Friday, 11 July 2025
Seeking words to add to this photo, I discovered that coneflowers (Echinacea) are native to eastern and central North America. That surprised me…in a good way. I often figure (erroneously) that pretty garden flowers are from elsewhere, like Asia and Africa.
Bonus: dahlias are also New World—from the Basin of Mexico area, as I understand it.
Tuesday, 8 July 2025
Every once in a while, I visit the BBC/Scotland webpage (link), and scroll down to find a selection of readers’ pictures from the week. Some are artistry in heightened saturation, some are long-lens captures (puffins are a favorite), a few are closer to snapshots, and some are of fabulous sunlight or sky moments. The ones I linger on the most tend to be patterns in nature. This is a mediocre example, but you get the idea.
Monday, 7 July 2025
I have read that some folks eat lily bulbs or use them for medicine, but I’m sticking to enjoying merely looking at the flowers. Besides, if you consume the bulbs, that means no flowers next year.
Sunday, 6 July 2025
I could write something about fall-blooming anemones, that is: nice flower-talk….
Otherwise, I’ll get into the non-existential (or is it existential?) crisis of the Southern Ocean’s potential transition toward persistently reduced sea ice coverage resulting from rising salinity. Is the latter (link) too boring? Too hard to grasp? Possibly; you have my sympathy—but such salinity shifts and the attendant oceanic changes are way toooo important to dismiss. Important as in global climate change. Bonus: follow the link and you’ll read about polynyas—I’m betting it’s a new vocab word!
Friday, 4 July 2025
When I think of viburnums, I think of these snowball bushes. Turns out Ötzi, the mummified fella found in 1991 emerging from melting ice on the Austrian/Italian border in the Alps, was carrying arrows with viburnum shafts. Of all things.
Wednesday, 2 July 2025
Some days are just a blur; today was one. I’m good, though…leftovers make it easy (for example).
Tuesday, 1 July 2025
Today was between two nights with rain, and I hear tonight’s weather events will include storminess. Fun (sarcasm). 🙃
Monday, 30 June 2025
Fennel flowers…in the porch light, so more golden than in reality.
Saturday, 28 June 2025
We had maybe eight cars in front of us at the toll booth. We could see the northbound traffic going on and on. The back up started at the very top of the brige, and by the density of traffic we saw south of there, it backed up further within just a short time. Soooo glad we were southbound.
But why so much traffique? Model change-over?
This Ohio slow-down must have just happened before we got to it. I saw one vehicle and one person (neither looking damaged, although the car was pointed north and had a soft rear tire, oops) standing outside it talking to cops and firefighters. I wasn’t rubber-necking, though, mind you. 😉
Note the general haziness in the bridge picture (high, thin smoke?), and the pretty darned clear sky in the second photo…further south in Ohio, after dark, we came upon wet pavement, and these drippy roses in a rest area (obv: evidence of rain).
That’s it. I’m going to avail myself of the easy upload using my phone hotspot…such efficiency! 😎
We’ve been seeing lots of fireworks as we continue south toward KY…several towns were having strawberry festivals, but not in Dayton or Cincinnati. Curious. 🤩
