Sat. 12.21.19 – Photo of two American Goldfinches at a water faucet taken at Irvine Regional Park by Ms. Jen with her Nikon D850 and a Nikon 70-200mm f/4 lens.
Make Way! Incoming Goldfinch Flight!
Posts Tagged: water
Late November Tidbits
It is Friday. Here is some reading and other tidbits for your weekend, if you are so inclined.
High Plains Farmers Race to Save the Ogallala Aquifer
By restoring soils and grasslands, farmers in the Texas Panhandle are conserving the last water beneath their feet.
What If We Called It the ‘Flax Age’ Instead of the ‘Iron Age’?
Rituals of Childhood
“The United States has chosen, and continues to choose, to enact ritual compliance to an ideal of freedom in a way that results in a steady flow of blood sacrifice. T”
What if All That Flying Is Good for the Planet?
Open Mike: Sharp Is Another Way Photographs Can Be
Planting Native Prairie Could Be a Secret Weapon for Farmers
In Iowa, researchers and farmers are discovering that planting strips of native prairie amidst farmland benefits soil, water, biodiversity, and more.
Meet the scientist who’s been counting California butterflies for 47 years and has no plans to stop
The Survivors of the Woolsey Fire One Year Later
How Natural Wine Became a Symbol of Virtuous Consumption
The Instant Pot Understands The History Of Women’s Labor In The Kitchen
Where the Italian Garden melds into the Long Water
Sun 11.17.19 – Photo of the final fountain Italian Gardens taken by Ms. Jen with her camera phone during yesterday afternoon’s walk through Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park.
London Skyline, Waiting for the Full Moon
Tues. 11.12.19 – Happy November Full Moon for those of you who can see it. Late yesterday evening, I took the Nikon out to the Embankment bridge to photograph the Full Moon rising over The Shard and the Thames. Due to large clouds hugging the first 10-15 degrees up from the horizon, I was out of luck.
While I persevered out in the cold and damp for nearly an hour before I gave up, I was able to take a number of good shots of the storm clouds and the London skyline. The above is one of my two favorites from that hour.
Photo taken by Ms. Jen with her Nikon D850 and a 50mm lens on Mon. 11.11.19 while standing on the Embankment bridge waiting for the moon.
SoCal Fire Season Smoke
Thurs. 11.07.19 – With the autumn SoCal Fire Season in full swing, I am off to non-asthma indicing fresh air.
Weekend Tidbits or an Ode to Hedgehogs, Water, and the Deep Time of Trees, plus a few Con Men
Hedgehogs, UK Politics, and general understated Amusement in this Metafilter post: “1566 seems very recent, but the hedgehog was around before then”
Transcript of MP Rory Stewart’s hedgehog defense in Parliament in 2017.
Of all the possible Tory MPs possible to be the next Prime Minister, one can only hope that the Conservatives will vote for Mr. Stewart and not Mr. Johnson.
Black, Hot Ice May Be Nature’s Most Common Form of Water
This Evangelical Prayer-Coin Grift Is What the Age of Trump Is All About
“The Wall Street financiers and C-suite lords-of-the-universe have made a Faustian bargain of their own, simply accepting that the President of the United States will have regular bouts of public insanity and upend the post-World War II geopolitical order because the Dow is up and taxes are down. This will not end well for them or for the Evangelicals, because everyone who gets in bed with Donald Trump ends up debased and disgraced. Often, he convinces them to do it to themselves. “
Men Have No Friends and Women Bear the Burden
Toxic masculinity—and the persistent idea that feelings are a “female thing”—has left a generation of straight men stranded on emotionally-stunted island. Unable to forge intimate relationships with other men, it’s women who are paying the price.
A landmark malaria vaccine has been rolled out in Malawi
This Graphic Shows the Best Air-Cleaning Plants, According to NASA
Trees of deep time are a portal to the past : The vanishing groves
A chronicle of climates past and a portent of climates to come – the telling rings of the bristlecone pine
The London Skyline at Dusk from the Embankment Bridge
Sun. 11.18.18 – Yes, I am back in London to write. I find that I write best here, for a number of reasons both known and rather mysterious to me. When I am home in California, I can muster 2000-4000 words per month, hardly words enough to finish a short story in reasonable time – let alone a book. When I am in London, I can reach that word count in two days or less.
The last two years of US politics have heavily weighed me down and when I get to London, as long as I stay off of the news and social media sites, I am able to feel slightly bouyant again. At least here, I can float in my imagination – unfettered from the fecal matter of US politics – long enough to create and write.
While I am not participating in the NaBloPoMo nor NaNoWriMo, I am doing my best to restart my blogging practice in a more regular fashion – albeit in clumps – as well as finish writing a few stories and a book.
Here I am for a month. Let’s see how much writing and editing I can get done. Wish me luck.
Photo taken by Ms. Jen from the Embankment Golden Jubilee Bridge at dusk with her camera phone.
Just Before Dawn on All Saints Day, or Getting Up Too Early to Photograph the Sunrise at Mackerel Cove
Thurs. 11.01.18 – To a person who is not yet on East Coast Daylight time, but instead still three hours behind in Pacific Daylight time, waking up at 6:40am in Rhode Island to be out at Mackerel Cove beach to photograph the sunrise and dogs running free at low tide was a bit of a difficult thing to do – though it was well worth it.
The air was cold, 30-something degrees fahrenheit – hat, gloves, and a jacket were needed. The sun rose slowly, with the first pink light reflections on the wet low tide line at 6:50am. For the next twenty or so minutes, Sparky the black lab ran happily after her ball while Kenji the island dog poked along the high tide kelp piles for edibles, as the clouds lying low in packed cotton ball formation in the eastern sky turned from gray to pink to neon pink-orange-yellow to the sun rising over the trees and houses on the east side of the cove. From 6:50am to 7:18am, it was magical.
Photos taken by Ms. Jen with her Nikon D850 and a 50mm lens.