Musings

Ninety-nine

I’m not referring to the “Get Smart” agent, but to today’s high. And it may have been higher locally.

Not wanting to tackle an outdoor exercise experience in that situation, I tried this season’s “Feet and Calves” session on “Classic Stretch” with Miranda something-hyphenated on PBS. It turned out to be a 21-minute workout, and I repeated it twice later in the day. Now I can feel it in my glutes (and neighboring muscles), not in my feet and calves. My feet and ankles in particular need strengthening, I can tell.

Pretty sure that a walk, even in humid 70s early this morning, would have been less strenuous.

Floral abundance

Nice raindrop collection helping the eye to parse the green.

This, on the other hand, is about parsing the blooms and buds. A berry hedge.

Self-defense

So many lovely patterns in fern-world. Even the spines of the fronds have complexities.

I focused on the insect, and the whole photo looks mis-composed. My ID app says it’s a carpet beetle, Anthrenus species. On what I would call a potentilla, but apparently it’s not classified as a potentilla anymore, and is now a Dasiphora species and commonly called cinquefoil, a term previously used when it was a Potentilla species.

I know that taxonomists are turning to genetics for classification information, and finding groupings not recognized based on morphology and geography. Plus the Linnaean taxonomic system doesn’t have room for the hybrids and variations, etc., they can now distinguish. As I understand it.

For now, I’ll stick to looking for visual interest, as in the fern-patterns above, and avoid taxonomic mysteries.

Communing with MaNachur

Sometimes, IMHO, plant sequences like opening buds aren’t predictable.

This doesn’t seem unexpected.

However, the open blooms are far more complex than the buds suggest. And the color shifts a bit. These are all from the same bush.

Listen to flowers

BusyB

This planting was alive with bees. Bzzzzz bzzzz.

Believe it or not

Darned close to true color.

Ditto.

THE day

Not for me, mind you, but for the younger nephew.

I’m going with the best part of the institutional event was the band, other than the awarding of diplomas. And, of course, the principal’s hat (not shown; use your imagination), a new one for each class…this one with a bonsai on top…a symbol of the resilience and adaptability and long life predominating in the energy of the Class of 2022, she said.

Here’s a pink palate cleanser: a peony processed with Waterlogue. Enjoy, as the servers say.

Seeing yellow

Yeah, it was a bit rainy (not just misty), yet I went out, motivated by the many and various blooms in neighboring yards (and here, but increased diversity across a larger geographic area duh).

Just darned strange to see stem-flower collar, stem-flower collar, repeat growth patterns on a single bloom stalk.

Sunset behind the Olympics

We changed three time zones, and traveled via train, plane, bus, and rental car. And I’m taaaahrd.

Almost harvest time

I’m a bit discombobulated from our latitude shift that meant we left the spring of the way north and are now in the summer of the deep south. These directions are based on USA attitudes not continental, geographic perspectives.