Saturday, 12 July 2025
It’s a wild weekend here in the ATL, with Beyonce doing cowboy hat concerts downtown, and the baseball folks congregating on the north-side ahead of the All-Star game on Tuesday. I’m glad we’re just outside of those orbits.
Friday, 11 July 2025
Seeking words to add to this photo, I discovered that coneflowers (Echinacea) are native to eastern and central North America. That surprised me…in a good way. I often figure (erroneously) that pretty garden flowers are from elsewhere, like Asia and Africa.
Bonus: dahlias are also New World—from the Basin of Mexico area, as I understand it.
Wednesday, 9 July 2025
Just before dark, thunder boomed and moisture descended. This photo was from the earliest moments of The Arrival.
I’m not in a desert by any means, yet this event made me think about Gary Nabhan’s slim volume The Desert Smells Like Rain (1982). The title is from an observation by a Tohono O’odham child, a native of the Sonoran Desert, as I recall. [Link to read more about the O’odham by the O’odham.]
Tuesday, 8 July 2025
Every once in a while, I visit the BBC/Scotland webpage (link), and scroll down to find a selection of readers’ pictures from the week. Some are artistry in heightened saturation, some are long-lens captures (puffins are a favorite), a few are closer to snapshots, and some are of fabulous sunlight or sky moments. The ones I linger on the most tend to be patterns in nature. This is a mediocre example, but you get the idea.
Monday, 7 July 2025
I have read that some folks eat lily bulbs or use them for medicine, but I’m sticking to enjoying merely looking at the flowers. Besides, if you consume the bulbs, that means no flowers next year.
Sunday, 6 July 2025
I could write something about fall-blooming anemones, that is: nice flower-talk….
Otherwise, I’ll get into the non-existential (or is it existential?) crisis of the Southern Ocean’s potential transition toward persistently reduced sea ice coverage resulting from rising salinity. Is the latter (link) too boring? Too hard to grasp? Possibly; you have my sympathy—but such salinity shifts and the attendant oceanic changes are way toooo important to dismiss. Important as in global climate change. Bonus: follow the link and you’ll read about polynyas—I’m betting it’s a new vocab word!
Saturday, 5 July 2025
Last night as I began to get ready to sleep, the fireworks kicked off, boom boom pause boom [repeat]. I figured I’d lie awake listening, and wondering when the festivities would end. Nope; instead, I went straight to sleep.
Friday, 4 July 2025
When I think of viburnums, I think of these snowball bushes. Turns out Ötzi, the mummified fella found in 1991 emerging from melting ice on the Austrian/Italian border in the Alps, was carrying arrows with viburnum shafts. Of all things.
