Lunar view
Wednesday, 25 August 2021
I got out early-ish this morning because stunning levels of heat and humidity were predicted by 10am. And I found a waning gibbous moon. I only know the moon phase because of my fancy watch/fitness device.
Musings
Cast your eyes to the skies
Tuesday, 24 August 2021
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).
I am not exaggerating
Friday, 13 August 2021
One (or more!) people at this house is seriously into gardening, with this and a large planting of white ginger flowering now. They smell lovely, and the scent cuts through the humidity.
In the UP, we were awash in the scent of blooming milkweeds. Too many, IMHO, as there were few monarchs feeding on the thousands of plants on our property. Thousands.
F x 2
Monday, 9 August 2021
That would be floral and fungal.
Floral is prettier, but fungal has perhaps the more interesting story. My guess is it grows on wood, yet here it is emerging from a sidewalk crack. The universe is upside-down. Perhaps. Or I’m missing a few facts.
Metropolizing
Friday, 6 August 2021
The smoke-haze and the dawning sun made the buildings copper and gold. I’m in the city again.
Scale switch. Bumble bee on Joe-Pye weed. Capitalization of the plant name varies. Use of hyphens varies. Or just call it Eutrochium purpureum. Native to eastern North America, from Lousiana/Florida to Ontario.
Haze survey continues
Thursday, 5 August 2021
We continued our haze survey in Tennessee. Have I made it clear (haha) that the haze is smoke from the northwestern US and Cali fires?
And into Georgia. Haze continues, with clouds. And humidity. The normal humidity, seems to me. But heavy traffic on I-75, including many semis…we mused that this suggests a busy national economy. Mere speculation, however.
Haze variation
Wednesday, 4 August 2021
Our morning air began with haze and pre-sun-fog, then the sun burned off the fog and we were left with…
…haze, giving a strange quality to the bridge crossing despite the Great Lakes breezes.
Still hazy into the nothern Lower…my, how green the plants are…it has not been a dry summer. Dry here and there in the spring, but not in the summer. [So far.]
Finally, pretty darned clear in northern Ohio. Good old flat northern Ohio.
And southern Ohio…the red sun is from the haze, and we can see some in the oblique, low-angle rays. Yet, it seems far clearer than in the Upper Peninsula.
Wonder what we’ll see tomorrow as we continue south….
Visual crossover
Tuesday, 3 August 2021
I saw this photo and thought I could identify funky cauliflower shapes in the unopened buds. I didn’t have that reaction to the actual flower (what does that say about me?). So, I checked out scientific names, and it turns out that they (Daucus carota and Brassica oleracea)are not closely related at all. Ancestral populations suggest origins in temperate Europe and southwest Asia vs very southern and western Europe, so no huge spatial overlap.
End economic botany discussion.
Yawning, anthropomorphizing
Monday, 2 August 2021
I’ve been waiting for one of these misty mornings, when all is still and it seems like I am looking at another version of this world. I keep thinking that the air is different, perhaps holding more secrets.
I had been thinking about cutting this dead branch, but, now, how can I? It is such a fine place for the spiders to catch meals.
Many bonuses
Sunday, 1 August 2021
Our fine socially active day included a lovely beach- and fire-side evening with lots of laughs and even a yellow-blooming plant identification (I’ve already forgotten the name—oops!). Bonus, we saw this sunset glow on our walk back to our place.