Plant report
Friday, 11 March 2016
The light-starved hyacinths are greening and growing. What color will the blossoms be??? Pins and needles.
Musings
More Spanish moss
Thursday, 10 March 2016
Mini- pot?bucket?tank?tub? of yellow hyacinths. Very short ones. We’ll see if they put on a growth spurt. A surprise from our kindly accountant; thanks, V.
Not apples
Tuesday, 8 March 2016
The quince* is now in full bloom after at least two attempts that were quelled by cold. I love the wiry twisted branches as much as the flowers. Thanks, D&F.
It’s a Chaenomeles spp., and not the fruit quince, which is Cydonia oblonga and the only member of that genus. The blossoms look apple/cherry/plum-ish, as they are also members of the Rosaceae family.
Redbud-bud monitor
Monday, 7 March 2016
I like the lighter color now revealed on the redbud-buds; they were smaller and tighter on the third (yeah, this is what the march of time looks like measured via a spring-time shrub).
Color survey
Friday, 4 March 2016
Walking down a street with my thoughts lost in the news-via-earbuds, I surfaced enough to realize bobbing gold-yellow blobs down both sides of the street, not evenly spaced, but…present. So, I focused. And realized they were flags marking underground utilities. Except this one.
Then, I kept my eyes open, and saw a blooming Prunus spp., cherry or plum, probably.
And this ornamental with so many buds right along the leaf bases. Don’t know what this is at all.
Contrast day
Thursday, 3 March 2016
This morning was sunshine and potential.
This afternoon (and continuing) was rain, sleet-and-rain, and rain…and gloominess. We had enough sleet to accumulate in the gutter (well, on top of the aging leaves), and to blow-out my snap (only shot one; such confidence😀).
Spring blooms
Sunday, 28 February 2016
Sometime while I was gallivanting south of here, this hyacinth opened. Not the most flattering photo….
Season-noted
Friday, 19 February 2016
Easiest closeup flower photo of the day: this hyacinth was in an almost eye-level planting by the sidewalk. A bit frost-nipped….
I smelled a combination of honey and orange…looked for the flower and found this unassuming specimen. Sorry I can’t post the lovely scent.
For no apparent reason, I include this knobby tire/wheel, aka tire with toenails, as I once heard it put.
Happy spring, or almost-spring.
Music aside
Thursday, 18 February 2016
Mahonia spp. I’m used to yellow flowers and blue “fruit,” but this one has yellow fruit.
Yesterday I encountered a word I hadn’t remembered encountering before, but of course I had…and forgotten. The word is carnyx. Synonyms are war trumpet and Celtic horn. Apparently it was ritual instrument used in warfare. Only a very few have been found—and only one in the British Isles: the Deskford carnyx.
I saw that carnyx in a display at the National Museum of Scotland, along with a reconstruction (with a tantalizing red tongue). And I saw the word carnyx in the accompanying explanatory materials.
However, I focused on getting a decent memory-photo (bad reflections), and thought about how big it was—serious mixed media and complex metallurgy techniques, it seemed to me—still does.
The Gundestrup caldron, found in northern Denmark, has a panel showing a trio of carnyx players (Open Commons photo). This helps us know how it was used. Read more on this page by acoustics professor Daniel A. Russell. He also details many of the times illustrator Albert Uderzo used versions of the instrument in the Astérix series.
Holding those tall pipes must have been tricky while walking. The much later, stubbier bagpipes made music-while-marching much easier, I would think.
I’m guessing carnyces fit into the group of instruments that create vibrating columns of air.
Of horses…
Thursday, 11 February 2016
I found a horsetail hedge today. Actually, I’ve seen it before, but it didn’t occur to me that what I was seeing has an alliterative name.
Speaking of horses—and carriages—here’s a mounting block, I assume more recent than the days when it was needed, and thus for show. I would have expected the name to be on the street side…. Maybe the owner prefers to look out his (her?) front door and see his (her?) name out by the street, creating a feel-good (possessive?) moment?