Musings

Both of us were in the mood to take a break from chores-about-the-property, and I got texting to friends…and when the dust settled we took off eastbound to see them and to do errands. First stop was lunch at a small burger place—with car-hops!—where we could watch a very local ferry zooming back and forth from mainland to island (both Michigan territories) and back. [Note phone check before driving away.]

It’s not quite that simple, as the route, short as it is, crosses an international shipping route. Here’s a Great Lakes freighter upbound toward the Sault Locks. It’s the John G. Munson (made of steel and self-loading; built 1952; 102′ mid-section added 1975–76; owned by Canadian National Railway Co.; IMO: 5173670), if you can’t read the name. Out of Duluth, and most certainly headed back there. [Apologies for cutting off a sliver of the stern.]

We did our other errands and headed for our fun fun socializing stop. We chatted about a huge range of topics, including what this shrub is. iNaturalist (free app; recommended!) says Amalanchier species, commonly known as serviceberry and sugarplum…and many other names. Happy agreement among us with the app ID.

On our return leg, we made a quick end-of-road stop to look across the shipping channel that the Munson will soon pass through. The other side is another country, Canada. Did I know this?—that scholars have coalesced around the hypothesis that Canada is a corruption of the St. Lawrence Iroquoian word kanata, which means village or settlement. Town and country, yup, so efficient, our neighbors to the north….

And just like that, we returned to the cottage, unloaded and stashed all our new possessions, and settled back into our normal evening routine…albeit no longer with any new “Succession” episodes in our future. Oh, Shiv.

Posted at 8:22 PM | Comments Off on Shipping and sugarplums

Variation on the bramble and the rose? Yucca and roses?

Posted at 9:27 PM | Comments Off on Not the same ring

Reading “South Riding” (by Winifred Holtby, 1936), a novel of its time (as many of them are). The clever (?) twist of the name is there is no South Riding in the real UK, although Britain has an East, West, and North version; also the word riding derives from the Viking term for thirds, so…still clever: no fourth version. Still, “South Riding” works as a novelized anthropological study of the people, places, and political machinations of eastern Yorkshire, north of Hull, after WWI and before WWII.

So distinctive, the heart-shaped leaves of Cercis canadensis, the eastern redbud.

Posted at 10:16 PM | Comments Off on Machinations

How many times have I been in Powell’s and not noticed this? Actually, there are several staircases, and this is on the landing of just one, so it can honestly and easily be missed.

I just checked their website, and the bookstore dates back to 1971. I think the first time I entered its doors was in 1979.

Our country might well be improved if we had a Department of Literature.

Posted at 9:35 PM | Comments Off on Historical moment

Rainy all day, sometimes more than at other times. And here’s just about the last snow (right of center) we saw from our various vantage points as we went down the gorge to the Rose City.

All this rain means…tada! Waterfalls. This is Horsetail Falls.

And this is the better known Multnomah Falls. There are pedestrians on the old road bridge…and no longer any cars.

From the natural history display: an osprey. (Photo especially for those who’re tired of landscapes.)

Portland is a city of treasured neon, or at least I have the sense there’s plenty of neon here, and some of seems to be historic…or perhaps just retro.

This is not our hotel, and if we didn’t have a reservation, I still don’t think we would have been tempted. See note above. Just to be clear, we have two, count ’em, two color TVs in our room (it’s like a studio apartment, BTW).

Powell’s City of Books: of course we visited. And we traveled via street cars (trams), on complementary tix from our hotel. The Rose City is so green and hip.

I have never before seen this abbreviation, and I’d rather it disappeared. Only two-thirds of the shelves had it; the rest had the full spelling: archaeology. Much classier. And, besides, there was room for the other letters…so, why? Why?

Posted at 9:53 PM | Comments Off on Rainy day adventures

Fronds and frond-iness. A frond is a leaf or leaf-like plant part. These fennel fronds trace such delicate imagery.

Posted at 7:25 PM | Comments Off on Leaf-like

Backlit helicopters.

Posted at 8:25 PM | Comments Off on ’Nuff said

Tiz the season.

My mother called these zipperskins. I don’t recall hearing this term elsewhere, yet I can’t quite believe it was her personal language quirk.

Posted at 9:16 PM | 1 Comment »

Just watched RWarnock on Reidout. The interview was at a pre-Covid favorite hangout of ours, the Democratic stronghold Manuel’s Tavern*. Joy knows how to say it—like instruction manual. No kidding. Don’t know why, but that’s the way it is.

So, the berries in the left package were priced at a premium, yet I couldn’t tell much difference between the sizes of the berries. In truth, I don’t think the left packages was worth one-third more….

Election Day tomorrow. Hoping for truth there, too.

* Stronghold as in JFK, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and similar, along with uncounted state and local officials and candidates.

Posted at 8:05 PM | Comments Off on Truth

As far as I can recall, I never rode in a panga (by any name) before our trip last month to the Galápagos. Already, I miss those days! This was a penguin-watching expedition…oh, with pelicans and, what was it?…frigate birds…whatever. Note the volcanic cone in the background.

Panga in my Apple-dictionary (very fruity) is a large African machete-knife. I think “panga” is used widely in Latin American, at least on the west coast, for this kind of inflated boat. The Apple-world needs to self-update. IMHO 😎

Posted at 8:15 PM | Comments Off on Panga