Musings

Recently I’ve been trying to get out before the sun starts lighting the neighborhood. I may leave before the sun, but it’s usually blazing away by the time I return.

Folks who did yardwork on Saturday and put their bags of organic matter by the curb before heading indoors for a well-deserved cold one, got to enjoy nature’s art this morning…as the overnight rainfall re-sorted objects via curb-river.

The magnitude of the situation: worth no more—or less—than a cat nap.

About fifteen minutes ago we got the all clear on our city water—never was contaminated. Means I can make coffee in the morning…instead of limping along with a mokapot bracer. Lovely, but not the same.

Posted at 8:39 PM | Comments Off on Boil water advisory vacated

So, it would be the day I need a big pot of water to cook pasta that we have a boil-water advisory because a busted 36″ pipe created a flood on the other side of town. At least we still have water.

The volunteer basil is doing great! We pruned it to have tasty bits to top our plates of meatball pasta. MMMmmm.

Posted at 9:00 PM | Comments Off on …last time I checked

So, I had an anxiety dream last night that I’d never had before. Late for an appointment (or exam)…or can’t find someone that you desperately need to find…that kind of thing: yes. But this time: I was wandering around a restaurant (!!) and didn’t have a mask…and I didn’t know why I didn’t have one and didn’t know where to get one, and very much WANTED A MASK. Yes: total anxiety!

Also, Covid-“joke” of the day: wear a mask unless you want to home-school your kids this fall!

Posted at 9:01 PM | Comments Off on Rather personal

Sometimes I scan my surroundings and continue walking, then my brain jogs me to go back for something I passed. That happened with this window…because of the heart. I went back for a blue heart.

And, yes, rain overnight, and high humidity all day. Happy hostas.

Posted at 6:25 PM | 1 Comment »

Nothing novel about a squirrel chase, but that morning light—golden!

This hawk (I’m pretty sure) landed in front of me…unclear what the catch was. I left her/him to it….

Sit, Nova!

High five, Nova!

And here’s your treat!

Posted at 7:02 PM | 1 Comment »

Pro-tomato, anti-squirrel cage technology.

I still see this and have to translate from Bureau of Land Management to…#BLM.

Hosta bloom portrait. Moderately successful.

Posted at 7:05 PM | Comments Off on Change and evolution

I walked along a street I rarely visit and found this oversized thistle. Stunning.

This resembles a travertine flow at Yellowstone, yet it’s a cascade of fungi.

Large TV in a small apartment. A basement apartment. Pure spectator anthropology. [Full disclosure: I saw no people; I did not hang around; I stopped and took a photo, then moved on.]

Posted at 8:29 PM | 1 Comment »

Rain overnight. Plants need the precip. I needed the change in weather. Cooler! I heard that last year at this time, ATL had had 20 days at 90°F and above—this year, zero. I walked in high 70°s…and was very happy.

I worry about “Vehicles towed…” signs that do not also say WHERE!…or at least give a [functioning] phone number. Gorgeous two-story columns do not balance my worries.

Delicate mushroom. Had to include a plant kingdom photo. Ooops. No longer plant kingdom—fungi kingdom. ([cranky voice] What! Oh. Fungi kingdom was proposed in 1969. I learned the kingdoms back when fungi were plants. [So there.] 😜 )

Posted at 6:05 PM | Comments Off on Still learning

I headed out on my walk thinking my body was adjusting to early-mid Deep South summer after being in mid-spring northern Midwest, and I was darned lucky that it was overcast. Humid, but no bright sun.

A man’s voice penetrated my distraction. He told me about a lost dog, a small golden retriever. Phone number on collar. I said I’d call if I saw her. I rounded the next corner and saw a woman carrying a…yup, small golden. Which was not tiny; I’d say smallish medium-sized. I said, “you found her!” “Yes,” she said, “she was sitting at the end of a driveway.” All’s well.

Not so happy second story. Voting is a real mess in this state, or at least in this city.

We were lucky that we received our absentee ballots. They were long. About half judges, at all governmental levels. Took us both quite a bit of study to work through all the options.

Then we set off with our properly (I sure hope) packaged ballots to drop them in a ballot box toward downtown. While we were there long enough for me to drop ours off, we saw six other parties dropping off ballots. That’s a steady flow, considering it took me less than a minute to walk across three lanes, a wide sidewalk, and up a gentle half-flight of steps, push them through the door, then return. That’s a big pile of absentee ballots, and there were at least a half-dozen other absentee drop-off stations in this county.

For grins (as the saying goes), we returned home by two polls…. Both had long snaking lines, at least a half-mile, I estimated. Social distancing had collapsed somewhat…huge numbers of people. Lots of reasons for the problems, beginning with long ballots, brand new machines, and inexperienced poll workers. Afternoon showers I’m sure did not help things. I will not speculate on the role of incompetence, or the potential for malevolence masquerading as incompetence in the poll problems.

Photo themes: color graduation (small changes…you get it); parting of the plant (separations in wholes); and the sign for an Atlanta institution, the Sweet Auburn Curb Market (local name for the market; WikiPee details that the Municipal Market sign is a replica.

Posted at 7:41 PM | Comments Off on Two stories today

Some important aspects of the landscape are invisible to most of us. This farm is not terribly far from a major border between catchment basins. Behind me is the Tennessee River Valley—that water flows into the Mississippi River, while the south side, this side, flows into the Coosa and then the Alabama. Both end up in the Gulf, albeit via different routes. Not readily apparent while touring the countryside.

At home, we found the wee basil plants—”regular” Genovese and Thai—are doing well. They need water, but some are already going to seed. Gotta snip those when I water!

Perhaps the biggest news: we do not have to wait in line to vote in person tomorrow; our absentee ballots did indeed arrive while we were gone (they should have come before we left; love bureaucracy 😉 ).

Posted at 8:28 PM | 5 Comments »