge, and saw swans. And a few other waterfowl. And a raptor-type something or other, I think.

The light was odd and not always helpful. And I forgot the binocs.

Pouring rain for this shot. Lasted about two big minutes, and this is near the beginning. The wind came up and the rain came in and I rolled the window up. Goodbye, cattails.

In WashDC, the lede this evening is something else entirely.

Posted at 7:51 PM | Comments Off on Refuge quietude