I planted broccoli a few months ago. The plants have grown to about 2 feet high, and now the floret heads are getting big. I can’t wait for the harvest!
Baby broccoli!
Category: Nature
Orange you glad to see another zinnie pic?
The rains have been sucked up by very thirsty trees, flowers and lawn. This is a shot of one of the zinnias in the garden — a pretty fiery orange one.
Conjunction, junction, what’s your function?
I awoke this morning to the sound of Monte getting up and going outside. He had been planning on watching this morning’s quadruple conjunction of the crescent Moon, Jupiter, Venus and Aldebaran. So, I hopped out of bed too. I grabbed my camera and he dug out the tripod.
It was 6 AM and the sun was already starting to come up. An hour earlier would have been better, light-wise, but the event was clearly visible from our front yard.
In the shot above, Jupiter is on the top. Venus is below, it is at its brightest this month. If you look closely, you can see the star Aldebaran on the right side of the frame (vertically about halfway between the Moon and Venus). There is another faint star to the bottom left of Jupiter, but I don’t know what that one is called.
It was a pretty sight. It is always thrilling to see the dance of the moon, planets and stars. This morning the clouds lifted and we were treated to a great view.
Come (rain) dance with me!
It rained again tonight. We got a good dousing this time. I would like more though, so please do a rain dance for Central Texas and the rest of the country that is in dire need of it.
If you don’t have a rain dance of your own, then just dance with Matt. It’s been 4 years since the last one, but he’s just released his latest Dancing video. Check it out on youtube here. I dare you not to smile. 🙂
Anticipation.
A chance of rain has been in the forecast for the last day or two. At about 4pm the clouds start to build and red blobs pop up on the weather radar. Unfortunately the rain clouds fizzle out before they get to us.
I hope it’s raining somewhere.
Zinnies and zinnies and zinnies, oh my!
More zinnias from the garden.
Happy July 4th!
Wow, that was a fun raftup! We got to the cove at about 5pm. Rory & Greg arrived first on Sapphire. Monte hooked them up with a stern anchor and a bow line to shore. Then Lori & Dave arrived on Camelot. Then Marty & Sue on Caribbean Hug. Then Wally & Robert on Voodoo.
We cooked up some beef fajitas right before the sun set — it was so easy, using the pre-seasoned skirt steak from HEB, and the cast iron skillet was as good as a grill. We’ll definitely have to bring those again.
There was a beautiful full moon – the Buck Moon. I have not mastered the art of photographing a full moon on a non-stationary boat yet, so no good pic to post.
iPod wars raged into the wee hours. I threw in the towel around 2AM. This morning I woke up to the sound of Voodoo dropping off Rory & Greg. They were just returning from a moonlight sail. They apparently left at about 3:30 AM, headed for the dam. They turned around at Sometimes Islands at about 6:30 and made it back to the raft-up by about 8:30. Those guys stayed up all night long. Crazy sailors!
We had a great day. But we are pretty tired from all the fun and schlepping.
This is a shot of a dragonfly that was darting around behind Cupholder this morning. I’m not sure why he hung around, but he stayed for an hour or two.
July 4th’s Eve raftup.
I’m off of work for the rest of the week (YAY!). We headed to the lake today for a raftup with friends in Arky south. We’ve got the coolers packed, and the kayak on the trailer, and we’re off!
This is a shot of one of the zinnias out back. They’re so pretty!
The blogosphere @ 35,000′.
I’m on my way back home. Typical commute. Flight delays, short connection, scrambling for carry-on baggage space, hoping for an upgrade to that last seat in 1st class. Bleh. Thank goodness for the Admiral’s club. 🙂
I’ve been using the in-flight wireless on most of my business travel legs. It helps me keep from getting behind on email and todos.
On this flight, I decided to knock off early. Well, i *is* 6PM on a friday night!
I was taking photos out the window after we had leveled off at 35 thousand feet. I had a nice view of the moon above the clouds, and some pretty blue sky, and then I had the brainchild … hey, i should just post it now while I’m online. 🙂
So here goes.
Have a great weekend!
Life in the woods.
As I was driving past Concord on the way to my hotel on Tuesday night, I saw signs for Walden Pond. THE Walden Pond. You know, Henry David Thoreau’s Walden Pond, from his 1854 book Walden. I remember reading that book back in high school, over 30 years ago. It made a deep impression upon me at the time, but I haven’t thought about it again since then. Thoreau decided to live in the woods and did so for over 2 years, from 1845-1847. He later wrote the book from his notes and observations from the time he lived simply amongst nature.
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived” – Henry David Thoreau
I really wanted to see Walden Pond for myself. So, after my last meeting today, I drove there before closing time and took a walk. It was interesting to see how close the pond is to town, and actually in his book he says that even back in the 1840’s the lot where he built his 1 room cabin was only about 1 mile away from neighboring farms.
There’s a walking trail around the lake, about a 1 3/4 mile loop. The pond is now a state park and when I arrived it was packed with people sunning on the banks and swimming in the lake. A little bit more bustling than when Thoreau lived here.
I walked to the site of his cabin. It’s not there anymore, but the foundation is marked, and there is a huge pile of rocks next to where it stood. A pile that visitors have been adding to over the years – one rock at a time. I placed my rock atop the pile before I left.
The picture above is a view from the edge of the pond closest to where his cabin stood – about 100 feet behind me. I like that I accidentally captured the gibbous moon in the top left corner.
The picture below is one that I took looking up as I was standing in the spot that would have been right outside the front door of his cabin.
Very beautiful.
This is a quote from the park brochure:
“…my friends ask what I will do when I get there. Will it not be employment enough to watch the progress of the seasons?” – Henry David Thoreau
You got that right, Henry.
I’ll have to dig up a copy of Walden to re-read, for old time’s sake.
Happy Summer!
Here’s another gratuitous bird pic. Well, same window. Different bird.
I didn’t have a good shot of this guy. For some reason, even though there are four feeding stations on this feeder, they always go to the one that is blocked when viewed through the window. He did take a moment to peer around the side at me. So, that ‘s as good a shot as I got this time around.
Today is the first day of summer 2012. The solstice was about 10 minutes ago, actually. So how’s that for getting in early? 🙂
I’m hoping that this summer brings lots of good times, there’s sure to be more lake fun. And who knows what else.
I wish you a happy summer, too!
Mamma Dove.
This afternoon, before I heard or saw any signs of it outside, I noticed a red blob on the weather radar that I usually have running in the browser in the background. We were due for a very brief blow of rain and wind any minute.
So I took a break and walked into the kitchen to look out the window. Sure enough the wind was gusting and the sky was grey. As I was looking out, I noticed this mourning dove sitting in the crook of a tree branch. I realized it was a nest, and that was the mom (or dad?) sitting on a couple of babies, probably to keep them from falling out of the nest as the the branch bobbed in the wind.
The nest was pretty far away, and I had to use digital zoom — so, the the quality of this shot isn’t too good. I wasn’t able to get a good shot of the babies, but in this one, you can make out the mom — looking right at me. 🙂
Robert Plant, age 25.
August 1987. I had just flown across the country to attend graduate school, and moved into a small 1 bedroom apartment. I bought myself a small 3″ potted plant – a dracaena. I thought it would brighten up the place. It didn’t even reach to the bottom of the power outlet when it was sitting on the floor. I christened him Robert Plant.
As I moved from place to place, i dragged Robert along with me – 25 years, 6 moves, 3 states.
In the past few years Robert grew to tower 11 or 12 feet high, with three or four trunks. But, this last winter, I left Robert out one night too many – and he experienced a hard freeze. I thought it was the end for my green friend. He sat in the garage untended all winter and most of the spring with brown leaves, showing no signs of life.
A couple of months ago, we hauled a dead Robert out into the backyard and cut off all his stalks. Monte was thinking about reusing the pot. But we didn’t dump out the pot; left it there for a while, and it was watered along with all the other plants nearby.
And, just a few weeks back, what to my wondering eyes did appear? But a tiny green tuft of leaves growing bigger every day. Robert lives! Welcome back, buddy!
18 carrot gold.
When I planted the carrot seeds, I put them way too close together. They really need to be thinned out. This is the first batch of carrots from the garden. They are small, but this will hopefully help thin out the bed, allowing the others to grow bigger.
They’re small, but they’re tasty!
Sheila365 