Thursday, September 28th
Sunday Evening After the storm.
thursday sunset
May 29th, 2022 - Sunday
The sounds of summer as the sun sets... Lawn mowers, swallows, chickens, train whistles, cicadas, hummingbirds.
Chee... I got a little busy this morning and forgot to post this. Not that I had a lot to say. Spent most of the day reading. Doing chores. Just another Tuesday in paradise... oops I mean Texas. The day started out at 39°, it's now 75°. That's a bit…
Well I made it out for an abbreviated road trip today. Swung through the Brazoria Wildlife Refuge where it was the emptiest of bird life I have ever seen it. Then I had it on down to Surfside, where the Beach was its normal empty February weekday self... I loved…
Lines of thunderstorms have been moving thru all day long... just now another line blew thru... and it really did blow.
Sometimes my morning coffee muses hits a snag... this morning it brought about coffee muses man... Coffee Muses Man Kinda reminds me of the cartoon character from the 1970's. I finally remembered the character after a long senior moment... here y'all go...
I walked out to get the mail after mowing earlier. Walking back to the house I thought I'd give you the reverse look from the morning coffee muses... Catch you in the morning...
It's just after noon on this mid month Sunday. Ten days before Christmas and the weather feels anything but Christmas like. We are headed towards 80º today. At least it's breezy. So much so that the air is full of goldenrod seeds. I keep watching the fallen leaves scud along…
A cool start to the last month of the decade. Especially welcome after a warmer than normal Thanksgiving week. My red tree isn't very red anymore. And unlike most years it's not very green either...
Not musing this morning, had a doctors appointment. Back at the house and it's just been raining all day. Here's what I'm seeing on Wunderground... Hello Imelda.
Up early, not needing a morning sweat bath. Coffee is gone... muse unmused. Working on a Clancy novel as I wait for the next season of Jack Ryan on Amazon. MSNBC playing in the background as I read.
It's early evening on the back porch. Shadows stretch across the yard and the neighbor is mowing. It's been a long rest between blog posts... My yard could use a good mow too. Monday will be two weeks... again. I will say it's managed to stay green with the fewer,…
I'm still around... just haven't had much to say lately. I'll make an effort to get back in the habit once again. Today has been quiet. The world has pulled on it's greenery to celebrate the day. It's late afternoon, a cool spring feel to the world. The sun is…
Just another warm fall day with full overcaat.
Now we wait for fall to return morning coffee muses.
I'm on the back porch contemplating the outcome of my Deere meditations as I cool down with some ice water. Looking good. Now for a shower and lunch. Ever since Harvey I've been flummoxed by the outside power outlets being dead. I'd checked the breaker box over and over. I'd…
One of the things that came about because of the death of my old computer is I reinstalled Google Earth. When I initially opened the program I zoomed in to my home. Boy was I blown away. They have done wondrous things with their 3D generators... I mean look at…
Making way for May... April's on the way into the history books.
I walked out with my grandson after he did his homework. Immediately I heard my first flock of cedar waxwings fly over. I had been wondering when I would hear them... Oh, and the bird in the flower bed... blame that on my youngest son. He brought it home many…
I have workmen swarming over the outside of my house today. Hammers banging, saws screaming... After 5 years the builder is replacing the rusting flashing above all of our windows... Persistence... Anyway, I'll just put up a couple of more pictures of the day... And, just to show how much…
Things seem to be working...
Testing the latest iteration of the WordPress app on my Kindle. The last time I installed it, it kept not playing nice with the memory card. But, I miss being able to post from the Kindle. The photo is of the keyboard I received for Christmas. I keep wearing out…
On another overcast morning, breezes blowing cool, I should be moving, but after the heat of last week I can't make myself give up on the pleasure of my morning coffee muse here on the back porch. Cup number two is down to dregs. Excuse me while I get a…
You have to love the Weather Underground... when they say it will start raining by 2:00, you can almost set your watch by it. So here I sit, on the back porch, the Deere parked, grass all mowed, listening to distant thunder. The breeze is so nice, cool with the…
After a scorching day of sun, a line of heavy thunderstorms dropped the temperature like a rock. For a change we are enjoying our front porch. We came out front because the storms were blowing in from this side of the house. And the rain keeps falling...
The following quote always leaves me with a queasy feeling... Michael Lowry, hurricane specialist with The Weather Channel, points out that three of the five wettest tropical cyclones on record for the U.S. mainland occurred in Texas, and none of them attained hurricane strength. These include Allison as well as…
We have fallen into the Texas Gulf Coastal winter weather pattern I remember from my youth...Overcast and damp...Cool and breezy... Just generally dreary all day every day. Though, I must say, after a few years of less than optimal rainfall patterns, a bit of dreary misty, rainy weather is appreciated.…
... That Person From High School Who Was Always In A Band? While he really didn't go to my high school, it was at a high school dance that I met him when his band was performing. He was a friend of a friend. We lived in Pasadena and he…
The other day I linked to a post by Mary Jaksch at her blog write to done where she was having a conversation with Seth Godin. Today she continues that conversation. The following interaction really resonated with me. It explains why I follow the people I do online in the most succinct way I have seen…
I stumbled across this today at the Washington Post. I almost didn't follow the link. But, I did and all I can say is... Wow... This is awesome. You must have seen thousands of photographs of Everest. But there have been none like this: (Click to see the panoramic image…
When I read the following article (alright, I didn't really read it...more like I skimmed it quickly), I thought it a bit amusing that none of the shows listed have ever been seen by me. Not one. More than half I haven't even heard of. Now is the winter of our (TV)…
If you haven't voted early... If you haven't voted absentee... You really need to take yourself to your polling place tomorrow and Vote. While I would prefer you to cast your vote for the President, even if you support Romney, you really need to vote anyway. As I've said before (and…
I just saw the Space Shuttle Endeavour pass over my house on it's way toward Houston. I didn't even know it was going to be passing through the area. Wish I would have had my camera out as it passed by...There won't be another chance to see one in the air....
Yesterday when I woke up and opened the windows I noticed a change...There was no dew on the windows. It's been months since the windows were clear first thing in the morning. When I walked outside it felt different...Could be we are getting that preview of what's to come. When…
Yesterday the postwoman put the latest issue of Cooks Illustrated in the mailbox by the road. When I looked at the cover I was reminded of the differences in growing seasons in this country of ours. In great beauty the cover displayed heirloom tomatoes... On the day that I brought…
When I was at the PRX site the other day listening to Mary Gauthier I stumbled across this "In Search of a Song" program: Enjoy!
I had Winamp playing yesterday as I fiddled around on the computer when Mary Gauthier came on playing her song "Sugar Cane". That led me to a Google search for a video of the song to post here. What I found was even better...Two hours of interviews she did with…
It's not even 9am and this is what the local weather station has to say about the temperature here: Temperature 90.7 °F Feels Like 107 °F Yesterday it hit 102° by noon on the back porch. It was still holding above 90° when I went to bed after 11pm...We tied records around here…
Yesterday about mid-morning, I was sitting in the rocker on the back porch with a cup of coffee. The temperature had already passed the mid-eighties. The ceiling fans on the porch were the only thing making it doable. Later in the day, as Sherry was driving in from work, I looked over…
I never realized how much of my life I've spent on the Gulf Coastal Prairie...I found this video on line as I was looking for information on native plants. The original link fell by the wayside over the years so here are few new links ... https://youtu.be/aqknxErvs6Y https://youtu.be/_u1K-AQ9fCc https://youtu.be/VMDZ5GTQKhQ https://youtu.be/mZdsyKaIAYE
It all started last weekend. I walked out on the back porch and did a double take at the garden...Then I back pedaled into the house and call my wife and grandson to hurry out and see. There in the garden that Saturday morning were a couple of peafowl...Peahens, maybe. As…
Temperature 84.7 °F Feels Like 91 °F
The world out my window this week has been rather busy. The hummingbirds are visiting the feeder off the front porch. That means it's time to pull the rest out of storage and spot them around the place. All of our trees are at some stage in their re-leafing. The Pecans and the…
Today 81 °F Rain Showers 20% chance of precipitation Tonight 66 °F Mostly Cloudy Tomorrow 86 | 64 °F Rain Showers 20% chance of precipitation Just saying...
The one thing that really hit me hard on this trip was how green everything is this winter. After last summer's seared color scheme, the winter's green and brown scheme is a bit disconcerting.
Suomi NPP's VIIRS instrument returned this hi-resolution full-disc image of the Earth from several passes made Jan. 4, 2012.
As everyone who lived along the Texas Gulf Coast in December of 2004 will never forget, a white Christmas isn't just a dream for those living north of the Mason-Dixon line...Miracles do happen. And when snow begins to fall on Christmas Eve evening, why you make snowmen...and snowballs...and snow angels.…
I was wandering through the kitchen just a bit ago and glanced out the back windows. There in the yard I saw my first flock of Robins of this winter season...On the very first day of winter. Growing up I was always confused by all of the references to Robins and spring.…
When I ordered some seedling trees from Pennsylvania the week of Thanksgiving, I was holding out as late as possible to have them shipped dormant to our SE Texas version of fall. What I didn't expect was for the nursery to ship Pennsylvania fall weather along with the trees. The…
I just spent the last couple of hours reliving the subliminal sounds from my formative years. I know they were't my parents sounds...I can't say where I ever heard them during those years of the '60's. But they are the sounds and songs that resonate more than most for some…
We passed a milestone yesterday when we said goodbye to the bright yellow modern equivalent of my grandparents "Quarter Moon". In other words, they picked up the "port-a-potty" that has graced our site since June. The construction portion of this ongoing project is, for all intents and purposes, complete. There…
Just last week
Tipper was talking about "Tater Soup" which brought back all kinds of childhood memories. Reading her post from the southern Appalachians had my nose and taste buds fooling my brain into thinking there really was cornbread in the oven and tater soup on the stove.
That's what food memories are like, total immersion into the recesses of your brain. A smell caught in passing that can trigger the memories of meal long gone and the loved ones who cooked them for you. That food memory of tater soup and cornbread can be laid to my Grandma...My mother's mother. I don't really remember eating it all that often with my grandparents but I ate it enough to know that my mother's recipe came from Grandma.
Tipper's post triggered decades of memories and tastes and smells...The old country kitchen in Orchard where many of my childhood food memories were made...The small kitchen in the home where I grew up... The jars and jars of fig preserves under the counter. Made lovingly by Grandma in the hottest of summer heat and sent home with us every year to heap on buttered toast through the winter. Deer steaks fried in the pressure cooker for lunch along with the fresh vegetables from the garden out back...creamed squash...fried okra...green beans...creamed corn...Memories tumbling down through time.
It has been a busy week in our back yard. On Tuesday they cleared the site... On Wednesday a crew started the forms... And this morning the trucks came rolling in...12 of them in all. So we are finally seeing some progress. It's been a long time coming. Sherry was…
After months of planning. After months of negotiating. After weeks of waiting on the city's methodology. It finally happened today...We broke ground on the construction drive to the new house... And now we wait for the next step to become clear...Ya gotta love it.
Hector Thunderstorm Project from Murray Fredericks on Vimeo.Camera Murray Fredericks Editing Lindi Harrison Original Sound Tommy Shutzinger This time-lapse assembly is part of the Hector Thunderstorm Project being produced in northern Australia. The first exhibition of stills from the project are on exhibition in Melbourne at Arc 1 Gallery from…
Kaspa & Fiona have taken over my blog for today, because they need our help. They are both on a mission to help the world connect with the world through writing. They are also getting married on Saturday the 18th of June. For their fantasy wedding present, they are asking…
Quite a while ago. The temperature yesterday in my backyard hit 95°. The US Drought Map has us at the highest level of drought they differentiate. The good news for the state of Texas yesterday was that the storms causing so much damage across the country in the last week managed to…
That I walked on this road of blogging for the first time that took. It was the beginning of a dream. A dream that has branched and grown in ways I could never have foreseen. That first blog post was on a Blogger hosted blog at North Carolina Mountain Dreams.…
When I was "retired" in late 2008 I really didn't retire. I continued to try and occupy my days with a "job". So it was that I began to build a online "publishing empire" aimed at the Appalachian Mountains that had captured my dreams. The beginnings had been there before…
Today is Earth Day. A celebration of our Mother the Earth sometimes known as Gaea. My plan to celebrate the day is to spend a big part of it outside in my backyard. The dewberries are ripening and make a tart mouthful as I wander around. The mockingbirds are serenading all who stop and listen.…
April 21, 1836...This is the day most Texans celebrate as Texas Independence Day even though that day is officially March 2nd when the Texas Declaration of Independence was signed at Washington0on-the-Brazos. To some historians, the April 21, 1836, engagement between the ragtag 900-man Texian army and the more formally trained…
The fate of wild salmon and a panic over power plants that no longer answer to human commands would not seem to be interlinked. But they are, in the belief that the parts of the world that have been fouled, or found lacking, can be engineered to our standards —…
I've been away from the blog this week because my better half took a couple of days off work. It seems she always wants to talk right about the time I start typing (how long will that word mean anything?). Yesterday I noticed the female hummer that had been visiting…
And if you missed Annie Leonard in her Story of Stuff, it's here: Any thoughts? Related articles Annie Leonard Derides Corporate Influences on American Democracy [Video] (fastcompany.com) The Story of Stuff Does Democracy (strongerdemocracy.org) The Story of Annie Leonard: Her Take on Stuff, Bottled Water, Cosmetics and More (treehugger.com) Live…
Let's call it Pliocene Park. No dinosaurs just big, bad-ass mammals. Physorg.com reported today that Professor Akira Iritani of Japan and a team of Russian researchers are preparing to clone a healthy mammoth within five years. They intend to resurrect the species after obtaining tissue in the summer of 2011 from the carcass…
Celebrating Forests for People This year the UN has another yearlong celebration/education event. This year it's the world's forests that are being highlighted. The livelihoods of over 1.6 billion people depend on forests. Welcome to the International Year of Forests, 2011 (Forests 2011) Web site, a global platform to celebrate people’s…
Goodness is the only investment which never fails. – Henry David Thoreau The above quote caught my eye in my morning email. I think it pretty well says it all as a way of living your life. It is also a way to live a life rich in ways that counting…
I love it when I stumble upon a new artist...This one via Suzanne of at home with the farmer's wife who led me to Na-Da Farm Life with Anne Marie. Blown away I was...Take a listen. https://youtu.be/WkYCtvy8CQw Zee Avi will be releasing her debut EP, One More Time With Colors, on…
Image via Wikipedia There are a few reasons I subscribe to Cook's Illustrated Magazine...One of the main ones is to read Christopher Kimball's Editorial first thing when each issue comes in. More than the recipes, more than the test kitchen results, more than the illustrations on the covers...back and front...It…
Blogging or not. For some reason, I find myself unable to get in the muse on days when my wife is supposed to "not here" but she is...And thus yesterday was the end to an unexpected three-day weekend. Which means that even though I did a lot of back-end maintenance…
Updated my blogs overnight and this morning...My problems with NC Mtn Dreams seems to have migrated here now. I am beginning to be a little frustrated with the loss of functionality. Sadly, I don't know if I need to blame WordPress or GoDaddy. But after the reply I received when…
Here it is, the first week of September is almost done. The weather has teased us on a number of occasions in the past few weeks...But we are still dry and the temperature passes 90° on an almost daily basis. Even the dogs are still spending most of the day…
I realized yesterday about noon that it was exactly six months since my birthday. Since this was an auspicious anniversary being as how it marked fifty-five point five years on the planet, I decided to honor the day with half a birthday road trip... I learned something from this short…
@BlueRidgeblog How about a hot air balloon or a helicopter...Or you could attach a camera to a radio controlled plain. in reply to BlueRidgeblog # Powered by Twitter Tools.
New photoblog post: Mustang Grapes on Mustang Bayou http://bit.ly/mhIwG # Powered by Twitter Tools.
New NC Mtn Dream blog post: Appalachian Summer Festival Video http://bit.ly/SkY1M # Powered by Twitter Tools.
New blog post: New Leaves http://bit.ly/LC6zm # Powered by Twitter Tools.
The weather outside my door makes me happy to be inside. An August preview in June does not a happy Texan make. Blue Ridge Mountains please! # Powered by Twitter Tools.
I find myself spending more of my time outside than I am used to. Yes, it's hot out...And dry. It almost reminds me of my summer in south Texas back in the early 1970's. Unusually dry heat for Southeast Texas at this time of the year. Walking the trail I've…
Support the Broadband Internet Pricing Fairness Act: http://bit.ly/hG6Li # Quiz: Should I see the critically-acclaimed documentary ‘Food, Inc.’? http://www.grist.org/article/2009-06-16-quiz-food-inc/ # Powered by Twitter Tools.
After months of fighting with signal strengths on the different televisions scatered around the house I was already starting to dread the day when a analog signal was no longer available as a backup. So this morning as I sat with my first cup of coffee I switched on the…
@fred1st I'll take a try at Thymer if you still have a beta key # @fred1st If you want to really confuse yourself check out the numbers reported by Google analytics...even more, different numbers. in reply to fred1st # This Time, We Won’t Scare: http://digg.com/d1tWHW?t # Powered by Twitter Tools.