Musings

It is not unusual for a real object to be flanked by its shadow and perhaps also its reflection. Mostly, we can be clear which of the three is the “real thing,” but, then, the shadow and the reflection are both real, too, although they’re more ephemeral than iron.

This moose is among my earliest memories. We kids liked to put the antlers, a separate piece, on backwards (facing forward), but this bothered Mom and she’d have Dad glue them in at the proper orientation, but after some effort, we kids would separate the two pieces again, and the cycle would begin anew.

BTW: Please do not confuse the iron moose with the Iron Horse, a huge sculpture near the Oconee River south of Athens.

Posted at 4:13 PM | Comments Off on Iron moose

Remember those not-so-cute ducks from last spring? (This one’s for you, rmj.)

Several webbie pages of interest: jcb sent me a link to this page, on information aesthetics. Really. Information display to the max. And on that page, I found a link to this page, which has a nifty changing map of nations, states, and empires across the Middle East over the last 3K years. Makes me think my black-and-white Word tables are—well ,I admit it, I knew it already—borrrrrrrr-ing.

Posted at 5:27 PM | 1 Comment »

More Chihuly from ABG, 2004.

We hear about imminent extinctions from logging, bulldozing, and other land-altering activities. Here’s another. And the extinction, while due to human intervention, is not moderated by being a side-effect of some other behaviors—here, the intent was extinction. You see, some species are parasites of other species, and when the last wild whatever gets put in the safe-keeping hands of a jailer (aka conservationist, zoo-keeper, veterinarian), any attendant parasites will probably be obliterated in the interests of the health of the whatever. Since they’re a niche species, poof, no more parasites. And a species is gone. Extinct.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Playing god

I heard a biologist once say that freshwater creeks and lakes were in good shape (ecologically) if they had good snail populations. I’m assuming the same is true of bivalves. The populations of both were drastically reduced when the cormorants had taken over the lake a few years ago. Now they’re gone (thankfully) and the lake’s small critters seem almost back to normal.

So, The D took young B out fishing, with hopes of actually catching something!

Posted at 4:59 PM | Comments Off on Water sports

This is certainly one of those colonial holidays, with even a worse flavor ’cause the oppressed native peoples did not benefit from the overthrow of the imperialists—that’s most of you, my readers. As Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana put in the front of Zeke and Ned (attributed to anonymous, quoted by H.L. Mencken),

When the Pilgrim fathers reached the shores of America, they fell on their knees. Then they fell on the Indians.

Saw this eagle today over at the Seney National Wildlife Refuge, and yes, duh!, he’s stuffed. Fitting image for today, though!

Also seen at the Refuge: trumpeter swans (many), loons (a few), one great blue heron, no Canada geese (never happened before—the ranger said the swans had run them off), a lily the Botanist is still trying to identify, and much more. New book: The 500 Most Important Bird Areas in the United States by the American Bird Conservancy. It’s North American ecology from a different angle than I’m familiar with….

Posted at 3:50 PM | Comments Off on Happy 4th!

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Wall-sign frequently seen across Mexico, but it’s not a national mantra. Avoid excess! Yeah, right.

Today, after I got in a modest increase to the word count by 8:30 am, we played hooky and scooted up to Neel’s Gap to head east/right/toward Maine on the AT, not walking it ’cause it was the AT, but ’cause it was easy access and a good, shady route for a hot day.

No doubt about it, the highlight of the trip was Sr. No-Shoulders, stretched across the path, on the move. Never saw his head, but saw the rest of him from not far below. Down at the end of his tail? About eight buttons. I give him about three feet, at least 32-33 inches. Coloration? Dark, almost black towards the tail, but diamondy closer to the head. Overall, darker rather than sandier. His Linnean name? I’m not sure. Crotalus spp. for sure, but Crotalus horridus (Timber or Canebrake) or C. adamanteus (Eastern Diamondback)? I’ll have to ask F&D….

BTW, No-Shoulders is the generic name for snakes I learned from country people living inland on the South Carolina coastal plain, way back in the 80s when I was working near St. Stephens. I always thought the term extremely evocative. I learned it when well-meaning heavily-accented fisherman kept screaming at me as I was sitting in the water at the edge of a reservoir (water-screening soil samples, of course), and a sinuous beastie, a cottonmouth as I recall, was swimming toward me and my tripod, curious I’m sure, rather than hungry.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on No-Shoulders

Mama’s getting ready to persuade the last of her four wee-ones to leave the nest (I thought “fledge” meant leave the nest, but it turns out it means get feathers; o woe is me on this vocab stuff); I’m guessing this was the runt (invisible to Mama’s left). She and her hubby, Señor Brilliant, have been nesting in the Taxus next to Mom’s kitchen window for several years now….

Was it a kind of fledging when jcb and I left this morning?

On the critter front, how much do salamanders feel stress? A week or so ago, I found one on the dusty, pea-gravel path next to Lake Clara Meer, and with some gentle (I hope) prods of a handy twig, I nudged the little guy over next to the water. I’m just hoping I didn’t give him (her? it?) a heart attack in the process….

Posted at 8:15 PM | 2 Comments »

Every once in a while I get lucky and the critter world coincides with the flower world (flour world, too, but then you toss it!). Look at that green thorax and the striped abdomen—cool!

Posted at 7:42 PM | Comments Off on Striped abdomen

I don’t know butterflies, but this looks like a sulfur type (Colias spp.)

The other day Anne (29 April) posted a recipe for her favorite BBQ sauce, and I started salivating. That recipe is very similar to my old favorite sauce, but recently I revamped the sauce, and I’ve posted my new favorite BBQ sauce recipe in the Food Fun section. I love that sauce over country-style ribs, roasted in the oven!

I’ve also posted a short-ribs recipe that is a bit different, as the flavors are dominated by the complexity of Chinese five-spice powder. This makes a great company-sized feed, and is super with an ice-cold beer!

I admit that we have left-over tamales from Cinco de My-oh yesterday, so I won’t be making any BBQ today, but it’s on the to-do list for tomorrow!

Posted at 10:54 AM | Comments Off on BBQ love

On today’s visit to Piedmont Park, we saw Madame Mallard, with her brood of three active youngsters, making their way along the shoreline flitting and investigating every little thing. Even Madame had a difficult time being very interested in Mary Jo’s stick, although she tried hard to seem enticed. The little guys, however, just ignored the outstretched hand.

No doubt they will soon learn.

Posted at 5:01 PM | Comments Off on Mallard four