Musings

I see these lovely sculpture-copies and realize my ignorance: who is it? A goddess? A person?

Despite the sunshine, I am in the dark.

Unenlightened may indicate simple ignorance.

Posted at 9:36 PM | Comments Off on I am unenlightened

I saw a squirrel taking advantage of this BIRD feeder installed super-close to the fence-corner…best winter take-out deal for squirrels within miles! [Saw, that is: no proof photo, however.]

Except for a similar feeder in the opposite fence corner.

Posted at 9:15 PM | Comments Off on Winter feeding

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw green in a dogwood with nice buds, but nothing else: winter.

I laughed inside thinking that the dogwood (yes, anthropomorphizing) was trying to move the arrival of spring up with a captured leaflet from another tree. Or pretend to.

Posted at 9:11 PM | Comments Off on Nature backstory

I labeled this photo dragonfly then wondered: is it? Or is it a damselfly? I do think the artist was going for dragonfly based on wing position (horizontal, away from the body). HOWEVER, by definition, dragonflies have a broader hindwing than forewing—not true of this wonderous creature.

At least that’s the rundown based on WikiPee, which I don’t think is always right, but it’s easy to find and I believe mostly correct…regarding this type on natural history topic, anyway. IMHO

Posted at 6:42 PM | Comments Off on It’s art

We’ve now watched the entire first season of “Bordertown,” which is set in Lappeenranta, in southern Finland, and shot in Finnish. Or we are watching it in Finnish, with subtitles. Turns out, after listening to hours of Finnish dialogue, I got nothing. Well, perhaps yes and no…just checked: they’re juu/joo and ei…so, hmm, perhaps not?

And this tree, every time I walk by it, I think: Araucaria. After a wee internet dive, I may be wrong about that, too.

Posted at 9:07 PM | Comments Off on I don’t know

Murky day, so I strolled and contemplated…this and that rather than focusing on something…substantial.

Nandina and mahonia. For example.

Far more exciting than one-foot-in-front-of-the-other. Possibly?

Posted at 9:00 PM | Comments Off on Not “Only Connect”

Stiff wind and I was nearby, so I deemed it safe enough to visit the BeltLine…not many people, and MaNachur was moving any and all germs right along, away from meeee….

I only traversed two short blocks…which was enough to remind me what I’ve been missing…the many public art installations along the route! I am uplifted!

Posted at 9:43 PM | Comments Off on And sunny, too!

Currently binge-watching “Lupin,” which has nothing to do with flowers.

Picture…is it thyme? Or not-thyme?

Posted at 9:26 PM | Comments Off on Similar—or no?

I came across this…”ten million trillion trillion” and mentally stopped dead.

Finding phages is not in itself particularly challenging: they are by far the most abundant biological entities on earth. According to one estimate, there are ten million trillion trillion phages, which is more than every other organism, including bacteria, combined. The average teaspoon of seawater holds five times more phages than there are people in Rio de Janeiro; for every grain of sand in the world, there are a trillion phages. But the best place to find phage that will kill drug-resistant bacteria is where people or animals have shed them—in other words, sewage.

That’s a gigantic number—actually, exceeding an “order of magnitude” greater than gigantic….

Quote is from “When a Virus Is the Cure,” by Nicola Twilley, in the December 21, 2020 issue of “The New Yorker,” and dated December 14, 2020. [This link may work.]

Posted at 8:58 PM | Comments Off on Huge HUGE number

I found today’s sunlight almost summer-ish in its intensity. Here’s a backlit leaf, although it’s hard to tell that’s what it is.

Posted at 9:51 PM | Comments Off on I spy…