photo « Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

photo

cycling / photo / Tuesday — Comments Off
22
Apr 25

I guess distances accurately

The cats have gracefully argued that they haven’t graced the page in almost two weeks. They remind me that they’re almost the sole cause of site traffic around here. I don’t know if they’re right about that, but they are the most popular feature here. Sometimes, they’re the only feature here. So, we should show them off.

I tried to get them to type this up, but they’re a little heavy on the keys. They also don’t have a firm grasp of punctuation, or what the space bar does.

What they lack in keyboard etiquette they make up for in patiently posing.

Phoebe was enjoying a little sunny afternoon time in the dining room.

Poseidon has his choice of boxes on which to sit.

The kitties are doing great, in other words. They are miffed about not landing on the site on Monday, though. And they’ve been letting me hear about it all day.

I had a nice 30 mile-bike ride today, over mostly the usual roads. Out to the river and back from the river and over to town, riding right across on Main Street, and then out past the edge of town. I was on a quiet two-lane road when I saw a woman walking from the other direction. Long pants. Hoodie. It was a warm spring evening. She raised her voice as I went by, asking if this was the way to the next town. Without slowing down, because she was not in distress, I yelled back over my shoulder, “Take this left and you’ll go left again, but it’s 15 miles from here.” It was almost 7 p.m. by then. I looked on a map later, and she was exactly 15 miles away on foot. I hope she made it to an Uber.

I crossed over Yorketown to Pierson, and then crossed Yorktown (there is a place where Yorketown and Yorktown intersect, and I wonder how many people have noticed that outside of this little town). I skirted the west side of the town limits, and then rode through the pastureland to get back home. If it sounds romantic, you don’t know the half of it.

This, though, was only my fifth ride of the month. I waited for forever for new tires to arrive. We traveled. There was work. This is all getting in the way of my accumulation of miles and shouting out directions to random passersby. Like I know where I’m going.

adventures / art / cycling / Monday / photo — Comments Off
21
Apr 25

Scenes since we last talked

Just a few shots that I captured over the last week, in the moments between doing the work that helps keep the lights on.

Walking the grounds, I enjoyed discovering the blooms on this little guy. But the tree refuses to stay in focus. But I almost got close once.

I wonder what this farmer is spreading here. Surely not nitrogen, that field is green a-plenty.

This will be a field full of delicious … something … let’s say strawberries … eventually. I’ll go back by there when the covers are off and try to figure out what they’ve planted.

I bet you never wondered if grazing cattle eat with any more urgency when they notice the sun is going down. I bet you’ll wonder about that now.

I recently got a new helmet. (I was due a new helmet!) And so my mother offered to get one for my birthday. (Wasn’t that nice of her?) This is one of the higher rated models according to the famous Virginia Tech lab that does these things, and, it’s a handsome looking piece of head wear.

It goes with just about anything, and let’s be honest, style matters as much as aerodynamic properties, and at least as much as “safety.”

Here’s the right side view.

And here’s the left side view.

Aero though it may be, it still doesn’t make me faster than my lovely bride. At least it didn’t on this ride. Have you ever been well and truly dropped right after taking a photograph. I have. (Again.)

(Notice her helmet has the name on it. Wear your helmets, kids, no matter if they are fashionable or branded.)

Maybe I’ll be faster on our next ride together.

Speaking of fashion, my Easter look.

Friday / photo / site — Comments Off
11
Apr 25

The problems of spring

This is a glorious time of year. The changing of seasons, the warmening of the soil, the bluening of the sky, the wettening of everything, these are lovely things, full of the promise of the future. The promisening of the future, if you will.

But there are things to complain about. There’s the pollen. And there is the impermanence of the weather. Granted, this one differs based on where you are. Some places spring just two or three days before you’re slouching your way into a bone-melting summer. Some places spring comes non-too-soon. Perhaps it just feels like a flirtation of spring. There’s the inconsistency, for a time, of the greenening of things. And there’s all of that winter and fall to deal with. Where do all those extra leaves come from?

Then there are the flowering buds.

Here’s what I’m urging the horticulturists and the botanists, the agronomists, the biologists, the bio-technologists and the plant breedologists to do: develop an attractive shrub, or dwarf tree, that blooms throughout the growing season.

Sure, this will take a little more energy, blooms are consumers, but think of the propagation possibilities of a plant that can offer bugs and bees pollen for months on end —

I now see the problem with this plan.

But maybe it’d be worth it. Isn’t everything so beautiful in the spring?

We’re going to have a brief hiatus on the blog. I’ve spent this week catching up, just in time for the end-of-semester pace to kick in. I’m hoping that, next week, I can get ahead of things for a change. Which will be great, because it will allow me time to get behind again in the weeks that follow. That’s the run to mid-May, just trying to stay in touch with the schedule and its demands.

But I’ll be writing here again on April 21st.

Maybe someone will figure out the ever bloomening tree by then.

photo / Thursday — Comments Off
10
Apr 25

Our backyard is becoming a colorful place

It seems I am forever grading things. Or in a meeting or performing the email ritual. Maybe those are the places this week is going. Who knows?

No, really. Who knows? I have no idea.

Anyway, things are shaping up nicely in the backyard. These were all photos from earlier this week.

Yes, it takes the first full week of April for things to turn neon green around here. It’s lovely, but much delayed.

I think this tree should flower all summer long. That’d be a delightful thing to see.

The camellias will. These guys are pretty amazing. They just sit alongside the house and do their thing. Asking for nothing, other than your attention.

And that bush deserves it. Maybe I’ll replace the email ritual with a shrubbery habit.

photo / Wednesday — Comments Off
9
Apr 25

Catvertising

I’ve been derelict in my cat sharing duties, and they let me know it. So let’s jump in here. We have a chalkboard wall in the kitchen, and I thought I’d use it for a little advertising. I am an excellent copywriter, and have the journalistic and academic accolades to prove it. Apparently, I can write good ad copy, as well. Poseidon was susceptible to my powers of suggestion.

Phoebe was unimpressed. She’s not falling for that sort of messaging. I think, in fact, she might be a little embarrassed by him.

Class today was group presentation day. I’d paired off the students and they each picked a country and had to research and tell us about the media there. I’d naively thought we’d get through 10 groups today. We did five.

But we learned interesting things about South Korea — they have more video gaming centers there than we have McDonald’s, apparently. We also had a presentation about Spain, where we learned about how the mass media has behaved during government transitions. A group told us about the cultural influences on the media in Brazil. Two others told us about France. One of them tried very hard to pronounce French names, but struggled throughout. The other speaks French, and it showed. And we also learned about the media in Switzerland, which has a strong public media (most of Europe does) and is otherwise heavily influenced by their surrounding nations and cultures. But their flag is a big plus!

Five more countries to go next Monday, when we’ll learn more about Italy, Germany, Mexico, Ecuador and Cameroon.