Monday, 14 September 2015
Ginger blossom.
Learned new vocabulary today: fipple and aerophone. Fortunately for me, they’re related.
Only one branch is predicting autumn’s arrival.
In other news, I found hints of fall in a neighborhood tree…
…and saw the critter that the exterminator removed from a neighbor’s house.
Sunday, 13 September 2015
There’s plain concrete…with a surface treatment (swab swoop?).
Here’s a different, knobbly concrete…with a decorative nut-husk.
On the other hand, this is a mailbox with living, green neckwear.
Friday, 11 September 2015
I’ve never seen anything quite like this…the water meter for a house in the neighborhood looks like it…overflowed with coagulating white…stuff. Strange.
Lots of rain lately, and that does alter the species assortment that is presently ascendant…also the dominant smells when there’s no breeze. Eau de decomposition.
I’m hearing duo iPhone purchase noises around here…the deals start at midnight! Must decide…what color?
Tuesday, 8 September 2015
They’re both Ocimum basilicum, but their flavors differ greatly.
This is Thai basil…we ate some tonight.
This is Genovese basil. It’s more basil-y, IMHO. We’ll have some of it later this week.
Given that we’ve been gone a while (so the plants have a long opportunity to grow), and it rained overnight (so weeds are easier to pull and get most of the roots), the weeding I did today was teed up.
Ummmmm for both.
Wednesday, 2 September 2015
Same lake, different shore-view. Foggy here, too. Love the reeds.
I do not expect to see this many lichen colonizing a metal object. Still, this hay cutting bar implement was festooned.
Sunday, 30 August 2015
Are they all like this—just-opening Queen Anne’s lace? Are they always pink? I don’t remember noticing youthful pinkness before.
Couldn’t resist the pull of the extensive knowledge-dump G__gle provides…and, yup, the pink happens. Also, news to me, it’s not native to NAmerica.
Tuesday, 25 August 2015
Mostly there are fields, plowed, planted, this time of the year. What was here was tall-grass prairie. It wasn’t just grass, but an assortment of deep-rooted plants, well suited to occasional dry spells.
Yesterday we crossed the Missouri; today, the Mississippi. Water levels are holding for now, which makes sense given how green the landscape is. The plants, I mean.
Saturday, 15 August 2015
I became focused on the cottonwoods today. Groups tended to indicate a home and cluster of ranch buildings.
Solos tended to be in grazing land…. [I am being kind; I probably shot fifty photos of cottonwoods today.]
Of course, the real ecological focus of this area is the river, here the North Platte. This is a LOT of water for mid-August. We heard that somewhere north and west of here they got 8″ in something like an hour the other day. In pockets, we have seen flooding in fields. It’s spotty, though—but everywhere seems especially green.
Hmmm. Not everywhere. We’ve been seeing blowouts since the Sandhills. When I worked there, people said the bison made some of them. Since the bison have been gone a good long while, I’m just not sure. This seems more like an eroded slope, however.
Wending among all of the above: coal trains. This is the famous Powder River coal that may keep you warm this winter. We usually count two engines in front (east end), and one pushing the train from the west end. The west-bound trains of empty cars are longer with usually two or three engines. Seems to me that the engine count in the Powder River Basin might become deficient.
Friday, 14 August 2015
Art in a rest area.
USA flag on picket fence, Fort Hartsuff.
Industrial(?) hemp, gone wild(?).
Monday, 10 August 2015
Sometimes the distribution of species across the landscape is a great clue to previous human occupation, because people move plants around, to have preferred species nearby. For food, medicine, aesthetics. Sometimes yucca is one of those human-distributed species.
I also spotted a volunteer tomato plant among some bricks paving a verge…. See…out of place.