Musings

TY, jcb!, for this image….

Muggy!

Still, we had a nice walk this morning, although a bit sweaty, all the way to Piedmont Park. I can happily report that Lake Clara Meer’s levels* are up and we saw lots of (ordinary) birds, including swallows or something flying across the lake nabbing insects—breakfast, I guess.

The mimosas are in bloom, and dramatic, right now.

* Lake Lanier’s levels are in pretty good shape, too, compared to the last two years or so—about 4.3 feet below the summer pool (ideal) level, and far better than the 20 feet below we did have…. This webpage has a useful graph of Lake Lanier’s levels, and also shows total rainfall for the SE for the last week.

Posted at 9:19 AM | 2 Comments »

Gorgeous spousal photo (I was driving); thanks, dear!

After driving through spitty rain for several hundred miles across southeast Michigan, all across Ohio, and Kentucky, too, by the time we got within one stop of home, the late-day sky emerged with just a few drifting clouds, and then a dramatic sunset emerged.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Homeward bound

Yesterday afternoon several lines of storms came through, and now the garden is moistened anew. Winds were worse around us than here, thankfully. Yet, oddly, the power went out sometime after 8 pm, meaning male members of the household went into sump-pump nurturing mode. We thought it’d be an all-nighter of that, but we were hugely lucky that the power came back on just before 11:30 pm.

Yawn.

Posted at 9:32 AM | Comments Off on Resting up

Yup, when there’s a basket of these fresh-picked from the garden on the kitchen table, and it’s starting to sprinkle after a dry spell, life is pretty darned good.

Locally, anyway.

Posted at 6:59 AM | Comments Off on Life in the deluxe lane

We were on the move today, and had thought about taking the ferry over to Mackinac Island, but spitting rain at the straits caused us to rethink our plans.

Instead, we drove west to Bliss, then down to Cross Village, which is quite a place. Leg’s Inn there, established by a Polish immigrant, is decorated along the roofline with upside down stove legs. We stopped along the beach and took a few photos of the churning skies over Lake Michigan.

We dropped down an extremely scenic (“heritage”) road from Cross Village to Harbor Springs. We found a nice sandwich shop with good bread and a stack of Sunday NYTimes amidst all the fancy places at ritzy Harbor Springs. From there, we continued south to Petosky and then Traverse City, before cutting inland. Nice.

The weather never improved greatly, but we had a great run even so.

Posted at 10:22 PM | 1 Comment »

Drove across the piedmont north-south (that is, I-75 Atlanta<>Macon) today and can report: 1) the roadside grasses etc. are still lush and green (unlike the last few years); and, 2) local rain cells make for a gorgeous sky!

Posted at 10:24 PM | Comments Off on Whoa-hoh! (boiling clouds)

Perfect evening for watching the sun set out by the pool…and then the ’skeeters came out, so we decamped to the balcony, and the sunset extended for hours.

Thanks, M!

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Tower silhouettes

Our next-door neighbor is quite a gardener, and has given the stump socket new life. All the rain we’ve been having has helped the transition process. The hostas and ferns are watched over by a poke plant that’s shooting up and getting huge! I love keeping track of it through the kitchen windows. A chipmunk also hangs out in the stump garden….

The wheel of life….

BTW, with all this rain we’ve been having, Atlanta’s main drinking water reservoir, Lake Sidney Lanier, is within 6 feet of the desired summer levels. Seems like it should be a bit higher this time of the year, but this is so much better than it’s been….

Posted at 5:56 PM | Comments Off on Stump garden

’Maters are bloomin’ now (and have been for a couple of weeks).

Hey, it’s really a cool camera…. Here’s a better still….

Posted at 8:34 PM | Comments Off on Better image

Heavy rain, mixed with light hail, for a while this afternoon, but not too long (I hope; it’s raining now; I’m going by the radar maps). Happy tomatoes!

Posted at 4:22 PM | Comments Off on Weather alert!