Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

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
09
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.

photo / Tuesday — Comments Off
08
Apr 25

Spring showed up

Over the last week or so spring has sprung here, where the heavy land and the green sands meet. It takes too long to arrive, spring, but it does linger a nice long while. And it positively shows off when it wants to.

It’s an interesting idea, seasons having moods. Nature has her charms and her fury, why couldn’t there also be moods? And why can’t they all be as harmonious as this?

Of course, there is one category of drawbacks involved with spring and summer.

In an attempt to keep my knees liking me, and my enthusiasm for pulling these weeds higher than the weeds themselves, this year I am purchasing a rolling stool. Sit and scoot and don’t bend over. We’ll give that a try. Even if it only works on the driveway and not the stones out back, it’ll be worth it, because I’m sure I’ll find other uses for it.

You can have too many weeds, but you can never have too many flowers, or too many seats that roll.

Anyway, it might be light around here for the next few days or more. Playing catch-up and get-ahead simultaneously is time consuming.