Otherworldly
Friday, 16 October 2020
Among non-traditional/atypical/unexpected plant morphologies, I present Brussels sprout trees. Go brassicas!
Musings
Two outdoor adventures
Monday, 28 September 2020
Today’s photo tour of my day begins with these tracks, fresh-made as it rained into the wee hours. There are a couple of shoe-wearing horse-tracks in the lower left, and continuing across. But the rest are deer. I cannot come up with a scenario in which the long drag “prints” were created.
Also on my walk, a slight detour onto a bridge, perhaps installed by a fisher-person or birdwatcher, that crosses the ditch in the swamp. I learned about duckweed when I had Biology I in HS, back in the Middle Ages. It’s the floating green.
Kinda looks like funky soybeans in this shot. One leaf per plant, I just read.
Much later, I walked down to the lake…. Offshore breeze today (after days and nights on onshore winds). That means we have a beach! Water’s still way too high, though, IMHO.
Quick stop to check out the low-ground plants on the bluff-top. Sphagnum moss. Always thought “sphagnum” was lovely to hear, almost melodic, and no fun to spell.
Fennel-izing
Monday, 14 September 2020
More evidence that autumn is flirting.
I was poking about on the wee old internet for more info on Foeniculum vulgare, as I’m relatively uninformed. It has a “diverse pharmacological spectrum,” and you can find extended rabbit-holes on that chemistry. Not really my thing.
In Spanish, fennel’s common name is hinojo. It’s even better in Italian: finocchio. However, neither is as excellent as Dutch: venkel. There; is that enough? I so enjoy linguistic diversity!
What’s in a name?
Sunday, 6 September 2020
When I was a pre-literate tot and my dad identified these types of ’shrooms to me I heard “shell fungi.” It made sense to me because the tops looked rather like the Shell gas shells.
I felt let down when I found out they were really shelf fungi. Of course, that name makes sense, too.
Title from star-crossed Juliet who may never have seen such fungi by any name.
Evidence
Sunday, 23 August 2020
Last night, we had more rain, or more rain at once, than I noticed zzzzzz. Look at the line of detritus the water left behind. Not a wrack line, and neither flotsam nor jetsam. Just organic material without an ocean or tide.
BTW, that’s plastic not grass beneath the…Stuff.
Observation “science”
Friday, 21 August 2020
I think I’ve done this before in this “space”: my hypothesized taxonomy, this time for fungi.
The first would be “wet” fungi, and this would be “dry” fungi. Although it looks like there are a few “wet” fungi encroaching on the decorative, “dry” fungi.
Okay, hypothesis is muddy, and therefore: nope.
My life in Spanish
Wednesday, 15 July 2020
Hoy: caliente y húmeda incluso antes de las 8 de la mañana.
And we’re getting the third overhead rain cell right NOW, for an extra boost of humidity! Oh, yay!
Micro-scrutiny
Tuesday, 23 June 2020
Almost everything that catches my eye when I’m out “taking my exercise” is what you’d expect…sidewalks and streets, traffic, parked vehicles, road signs, mailboxes, plants and lawns, dog-walkers, joggers, kid’s toys, puddles, organic matter that the rain last night downed, wandering cats, stray chipmunks, assorted flags—all that you’d expect in a neighborhood-with-a-small-business-area. Special today: garbage containers.
This I didn’t anticipate: juse…written in white paint on an industrial electrical conduit box. Still trying to decode “juse.”
In which I became glooberificated
Monday, 18 May 2020
I checked my fave weather app at 7am (ish) and it said to expect rain (and lightning) by 11am. I checked later, and it indicated not until 1pm. It was 11:20 by the time I hit the street and…looking up, hmm, weather-y, but not so bad. Then, a few drops. I wisely had stayed close enough to the house that I looped myself in the back door and acquired a big umbrella, thanks to a hand-off from the Guru.
Twenty minutes later, I figured I was in the clear, but within two more minutes, the drizzle was kicking in. Mr. Personal-Putting-Green (see entry perhaps a month ago) had his flag out. In the rain. Got my blood pressure up. I took a photo and kept going.
Of course, by the time I was in the final stretch the weather had clinched the deal and I was super-glad I had the umbrella. Or my walk would have been gloobered up. (See Kayakwoman for this vocabulary.)
Four-door
Monday, 4 May 2020
Growing up a few miles from Oldsmobile central, and several counties away from Ford central (and others), car talk, uncapitalized, was almost as frequent a topic as the weather. I remember hearing four-door and two-door much more commonly than their equivalents, sedan and coupe. The latter sound waaaay too “uptown” and worldly for my neighborhood.
This lot used to be full of shade-making vegetation. I miss it. If the doors are from the house or the pool-house, why are they on the sidewalk?