Wanderings

Anything you dream is fiction,
and anything you accomplish is science,
the whole history of mankind is nothing but science fiction.
- Ray Bradbury
August 2nd, 2009

Corpse Flowers

It has rained here 6 out of 7 days a week for two months. The bees have suffered to the point where think that I’ve lost a hive. I went out this morning and on the path back to the beehives I discovered these Flowers of Cthulhu. They are plants, not fungi, that grow in the dirt under pine trees, but they have no chlorophyll. They spring up in wet weather.

 

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December 19th, 2008

Lots of Winter Pictures

I am cleaning out the various cameras here. I put some of them on a Picasa album here:

Some interesting pictures —

When Larry and I went to see Cadillac Records, we got there a little early. Larry spent the time annoying some nice girls trying to sell bath salts and other smelly things. They worked hard flirting with Larry and trying to sell him something. Of course, he didn’t spend any money and when we went by later one of them gave him the finger.

There is a mouse at work that leaves me little presents every night.

Furry in the snow showers that we had around Thanksgiving.

The usual suspects at work. This is our Christmas lunch. Programming attracts a variety of cultures.

There are a bunch of arty pictures of the backyard in the collection.

Here is a Battenfeld tree farm picture.






November 4th, 2008

The day off – Last Autumn Color

Since I work for the County of Westchester, I get election day off. I took some pictures and there is a google picassa album of the day. We are protected here and the trees change color later here than in the rest of the area.

The young dogwood tree turned shades of pastel pink.

The Japanese Maples turn scarlet.

 

Looking at my house from back in the woods:

 

Gracie helped me relax.






September 28th, 2008

Toadstools

My grandfather was often asked the secret to his long life. He lived well into his nineties.

His answer was "Toadstools". He would smile a little and there would be a glint in his eye. "Toadstools," he would say, "I never ate a one of them."

There were toadstools in my back woods after the rain. These, if I am not mistaken, are the deadly kind.

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September 7th, 2008

The Nikon 775 pictures

As long as I am cleaning out pictures from the cameras….

I cut up a downed green ash and split some of the billets. That is my grandfather’s wedge that he used to split the wood that heated his cabin in the last 25 years of his life.

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This is a picture of the back 40 where I was working on the cordwood.

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The face I put on the Beech tree always startles me when I walk back.

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Gracie, of course, had to supervise me.

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Erica bought a 1950s quilt. It was not valuable, just some cotton and polyester squares machine stitched, but the quilt lining was a much older quilt. The quilter covered an old worn quilt with a new one, but the old one may be much more valuable.

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Here’s a picture of Max after the hurricane passed, sitting in a patch of sunlight in the back.

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July 19th, 2008

Pompton Lakes Town Wide Garage Sale

It seems that I have been seeing a lot of New Jersey’s Lakes lately. This is fine with me. I like lakes.

We went down to Pompton Lakes – about 30 miles down 287 from Nyack. There was no traffic today. The price of gas has hit $4 and like someone turned off a switch, the traffic stopped.

We went to at least 50 garage sales. It seemed that at least 25% of the homes were having a garage sale. There were lots of sales that we didn’t even get to. Every block had two or three sales.

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I bought some odd stuff like a USB hub and US government publication on ethanol from 1980. (I want to make a post just on this book).

Erica found a few frames and an antique black walnut mirror for $8.

Here are some pictures of Pompton Lake. It was hot and hazy.

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July 19th, 2008

Justine’s Bird House

Justine sent a birdhouse from Martha’s Vineyard. It’s a Claire Murray design – hoity-toity.

I screwed a 1/2 inch steel pipe flange on the bottom with an 8" nipple. I used a 10 foot 3/4 inch electrical conduit as a post. The conduit is galvanized and should last 20 years.

 

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This is the view from the back deck.

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June 20th, 2008

Cape Cod Day 2

Larry and I, due to someone forgetting to pack the tackle, did not go fishing. The day, however was great. We took some back roads and got lost and went along the shore north of Chatham (pronounced chat ‘em). We stopped at the Chatham lighthouse. We wound up lost at a boat landing in a very beautiful section of Chatham. We took a wrong turn looking for a garage sale and we found a very beautiful house.

Here are the pictures. Blogger is down so it may take a day before you see this.

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June 15th, 2008

Turkey Vultures

In a trip to NJ this morning we passed an abandoned building with large turkey vultures guarding the parking area.

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