Proportional built environment
Tuesday, 30 July 2024
Half-bridge.
Double turbine (the left “one” that’s actually two).
Musings
Well-lit light
Monday, 29 July 2024
In celebration of MondayFunday, we braved the leg-height clouds of biting stable flies and walked from the mouth of Hurricane Creek to the AuSable Lighthouse. We hoped for a breeze when we got out of the woods, but it was at best intermittent. Still: we survived.
Look at all the shapes and textures…bricks painted and unpainted, metal roof “shingle” overlaps, linear eave layers, and the most eye-catching: the flashing stair-steps.
Made it!
Friday, 19 July 2024
We drove and drove, and then we saw this milestone. All lanes were open, so we sailed along, then paid the $4 it takes to drive into the Upper Peninsula. The lakes looked glorious and sparkled. En route, we saw geese, a brood of turkeys, a deer, crows and flickers. At the cottage, I can tell a woodchuck’s been visiting our yard (rrr; they are voracious eaters).
Floral complexity continues to abound in the North Country.
JC = Jimmy Carter
Sunday, 7 July 2024
We went on a wee tourist loop after lunch. We walked around under overcast skies at the Carter Center.
Since the place was closed, our focus was outdoors, and the Left Coast family learned viscerally what high-heat-and-humidity is like to breath and stroll in. We found this Peace Bell Tower, that I had never seen before as it was dedicated not long ago in 2022. The bell was cast back in 1820, and the government set it aside to be melted down during WWII, but somehow it remained intact. And now it’s in ATL.
Up-n-down
Wednesday, 5 June 2024
Today, I found several interesting human-made verticals. Here’s a communications tower on a mountain.
I almost didn’t include this fire-plug; however, I couldn’t overlook the fresh red paint.
And, finally, look at the looming multiple skyscrapers of the Atlanta skyline.
Too tired to be coherent
Sunday, 5 May 2024
One of the possible tags I have selected for my posts is “architecture.” How can it not be eye-catching…especially large interior spaces of which this is an example.
Of note
Thursday, 2 May 2024
I spotted the first blooming dogwood I’ve noticed this year…
…and this reminded me of a European scenario.
Blood pressure now normal
Thursday, 7 March 2024
?!x&@# parking garages…and the people who don’t know how to negotiate them. Note: I’m fine now.
Baseball trivia and neighborhood evolution
Friday, 1 March 2024
See this magnolia? It’s actually two adjacent trees on the bank of a former railroad ROW (to the right). Now the ROW is the BeltLine, a pedestrian and bicycle corridor, with landscaping by Trees Atlanta. To the left is a shopping center with a Whole Foods and a Staples (guess which one gets more traffic 🤣). Delivery trucks are the most common traffic along this route behind the stores (and us when the “front” is clogged).
Here’s a ca. 1950 photo from Georgia State’s archives of the Ponce de Leon Ballpark. The info that follows is from 2020 article by Adam C. Johnson (here). In 1890, there was a lake where the field is, and the magnolia was already there. The ballfield was first built in 1907. The photo shows the version built in 1923. If you were sitting behind home plate, you were looking straight at the magnolias. Johnson writes:
If a baseball hit the magnolia tree and bounced back into the field, then the ball was in play because, per the rules, it had to pass through or remain in the tree to be a home run. To this day, the Spiller Magnolia Tree is the only tree in baseball that has been in play, and [Babe] Ruth and Eddie Matthews are the only confirmed players to have hit home runs into it.
Recently, Trees Atlanta has cloned the magnolias, and planted the new trees along the BeltLine.
End of baseball trivia.
BTW, that big building to the far right facing the ballfield was a huge multi-story Sears that had a side track from the RR for deliveries. The building recently was redeveloped and is now Ponce City Market.