The Poor Daffodils

I guess I was too overjoyed with the prospect of warm weather.  It felt like it was finally here to stay.  Guess what?  Temperatures back in the 30's.  I feel so badly for the Daffodils.  Here they are, coming out of the ground to bring us joy, and look what happens to them.  I tried to lift some of them up, with the hope they would stay upright, but it didn't work.  I have seen these flowers in other's gardens, and some of those flowers are on the ground as well.  I am wondering if warmer weather will bring new life to them, and they will stand up again.  Or maybe it is just too late this year.

A Different View

Here's a different view of the plant being demolished.  I was able get this shot by putting the lens of the camera through a space in the fence. The power plant has that bleak look because the steel and glass have been removed from all of the windows.  I spoke to one of the workmen today and asked how they would bring the building down, and he said they would pull it down with cables.  Wow. That will be interesting to see!  And sad, of course.

Ice Landscape

This is my latest landscape, in a land covered with ice.  This land is in an unexpected place - on the windshield of the car. But wait, you say - it's April.  True.  But a cold front came through last night, and at the tail end of the front, it was cold enough for snow and ice precipitation.  I think it didn't happen until morning, but there was ice and snow on the grass and on the cars in the mornin.  So I went looking for a picture.  This was the best that I could do.

The Work of Squirrels

One of the joys of our house and our property, small thought it is, are the trees.  There is a giant Hickory tree on the front lawn and every fall the squirrels go nuts (I didn't mean to say that) and for several weeks all you can hear are the remains of Hickory nuts banging off the roof and off the metal rain gutters.  When fall is over, there are so many pieces of hickory nut on the lawn, that it is like walking on gravel.  So I decided to take a close look at what covers the lawn, and this is it.

Astronomical Legends

So one of the fun things about the astronomy convention is the part about randomly bumping into friends that I haven't seen in a while.  Here are a couple of astronomy legends, enjoying each other's company.  On the left is Perry Remaklis, who with his wife owns the publisher Willmann-Bell that specializes in astronomical books, and to the right is Richard Berry, formerly the editor of Astronomy magazine.  He has designed a number of really cool telescopes - I have built one, and years ago he told people how to build their own CCD camera for astronomy.  Brilliant people!

Two Hours of Bad Roads

When I left the astronomy convention, I spied this mountain bike on a rack on top of a car in the parking lot.  I have never seen a bike so covered in mud!  Strangely enough, I know whose bike this is!  He belongs to our club, and told me that in the morning before coming to the convention, he was going to do a two hour mountain bike competition ride nearby.  Well, I guess he did!  He will be doing a lot of cleaning and lubricating of the bike before his next ride!  Be sure to click on this to see it in more detail.

High Rise

I drove up to Rockland county today to go to the first day of a two-day astronomy conference.  I forgot to take a blog picture while at the conference - I was too busy looking at all the stuff, and talking to everyone I met as I wandered around.  So in desperation, on the way home, I did my shooting-out-of-the-car-window trick.  As I went by Co-Op city, I saw these patterns in one of the high rise buildings that make  up Co-Op city.  I was attracted to the repetitive design.  It looks much cooler if you click on it and see the design up close.