Musings

As I recall the traditional southern New Year’s Day good luck/health/wealth menu includes rice, field peas/beans, and greens, often collards. We had spinach for the greens and mixed beans (mostly garbanzos and black) for the beans. We skipped the grain, but had wheat crackers. We topped with white cheddar, green onions, and fresh cilantro.

Posted at 9:16 PM | Comments Off on Close enough

For this mini-essay, I’m putting 2022 in air quotes. It’s certainly been a year.

During this year we crossed the equator six times (if I’ve counted correctly). All within a two-week period. Also, we’ve lived through ups, and we’ve lived through downs.

All typical.

Yet, somehow my sense of time seems dented and distorted.

Still, I’m happy to be here on the cusp of 2023.

Saying goodbye to 2022 (please imagine air quotes).

Although you cannot tell, this is a sunset photo, the last sunset of the year.

Posted at 9:15 PM | Comments Off on Air-quote power

Working through random thoughts on my 2022 life…from the ground up. No conclusions yet.

Posted at 9:24 PM | Comments Off on Pondering

The meteorologists were right. We got snow overnight.

Posted at 10:23 PM | Comments Off on Rhyming winter

We have all the wee colored lights on for this long night. Not so complex-long as in eastern Ukraine, for example, or cold-long as in the area under the Arctic Blast.

Posted at 8:44 PM | Comments Off on Again: we are lucky

Reaching back to August for the shot from the UP. Only about a quarter of our light string still illuminates. When the electricity is on. Which it is not right now. Note moon.

Posted at 8:32 PM | Comments Off on Mem-reez

Turns out it is grass germination season. I suspect it won’t last. Beginning this weekend we’re to have lows in the teens and as low as 10. Not growing weather for plants.

Posted at 7:56 PM | Comments Off on Anticipating brrrr

From this house we don’t have a good view of the low-light parts of the day (faves for me), but this morning I caught a nice view of the light-graduation-transition (cropped out of this shot), ornamented by a waning crescent moon.

Posted at 7:42 PM | Comments Off on Moon omen

Every once in a while I congratulate myself, very privately, on coming up with a mildly clever title for a blog photo. I called this one “lawn_jockeys.” These plants, whatever they are, are robust these days in neighborhood lawns, while simultaneously the grass is thin and de-energized. Perhaps the name only kinda makes sense.

Posted at 10:08 PM | Comments Off on Grasping at straws

This volunteer redbud, which needs to be removed yet hasn’t gone to the compost pile, is holding one last, and very colorful, leaf. Inspiring?

Posted at 8:48 PM | Comments Off on Garden decisions