So, I’m browsing the latest offerings of PNAS, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, published weekly, and I spot an article “The Water Footprint of Bioenergy.” Huh?

There’s more about bioelectricity, and an assortment of stuff that’s kinda interesting, but right now is not registering in my brain.

Instead, I’ll head out front and harvest basil for some fresh pesto for dinner….

D’s stump garden is quite healthy. The hostas that were of modest size in May are into their seasonal progression, thanks to good nutrition and nurturing….

BTW, since I mentioned Lake Lanier’s levels in that May post, I’ll note that it is now about 4.4 feet below the summer floodpool level, where it’s been for a while. So either the measurer is stuck or inflow/outflow is currently balanced. Since we’ve had some rain recently, I worry that the reporting is erroneous—oops, I just noticed the fine print says the levels have come down 0.02 feet since midnight. No more showers!????

Sorry, light was flat; sky (not shown), on the other hand, was rather dramatic….

The claim is that this 700+ space six-story parking deck, which opened in May and provides spaces for visitors to Piedmont Park and (this is the headliner) the Botanical Garden, will be screened by vegetation etc. planted on a berm in front and on boxes attached to each level. We shall see. Certainly, when you’re on the upper deck, it looks pretty much like a hot place to be mid-day in mid-summer, just like most any other parking facility.

Upside: the ABG claims they will get 40% of the water for the plants (not flushing, etc. by visitors) from runoff from the deck (held in a cistern until needed).

CONCL: need more cisterns.

Hibiscus: turns out this genus also includes cacao and cotton, plus baobobs. Who knew? (Which is to say, my ignorance is boundless.)

Jennifer Steinhauer’s NYTimes article on Ray Bradbury includes this quote:

I don’t believe in colleges and universities. I believe in libraries because most students don’t have any money.

He makes a good point: the knowledge is there in the library. What the university offers, I think, is interpretation and intellectual motivation. At least for some.

I agree with Bradbury that “The Internet is a big distraction.” However, like the library, it contains (or can be persuaded to yield) considerable knowledge.

Again, the piece that most people need is the motivation and guidance. Mentoring, of a sort….

Teachers may well disagree. Enlighten me….

We walked early enough today that the shadows were still interesting.

In this city, I think the greatest biodiversity is in the insects (of the critters you can see), although their biomass—not so much.

I feared that our extended out-of-town jaunt would keep us from enjoying the lovely scent of the gardenias. They were just coming into bloom when we left. Certainly, the high-point came while we were absent. But, there are still a few blossoms around, and I can glory in the scent for a few more days….

TY, jcb!, for this image….

Muggy!

Still, we had a nice walk this morning, although a bit sweaty, all the way to Piedmont Park. I can happily report that Lake Clara Meer’s levels* are up and we saw lots of (ordinary) birds, including swallows or something flying across the lake nabbing insects—breakfast, I guess.

The mimosas are in bloom, and dramatic, right now.

* Lake Lanier’s levels are in pretty good shape, too, compared to the last two years or so—about 4.3 feet below the summer pool (ideal) level, and far better than the 20 feet below we did have…. This webpage has a useful graph of Lake Lanier’s levels, and also shows total rainfall for the SE for the last week.

Contrast this pair with their May 9th scale.

Also, none of the other tomato plants I put in have any fruit this large. And none are blushing, either.

The cherry tomato has nice modest marble-sized-and-a-bit-more tomatoes, but the six Rutgers at this stage are all floppy plant with a few blossoms.

But first, I need to pick some herbs (sage, thyme, etc.) to go in the split pea soup I made over the weekend, and transform it into a fresh, summer version of what most people consider a winter dish….

It seems to me that as I wander along through life*, I find proof of this or that less often than I had thought would happen in those starry-eyed days of my youth.

But here’s proof that my mystery plant is NOT a jack-in-the-pulpit. The JITP is on the left. It was labeled, and in a garden with a knowledgeable staff. This specimen also matches the plants IDd as JITP all over the web (and beyond!). Our mystery plant is on the right, once again making seeds. Maybe I should save some from the squirrels this year?

Oh, yeah, BTW I’m sticking to its identification as Arum maculatum (interesting details on that species here).

* Yes, I changed the picture….

I haven’t yet taken a picture of the stand of lilacs. One year we were here at just the right time, and the floor of this stand had so many morels we picked a loose grocery bag-ful. Believe it or not.

This year…no morels in the lilacs. But the Hunter-Gatherer has been finding them here and there, particularly when he’s been mowing the grass…. And, kindly, he’s shared them with us a time more two. Yum.