Musings

Heavy frost this morning made beautiful art on our windshield, where the arc of the wiper met the smear of the last glass cleaning endeavor…such striking geometrics.

Later, at the famous Monteagle, in high-elevation Tennessee, we found the last snow of our trip. It’s all about altitude….

Home safely; however, no late-day photos. Too busy unloading, followed by making dinner instead of take-out (our typical post-trip choice), as we figured every take-out place in town would be slammed on this particular Super Evening.

Yawn. Much love, and good night.

Posted at 8:40 PM | Comments Off on Sunday, (later) day of rest

Dawn.

Milwaukee River.

Chicago.

Dusk.

I associate “Blue Skies” with Willie Nelson, but of course, it’s an Irving Berlin song dating to 1926. Willie’s got some years on him, but not that many, and he’s written some splendid songs, but not that one.

Posted at 10:02 PM | Comments Off on Nothin’ but blue skies do I see

I swear we didn’t plan to leave because it was snowing. But it was snowing and we did leave. Even the minor main roads were in good shape. Whew. We headed south, then turned west, and soon we no longer saw airborne snow.

As we continued west, out of Escanaba, we found sun and it stayed with us…

…until sunset. This is the view from our not-fancy hotel room. And we walked two doors down to a family restaurant that probably was a version of an edge-of-town Midwestern supper club (not really a club) back two generations. I had whitefish and decided to believe it wasn’t loaded with PFAS. I had it broiled, not fried, but got it for the fish-fry price. Love the Midwest.

Posted at 7:04 PM | Comments Off on Friday fish fry

Dawn came clear and cold, and colorful.

From mid-morning on, we heard drip drip drip, and the occasional swoosh of snow falling off the roof. The deck is now snow-and-ice-less, even…although the fields remain totally blanketed.

I’m enjoying being here in a February warm spell.

The title refers to cherry pie worries. Tonight: no pits. It is the final no-pits, as the pie is now fully consumed.

Posted at 8:36 PM | Comments Off on No pits

Breakfast pączki. Tis the season.

Then quiet chatting over pecan shelling.

Out for a walk, we found this pair of venerable birches. I think of birch pairs as not terribly uncommon; I don’t know why there’d be a propensity for pairs in this species.

Finally, we had a two-pie dinner. Chicken pot pie for our entree, and cherry for dessert. With a side of cole slaw and another of sauteed boc-choy. We are living well visiting here, and being treated like royalty.

Posted at 8:39 PM | Comments Off on Ps ending with pi

We can call this a great river, at least within its region. It’s the Huron, in southeastern Michigan.

And this is two Great Lakes cleaved by a great bridge…Michigan on the left and Huron on the right, and we’re on the Mackinac Bridge. There’s no Mackinac Lake that I recall.

Snow is drifting across our road. For us, it’s a great road, but you’d probably think it’s just an almost two lane gravel road. We have a lake, over the hill in the distance, and it’s big, and grand, but not—technically—great.

Posted at 8:48 PM | Comments Off on Greats, and more

Sun-up, and we got on the road.

We drove and drove and drove. Then, the sun was dropping against a layer of thin clouds.

And we saw another celestial orb, not to be mistaken for a nosy Chinese balloon.

After dark, we reached the snow zone. Note, however, that the road and sidewalk are totally dry. No problems here…and temps overnight are to hover at freezing; that’s warm for these parts.

Posted at 8:48 PM | Comments Off on In mow-shun

I walked in the sunshine today, so very lucky. Felt good. There was a bit of a breeze, enough that leafless stick-branches waved. I’ve been futzing around inside too much lately, including spending too much time reading about ancient transitional times, mostly in the Levant.

Posted at 8:10 PM | Comments Off on Bowing bloom

Murky, rainy day…so this photo is from one year ago, on a much sunnier day…although you can’t quite tell that. Trust me.

I just read a NYTimes article reporting that bears rub up against trees so that the tree-bark resin/sap gets in their fur and acts as a tick repellant. These bears are I’m not sure where, but it seems rather northern, like Poland, and the trees include beech trees.

I hypothesize this model doesn’t work for southern bears, as leaning against southern trees (e.g., pines) is a good way to get chiggers. Now chiggers are not ticks, but, personally, I’ll take neither…critter infestations of the skin are…ick, yuck, and no thanks.

Article: “Bears May Rub Against Trees for Protection From Parasites” by Rebecca Dzombak, dated 1 Feb 2023.

Posted at 8:11 PM | Comments Off on Natural history

Every once in a while I try what I think of as a short vertical pano. It is a vertical pano, and I don’t shoot for very long (ie, the span is brief—it’s chunky not elongated). Here’s one that’s cropped to the aspect ratio that fits this space (16:9).

I think in some cases the distortion in a cropped short vertical pano is “better” (meaning, somehow more aesthetic) than a “regular” shot. With my current iPhone lenses.

Posted at 9:28 PM | Comments Off on Does this make sense