Musings

True, it was low-light (although it doesn’t look like it), but that bee was SPEEDY!

Posted at 9:00 PM | No Comments »

How long have I lived with the white and the pink azaleas in the back yard? And only today did I realize that the pink azalea repeat-blooms through the year, while the white one never does.

Posted at 8:45 PM | No Comments »

My plant app indicates this is in the family Microstegium, native across Asia and invasive here. It’s sure invasive in our backyard. Deer don’t eat it, and therefore promote it by gnawing the native species. No deer in this yard, though.

Posted at 8:56 PM | No Comments »

That’s mint, with basil in the background. You can’t see the oregano that’s on the other side of the walk. And that’s pretty much my “garden.”

Posted at 9:25 PM | No Comments »

I love the delicate, ruffle-y edges of the crape myrtle, and this pink is okay with me, although some pinks are too too too…twee?

Posted at 8:23 PM | No Comments »

We drove to Athens to enjoy family company and a lovely luncheon. This caprese salad is made with basil from their garden—knock-out good!

On our return, we approached this looming cloud, and eventually motored through a deluge…

…and, on the other side, by the time we reached our neighborhood: dry roads.

Posted at 7:34 PM | No Comments »

Desirable AQI, that is: Air Quality Index, is under 50, but conditionally okay up to 100. Guaranteed terrible for everyone is greater than 300. At the cottage, it’s been 500 for over 24 hours (this capture is from this morning), and 500 is the maximum on the scale. Color-wise, red, purple, and maroon are of escalating intensity, starting at 151. You can tell where the Canadian fires are, in the northwest of this map. If your northern North America geography is sketchy, that water in the north, and east of FireCentral, is Hudson Bay.

Posted at 7:29 PM | No Comments »

I braved the humidity shortly after 8am to whack back the worst of the vegetation in the back yard. While I was busy, I kept thinking: what is Spanish for vine? And weeds?

I never came up with the words. Now, GooTranslate indicates vines and weeds = enredaderas y malezas. I might have encountered malezas in a publication or two, but I have no recollection of seeing enredaderas.

BTW, pinos y encinos = pines and oaks. Those two I learned!

Posted at 7:29 PM | No Comments »

This has nothing to do with the picture or my personal events of the day, but recently I discovered (or, probably, was reminded) that the loons of North America are called divers in the British Isles. [This is another example of common name confusion.]

Posted at 8:08 PM | No Comments »

Surprise (sarcastically): these milkweed pods are infested with…milkweed bugs.

Posted at 8:46 PM | No Comments »