Musings

I take so many morning, even early morning, shots of this row of apple trees, of the field, and of the woods beyond (or just one/two of that trio) that I thought I’d try one in the late light-of-evening. Not so interesting, perhaps because the digital processing’s trying to make it a replicate a daylight shot. The result made me think of some savannah moments we had ages ago in bush camps in Tanzania.

Posted at 9:02 PM | Comments Off on Mini photo experiment

Here’s the blue moon. Yes, it’s orange.

And the sunset light the opposite direction was also orange. [I’m cheating to call it an orb.]

Posted at 9:15 PM | Comments Off on Orange orbs

Of course, now that the rain barrel is full from the periodic overnight and morning rain, the plants are well-watered and don’t need a top-up from the barrel.

Posted at 9:20 PM | 2 Comments »

Dew on a rhubarb leaf in low-angle morning light. Rain is expected after midnight, so it’ll be wet again tomorrow morning.

Grocery store report: I sometimes eyeball the varieties of B_sh’s beans. I hadn’t seen this one before. Well, I thought, looking at that “zero” that had been altered to include a…zero…standing in for an “o.” So clever.

But, how can it be baked beans with no “sugar added,” I thought, so what’s the sweetener…’cause baked beans have a sweet element. I checked the ingredients, and the second-to-the-last ingredient is sucralose. No molasses, no maple syrup, nothing else sweet. Sucralose is chemically altered sugar, that the food folk don’t consider as sugar. So that cute blue label is right by them.

Also in the fine print, the third ingredient is “soluble corn fiber.” What’s that? Modified cornstalk? And the first ingredient, as I’m sure you’ve anticipated, is beans, but “prepared navy beans.” And what does that mean? Ones who’ve been to test prep classes? Ones in full makeup? Or ones ready for the anesthesiologist?

That was the last label I read in today’s grocery store visit. I was exhausted, and almost ready to cook my own beans.

Posted at 9:47 PM | Comments Off on Visuals

Sometimes evening comes and the lake gets very still. Sometimes the moon hangs above the dock. Sometimes it all takes my breath away.

Posted at 9:11 PM | 2 Comments »

I do love this ground fog. We didn’t have it earlier when we were up here—not enough moisture out there. Today was NOT overcast, thankfully.

I got The Beast going this morning and got plenty sweaty. When I started the last of the fog was around. By the time I quit, the sun was out. I didn’t work out in the field, but instead trimmed scrappy areas near the cottage…scrappy because the lupines are dried, and the grasses (etc.) are yellowing and browning. Autumn is coming.

A bit of garish from the deli cooler at the GrowSto, just to shake up your eyeballs. Apparently all-red sells better than multicolor. We managed to depart without either variation.

Posted at 4:42 PM | Comments Off on Changeability

Tromped through and around in the field and discovered that the infestion of these thistles has, big surprise, increased over last year. I also discovered that my work with The Beast, while it didn’t eliminate the invasive grass, it did keep it from going to seed where. I cut. However, I didn’t manage to cut all of it down, just most of it and the thickest patches. I’ll take that progress, though.

Little known fact: I called these plants prickers when I was a kid. I must have gotten that term from The Botanist. It’s the technical term for the wee and annoying thorns they sprout on stems, leaves, everywhere.

Apologies to Sky Watchers: dull overcast during the final daylight hours; no even boring sunset.

UPDATE Apologies to botanists: the thorny parts are called prickles; I in turn created (pretty sure) a term for the whole plant: prickers.

Posted at 9:03 PM | Comments Off on Thistle prickers

I went out the door with my eye on the red-pink orb hanging low in the sky, and kept watching it through the vegetation as I steamed across the road and up the hill to the Best Spot To See The Sunset. And saw the orb get swallowed by cloud layers. Yet, still pretty without the orb.

Later in our walk, after a serenade by two pairs of sandhills and a deer count exceeding a dozen, we enjoyed views of the moon’s waxing crescent.

Posted at 9:24 PM | Comments Off on Orb and crescent

This evening.

Last night. A bit later, yes. Big, big (natural) color difference.

Sigh.

Posted at 8:56 PM | Comments Off on A day apart

The wind blew itself out, as Mom used to say. The lake level is lower than when we left, but the point still isn’t as pointy as it was.

Still haven’t been able to return to my before-10am outdoor work schedule. It’ll come.

Posted at 5:12 PM | Comments Off on Things change