Musings

Today’s new vocab: dunkelflaute. However, this is a pink dogwood. Most are white; I recall reading some years ago that the dogwoods are susceptible to a virus and the breeders haven’t come up with a resistant pink dogwood. It seems like that still may be true as there are fewer and fewer pink dogwoods in our neighborhood. And none are young trees. [I admit that’s a very local, spatially biased observation.]

Oh: dunkelflaute (German). It’s usually translated as dark doldrums, or meteorologically: anticyclonic gloom. It’s when renewable energy can’t be generated (e.g., overcast days for solar panels, or still days for wind turbines).

Posted at 4:53 PM | Comments Off on Doldrums

Repeated patterns can be mesmerizing. Especially if blue or purple colors are involved IMHO.

Posted at 8:33 PM | Comments Off on Blue bells are belles

This pile is so large because it was from a cleaned parking lot. It’s snow snow snow, nevertheless.

Small ponds still had ice in the centers, but larger bodies of water, like this: open water.

Yes, we did another latitude shift north today. And experienced graupel twice, hours apart. [Graupel is not in the Apple dictionary; it suggests grapple—not the same at all.]

Posted at 9:56 PM | Comments Off on Charting a thaw

Probably along with twenty-seven or eighty-four (or more?) other television stations around the USA, one of our local affiliates’ weather team is using a new (to them) hot phrase for select days ahead with a worrisome prediction. They call them First Alert days. And now that they’ve been using this marketing model for a few weeks, I noticed that the promotional phrase has been turned into a verb, as in: “I’m First Alerting Thursday.” Evolution in front of our very ears.

Posted at 10:28 PM | Comments Off on Language evolution

I’ve seen the Ukranian President’s name as Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Volodymyr Zelensky. I don’t know what the distinction is/means. I do understand the Ukranian Kyiv (vs the Russian Kiev). Such are the problems of transliteration. And colonization/subjugation.

Posted at 9:07 PM | Comments Off on Y Y

Here’s one of those mini-driveway bridges I mentioned on Friday, all hooked up. It’s an odd, specific contraption.

In other neighborhood news, someone’s shooting a new state lottery commercial. Tomorrow.

Title refers to a new mini-addiction: watching Le Meilleur Pâtissier. In French, no subtitles. A challenge. I did know what beurre noisette means and how to make it; yay!

Posted at 8:27 PM | Comments Off on Meilleur

In one of those species naming mysteries, this lovely flower is in the genus Ranunculus, which refers to little frogs.

Posted at 7:52 PM | Comments Off on What frogs?

I was hungry at the wrong times (according to the clock), and I awakened rather early (according to the clock), and generally discombobulated all day. Even simple things can be complicated. [Like the spelling of ginkgo….]

Posted at 7:00 PM | Comments Off on Time change day

I’m guessing this is a Stereum species. They prefer deadwood, and this is on a decomposing stump. They prefer oaks, and the stump is oak-wood.

Autocorrect wants it to be sternum. Not the same at all. However, since I’m guessing, can I criticize autocorrect for guessing?

Posted at 5:02 PM | 1 Comment »

I called this photo night light. So clever (haha). That’s pretty much the apex of my wit and wisdom at this moment.

Maybe I’d have more of both if I had Magne’s hammer, or if it was nearby (just finished watching season 2 of Ragnarⱺk—that’s really a non-traditional “o” from the Swedish Dialect Alphabet and not the one in the logo, but this version was a new one on me…so I’m sharing).

Posted at 9:48 PM | Comments Off on Cast your eyes to the skies