Musings

Back out on the open road using the interstate highway system…our tax dollars at work. In fact, here’s a newly sculpted cut in a an Appalachian spine with what used to be burlap sheeting to stabilize the new surface, and probably now is an inorganic compound emitting bajillions of nano-plastics.

Posted at 8:18 PM | 1 Comment »

You’re looking at an illusion. It looks like the sun over to the right, peering through the leaves. But: no; it’s a night shot, and that brightness is the moon. Truly, it was rather dark out; the camera brightened everything (no flash).

Posted at 9:51 PM | Comments Off on Trust me

I do find my eye drawn to mini-worlds. Here’s a Liriodendron tulipifera creating its own micro-world…a safe place to germinate and try to get established despite serious canopy shade, modest amounts of soil, and irregular dog urine deposits.

Title phrase is “stolen/borrowed” from the WikiPee article on this tree species.

Posted at 9:44 PM | Comments Off on Stout peduncles

When the morning sky looks this captivating, ya just gotta smile.

Posted at 11:09 PM | Comments Off on Even before coffee

This morning before the sun came up, the moon had a faint rosy tinge.

Posted at 9:34 PM | Comments Off on Living (hothouse) color

We did a loop drive with a lunch/afternoon destination in Athens (where we found this charming lavender in bloom). On the way over, it seemed like in every other opening to the sky we saw a vulture circling. Surprisingly, on the return leg, I only spotted one…were the others resting after a lovely lunch (as in, they had consumed all the carrion)?

Posted at 9:21 PM | Comments Off on Natural history

I went out early in the moist sunshine to see the morning humidity. I found it in the air…

…and on the vegetation.

Late morning, we went to the Swedish store of exports from Ukraine and Poland…and got the…point.

Back home, a peony was new-opened.

Posted at 7:26 PM | Comments Off on Fresh sights

Just some (invasive) honeysuckle, plain and boring compared to events of the beginning of the week.

Posted at 8:43 PM | Comments Off on Ho-hum

We did see the eclipse. We perhaps didn’t prepare our recording equipment for the event. This is taken with a “real camera,” that is, one that you can’t talk to, with eclipse glasses held in front of the lens.

Here’s the total eclipse—again, not a stellar photo, yet still a wonder. Phenom witnessed, photoed, and oohed over…so we hopped back in the car and turned south into what became a series of traffic jams. Remember, we were in southern Illinois, and we had only a few bridges near enough to get across a major river. [We heard that an academic prognosticator in Carbondale estimated at several hundred thousand folks would visit southern Illinois to eclipse-watch.]

En route, we encountered a double rainbow—with both ends on the ground! Sorry, not shown. I saw no leprechauns or pots of gold, although I had a good view of the rainbow-feet. Still, we took it as lucky…

…that we encountered the front that brought this a few miles before the hail, and, as it happened, we only had to drive through hail-on-the-ground, not plummeting hail, whew. We motored along with great care between hail-piles, and within two miles, were out of the ice and headed for our traffic-jam fate. For the record, we reached home safely at 12:45am, at about the end of my energy.

After seeing photos today of Etna’s “smoke rings,” I wonder if there’s another phenomena sighting we should put on our short list?!!—and perhaps arrange tickets???!! 🤣 Kidding.

Posted at 8:37 PM | Comments Off on Phenomena

We managed to see the total solar eclipse. I think the resolution’s been hammered and you can’t see that this is the corona, or that Jupiter is below and right of the sun/moon pairing. Stunning. Stories tomorrow….

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Corona (not virus)