Monday

cycling / Monday / photo — Comments Off on Getting outside for the textures of the evening
27
Sep 21

Getting outside for the textures of the evening

Happy Monday. Beautiful fall weather all day, or so I heard. I spent it ‘neath the fluorescent lights.

Fall has a weird transcendent quality to it. I should get out there and enjoy this. Because winter is coming and you know what that’s like. But I have things I need to do inside. So I’ll get to it tomorrow. Yeah, tomorrow! Good idea! Tomorrow! It’ll be beautiful out there, then, too. But it’s never long enough.

Because winter is always looming just out there, somewhere. Waiting to arrive, unwelcome, a few days too early and determined to leave much too late.

The signals aren’t much help, either. There’s a saying about corn, knee high by July. But there’s not a saying that says “How in the world did that happen? It’s just the first of September?”

And sure, it signals fall, but that just foreshadows winter. It’s impossible to shake.

Anyway, saw that corn field on my Saturday bike ride, near the end, after I’d given up. At least my shadow had a good ride.

And he should! He never does any of the work on the bike. He just lets me pull him along, shadowy wheelsucker that he is.

When I got in for the evening I took a walk in the woods. Something about having to spell the word fluorescent seemed to require it. Let’s take a look at a bit of nature.

This is just down stream from where I found that leaf.

And if you were standing roughly there and wisely looked in all directions, you would eventually find yourself looking up. And you would be justly rewarded.

But when you turned back around and saw the light cast by the sun skating away, you’d get another beautiful glimpse that made wading through the underbrush worthwhile.

I am not a botanist, which is a statement that should be plain and obvious every time I put a picture of a plant here. And because of this, each time I see this plant, I want to say it is something else. This week we’re calling it milkweed.

Look at the bark on this tree. How beautiful is this?

Same tree, just below eye level.

And just below that, and slightly around to the side, there’s this sign of a limb removal.

It’s pretty low on the tree, and that looks as if it was a big branch. Maybe kids climbed on it. Maybe it just got in the way.

And since it’s a beautiful autumn Monday, it is time to check in with the kitties.

Phoebe is happy with the changing weather. She’s lately getting more snuggly and it has not escaped her attention that blanket season is upon us once more.

She likes blanket season.

Poseidon is a cat for all seasons. I believe he was upstairs soaking up some window sunshine before I interrupted him here.

He would like you to know you interrupted him. And he wants to know why. It’s a fair question.

Monday / photo — Comments Off on Catching up
20
Sep 21

Catching up

Here are just a few photos to get us started on the week. May yours be productive, but not overly busy!

We had a nice long walk this weekend. Here we are walking on the path to be paved later.

There’s a nice wide asphalt pedestrian/cycling path on either side of that section, and the connection would be logical, if not inevitable. The paths are one of the more attractive local features, but, sometimes, when we’re on this section, I wonder if maybe we’d all prefer to leave the occasional stretch in this well-maintained condition.

Some of the hardwoods are getting ready to go.

It’s both beautiful and distressing, really.

Equally distressing, I just noticed that we did not check in on the cats last Monday. It’s only our most important weekly feature! Shame on me.

Phoebe didn’t remind me to put up the pictures. That was the problem. She was too busy relaxing around the fireplace.

And Poseidon didn’t point out the oversight after the fact, either. He was too busy hiding out under the stove cover.

I built this when Phoebe and Poe came into the house because they are young and all over everything — Poseidon in particular. We were concerned they would walk over the stove top and singe their pads. I built it a little high, so heat could escape, but also so the top would be level with bar behind the stove. Both cats love to lay on it, which we allow. Poseidon especially loves it after a meal has been made. He enjoys the warm.

And now he’s figured out how to get under the thing.

He’s a toddler who will never grow out of it, I’m convinced.

But they’re both going to have a great week, and we all hope you do, too.

Catch ya tomorrow. Until then, did you know that Phoebe and Poe have an Instagram account? Also, don’t forget my Instagram. And keep up with me on Twitter. There are also some very interesting On Topic with IU podcasts for you, as well.

IU / Monday / photo / video — Comments Off on Weekend photos
13
Sep 21

Weekend photos

Just a few shots from weekend walks outdoors. And there’s also a video down below. But, first, the pretty things.

The sun silhouetted the trees and I further polarized the lens with a pair of cheap sunglasses.

The photos of which are never as cool, somehow, as what you’re seeing through the glasses themselves, but still fun nonetheless.

I thought this was a bit of toadflax, or hairy skullcap (that’s actually a wildflower name, yes) but now I think it could be any number of other things. I’m going with downy lobelia (Lobelia puberula).

And that is why when I did the last wildflower post I made the joke about failing hilariously at plant identification.

I’m not even going to try, here. Let’s just admire the contrasting colors.

I’m guessing this is some genus of Persicaria, or smartweed. There are 30-some species in that group. One of them has to be this color, right?

I feel comfortable with this one, it’s white snakeroot (Ageratina altissima):

I was rather surprised to find honeysuckle blooming this late in the year. I was pleased. It should bloom more. And, if not, this should be a sign of the new spring. It is almost springtime, right?

Look at this Yellow wingstem (Verbesina alternifolia), so full of life and promise:

Your standard issue bunch of goldenrod.

On our Sunday walk I heard this doe before I saw her. I don’t think that happens very often. She stood and stared for a long time, and let me get within about 15 feet before she calmly walked off.

I did not see the deer that was with her, which had stayed very still, until they both walked away.

We had a big video chat this evening with a Pulitzer Prize winner. Elizabeth Kolbert joined us via Zoom as part of the fall 2021 Themester, “Resilience.” Her Prize-winning book — The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, covers mass extinctions She has a new book, Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future, which was released a bit earlier this year.

The interview went well, after it got started. I’ve queued it to the beginning.

It’s always fun working on someone else’s projects.

Alabama / hobby / Monday / photo / video — Comments Off on Happy Labor Day
6
Sep 21

Happy Labor Day

Welcome back to you and me. Nothing happened here last week because … well … you didn’t miss much around here. It was the second week of classes, and, as ever, the first few weeks of classes are hyper-charged. If anything, the post-lockdown might make that period run even longer. Typically it’s a two week rush to find a semester’s cruising speed. Looking at the upcoming calendar, the ops tempo isn’t evening out for another week or two, though.

Meaning things might feel like they’re running at a normal speed … as we approach October.

The most fun things last week, perhaps, were an interview I conducted about two interesting new studies and some television stuff. We had a practice shoot for the sports crew and a big call out meeting Thursday night.

Late that same evening we climbed out of the car after a long drive for a weekend visit with my family.

This was our second visit since the pandemic. And just my third trip, total, since all of this began. We act conservatively and try to stay as safe as possible so we can have visits like that. It makes sense if you’re being risk adverse.

And the trip was nice. We picked up barbecue in Louisville and had a lot more great food all weekend. We sat poolside with my mom, saw my grandfather and finally won a game of dominoes from him, got to hug my uncle. And we watched the hummingbirds dance.

We came back today. If it feels like a full day’s drive that’s because it is. But work calls again tomorrow, and there are cats that need attention. And, since I didn’t give you anything last week, there are extra kitty pictures this time around.

Phoebe is (almost always) a good girl. Except for when she’s on this ledge.

It’s a weird thing, really. “You’re cute, but you’re not supposed to be there. Get down. Wait, let me take a picture first.”

She likes afternoons on the stairs, which gives her some nice indirect sunlight warmth. There’s also a change of temperature near that spot on warm days. Maybe she prefers a half-and-half temperature.

Poseidon prefers tasty snacks.

Again, “Stop buying that! But not before I take a picture!”

He managed to get one out of the box. We think he just likes the crinkly foil. Or likes dropping them on the floor, since we did that a few times.

Phoebe also likes sitting on that box. As we’ve discussed here before, we’re dealing with two cat lawyers. ‘On the box isn’t on the counter,’ is, I’m sure, what’s behind those eyes.

And, also, ‘As you can see, I’m not getting into the treats like he is.’

Poseidon is caught.

And he is notably chagrined.

Covid-19 / history / memories / Monday / photo / Twitter — Comments Off on A day of hope
23
Aug 21

A day of hope

I, like billions of other people, don’t use Facebook that much anymore. It’s too crowded. And there’s only so much time in the day for noise, anyway.

But this year I have been trying to go every day and peruse the memories. It’s worth it to clean those up sometime. And these last few days have offered some doozies, all from just a year ago. It’s interesting to see how much has changed, and how little.

When was it, that the old life slipped away, and wise men and women worried that it was never to return again? Was it all at once or, did it come to mind gradually over that hot summer last year?

Someone instinctively felt it, but the signs were there for all of us to read. Henry White was a turn-of-the-century diplomat, and a signatory of the Treaty of Versailles. He noticed the same thing, as his biographer said, when Europe marched itself into the Great War. “He instinctively felt that his world — the world of constant travel, cosmopolitan intercourse, secure comfort and culture — would never be the same again.”

There may be great gains, yet, but when they are counted, what will we they be, and how will we measure them against what has been lost? It is at a moment like this where we search for the spirit of an era. This one having not been filled to overflowing with optimism and confidence, might cause a person to continue the search. A searching mood such as that could feel like a spark, a great light of promise by which we set the world to right, rather than being rolled under the world in the darkness.

It’s a cycle, and in our study of history we know it is anything but unique. Heroes shape the world, victims struggle through it. People have been warmed by that spark and felt that exuberance before. They will do so again. Hope never dies as long as we can move and feel. Sometimes it smolders low, at other times it will not be ignored.

We are, perhaps, at the start of such a moment. I pray that we are, and that others take up that feeling, as well. It’s too beautiful and full of possibilities to wrap it up and set it down in a box, all but forgotten for some later time.

This is a day full of hope.

And cats. It is Monday, after all. Even in the middle of a heat wave, Phoebe needs her blanket naps.

She does that all by herself. Usually Kitty Me Time means going all the way under the blankets, but maybe it was a little too warm that day for a completely immersive experience.

And I guess they’ve decided to have a cute contest this week. Look at Poseidon’s handsome face.

What’s not to love about a look like that?

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