Musings

Before envelopes, there was letter-locking. This was a European trick, it says here*, for folding a letter and locking it closed with parts of the letter-paper itself, so as to keep its contents concealed from prying eyes. Apparently a recipient judged your folding skills along with your literary talents. This research determined there were a dozen basic styles or techniques for letter-locking.

A fantastic digital manipulation, yes, but not as incredible as blooms.

* “New Technique Reveals Centuries of Secrets in Locked Letters” by William J. Broad, NYTimes, Mar 02.

Posted at 8:27 PM | Comments Off on Blossoming

I was quite happy to vote for Fani T. Willis for Fulton County District Attorney. As I recall, I had to vote for her two times: in the regular election, then in a runoff. As DA, she’s going after ThumpThump for interfering with Georgia’s election, and this effort is ramping up now that we’re in March, as the county is now seating a grand jury, and going before them is a crucial next step in the legal process.

Posted at 9:24 PM | Comments Off on Flowering of truth

I mentioned early spring blooming weeds the other day, and here are the white ones at the feet of these mini-daffodils. Note the petals are in pairs, or maybe that’s just my imagination.

The other early-blooming tiny weed I’m thinking about is pale blue, and maybe I’ll get a photo tomorrow. We can hope, haha.

Posted at 9:00 PM | Comments Off on Spreading mat weeds

Raindrops from last night’s precip lasted through the day…in a few places.

Look near the crossed wires and you’ll see a small flock of sandhill cranes. These were much lower than the group I saw the other day. I suspect this group was looking for a place to stop overnight to rest and feed—central Atlanta is a poor choice for that…keep heading north, birds!

Evidence that film shoots are once again outside the studio….

And, yes, the family of the stinkhorns in the scientific classification system is Phallaceae. Hard to put one over on taxonomic specialists.

Posted at 6:57 PM | Comments Off on Great walk-finds

1. The days are noticeably longer—and the nights are shorter.

2. I practiced shadow-walking for the first time this year (sunshine avoidance—too hot!). This was rather tricky as nothing’s leafed out.

3. I heard sandhills overhead for over two minutes. They were very high, and I couldn’t see them, but I could hear their distinctive calls for long enough to suggest a large flock migrating.

Posted at 6:39 PM | 3 Comments »

No flaw in today’s weather whatsoever.

Might not have been so happy if I had to pick crocus stigmas, such teeeeny little things!

Posted at 8:46 PM | Comments Off on Full measure of rays

Always glad to see crepe myrtles that haven’t been butchered, with many sunward-bound branches/withes. Quite enjoy the gnarly quality of the limbs.

Don’t know the story of the practice of drastic trimming…but, ouch. [Speaking for the plants.]

Posted at 8:51 PM | Comments Off on Sunshine without leaves

We skated through The Time of the Polar Vortex, because we had no polar and no vortex. We had some cold, yeah, but mild cold, not polar cold. Here’s camellia proof; the inner petals will be just fine.

Posted at 7:49 PM | Comments Off on Bi-polar not polar

I know this is a battered specimen, yet it’s the first hyacinth I’ve found in my neighborhood wanders this year. So, it’s a record-breaker!

I was additionally surprised at my find because the overnight temps dropped below freezing last night, and it stayed cold all day, and will drop further overnight tonight. I know the polar vortex is a nightmare elsewhere, and the comparatively mild cold here lacks parity with the snow and power outages elsewhere.

But. For here: brrrrrrr. As in: wore my Goretex neck gaiter for my ENTIRE walk (first time this winter). And my gloves for all but the last half-mile.

Posted at 9:22 PM | Comments Off on Compensating

We don’t “do” Val-Day here, although we did have a fancier-than-normal dinner as a nod to the hubbub…the menu included roasted potato chunks…which have better browning these days in our “new” stove with the fan in the oven.

Can you say we roast veggies instead of saints?

Posted at 8:01 PM | Comments Off on Roasting