Musings

Sun, not sun, sun (thankfully)

We stopped to stretch our legs while we were motoring west on the plains and I found these wee blooms that my magic iNaturalist ID app indicated is a milk vetch, and a legume. I can SEE the latter—look at those flower shapes…so leguminous.

Continuing west, we climbed up and up after Cheyenne, and into sleet and snow-rain. Fortunately it was over 40°F, so no ice on the road to worry about.

Soon, we descended again and I found a wee sagebrush doing springtime burgeoning. A nearby sign indicated that Wyoming hosts 13 species of sagebrush. And this one is…?

Golden light is not quite warm enough

I believe I have put the winter down duvet back on the bed four times as our warm spring switched to cool. And back. I did for last night, and it’s staying on for tonight. Then, I may pack it up until next fall.

Thinking flowers

We’ve gotten to clematis season. This one has a shy petal.

Watched the very end of the Masters, not quite a shoo-in, so a level of excitement. Water-hazards! Sand traps! TENSION!

Always, when I look at the Masters, I wonder if they’ve had to put bags of ice under the azaleas to keep them from flowering too soon. [Except last fall…but, usually.] Maybe this year the timing worked out right and the groundskeepers didn’t have to retard the blooming process.

Plowing through spring

Maple detritus. Never noticed these pink ones before, or don’t remember doing so. Pink?

Oak detritus (pretty sure), plus pollen and petals. The oak bloom-twigs are new in this year’s detritus cycle.

Bonus: dogwoods, foreground, showing their understory form. And overstory oaks in the background.

See the pollen?!

There’s a whole scene or maybe a short story that could include this moment. The waving flag is the best. Plus the “we compost” sign.

Seasonal flower photo.

We were weather aware this morning again, and again we are well, with the worst of it elsewhere. 🍀

2 CHIC BISC

We left inside-the-perimeter to visit the Grey Sisters and their people, and enjoy a tasty home-made meal.

Outbound we saw beautiful pale purple dangling flower clusters of wisteria frequently in the roadside woods. Returning, we saw some dogwoods blooming near houses, but not yet in the woods.

The title is exactly as it was on a sign. No price. I can’t quite believe that the biscuits were so good people would stop no matter the price.

Charting spring

Last night we got rain and we got wind; here we didn’t get any tornadoes, happily. Pollen and redbud blossoms floated on the pickup bed’s pond…until I drained it.

This Acer palmatum is aggressively moving towards summer mode, just 5/6 days after spring began.

Also, by my observation, today is day one of what I seem to recall is the approximately three-day push-to-bloom of the azaleas…when they really open in force…. Bushes everywhere in the neighborhood were half open or, more commonly, covered in fat buds that will open…tomorrow?

Weather-aware

Kickball in the park. And I’ve seen kids kicking balls in the space that’s attached to the middle school that’s across the street behind the lovely blooming trees. And I’ve seen school buses on these streets. Normality is returning…a bit.

Another petal-carpet with petal-drifts.

As to the title, this is the over-and-over recommendation phrase from our local meteorologists, as we will have nasty winds and rain from about 1 am to 6 am…hopefully without the awful tornadic action that has already struck not far from here. I expect tossing and turning throughout….

Basking

Daffo

After five days of grey and overcast, we’re enjoying bright days, and today was the second of those. Joyous.

Great walk-finds

Rain drop catch

Raindrops from last night’s precip lasted through the day…in a few places.

Sandhill grouplet

Look near the crossed wires and you’ll see a small flock of sandhill cranes. These were much lower than the group I saw the other day. I suspect this group was looking for a place to stop overnight to rest and feed—central Atlanta is a poor choice for that…keep heading north, birds!

Crew permit

Evidence that film shoots are once again outside the studio….

Stinkhorn

And, yes, the family of the stinkhorns in the scientific classification system is Phallaceae. Hard to put one over on taxonomic specialists.