Musings

I was on my perambulation late this morning, and plodding my way up a hill when I saw this ditcher-machine in the ready position in a trailer.

I passed two more construction vehicles and then spotted this mess across the street. Out of the frame behind shrubberies above the tubing and waterfall were three guys busy with shovels. I’m guessing they wished the yard were flatter and they could use the ditcher. Red clay mud is no fun.

Later, I came across this birdbath. Are those stylized cardinals? I don’t think of the cardinal as a birdbath species, but I’ve never had a birdbath to watch to study/learn attendees.

Posted at 6:36 PM | Comments Off on Neighborhood moments

New phone did NOT think this was a face; it’s pretty sharp!

I think of dahlias as fall flowers, but maybe that’s what they do in the Deep South, and not in cooler places.

Posted at 7:00 PM | Comments Off on Circular visuals

Lily pad droplets. Magic of surface tension.

Flower droplets. Lookit that color!

Busy bee.

Wide lens aka “ultra wide” to Apple.

Normal lens aka “wide” to Apple.

Zoom/telephoto lens.

This second trio are cropped to 16×9 aspect ratio, but otherwise unchanged. In the order presented, the lenses are digital-world 13mm, 26mm, and 52mm. FYI

Posted at 5:51 PM | 1 Comment »

Free library in a churchyard. Did not check the titles….

Mild experimentation with wide-angle capabilities.

Posted at 6:26 PM | Comments Off on Wide

Not sure what to lead with…I choose the seasonal, emotional, and possibly artistic image. Ghoul I thought, rather than ghost. Not sure why. “Ghoul” is from a late 1700s Arabic word for “to seize” that shifted meaning a bit to refer to a desert demon/monster that desecrates graves to eat corpses. That’s specificity; a ghoul is no city-critter.

Now, switch to the merely mildly mysterious. I cannot figure out for sure how this feather got so deeply embedded in the azalea foliage. Wind?

Posted at 6:26 PM | Comments Off on Minor mysteries

Ivy leaves. Strain selected for pale pigments (or whatever ivy has). This means reduced chlorophyll compared to the all-green relatives, and a greater risk of poor growth.

Very green ginger bud. No chlorophyll problems.

Artsy mortar joints. Not all grey is (pure) grey. No chlorophyll issues.

Posted at 6:10 PM | Comments Off on Pattern day

Yesterday our neighborhood Kroger re-opened. Or, at least, there was a Kroger here, but there’s a totally new building now, complete with two parking garages (one underground), and a high-rise apartment building. Far right is an old building on a different property. We made our first visit this morning. We passed on the Halloween swag, tasted a few of the offerings scattered throughout the store, and talked to several kindly and helpful employees. Two of three referred to a map to tell us where things were—Bob’s Red Mill dried-bean soup mix (one only, but not the one we like); organic fresh Italian sausage (none).

They are trying for a new identifier. Locally this used to be called the Murder Kroger (after a parking lot event, if I have it right), or Wino Kroger by the Guru. One edge of the store is the Beltline, so: Beltline Kroger.

Here’s the view from the Beltline. Note the blue bow on the column, left.

While most bins, shelves, and cases were nicely filled, with all items tidily aligned, this prepared-food section was empty. Someone decided that empty containers with post-its was better than totally empty. If the handwriting had been clearer, I could have browsed the offerings-to-be.

The checkout lady—we did serve yourself—was very helpful with corrections…five packages of 12-oz Starbucks coffee were supposed to be $5.99 each, but they rang up at the regular price ($7.99), not even the sale price (apiece)—$6.49. Plus, we were gifted some onions that weren’t in the menu at all.

We came out with assorted fresh veggies (salad stuff mostly), some uncured pancetta, and a few other grocs (e.g., coffee!!), plus their idea of a “Hawaiian” poké salad (fine, not exceptional; made for a more interesting lunch than we were going to have). We’ll go back….

Posted at 6:45 PM | Comments Off on Krogerized

This morning I thought my day would be miscellaneous (dull, boring) chores, with the headliner being getting my hair done (D, B subject for a post…). [I’m so Midwest.]

Then I went for a walk and found these droplets spaced like a variation on a flat meniscus situation, and thought, well, that’d be a big improvement on hair salon tedium.

Just about rush hour, things turned topsy turvy. The Guru exercised his traffic mojo and we went “to the mall” Apple store and brought home a new phone for me. Lots of advertising focused (heh) on the three lenses, ignoring the one on the front for selfies. Now I have to study up on how to use all the lenses with technical intelligence and creativity. It was raining and getting darned dark when I made this photo (which would never win a prize of any sort). Still, the fancy algorithms produce an interesting image, no?

Posted at 9:08 PM | Comments Off on Change-up

…spider. Duh. Secondarily: the sparkles in the web.

…potted plant. Secondarily: the geometric pillows.

…riotous autumnal shapes.

Posted at 7:12 PM | Comments Off on It’s about the…

Proof that we’re southbound. Also, proof that it was sunny early on.

We drove into rain, and never out. Some stretches had incipient rain, but the perception was that rain would restart any moment.

We made the NC transportation museum our big stop. It’s centered on a roundhouse, but I even saw a dugout canoe and motorcycles. My digital dictionary indicates cow-catcher is hyphenated; coulda fooled me.

Wagon hub. Looks like a fancy locking pin.

Have no idea why forty men and eight horses.

Dusty, chrome-laden car.

Aha! Stone Mountain.

Aha! Atlanta traffique.

Posted at 9:41 PM | Comments Off on Homeward (no angel)