And Now For Somethng Completelhy Different

Well, here is something different, after seeing all these landscape and seascape photos, huh?  You will never in a million years guess what this is!  Or will you?  We were having dinner tonight, chicken marsala, and I went to the fridge to get a glass of Reisling.  The bottle was nearly completely empty!  So I got another bottle from the basement but dinner was ready so I did the unthinkable - I put three ice cubes in my wine glass and poured the wine.  So the wine was deliciously cold - colder than normal, of course because of the ice cubes.  And then, of course the moist air in the room condensed on the outside of the glass.  I thought nothing of it.  Until the wine was gone. Then I held the glass up to the light and saw the water drops closely.  So I put a macro lens on my SONY a7 and started photographing the side of the glass.  The actual photograph was much wider than this but as I worked on the photo and enlarged it I was stunned at how each water drop was a different shape.  A few drops ran down the middle of the glass, making that miniature river in the center.  No one was more surprised at what I got, than me!  Oh, this is an extra large image so please click on it and be amazed.  Thanks!

 

The Nor'easter Today

You would never really know that we were having a nor'easter pass through, at least at Hempstead Harbor.  I went down at about 10 AM.  About an hour earlier the winds were gusting quite a bit and there was some heavy rain for a short while.  This is what I found.  The winds were calm and there were really no waves at all.  Other parts of Long Island had a lot of flooding.  There was fog, so in the distance you are faintly seeing Port Washington across the harbor.  These grasses are beautiful waving back and forth in the water and so I thought it worth a photograph.

I did run into other people walking because it was actually nice out with no winds and no rain to speak of.  I also found a father with a young daughter and son.  He said they just wanted to get out of the house and go for a walk!

 

The Nor'easter, So Far...

The forecasts were for high water and strong winds for the nor'easter which arrived today.  So I looked up high tide, which was at noon and walked down the street in my foul weather gear to see what I could see.  I needn't have done that because there was no rain to speak of.  The winds were not all that much and the waves, because of lack of wind were nothing to speak of either.  But every once in a while there would be a larger wave smashing into the boat launch ramp and then shooting up into the air, which was impressive.  At least I got something interesting.

So I did take this photograph before the one above.  I think the first photo was more impressive but I like this better because it is prettier to look at I think.

Then there are always "these guys!"  Every time the road floods from rain or in this case, salt water spilling into the road, most people drive through the deeper water slowly.  And then there are these people who do not.  I have to be so careful, because on the other side of the road where I photographed the crashing waves, I had my back to the road, and my camera and I could have been splashed with SALT water!  So I kept a wary eye out for the hot rodders.  This is kind of a stupid thing - this is not rain runoff but salt water you have seen washing up the boat ramp.  So do you want your car to have salt water splashing up into the engine compartment of your nice car?  Most people would not want that.

 

After and Before

So I feel as if I have made some progress.  I have finished painting the eaves!  I divided them into four sections, and each section required scraping, then treating with mildew remover and then rinsing with a garden hose, and then a primer coat and then the finish coat.  This has been a lot of work on tall and short extension ladders.  I have also, as you can see, painted a fair amount of the siding as well.  It is nice that all the really high parts are done.  I am not afraid of being on the ladder when I am 25 feet up off the ground, at the peak, but I am shall we say "less comfortable" than I used to be up that high.  And you can see my bright orange safety rope hanging from the attic window, which I clipped myself into each time I climbed up one of the ladders.  So I have worked safely.  And the really hard parts are pretty much done, I just need to finish painting the siding.  It will be beautiful to see it all finished in bright new white paint!  Oh!  Please click on this image because it is a larger size and you can see more detail.

I thought I would include a "before" photograph so you can get a better sense of how bad it looked and how dramatically improved the new paint makes it look!  I have a deep sense of satisfaction with having done this work, seeing the newly painted parts of this side of the house.

 

A Sunset Does Not a Photograph Make.

We saw a spectacular colorful sunset in the sky as we were driving down Laurel Avenue, heading to the beach.  By the time we were parked at the beach where we were going to walk, the sunset had faded a great deal.  There was this little bit of color left, close to the horizon, and it wasn't much but I took a couple of frames anyhow.  This is hardly a complete photograph.  It what I learned years ago, is that this  is known as "a fragment." It has the makings of a photograph, but there is not enough in it to make it complete.  Perhaps a foreground object, like a tree or a person.  Something to add a point of interest to what is here, just a colorful photograph of the sky. So I was desperate, yet again, and so here you have a beautiful fragment, but not a complete photograph.

 

Our Little Concrete Angel

As I mentioned yesterday, Kathy has not been tending to the gardens at all, and I don't pay attention to them either.  But yesterday when I went over to the side garden looking for a photograph, I found the American pokeweed which we didn't know was in the garden.  I walked toward the street and was shocked to see our little stone angel almost completely covered in leaves from some vines!  You have seen photographs of our angel before, in various seasons, but never like this!  She looks as if she is in a predicament.  It is perfect weather for painting and I will be painting more tomorrow, but the day after I will go over and clear away the vines.  But this is kind of interesting to see out tiny angel almost completely overgrown.  If you want to have some fun, in the upper left hand corner of this page is a white space where you can enter "angel" and then click on the magnifying glass and it will show you a whole bunch of my garden angel photographs!

 

Look at The Pretty Berries!

Look at the pretty berries I found in the garden this afternoon!  How beautiful they are!  I cannot believe the brilliant magenta stalk on which the berries grow.  You will be pleased to know that this plant is American pokeweed (Phytolacca americana).  It always helps to know the Latin name!  So I looked it up.  IT IS POISONOUS!  EVERY PART OF THE PLANT, EVEN THE ROOTS!  Yikes!  What?  I used Google Images and uploaded a photo of it to get its identification.  I found it growing in Kathy's garden.  Given her knee replacement surgery and the recovery, she has not been working in her garden at all, and it is pretty much overgrown.  I had never noticed this plant before so it must be fast growing.  There are bunches of berries everywhere on this plant.  I thought this close up was pretty dramatic so I posted this photograph first.

Here is a better view of more of the plant.  I think the poisonous quality of the plant is worth reading about, so I am posting a lot of text. Wait until you read about how the leaves have been eaten!  The entire plant is genuinely poisonous to humans, but its toxicity varies considerably depending on which part is eaten and how much.  The entire plant is considered poisonous, including the berries, leaves, stems, and especially the root. Eating one or two berries generally does not cause serious poisoning, particularly in children, but larger amounts can cause significant gastrointestinal poisoning—abdominal cramps, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. The roots are considerably more concerning. People have mistaken pokeweed roots for edible roots such as ginseng and developed severe vomiting and diarrhea, sometimes with blood, low blood pressure, and other serious effects requiring hospitalization. Get this: young leaves have traditionally been eaten as "poke salad," but only after repeated boiling and draining. Raw or improperly prepared leaves can cause poisoning, so I would not regard them as safe to experiment with.  Yikes!  Boy the things you can learn on my blog!  You are welcome!  :-)