Friday, 12 November 2021
Just before the hot season arrived, we got new HVAC units for upstairs and down. It was time.
I always think we shouldn’t let the autumn leaves accumulate on them…but they do. And they somehow slip through the grating much more frequently than I think they should be able to. I do pick off the ones that stop atop the grating, and then look at those wily ones and…well, worry a bit.
Sunday, 19 September 2021
My that’s some gorgeous moonlight!
And I do believe I see clues to how my phone-cam does its low-light magic…given the the green dot-cluster to the left, and the red highlighting on the foreground plants.
Still, what a fabulous moon!
Monday, 13 September 2021
Seems to me that if there’s a sidewalk solar panel for buried infrastructure, we should be able to use sidewalk solar for other uses, no? Plenty of sidewalks other there, ya’know.
Found this little cherry tomato science project…kinda late in the season, but they should ripen…. After all, where’s there no frost, tomatoes are perennials. [Going and going….]
Saturday, 26 June 2021
To the right of the pair of poles and below the horizontal lines, there’s a double loop of wire, with a large tubular Element. There’s another Element above, attached to the horizontals. I don’t know what those Elements are called or what they do, but they must be important, as they are scattered about. Always above ground…. Nothing to do with the No Parking sign, however, I am certain. 😉
Thursday, 17 June 2021
Last night we became temporary keepers of a fern forest and assorted house plants. Fingers crossed that they thrive for the next two weeks and the rodents don’t…dig them up.
Today I continued my week of accidentally triggering my phone to act one way or another on my behalf. Got an arty shot of it!
Thursday, 20 May 2021
Today I walked around the old economic heart of A Real City.
The Beating Heart was these falls, the Upper Saint Anthony Falls, now marred? by a lock and dam.
The power the river generated, and this is the Mississippi so it is a mighty generator, ran the Gold Medal Flour mill on the south/west side…
And the Pillsbury mill on the north/east side. This is the underbelly of the mill complex. [Note fisher-person.] Now the mills are no longer milling, and this sacred place of the people who were here before the EuroAmericans arrived is irretrievably altered.
I quite enjoyed walking across the curving Stone Arch Bridge that seems to connect the two mills. It’s a pedestrian bridge now, although it was built for rail cars. The water on the left is the lower end of the Pillsbury millrace (it seemed to me), and the bridge crosses the main channel of the Mississippi.
And all this? Yup. Couldn’t have put it better myself.
Tuesday, 20 April 2021
A UP friend (who now lives in Florida, far from snow banks and running-board slush stalagtites) suggested I might enjoy a free app called “iNaturalist, LLC” that identifies plants. And boy howdy is it fast, even with a crappy picture with lots of shadows. I’m so loving it.
Even though I know this as Queen Anne’s Lace, the app notes that it’s Daucus species, probably Daucus carota, also known as wild carrot. Look how much I’m learning. Watch out, AT&T, I’m going to be burning through my data!
Also, I’m sorry I didn’t capture what looked to me like a hornet buzzing these flowers…it’d be another species for me to identify (somehow)!
Tuesday, 2 March 2021
Before envelopes, there was letter-locking. This was a European trick, it says here*, for folding a letter and locking it closed with parts of the letter-paper itself, so as to keep its contents concealed from prying eyes. Apparently a recipient judged your folding skills along with your literary talents. This research determined there were a dozen basic styles or techniques for letter-locking.
A fantastic digital manipulation, yes, but not as incredible as blooms.
* “New Technique Reveals Centuries of Secrets in Locked Letters” by William J. Broad, NYTimes, Mar 02.
Tuesday, 2 February 2021
I labeled this photo dragonfly then wondered: is it? Or is it a damselfly? I do think the artist was going for dragonfly based on wing position (horizontal, away from the body). HOWEVER, by definition, dragonflies have a broader hindwing than forewing—not true of this wonderous creature.
At least that’s the rundown based on WikiPee, which I don’t think is always right, but it’s easy to find and I believe mostly correct…regarding this type on natural history topic, anyway. IMHO
Tuesday, 19 January 2021
Over time, the details of this carnivore sculpture have disappeared, and to me it looks a bit of an elongated lump, and no longer a king of an ecosystem.
WikiPee says Jaguars began as the first automobiles of a motorcycle sidecar company. Sidecar!