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Here and There…Now and Then |
Fall Color, Outside My Window
My office isn’t much to speak of. It isn’t terribly large and it certainly isn’t fancy. The furniture is simple, utilitarian, and almost industrial. I don’t have more than a desk and chair, a bookcase, and a file cabinet. Well, I do have some plants and pictures on the wall, so it’s a bit more than a monastic cell.
Also, and this is significant, this is the view out my window. I could do a lot worse, especially this time of year.
Foggy Evening
It was a foggy evening as I drove home from work today. Fog is a funny thing, when it comes to taking pictures. It rarely looks the same in the picture as it did when you took it. Also, the temptation is to increase the contrast, which ruins the effect. In this case, this is about what it looked like on the way home, taken with my do-it-yourself (or did-it-myself) dash-cam. I do like a soft, foggy evening (or morning, or night), actually.
Mushroom
A mushroom person would probably be able to take one look at this and tell us what it is (please speak up, if you can), but I have no real idea. I mean, I know it’s a mushroom but I won’t even hazard a guess at to which type. It’s pretty, though, and was growing under a pine tree in our church yard. Hopefully I didn’t attract too much attention lying on the ground after church. It’s what I do.
Raindrops On Morning Glory
We have a reasonably small purple morning glory (Ipomoea purpurea) growing outside our front door. Many mornings we are greeted by a few new flowers which, by the evening have closed up for the day. If I want a picture, that usually means I need to stop and take it as I’m on the way out the door, which isn’t generally the best time. Today, the fact that the flowers were partially closed and downward facing wasn’t a real problem. The rain we had was covering the outside of the flowers and they were quite beautiful.
Silver Diner
We went down into Bethesda this evening. I really needed to buy a pair of dress shoes. My current pair were literally falling apart and it was to the point where even I couldn’t stand it any more (which takes some doing). So, we went to DSW and I found a nice pair for a reasonable price and we were done. I actually took a few pictures of shoes, but, fortunately for you, I’m not posting any of them. They are pretty poor pictures (without any soul, if you’ll pardon the pun).
After that we went to dinner at the Silver Diner. I haven’t been there since they moved, so I know it’s been a little while. Even with a line out to the door, we were seated in pretty short order. The food was good and we had a nice night out. It isn’t the best meal in town, but it’s reasonably priced, a friendly atmosphere, decent service, and the food was certainly good enough. I’d go back again.
Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’
It was a beautiful day today and although Cathy and I didn’t have a chance to get out of our offices during the day, we did take a short walk in the evening. As usual, I carried my camera with me and took a (very) few pictures while we walked. This sedum is growing next to a mailbox down the street from our house and was particularly pretty in the fading evening light. For us, it tends to flop. This wasn’t tied up or staked in any way, so I’m not sure what the secret is, but it looked good.
Pond Reflections
Cathy and I walked around my building a few times today at lunch time. It was a pretty day and we enjoyed looking at berries on various plants along the woods around the parking lot. We also walked down to the pond between our buildings and I took some pictures of the reflections and of the things floating in the water. Color and texture. That seems to be what autumn is about, in terms of photographs. Beyond the camera, though, there is the feel of chill in the air, sometimes a whiff of wood fire smoke (mostly in our neighborhood, not near our office), and often really beautiful light.
American Persimmon
Cathy brought this home today to confirm what she thought it was. It’s an American persimmon (Diospyros virginiana), and is a member of the family Ebenaceae, the ebony family. The heartwood of the persimmon is a wonderful, dark, ebony, although trees have to be quite old before they produce enough heartwood to be commercially productive. The fruit is terrific, as long as you wait long enough to eat it. Before it is fully ripe, it will turn your mouth inside out with its astringency. Usually, at least around here, waiting for the first frost is a good idea.
Dentistry Paraphernalia
I had a dentist appointment this morning, to replace a filling that was going on 40 years old but which was starting to hurt a bit. X-rays taken last month didn’t show any significant problems under the filling, so it was just a matter of taking out the old and replacing it. When I got to the office, I have a couple minutes to spare before Dr. T was ready to see me, so I took a couple pictures, including this one of some of his things.
Milkweed Seed
Today, I took a bunch of pictures of milkweed seed. specifically, this is Asclepias tuberosa, butterfly weed). I enjoyed lying on the ground watching the spider-web-thin filaments shimmer in the afternoon sun, trembling in even the slightest breeze. I’m not as happy with the pictures as I might be, but this one is pretty good.
Fall is in full swing here now and most of the flowers have been replaced with seeds, and of course, soon the predominant color in the back yard will be brown.
Drying Leaf
There were some mushrooms in the yard this evening and I got some pictures of one of them, but they aren’t as interesting as the mushroom was in person (or in fungus, I guess). I also took some pictures of leaves that have fallen from the maple tree in the center of the yard. They are mostly read and orange but I found this one to be the most interesting. The picture doesn’t really do it justice but I love the deep, earthy tones of this drying leaf.
Monarch on Buddleia
This monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus, female) was flitting around our buddleia for a while this afternoon and I was able to get close enough for a few good pictures before she left. This late in the summer any butterflies we see are often a bit battered but this one is in remarkably good condition, with no bare patches on her wings.
I’m still a bit behind in posting photographs here, but I have just taken 10 days worth off the camera and will continue adding them as I can. Thanks for sticking around.
Butterfly Weed Seeds
Autumn is upon us. The black-eyed Susan flowers have all dropped their petals and trees are starting to get a bit of color in their leaves (color other than green, that is). Many plants that have given us brightly colored flowers all summer are now giving us more subtle things to look at. The Asclepias tuberosa (butterfly weed), with its bright orange or yellow flowers has been transformed through a greed pot stage to this, where the pods are breaking open and the seeds are beginning to emerge. The seeds of the milkweeds have these filaments (called pappus, from the ancient Greek word pappos and Latin pappus, meaning “old man”) which enable them to be carried by the wind and spread far and wide.
Purple Coneflower
All the black-eye Susan flowers have been reduced to little black balls of seeds. Most of the coneflowers have, as well. This is the last coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) with a bloom still on it. The purple is faded and the petals are splotched and weathered. This, too, shall soon fall, in keeping with our common name for the season. But I don’t mind. Some people love the summer and want it to go on forever. Not me. I love the autumn best of all. Welcome.
Sunset
I was on my way to church this evening and there was a beautiful sunset. Unfortunately, my drive to church has very few good places to stop and see the western horizon. Because traffic on our normal route is heavy and slow this time of the evening, I went the back way, which does go over the top of a hill and give one or two quick glimpses to the west. I stopped the car briefly to take a very few pictures and this one turned out to be pretty good, I think. There is actually the top board of a fence running across the bottom but because all the ground has gone to black, it doesn’t hurt the picture.
Grass
I met Maureen and Sokho for lunch today over at Fallsgrove and when I came back to the car I noticed this grass growing in the area between two rows of cars. Rather than use all underground drainage in parking lots, the current style seems to be to leave spaces every few rows and turn them into drainage ditches but with ornamental plants that can take a certain amount of flooding. I think this is a nice trend and some of the plants used are quite nice. This grass, for example, it nice. This photo has the feel of the country, not the middle of a busy parking lot.
Cracked, Hard Boiled Egg
I boiled a bunch of eggs today and two of them cracked while the water was coming to a boil. I didn’t watch this one cook, but clearly it cracked and the albumen started seeping out before the water was hot enough to solidify it completely but after it was hot enough to keep it from forming threads through the water.
The other cracked egg was much less interesting, just showing a small crack without the bulging innards spewing out.
This one is a little creepy looking, so that’s why I took a picture of it. It’s perfectly edible, of course.
Egg salad, anyone?
Sesame Seeds
I like plants and gardening and I know a little about both. I try to know a something about the plants from which most of our vegetable foods come. Sesame seeds have been a bit of an exception. I knew that they come from an herbaceous (non-woody) plant that grows in tropical regions, but beyond that didn’t know much about them. Four countries, Burma, India, China, and Sudan account for more than half the world sesame seed production (about 56% of 4.76 million metric tons). The sesame plant, Sesamum indicum, is an annual, growing to about three feet in height, bearing (usually) yellow flowers, and producing the seeds in small capsules.
Crab-Apple Stump
For yesterday’s photo I posted a picture of a man cutting a fairly tall but completely dead tree in our next door neighbor’s yard. Today I cut down a much smaller but equally dead crab-apple in my Brady and Albert’s front yard. While a chain saw makes a big difference when doing something like this, unless you have a well tuned saw and unless you know how to deal with a few problems, it can be as much a frustration as anything. My saw runs fast. Until recently it ran so fast that when I squeezed the throttle it would stall. I managed to adjust it a bit and now it runs well when cutting. I need to slow the idle speed a little.
The real problem I’m having now is that my shoulder gives out before the work is done. So, I cut a little while, then rest (and rest the saw). Then, back to work. I managed to get the tree down this far before my arm refused to do any more work for the day. Sorry, guys, but I’ll be back to cut the rest of it when I get the chance. Thanks for the firewood.
Tree Cutting
We had two big trees cut down in our back yard last year. There are still some largish trees in our neighbor’s yard but for a little while now, this one has been dead. Before it fell and did any damage, out neighbor had it cut down (today, obviously).
I’m always impressed with tree cutters. Oh, I know it isn’t rocket science or brain surgery but it takes a fair amount of both strength and agility. Watching this guy get up into the tree with such ease was impressive. Then, he got himself set. A rope was thrown over a higher branch and tied to the branch he was going to cut. The most remarkable thing is how easily he started his saw. I’ve struggled with mine. Even when it does start, it doesn’t happen on the first or second pull. Of course, his is well tuned and well broken in, while mine is not. For the tree work he was using a relatively small saw, and he is a good bit younger than I am, but my arms would be all in after a day of what he’s doing.
Anyway, the tree came down and there is a neat pile of firewood in its place.
Watery Web
All right, no spider today, but still somewhat spider related. There are a bunch of little spider webs in our yard and garden and today they were all holding large drops of water. They’re kind of cool, because you can barely see the web filaments so the water droplets seem to be floating a few inches above the grass or pachysandra. This picture isn’t all that great and I really needed to get a tripod out and use it, but that didn’t happen, so this is what you’re left with.