Wednesday, 19 June 2024
Before coffee, I got confused about…well, I thought it was the longest day of the year, so I stepped out before sunrise to look up. Of course, the phone compensated for the darkness and made it darned light. And I got the solstice wrong; it’s tomorrow.
BC here is Before Coffee
Sunday, 16 June 2024
My favorite cheese-grating device…failed. [Flexes biceps]…I don’t know my own strength. 🤣
Friday, 14 June 2024
We are three meals in on our air fryer experiments…two of salmon filets, and one of tofu. We are (I am) trying to incorporate more fish/other meals in our diet, instead of terrestrial critter protein (including dairy).
One advantage of the air fryer, and I don’t understand how this happens, but there’s no fishy odor. Amazing.
No food photos; too messy. Very tasty, however.
Wednesday, 5 June 2024
Today, I found several interesting human-made verticals. Here’s a communications tower on a mountain.
I almost didn’t include this fire-plug; however, I couldn’t overlook the fresh red paint.
And, finally, look at the looming multiple skyscrapers of the Atlanta skyline.
Tuesday, 4 June 2024
I have needed to get these struggling rhubarb plants transplanted for years. I’m hoping to do it this fall. In the meantime, they need protection from the grass and other plants that suck away the moisture, provide too much shade, etc. So, the cardboard is my quickie barrier method weed control, in the style of NASmith, aka The Botanist.
Wednesday, 29 May 2024
Today is day three of my lake baths. It is so pleasant to wash my hair in the soft water of the lake, although the water temps remain chilly*. The grass keeps growing and growing, so I mowed a “tunnel” to the steps down the bluff to the beach.
We have a mulching mower, so it doesn’t spit the cut grass out a side-flap. Instead it counts on gravity for the bits to fall beneath the machine; however, with grass above knee-high, like this, it creates what I call grass boluses that are very capable of jamming the blade and stopping the motor. Over and over. I persisted, and now there’s a two-mower-swath-wide path.
On my way to take the above photo, I realized the late-day light coming through this clump of lupin made it a-glow (if I bent down to get a low angle).
* Speaking of chilly, tonight’s low is supposed to be in the upper 30s. It’s already in the mid-50s, so I believe it!
Also, sing title to “Chim Chim Cher-ee,” the Chim-chimney phrase….
Tuesday, 21 May 2024
Back out on the open road using the interstate highway system…our tax dollars at work. In fact, here’s a newly sculpted cut in a an Appalachian spine with what used to be burlap sheeting to stabilize the new surface, and probably now is an inorganic compound emitting bajillions of nano-plastics.
Friday, 17 May 2024
I got curious about what word or phrase rhymes with hydrangea. I couldn’t think of any, so I requested suggestions from Out There. AI must have generated the lists I saw, as offerings included grandma, grandpa, and raffia. Mentally, I give each zero points and a nasty buzzer noise.
Tuesday, 16 April 2024
This is white false indigo, and, yes, I was playing with photo-“phunctions” on my phone.
Here’s an azalea bush, with fading fleurs…and most of the petals fallen. Note the flourishing leaves.
Tuesday, 9 April 2024
We did see the eclipse. We perhaps didn’t prepare our recording equipment for the event. This is taken with a “real camera,” that is, one that you can’t talk to, with eclipse glasses held in front of the lens.
Here’s the total eclipse—again, not a stellar photo, yet still a wonder. Phenom witnessed, photoed, and oohed over…so we hopped back in the car and turned south into what became a series of traffic jams. Remember, we were in southern Illinois, and we had only a few bridges near enough to get across a major river. [We heard that an academic prognosticator in Carbondale estimated at several hundred thousand folks would visit southern Illinois to eclipse-watch.]
En route, we encountered a double rainbow—with both ends on the ground! Sorry, not shown. I saw no leprechauns or pots of gold, although I had a good view of the rainbow-feet. Still, we took it as lucky…
…that we encountered the front that brought this a few miles before the hail, and, as it happened, we only had to drive through hail-on-the-ground, not plummeting hail, whew. We motored along with great care between hail-piles, and within two miles, were out of the ice and headed for our traffic-jam fate. For the record, we reached home safely at 12:45am, at about the end of my energy.
After seeing photos today of Etna’s “smoke rings,” I wonder if there’s another phenomena sighting we should put on our short list?!!—and perhaps arrange tickets???!! 🤣 Kidding.