HIGH SUMMER

Some Summer music from Ali Farka Toure and Toumani Diabate "Kaira" from 2005 album In The Heart of the Moon.

Click and read.

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While so much of the country has been baking with extreme heat, we've had a pleasant couple of weeks. 70's and 80's during the days, good sleeping weather at night. The cicadas have begun to sing although with the cooler temps, their call has been intermittent. We've had a wet couple of months: June 1.70" above normal and July is looking to be at least 2" above normal. We're still mowing the grass once a week and everything is green and lush. We had a strong shower earlier in the week. I took a shot of the shed and thought I would try to digitally mimic the classic Japanese woodcut prints that depict rain with parallel slanted lines.

We've lived here for 14 summers and up to now, I had not encountered poison ivy. This year, I found it in 3 locations, one of which was a major growth twined amongst a dying Japanese willow. I wasn't 100% sure until 4 days after trimming I had a major rash mainly on my right arm. A week later, it has calmed down but still present.

With the pool project is done, we're looking forward for our first pool day. 87° tomorrow!

The chucks have left the peonies and coneflowers alone now that I have the plants fenced.

The first tomatoes have arrived-as usual, it's the cherry variety.

The East garden is glorious and the Cup Plants have gotten huge!

While I was working, I was visited by one of these: Canadian Tiger Swallowtail.

 Today, I saw these two:

Black Swallowtail

And this little guy, barely an inch wide:

Pearl Crescent

 

At the Diner, a couple of redheads, Messrs. Redbird and Purple finch were having a bite.

Typically, when we get home after picking C up from her office in the afternoon, she'll putter around online before her deck yoga session. Bud will hang out with me while I surf YT.

Ear strokes

Chest and belly massage

Impossibly cute and graceful

Fearless Liza looking for some peanuts

She is not afraid of Bud and he generally won't hassle her as he goes out ahead of C for deck yoga.

C and I teased Bud, who has had pretty good relations with the squirrels but Liza seems a bit too friendly:

Buddy: "Don't leave me out here alone!"

C: "Oh dear, Buddy-it's ok"

J: (using his Buddy voice) "Don't leave me out here with that hussy!"

Liza: "We both have tails!"

B: "I'm not into that inter-species stuff!"

C: "And you know those girlie squirrelies-it's all about their tails, all that swinging and switching!" (chuckling)

J: "Just ignore her, Bud"

B: "She's so persistent!"

J: "Ayup"
 

The little scamp came up on the raised bed to lobby for some peanuts during a yoga session and perhaps to attract some male attention from his Lordship:

C notices Liza's tail, Bud is too busy enjoying a belly rub

Bud spots her

I stepped out and tossed some peanuts for her to keep the peace and yoga resumed.

We went in to prepare supper and Buddy chilled on a chair.

We had a nice supper of Mexican food and beer. I made a vegan peach crisp for dessert with vegan vanilla ice cream.

It was so pleasant on the deck, it felt like mid-September. As we chatted and sipped, the avian solo was by a Mourning Dove. I was reminded of where I grew up, our house had a screened breezeway which ran between the garage and the house. On early Summer evenings, we would hear the Doves cooing.

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C is a tawny Watergirl this Summer:

And me, with my usual farmer tan:

FIVE SECOND STORIES

Fun fact: only one US State flag depicts the human female breast-the state of Virginia.

From Wiki:  The state flag was first adopted at the beginning of the Civil War in April 1861, readopted in 1912, and standardized by the General Assembly in February 1950. The standing allegorical female figure of virtue is shown having vanquished tyranny, symbolized by a fallen king at her feet. She has an exposed breast in the manner of classical depictions of Amazons, making this the only state flag in the U.S. depicting a form of toplessness. The motto Sic semper tyrannis means "Thus always to tyrants." This was yelled by John Wilkes Booth after he had shot President Lincoln and jumped to the stage. The same line spoken by Brutus when assassinating Julius Caesar.

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 After Beryl kicked some major tail for 6000 miles, folks readied for the next one. They have been in luck due to the Saharan Air Layer-dust from the North African desert has pushed out to the hurricane genesis region West of the continent. The result is the dust smothers the kind of atmospheric conditions necessary for hurricanes. Once the winds change dissipating the SAL-look out!

PS. 7/27-It looks like things are starting to ramp up!

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July 21, 22 marked the highest average global temperatures, measured at 62.88° F.

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How owl wing structure make them silent predators:

Jon G. Fuller Jr.

The serrations on the leading edge of the wing and the velvet-like surface have an effect on noise reduction and also lead to an improvement of aerodynamic performance. The fringes at the inner feather vanes reduce noise by gliding into the grooves at the lower wing surface that are formed by barb shafts.

Thomas Geyer

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Cute Buddy-roo pics:

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The ascension of Kamala breathes (some would say, cardioversioned) life back into the Democratic Presidential Campaign: on one level, booting Old Joe off the ticket and replacing him with a Californian Black/South Asian Woman to take on the Roach and his MAGA cult is politically crazy and suicidal. 

On the other hand, the move is fuckin' Audacious. Their "yeah, assholes, this is what we stand for and we ain't going back!" war cry is an all in, balls to the wall moment for the Progressive/Liberal movement. It's bringing in the younguns who were gonna sit the election out and fired up all sorts of folks of color. 

Failure, I fear will crush them and I think they know it as Roach has made it clear he plans retribution for his enemies.

It's gonna get very, very nasty. Stay tuned.

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Passing noted: John Mayall November 29, 1933-July 22, 2024.

Pioneer of British blues whose influential band the Blues Breakers was a springboard for stars including Eric Clapton. One of my all-time favs from The Beano album, 1966, covering Otis Rush's "Hideaway".

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Fun Vids:

"Bloody Hell!" English girl rages over cost of ice cream:

 Interesting doc about Banksy:

In 2005, Banksy and his team painted 7 murals on the Segregation Wall, Palestine. Here is one that reminded me of the "river to the sea" phrase.

In 2013, Banksy titled a new piece “’The banality of the banality of evil’ Oil on oil canvas, 2013,”  describing it on his website as  “A thrift store painting vandalized then re-donated to the thrift store.” With a whiff, I might add, of "Hitler in Springtime".

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M.C. Escher doc-supurb draftsman and printmaker beyond his well-known optical play. Worth the time to watch.

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The new generation of storm chasers are pushing the boundaries of  how close they get to tornadoes. I think it's the adrenaline rush like war combat that is pushing this. Older chasers, I think, respect the Beast more due to having seen the death they can bring. Ah, youth.

 

ANCIENT HUMAN ARTWORK

The White Shaman Mural

Hunter-gatherers who lived here from about 2500 B.C. to A.D. 500 created these paintings. Located in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of southwest Texas, a mile upstream from where the Pecos River flows into the Rio Grande, the White Shaman rock shelter is carved into a cliff face at the end of a limestone canyon. Here, in a small alcove, a 26-foot-long collection of pictographs stretches across a smooth wall that faces west. 

A digital re-creation of the mural which has faded over the centuries.

 

The Cochno Stone:

Original drawing by W.A. Donnelly 1895

From Wiki: The Cochno Stone is a large cup and ring marked rock at Auchnacraig,Faifley, West Dunbartonshire,  Scotland, next to the Cochno farm.

The Neolithic-Bronze Age (3300-1200 BCE) rock art  is found on a stone measuring 42 by 26 feet, and was documented in 1887 by the Rev. James Harvey. It features around 90 carved indentations, considered to be one of the finest sets of petroglyphs in Scotland.

The stone was reburied in 1965 to protect it against vandalism. In 2015 it was partially re-exposed for investigation during a 3-day dig by a team involving archaeologists from the University of Glasgow, with a more complete re-exposure following a year later.

The purpose of the stone is a puzzle to scientists-some speculate that it is a star map and/or celestial event calendar. 

 

The Shigir Idol:

Vladislav Postnikov

From Wiki: The Shigir Sculpture, or Shigir Idol, is the oldest known wooden sculpture. It was carved during the Mesolithic  period, shortly after the end of the last Ice Age, and is twice as old as Egypt's Great Pyramid. The wood it was carved from is approximately 12,000 years old.

The sculpture was discovered on January 24, 1890 at a depth of 13 ft in the peat bog of Shigir, on the eastern slope of the Middle Urals,  near the village of Kirovgrad. It was extracted in ten parts and over the course of years, the final reconstruction suggest that the sculpture stood over 16 feet high. Several theories suggest its purpose: a totem, a territorial warning to outsiders, navigational aid, depiction of creation myth by those who made it.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IN MEMORIAM

July 18 marked the 30th anniversary of the passing of our dear friend Jim Moksha Barnes. (see September 26, 2023 post)

https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/1874379354363330774/2524626005641211330).

FIVE SECOND STORIES

Pool project:

The new pool has been installed and landscaping completed.

The electricians came and ran power out to the pool equipment. Not having dealt much with this trade, I was surprised they were able to run a new line out of the breaker box without turning off the power. I mentioned this to the 30 something owner. He grinned and replied "of course we can, we're electricians!"

 

 I knew it might be risky planting anything near the Diner. I put in 3 peonies and 7 echinacea.

Sho'nuff, that afternoon one had been beheaded of its bloom.

The following morning, all had lost their blooms. My finger points at the Chucks rather than rabbits. The echinacea is the East garden has never been attacked and the Chucks aren't known to wander over. It could be deer as I noticed that one of the rose of sharon had been nipped at chest level. Measures will be taken against the Chucks. For now, I have the plants protected by cloches.

Garden: 

Mr. Zucc is doing well.

The first cherry tomatoes are ripening:

 

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Fun vids:

Origin of the Michelin Man:

Interesting jazz cover of Bowie's "Is There Life on Mars" by Postmodern Jukebox:

 Baby hedgehogs and Mum:

Stunning visuals from Luc Bresson's 2017 "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets"-the planet Mül and its inhabitants.

The film on the whole was not very good. In fact, it was the worst box office failure for a European independent film. Still, the director who brought us the funny and visually wonderful "The Fifth Element" (oh, the alien diva performing on an orbiting platform with a beautiful blue planet as a backdrop sequence is a fav) has some great ideas.

From the series "On This Spot", shorts highlighting women artists working in NYC starting in the 1960s.

Laurie Simmons:

 Pat Steir:

Due to an odd quirk of genetics and some unique evolutionary circumstances, two humans who lived at different times in the distant past managed to pass on a very small fraction of their genomes to you. And to me. To all of us.

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How Mendolsohn's Wedding March became so popular: this music was one of two chosen by Princess Victoria, eldest daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert for her wedding to Prince Frederick of Prussia in 1857. It was a hit with brides who wished to emulate the royals and became firmly implanted in British and American culture.

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Critters:

Seen while out and about: I was south of here to order some mulch when I spotted a very large turtle on the road shoulder.

Corey Seeman

He had come out of a cat-tailed marsh. Who he was is a bit of a mystery. The largest Michigan turtle is the Common Snapping Turtle (Chelydra Serpentine) which according to sources typically is a foot long, with some individuals topping out at 20 inches in length. This guy was much larger! Of course, I did not have my camera with me. I have seen such a large turtle where I grew up-it appeared one afternoon in our front yard coming perilously to my Dad's roses. Fortunately, he was just passing through. 

I thought about stopping and helping Mr. Snapper across the road without thinking that the critter could be heavy. But then I thought perhaps he was on a recon mission, gathering information in order to make an informed decision. I decided to leave well enough alone.

I was having a sandwich in a parking lot just west of home when I saw this fellow:

Eastern Bluebird

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A critter I had never heard of: Meet the Hyrax! And no, this is not a creation of Dr. Seuss.

From Wiki: Hyraxes are well-furred, rotund animals with short tails. Also called dassies, they are small, stout, herbivorous mammals typically between 12 and 28 in long and weigh between 4 and 11 lb. Hydraxes, with one exception, live in Africa. While they are superficially similar to marmots, they are much more closely related to elephants and sea cows! 

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A new squirrel at the Diner! There seems to be a new gen of squirrels with crooked tails-this one is smaller than Liza. But like Rolla, Stubbs and Liza, it seems to have some genetic memory. Very friendly and not bashful about asking for peanuts. I haven't been able to sex although it may be female, so I am going with an ambidextrous name: Mel. She's pretty feisty-if there's a squabble or I see some major tail switching-it's usually Mel.

 

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Lovely piece "Silver Sea" by Dmitry Oleyn, a Ukrainian painter based in Germany. Born in 1979.
 

Rhythms of Life Land Art Projects-Andrew Rogers

https://artsandculture.google.com/story/rhythms-of-life-land-art-rhythms-of-life/zwWBR_yu8dh_Iw?hl=en 

Fun Facts: 

Half of the world's population lives here in the yellow areas:

The Earth spins 1000 mph faster at the equator than at the poles!
 

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Tis a real shame the direction the country is heading. Part of MAGA is a chunk of the people who have been pissed off for decades about the 1960's cultural revolution. They loathe gains made for Civil Rights, Women's Rights, Gay Rights, measures to help the poor not to mention the growing secularization in the country. They've been working hard to attack and reverse the gains made. They've hitched their stars to a vengeful narcissist who will enable their bloodthirsty desires for retribution. 

But, because our species is really stupid, always forgetting the past and not learning from mistakes, we can just look at history to see what's coming. The pendulum is in motion and we are entering a new era. Buckle up, folks, it is gonna suck.