Seeing The Tree in a Different Way

I was walking up the driveway at some point today and I looked at the Japanese Maple, and suddenly I saw it in a different way!  There was soft light coming from the west illuminating the tree, so essentially it was from over my shoulder.  I think of this tree as an amazing and beautiful tree, but as a delicate tree with branches spreading everywhere.  But there is nothing delicate looking when we are looking at the trunk close to the ground. What I saw today was an extremely strong, muscular trunk going off in different directions.  There was nothing delicate at all in this view of the tree.  It was a revelation to me to see it this way!  This first photograph was done with my infrared modified camera which is why anything green looks white..

I photographed this with my regular color camera, because this is the way that I first saw it.  But after seeing the infrared camera version, I decided to convert this image to black and white to see how different it would look than in color.

So this is the black and white version - the same image from above, with all the color removed.  Do you have a favorite?  I would love to know!

 

Clouds at Sunset

I drive east from my street to get to the grocery store.  When I parked my car at the store I was facing west and couldn't believe my eyes.  These spectacular clouds were in the sky to the west and the sun had just set.  So I got out of my car and took a camera out of the trunk and started walking around the parking lot to find the best view.  This one was not bad!  Not sure what kind of clouds these are but I might guess Alto Cumulus.  But I will send a copy of this to my friend George and he will know.  As I walked to the store, I saw a woman who had gotten out of her car, and she had her phone up to her eyes and was photographing them as well.  Meanwhile a number of others were walking to and from their cars and never seemed to notice.  I spoke to the woman with the phone and congratulated her for both noticing and then photographing this spectacular scene.

 

Such Pretty Leaves

It was 61 today so I went for my bike ride late this afternoon.  I do 10 miles up and down the hills of Sea Cliff.  On the way back up my street to home I flashed by these beautiful red leaves growing in the ivy alongside the street.  I passed them then stopped, turned around and went back..  I got off my bike and used my iPhone to photograph them.  They were striking in their contrast to the dark green ivy.  After I finished photographing them, I reached into the ivy and pulled some of these out of the ground to take home.  I gave them to Kathy to put in a vase on the dining room table.  They look beauriful there!  Before you have a heart attack, I know that this is poison ivy.  I was just kidding about bringing them home.  Just wanted to see who recognized how stupid I would have to be to do this!  But here's the thing - we have had poison ivy in our ivy and I don't remember it turning red in the fall.  So...  Maybe this is not poison ivy.  "Leaves of three, let them be."  So is it?

 

"WHAT IS THAT IN THE SKY?

Our club had an outreach event tonight at a nearby high school.  We set up our telescopes to show adults and children the full moon and the planet Saturn.  I was setting up my telescope to show a woman and her two children the full moon.  I heard someone say "What is that?"  "Look at that thing in the sky!  What is that?"  So I turned and saw something I had never seen before!  Then a friend said "It's a rocket that was launched from Europe this afternoon."  It was an unbelievable sight!  I had been taking some photographs of people observing with my SONY a7 camera but I had put it back in the car. "Oh well, no camera, no photo..."  Then I noticed that the woman who was waiting to look through my scope was shooting photographs of it with her phone!  So I am a complete dolt!  I immediately grabbed my phone and started shooting!  Here is my shot.  Don has posted that it is an Ariane 6 rocket launched by the European Space Agency this afternoon The Ariane 6 rocket lifted off from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, today at approximately 4:03 PM.  What an unbelievable sight this was!  Apparently the rocket was venting unused fuel.

 

A Food Question

I need some help from any of you who are cooks and foodies, please.  Growing up in Connecticut in the 1950's and 1960's, our mom cooked spaghetti for dinner fairly often.  It was the thicker, the "normal" variety.  Somewhere along the line, perhaps in only the last 10 years, I came to really love "thin spaghetti."  I have the sense that thin spaghetti is a relatively new variety.  I don't think the thin stuff was around when I was a kid.  The other day we were out of the thin stuff and had to eat the regular, and I was really disappointed.  Can't believe that I didn't enjoy the thick stuff as much.  Does anyone have any idea when thin spaghetti arrived in the consciousness of American family cooks?  Thanks for any information.  The thin spaghetti is on the left and the regular on the right, if you are curious.

 

Driver Safety Class

Most of our day was taken up with a Driver Safety Class that we take every three years.  It runs fromn 9 AM to 4 PM with time out for lunch.  But it was almost six hours of sitting!  I never sit for 6 hours at a time!  I would get up and walk around the room when there were short bathroom breaks in the morning and afternoon.  I cannot sit that long!  Lots of interesting safety information.  They have made changes in the course to consider newer cars like our Camry and all the automation and safety stuff built in, which was good.  But much of it was reviews of laws and so on, and not much of that was new information.  But were troopers and paid attention.  The good part is a 10% reduction in basic auto insurance.  Not sure what that means, but at least there is SOME reduction!  So we are good for three years now and can relax.

 

The Object, The Colors

I did my first bike ride in a couple of weeks today.  With all the work on painting parts of the house, I never had time to go for a ride late in the afternoon after finishing painting.  It was nice to be out!  Blue sky, sunshine, and not much traffic.  I have a few places where I stop along my 10 mile ride.  I make note of the times at my checkpoints to see how I am doing.  When I stopped at this fire hydrant today, I saw the brilliant red and yellow colors on it, with a blue sky in the background.  I was already stopped, so I got out my iPhone because I don't carry a camera with me on my rides.  So I think this photograph is mainly about the object - the fire hydrant - but it may in fact be more about color.  Something about the brilliant colors brightened my day, actually, in addition to my ride.  On second thought, I have changed my mind and this photograph is ALL about the color!