Musings

Story time

Azalea very pink

Hey, bee! Come back! Your presence will make soooo improve this photo. Sigh.

Skeleton infrastructure

Got no story with this one…beyond the blue, blue sky. Which is enough.

Overcast

Camellia pink

I couldn’t decide which order for today’s pictures, that is: which order might have a story line. Got nothing. So, here’s pretty…

Tree of strays

…followed by a…well: tree of life…tree of lost items…a baby toy and a Atlanta United garment.

And above it all: an overcast sky. [The camellia snap was from yesterday.]

Forgive my disorientation. We’re just over half-way through the final season of “Mr. Robot,” and the story line is still in flux. And thus so am I.

Ho dee ho.

Winter reckoning

Blue ford

Now that’s a bright blue Ford. It is a Ford, right? But not a flatbed…and not slowing down…it’s fully stopped.

Yellow jasmine

I call this yellow jasmine, although some call it yellow or Carolina jessamine. Jasmine and jessamine may sound the same—or not—depending on the speaker.

Woods in city

Despite the blooms in the image above, it’s leaves-down season here (many non-deciduous species flourish, however), and a bit overcast today. Love having this piece of woods in the midst of the city.

Non-traditional…and traditional?

Pansy flower

Pansy season here in ATL. BTW, we celebrated today with neither goose nor turkey. Tofu only…in a lovely melange with Thai curry sauce, veg, mint, and fresh cilantro. The two of us…and a beautiful sunny day perfect for a long walk down streets normally too busy with cars to enjoy. 🚶‍♀️

Strange bridge detail

I am darned ignorant of architectural detail design memes, and have no idea what the elements of this mean/represent/indicate, especially the center.

Trying to catch up/on

Drummer boys

So, Christmas—headlined in the banner—is about Jesus, and facts about his life are slim. As I understand it, the drummer boy is singular, and added to the mythology L-O-N-G after the man died. So, that here there are twins wearing outfits modeled on modern military uniforms means…this is an example of sociopolitical evolution.

WDM

WDM? [Meaning, what doesn’t match?]

Swing nose frog

LincolnCoNM courthouse

Billy the Kid was incarcerated here at the combo courthouse/jail in Lincoln County, New Mexico, in 1881. He managed to escape, and was murdered by a “friend” about ten weeks later.

Capitan gap

That gap is Capitán Gap. It’s where a singed bear cub was found in 1950. He soon was named Smokey the Bear. And the rest was history.

Sandhills at Bosque

Saw feeding sandhills by the dozen, plus ducks and geese of various sorts at Bosque del Apache, in the Rio Grande valley. We didn’t ask officials about this strange dark coloration; that creature clearly had the red details on the head, however.

Cactus view

We did enjoy the arboretum etc walk by the Bosque visitor center. I will spare you from any more of the dozens of photos we shot there.

Decorated Harvey House Belen

Stopped at the Harvey House Museum in Belen. Businesses all around the area each sponsored the decorating of a tree or a room. It was great to see the community support, but I found it difficult to imagine this as the dining room back when it was a Harvey House. The waitresses had rooms upstairs.

Apache dancers trio caller

Special night at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque. We got to see the Apache Dancers and hear their caller/singer, who also drummed. How special. This was the before-dark performance.

Night Apache dancer performance

The second, after-dark performance was super-charged. The fire made a huge difference. We got ashes from the fire afterward to keep with us in the pickup for good luck, as directed by the chanter, along with most of the folks who stayed until the end (cold, about 40°F, brr). Actually, these are religious and spiritual events, not presentations or performances. I liked that.

This entry might have been better titled “Hinge points,” but I couldn’t resist “Swing nose frog.” It refers to a particular switcher set-up for rails. Thank you, Harvey House.

Into the political center

Lost pines

A relic loblolly pine forest…so unexpected to me in my ignorance. Scientists have looked at the genetics, and these trees are closely related to others to the east. Thus, this is the westernmost stand of the eastern forest in this part of North America.

Bastrop pseudopostcard

Of course, over a century ago, a big forest meant that loggers showed up. And the mills were built in Bastrop, and many people there became wealthy. Now the town seems bent on being uber-charming, to attract visitors (with credit cards and puffy pocketbooks) from nearby Austin, especially, and elsewhere.

Bastrop old bridge

Bastrop’s mills were powered by the water of the Colorado River, and here’s the old vehicle bridge (current one to the right), which is supposed to be a pedestrian bridge, but is closed presently.

Texas capital

Onward. Look: traffic. And more traffic. Look: a capital. Yes: Austin.

SR Vaughan

Post-dinner stroll: hey, Stevie Ray Vaughan, a man from a line of three-named men.

LadyBirdLake crew riffles

Riffles from passing crewing skulls. Yes, in the dark. And, yes, there’s a Goooooooogle “G” on the building opposite.

Under RR bridge over CO River

Playing with computational photography in the darkness under the railroad bridge over the Colorado. In between taking this and the previous photo, I was looking up for the lone star, but I saw more than one.

Parallels

Fennel seed heads

The parallel I’m suggesting is that these are the dessicating seedheads of our fennel. They succeed the plant’s main event—the green phase.

Today, we followed our main event—Wednesday early T-day dinner—with lovely, wonderful, tasty left-overs.

Of course, some people might argue that left-over day is its own version of a main event—sooo, sooo easy!

Knobby trunk, blue sky

Tree trunk art

Lots of leaves on the ground…

Fall color

and in the trees, still.

Pretty sure: this is not a proper haiku syllable count.

Park prowl

Bridge arch

Hmm. Poorly framed, so just a snapshot. I do like what I was going for, however. Blue, blue sky.

Acer palmatum golden

This Acer is golden orange, in contrast to the red of yesterday’s specimen.

Big sycamore leaves

On one stretch of trail, I saw many of these leaves—sycamore, I think. These are among the largest. Interestingly, most were “face-down.” I hypothesize that the asymmetric weight of the stems must tip them that way.