Musings

I’m really attracted to making a superlative image with these orange-and-yellow flowers. Another not-quite, however. Focus would certainly help hah.

Posted at 8:51 PM | Comments Off on Working angles (try again)

I just got a text from Joe Biden. It said nothing about Joe Manchin. I guess the texting robot isn’t up on current events.

Text deleted.

Posted at 7:18 PM | Comments Off on Joes

I played with the iPhone camera again. This is the result of a spotlight-portrait combo…with a little tweaking. It’s not evident, but this shot was taken in broad daylight.

Posted at 7:36 PM | Comments Off on Bending reality

The fennel was showing off in the sunshine. Somewhat ironically, the flower form, an umbel, not only is delicate, but the word comes from the Latin umbelle then the French umbella, both meaning sunshade. Sun to sunshade…the circle is complete.

Posted at 7:39 PM | Comments Off on Umbels in the sun

Early Europeans recorded on the order of eighty names for sweet potatoes across Māori-land (now called Aotearoa New Zealand). Some referred to color or horticultural variation. Others were regional or dialectically different. Still, sweet potatoes were the primary calorie source year in and year out for pre-contact Māori.

I was surprised that our local Whole-Paycheck (several grocery chains receive this nickname) had four different kinds, each a different color. This was called purple sweet potato on the sign.

Posted at 10:22 PM | 2 Comments »

Here’s a visual of the leaf color in this neighborhood. I’d say: still lots of green, yet lots of color, too.

Found this oak with a circle of fungi around the base…indicating…dunno…root decay?

Posted at 7:33 PM | Comments Off on Tree notes

I didn’t expect to find clematis blooms this time of year; I associate them with spring. The name is from the Greek κληματίς or clēmatís, meaning climbing plant. They’re common in this area adorning mailboxes, as this one is [mailbox not shown].

I learned “voxel” today. Pixels are 2-D. Voxels are 3-D. Or that’s how I understood it. Perhaps I came across voxel before and just forgot…I can’t remember.

Posted at 7:35 PM | Comments Off on Momentary close scrutiny

Meet creeping jenny, sometimes called moneywort for the leaf shape. I/we paid a landscaper to put it in our yard; now I discover it’s an invasive species (native to Europe; spreads especially easily in moist soils).

The country’s largest food company is PepsiCo; it owns Rice-A-Roni, Sabra, Rold Gold, Doritos, Gatorade, and Quaker Oats.

That’s from Daniel Immerwahr’s “Beyond the Myth of Rural America,” in the 16 October issue of The New Yorker.

I say that PepsiCo is equivalent to an invasive species in our USA and global food systems.

Posted at 5:37 PM | 2 Comments »

Sometimes I love leaf color and shape combos. And, with this specimen, the light quite set both off. It’s some kind of witch hazel, I suspect Hamamelis virginiana.

Posted at 8:52 PM | Comments Off on Leaf subtleties

I’ve seen and heard a fair number of tree-removal jobs going on in the immediate area. This is nearby, and took two days, or parts of two days…I think because the tree was behind that tall wooden fence and there was little room to maneuver.

Today’s job was across the street from us. Those guys brought five or six trucks and more than that many guys. They had a bucket-truck with a tall boom, and the guy that went up in that had dreads down below his belt. And managed to wear a hardhat. That team took on the order of two hours to bring down the tree, load it up, clean up their mess, and scoot.

Posted at 8:18 PM | Comments Off on Sad to see canopy trees go