October 15, 2018

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If you love trees, love forests, love the outdoors, and/or love learning about cutting edge science, I think you will find The Hidden Life of Trees interesting.  So much is going on in the world that we have no idea about.............  Highly recommended.

Frost predicted, on Oct. 15, so I brought in most of the remaining tomatoes.

Running errands.  Sky from a strip mall............

Love the collage-y illustrations in this book.

I've never seen the library pushing people to vote (just vote, there are no library proposals on the ballot this time).

Good on ya, library.  Vote, Vote, VOTE, people................

Walking.  Trees starting to turn on Oct 15.

Here's that puffball we've had our eye on, with some festive companions.

Writing, writing, writing.  EVERY VOTE MATTERS.  Democrat all up and down the ballot, and YES on proposals -- all but A, on which I am conflicted.............  Bagenstos and Cavenaugh for Supreme court, and Simpson for the District Court race that is contested.

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October 13, part 3

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This is the biggest puffball I've seen in decades.  Maybe the biggest I've ever seen.  Probably about 10" in its longest dimension.

Texture.

Here it is again, with its friend.  Or relative.

Milkweed seedpods.

Purple asters, white asters, and a bit of goldenrod still gold on October 13.

I think this may be a different sort of aster.  Note that the one above doesn't have yellow centers.  Maybe it's a matter of timing, but maybe they are different kinds.

Morning glory.

This next image are the self same flowers as above.  Weird how different the color is.

Love those swirly buds, and swirly opening flowers.

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October 4, 2018

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I went downtown to have lunch with my friend from work.  This is what's left of the parking lot next to the library.  Looking east at Tower Plaza (tall apartment building) in the background.

This is on the sidewalk in the previous.  You can see the way it's skewed by the angle at which I took the pic, above.  I wanted to see if I could get it close to rectangular by messing with it in photoshop.  The result is below.

The U had an old-drug-pickup day on October 4.  After lunch, L. and I walked up to campus to drop off unwanted meds. The ones I dropped off were expired OTC meds.  It's good to have a proper place to get rid of them.  Shuddering to remember instructions from years ago to flush unwanted meds.  Right into the water, for everyone on the planet to drink..................  :-(



Looking south toward the diag and the graduate library. (Rackham directly behind me as I took this one.)

Looking west from North University.  Looking at Tower Plaza from the other direction.

Closer crop -- cloud reflections on Tower Plaza.

On Maynard, looking up at Tower Plaza.

Looking south at reflections from Tower Plaza on the apartment building across William.

Crab apples.

Teeny tiny mushrooms. 

Closer crop.  The smallest ones are about a quarter of an inch in diameter.

I picked up trash on the way home.  People suck.

Baseball playoff season. The Poohs are, of course, rooting for the Cubbies. (Their understanding of the game is marginal; we don’t think they will notice that the Cubs are not actually playing....)

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October 2, 2018

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I am happy to be part of this effort!!!  Over 300,000 postcards since Labor Day! 

This has to make a difference. 🇺🇸 ✏️✔️✏️✔️✏️✔️ ✔️🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊 🇺🇸

PostcardsToVoters.org


"I’m just saying, if you want to feel good about the future of our country, and the future of our great democracy -- go find your nearest campaign office, make some new friends, grab a phone or a clipboard, and have a conversation about the future of our country, what that future should look like, and what it could look like if we put people before special interests. It’s up to us. We are the energy that fuels this democracy; it doesn’t work without us. Our voices are powerful, but only if we raise them up." -- Tina Smith (running for the Senate in Minnesota).

Right on, Tina!!!



I get texts from AbbyTheDemocrat (a program who does the lioness's share of the work at PostcardsToVoters) when she has a new campaign for me to write for, so I hear from her often, but this is the first time I've seen her. Isn't she cute?? :-)

Pelargonium.

Bumble on the Autumn Joy.

That puffball we've been watching, looking decidedly metallic in its old age.

Maple.

Tiny little aster plant, in the grass.  This image shows the whole plant.

Closer crop of the flower on the left, above.

Mushrooms.

Closer look at the grass -- particularly the grass seed -- in the upper right of the above.

The rats have begun to congregate in front of the Rat House.

I'm pretty sure this is what they call the glitteRATi..............  :-)

Maple print on concrete, washing downhill.

Phlox.

Closer crop, near the center of the above.  That little bit sticking out in the lower right quadrant.....

We still have tomato flowers, in October.  I brought in six or eight of these purple-shouldered ones, over a week ago, and only one looks like it's going to ripen.  Not sure whether it's worth it to bring these in, or not.  They don't taste like much at this point, even when the green parts turn red.

Closer crop.

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September 25, 2018

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It finally rained.

Day lilies.

Spirea.

Closer crop.

Maple.

Here's that puff-ball we've been looking at, with a rather metallic appearance on this wet day.

What it looks like when concrete is sliced, and then rained on.  I am continually surprised that any random collection of rocks includes this much diversity...........  Our planet has been making, and breaking, and rearranging rocks for a long (long, long, long, long, long) time.....................

Yarrow.

It has been suggested to me that this is thyme.  The next time I go past it I mean to touch it and find out.  It's very low.  Probably no more than 3" high?

Cotoneaster.

Winged tomato.  This is ours, still hanging in there..............

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