Musings

See this magnolia? It’s actually two adjacent trees on the bank of a former railroad ROW (to the right). Now the ROW is the BeltLine, a pedestrian and bicycle corridor, with landscaping by Trees Atlanta. To the left is a shopping center with a Whole Foods and a Staples (guess which one gets more traffic 🤣). Delivery trucks are the most common traffic along this route behind the stores (and us when the “front” is clogged).

Here’s a ca. 1950 photo from Georgia State’s archives of the Ponce de Leon Ballpark. The info that follows is from 2020 article by Adam C. Johnson (here). In 1890, there was a lake where the field is, and the magnolia was already there. The ballfield was first built in 1907. The photo shows the version built in 1923. If you were sitting behind home plate, you were looking straight at the magnolias. Johnson writes:

If a baseball hit the magnolia tree and bounced back into the field, then the ball was in play because, per the rules, it had to pass through or remain in the tree to be a home run. To this day, the Spiller Magnolia Tree is the only tree in baseball that has been in play, and [Babe] Ruth and Eddie Matthews are the only confirmed players to have hit home runs into it.

Recently, Trees Atlanta has cloned the magnolias, and planted the new trees along the BeltLine.

End of baseball trivia.

BTW, that big building to the far right facing the ballfield was a huge multi-story Sears that had a side track from the RR for deliveries. The building recently was redeveloped and is now Ponce City Market.

Posted at 8:22 PM | 1 Comment »

Did you leap today? I did. A little leap, very safe.

Posted at 9:03 PM | Comments Off on 29th

This afternoon the temp dropped something like 30°F during daylight…so unusual. A front and rain kicked off the descent. BTW, the temp is still dropping. Nevertheless, I’m guessing these daffies are still nodding (happily?) in the dark and cold.

Posted at 8:36 PM | Comments Off on Strange day

This is definitely the story of the day. I heard sandhills above, and I looked and there they were! Last week, I heard, but never spotted them. It was a bit of a let-down to not see them. Today was much better.

Also, here’re some earthbound beauties.

Posted at 7:00 PM | 1 Comment »

Sometimes light is pure magic…I’m especially loving the detail of the shadows of the anthers.

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On this day in 2018, we landed in Paris in the early morning and boarded the fast train down to Marseille for a daylight run across central France. We got settled in our apartment, then headed out for a stroll, and caught the sunset near the docks for the ferries that go to Africa and other distant ports.

Hey, it was either this photo of another one of those modern Ferris wheels, or a window display of lovely “meringe” desserts, only €39.50. Thought I wouldn’t tempt you….

Posted at 7:54 PM | Comments Off on Marseille memories

Cherry blossom cloud…with too much sky-brilliance….

Posted at 9:50 PM | Comments Off on Exposure control…where?

I spotted this squirrel when he/she was in a much better pose, but by the time I got in photographer mode, this was the offering. You can tell it’s a squirrel, not much more.

No story here.

Instead, I’m offering a deciduous magnolia bloom. A version of the usual…. No story here, either.

Posted at 8:52 PM | Comments Off on I’m story-less

Man in tree! Man in tree!

This is the huge oak in the neighbors’ yard that looms over a half-dozen houses, including ours. A small crew took down a few scraggly limbs, chipped them (brrrrrrrBRRRRRR), cleaned up, and took off.

The oak still looms, and I will still fuss when it’s windy.

Posted at 9:49 PM | Comments Off on Oak above

Frost can be so pretty, if you’re warm and the sun is out. If if if.

Posted at 9:23 PM | Comments Off on Conditional winter