Category: Sky

Happy July 4th!

Not a bird. Not a plane.

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.

The blogosphere @ 35,000′.

Moon & troposphere viewed from seat 20A.

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.

Thoreau’s view — 165 years later.

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.

One more time.

My palette.

Tonight was my third foray into painting at Painting with a Twist, this time with Jen.  The shot above is the palette we used.

And…. VOILA!!  I give you…. Wildflowers at the Park:

The “after” photo.

Please hold your applause.

The one the teacher guided us through didn’t have any bluebonnets (!).   Well, i simply couldn’t paint a hill country scene without bluebonnets, so we improvised.

I’m just realizing that the clouds look a bit like hats.  Oh well.   I’m sure Picasso had to work at it a bit before he got the hang of it, too.  🙂

The last transit of Venus of the 21st century.

While it was possible for us to see the transit by looking through our welder’s glass.  It really wasn’t useful for taking a picture – it was too small.  Monte mounted a pair of binoculars on a tripod and used that to focus an image of the sun and the transit of venus on a piece of paper.  That’s what these are images of.

The transit started right on time.  If you look just to the right of the top of this image, you can see Venus just starting to show up.  You can also see 4 or 5 sunspots in each image.

It begins.

A little while later, Venus is clearly visible on the face of the sun.

A little while later.

This was one of the last images, taken shortly before sunset.

Right before sunset.

Partial lunar eclipse.

June 4, 2012 partial lunar eclipse, through a hazy sky.

The moon is full today – the Strawberry Full Moon.  This morning there was also a partial lunar eclipse.  The sky was covered with clouds, so I didn’t think I would be able to see it.   But when I walked out a little after 5 AM I was pleased to see that there were several brief breaks in the clouds through which I could get a glimpse.  This is one of the few shots I was able to take.  Not great, but you can see the little bite taken out of the moon.

In honor of the occasion, I’ll leave you with Grover Washington, Jr’s Strawberry Moon.

A day to remember.

Old glory

On this Memorial Day, we spent several hours with friends at the marina.  We are actually just starting to look at boats for sale.  We looked at 2 sloops on E-dock today.  Time will tell how long it will take us to find a successor to our beloved Cupholder 🙂

Speaking of Cupholder, we sailed the slip with Marty, Sue, Joe and Wally, and then headed home.

Rigging at rest.

We had just enough energy left in us to buzz downtown for dinner at Taverna, and stopped by to see Willie along the way.

Hangin’ with Willie.

Scenes from a raft-up.

Rock flower.

We headed to the lake today to raft-up with Marty & Sue on Caribbean Hug, Lori, Dave & Jake on Camelot, and Mike and Kathy on Soul Healer.  Julie joined us for the night, and Laura dropped by for a couple hours, too.

I paddled the kayak to shore to tie a stern line and saw these pretty little weeds growing in the rocks on the shore.

One view of Arky @ night

Mike had a pair of military grade night vision goggles, which everyone passed around for a while.  This is a shot I took through the goggles. Just thought it looked cool.

And, finally, this is a shot off the stern, of the last moments of dusk.

..and another shot of Arky at night.

A good time was had by all.

Sunset eclipse.

Part of a sunset.

Today a solar eclipse occurred right as the sun was setting.  Farther west in the US, the entire eclipse would be visible.  But, in Austin it started about 45 minutes before sunset, and by the time the sun was to set, it would only be about 50% eclipsed.

A few weeks ago, monte ordered #14 welder’s glass so that we could view it safely.  We scoped out a high enough perch that would allow us to see the sun for the longest time before it slipped below the horizon.

We decided on the Iguana Grill above Lake Travis.  The view was pretty great.  A bunch of friends joined us to watch it occur.  This is a shot right before the it slipped away.

Weekend raft-up.

Calling all riff-raff.

We headed to the lake yesterday to raft-up overnight in Arkansas Bend cove with Marty & Sue, and Joe.  It was really pleasant out.  Overcast yesterday, but nice breezes.  This is a shot from yesterday of the windsocks on Joe’s backstay on Prelude.  It got into the 60’s last night.  Refreshingly chilly.  It will be hot again soon enough.

We made quite the fleet.  2 sloops, 1 catboat, 2 kayaks, a rubber dinghy and a stand-up paddle board.

Today, we kayaked and sup-ed around the cove, and then headed back early in the afternoon to prepare for Monday.  Today was much sunnier, blue skies with big clouds, and a nice breeze for the sail home.

I ♥ my kayak.

The view from 14A.

Enroute from HPN to ORD.

I made it home tonight by about 11:30.   Yay for no delays or major travel issues.

I am an aisle seat person.   If you want to ask me to swap my aisle seat with your non-aisle seat on a flight so that you can sit next to your honey or your friend, you’d better be a little old lady, or a newlywed.  Ok.   Well.   If it was a window seat, I’d probably swap with you, but *that’s* what I’d be thinking.   You’ll have to bribe me (alot) to swap for the dreaded middle seat.

That being said, I do love looking out the window.   I suspect I look a lot one of those people that you’d think was on their first plane ride.  Oh, and I take pictures out the window, too.   Sometimes even when my electronic devices are supposed to be turned to the off position and stowed.

The plane I flew from White Plains to Chicago today had single seats on the port side of the plane, so my window seat was also an aisle seat.  About as good as it gets on a little regional jet.

Here’s your meaningless factoid of the day…  did you know that American Airlines saves lots of $ a year in lower fuel costs (plane weighs less) because they don’t paint their planes?   Now ya know.

…Out like a lamb.

Mopac sunset.

Wow, the last day of the month already!  March is a beautiful month, here in Austin.  Everything pops to life.  I’m always sad to see it go.

We had a very busy day today, on monte’s first day of retirement 🙂

We hit the backyard early…mowing and raking and de-thatching and weeding.   Tomorrow we will hopefully get fertilizer down to help nurse the lawn along.

At the end of the day, we headed to a friend’s house for dinner.  As we were driving down Mopac, a huge, shiny sunset was teasing me with glimpses of it between buildings as we passed.   I took about 10 shots, and finally got a good one!  Or, at least one without any buildings or cars in it.   Not bad for going 65 miles an hour, through the car window.

Good-bye March!  See you next year.

Bienvenido a la primavera!

A spring vignette - black & white.

First day of spring!   It rained buckets overnight.  The front passed through here about 1:30AM this morning.  It dumped a ton of rain in the Hill Country, so the lakes are on the rise!  As of right now, Lake Travis has risen 4′ since this time yesterday (@ 636.7′), and is expected to rise another couple of feet, as they have the flood gates open on Lake LBJ and Lake Marble Falls, to let their overflow pass through.

After work tonight I took a walk out back to see what I could see.  One of the birdbaths caught my eye.  The water was so calm, like glass.   There were leaves in the bottom of it, but I didn’t want to disturb the surface of the water, so I just took it as is.  I like how the cedar elm tree above it is reflected in the surface.

The shot above is after I changed it to black & white.  The original is below.   I like the B&W better.   It seems to show much more detail of the reflection.   How about you?

A spring vignette - original.

Good morning.

Rise and shine.

I have been coming to Raleigh on business for many years.  I’m staying in the same hotel that I usually do, right around the corner from the office.  In all that time this hotel property has changed ownership at least 3 times.   This time it’s a newly refurbished Hilton Garden Inn.   It has that “new hotel” smell, even though it’s the same old building.  They are doing their best to offer perks to make the stay more pleasant… a brand new hairdryer to replace the one that died on me yesterday…warm cookies in the lobby…a little store downstairs where you can buy drinks and snacks… a lovely breakfast buffet….and a great view of this morning’s sunrise from my room.  🙂