Musings

I saw this spiky plant crown and was mystified. Then I saw the adjacent nut, clearly an acorn. A bit of research later, and yes: an oak “hat,” of an Asian species. Cupule is the technical term, I believe.

Posted at 9:10 PM | Comments Off on Mystery found, solved

Even in the gloominess that was today, some trees are showing fine colors.

BTW, at least intermittently, I’m still monitoring the multi-unit housing structure under construction next to the BeltLine. So many support pillars—underground parking? [Notice the clouds obscuring the tops of the tallest buildings.]

Posted at 7:16 PM | Comments Off on Monitoring

I don’t know what kind of insect this is, but the temps were rather cool today for insect activity. I didn’t see this specimen move.

Not too cool that the city workers have turned off the water fountains in the park, however.

On the other hand: snow in the UP…that we missed. Didn’t stick, yet: snow.

Posted at 9:16 PM | Comments Off on [oh nooooo music]

Today’s neighborhood story was that my wander took me along the path of a fire truck that was going from hydrant to hydrant, with a young(ish) fireman hopping out (not in uniform) with a wrench to open one of the breast-ish-ports, then the valve at the top to assure that the hydrant was emptied of sediment, etc. I saw five hydrants tested during my parallel wander. This is not one along their route.

So much for hunkie guys. (Firemen, it seems to me, tend to be in better shape than cops; after all their lives depend on being in great shape.)

My other story is this miniature moss world. I took this snap using my magnifying glass function on my phone. I got it in focus (yay), and immediately realized that the light was not optimal on the uprights, that is, the sporophytes.

At the next moss-patch: much more light on the sporophytes.

Posted at 7:13 PM | 1 Comment »

I was pretty cocky last week and wore my clogs. For perhaps, I dunno, 300 steps.

Bad move. In about three days, mobility was…compromised.

Today was the worst so far. I’m darned creaky everywhere in my lower half, especially hips and right knee. No fun. I went from 17 minute splits two weeks ago (and sometimes in the high 16s), to just barely 20 today. Heat or ice? Alternating?

Posted at 7:09 PM | Comments Off on Too, too vain

I give this seasonal decoration the Most Likely to be Homemade of everything I saw, but I suspect that it isn’t. Traditions do mutate, but I never would have guessed Halloween would have gone from the pagan All Hallows‘ Eve (meaning Saints‘ Eve) to this, the holiday of plastic yard ornaments and gewgaws, now including giant black spiders with fur in their joints.

Also, here’s a gorgeous flower, a camellia, surely both real and not the least bit scary, eerie, or witchy.

Posted at 8:43 PM | Comments Off on See any Saints?

Earlier it was college football time (in this half of the continent), and of all unexpected results to see: MSU beat Mich. Go Green. We didn’t watch; the score just flipped by.

Also, Georgia beat Florida (bound to happen).

Now, it’s baseball time. Third inning, with the other team in the lead 1–0. Nowhere near the end of the game. Or the series.

Posted at 9:12 PM | 1 Comment »

The election is Tuesday, and today is the last day, according to the city website, to drop your absentee ballot in the box. Interestingly, the ballot envelope indicated we could do that on election day. We chose to believe today at 7pm was the real deadline, thank you Republicans.

We looked at the list of drop-off locations. For the whole of Atlanta, and this is a sprawly city, there were about eight. The Guru chose the nearest location, up in Buckhead perhaps six miles away. Again, thank you, Republicans.

So we slogged through rain and traffic, past construction areas occupying a lane here and there to further obstruct the flow of vehicles, and avoided the latest out-of-service bridge from a vandal’s fire beneath (as I recall). And now we are once again good citizens.

Posted at 6:57 PM | Comments Off on We voted

I’ve been watching these camellia blooms, thinking I should snap a few pictures, then, today, with the raindrop-gems, I was compelled to.

Posted at 8:11 PM | Comments Off on Dragooned by beauty

I have been noticing the daylight becoming shorter. Also, I found backlighting beauty.

Posted at 9:31 PM | Comments Off on Pulchritudinous thorns