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28
Sep 21
Puck and Oberon do not appear in this post, but other fossils do
Here are a few of the crinoids I found down on the lake shore on Friday, or, as I’ve lately come to think of it, My Struggles With White Balance.
I shot all of these on my phone, because that’s convenient, isn’t it? But, next time, a real camera. There’s just far too much variation, and at the same time, a poor representation of the fossils colors.
Here are a few small samples of the 340-million-or-so year old columnal segments which became a part of sedimentary rock.
At first I wrote that in the present tense. Like it was happening before our eyes. How many millions of years ago did all those lumps freeze up as one?
You don’t often find samples, at this site anyway, which demonstrate the animal’s branches.
And a bunch of the typically small artifacts you’ll find on a public and oft-used site.
But, hey, not everyone comes here for the fossils.
No one does.
Some of you want to see things that are living.
Or at least pretending!
So here’s a rugged bit of damage on a young tree just trying to make do in the shadows of its elders.
(It’s doing well, in fact.)
Somewhere after noticing fall, and all of its pleasures, it’s time to notice the falling away of the ubiquities of summer. It’s the moment after Lileks’ annual observation of the apogee of summer and before Camus’ proclamation of the second spring, and you can see it easiest in the flowers we still have now.
All year, these two walnuts have been together. I wonder how far apart they’ll be when they eventually fall from the branches. I’m not saying it’s Midnight Summer’s Dream in those woods, but if you think of Hermia at the end of the second act, I would understand.
And, if it’s too late in the month for a bad Shakespeare reference, here’s something more prosaic. Anna Black is doing standups for What’s Up Weekly and I somehow managed to get all the signs in one shot. And she isn’t even blinking here!
That was this evening, one of two shows the news division of IUSTV produced this evening. I’ll share them in this space when they make it online, which should be sometime tomorrow.
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.
