2021 Christmas Decorations Tour

In 2019, I took still pix at 16 sites, some in the day time, some at night. (I skipped 2020.) This year, I recorded clips from 26 sites, all during daylight. Read the entire article and comment there, please.

Musement Over 2021 Holiday Season Ad Circular

A recent Bed Bath & Beyond ad circular had a gift suggestion that caught my eye for weirdness: Battery Storage System. My curiosity nudged me to look online. Additional items in the circular made me chuckle. Read the entire article and comment there, please.

Kwik N EZ Veggie Chili

This single-serving dish calls for 1/4 package of frozen veggies (four ounces), 1/4 can of beans, chili flavor rec'd (slightly less than four ounces), and two ounces of shredded cheese. ... The recipe is conveniently expandable for up to four eaters. Read the entire article and comment there, please.

2019 Halloween, Pre-pandemic Year

The pandemic came early in 2020. The images I captured in 2019, imho, convey more carefree times with no inkling of the coming year's pall and caution over contact during Halloween. The video includes scenery from 25 houses, ... Read the entire article and comment there, please.

Roving Around Halloween 2021

It's gotten to be a tradition with me to wander/rove around to find Halloween scenes. This year, I decided to video-record the sites. ... I made the rounds to the 21 sites a few days ago. Read the entire article and comment there, please.

Red-tailed Hawk Catches Mid-day Squirrel Meal

Captured images in early 2020 of a red-tailed hawk—from initial perching on first tree to perching on second tree with its captured squirrel meal. Read the entire article and comment there, please.

Auther, Authur, Author, Other

Two misspellings, then correct spelling ("author") led me to think of "other". Although directly unrelated to auther/authur/author, "other" letters spell like they could have been pronounced with a short "o" and unvoiced "th". It also seems illogical that the "o" is pronounced as a short "u". These thoughts nudged me to write about some language items, such as some older English-language letters, consonant pairs, silent letters, vowels, and the schwa. Read the entire article and comment there, please.

Pairing Up Chemex Carafe and Coffee Machine Filter Basket

The 12-cup electric drip coffee maker from only 2017 quit after brewing a partial pot of hot coffee. The reservoir still had some cold water. When I poked around my supermarket website for candidate replacement coffee makers and spotted a Chemex, I thought, "Whoa! I have one of those!" I'd had it for many years but didn't use it and forgot about it.

Anyway, I made short-term use of my Chemex with the broken machine's filter basket and filters instead of hunting down square Chemex filters. Read the entire article and comment there, please.

Cicadas Overnite Early Aug 2021

On August 2 morning, I spotted 5 items—a live but nearly immobile cicada and four exuviae (exoskeletons). The cicada and an exuviae (Specimens A and B) were on one porch column. Another exuviae (Specimen C) was on the second column, and two (Specimens D and E) were on the third column. Read the entire article and comment there, please.

EZ Blender Hummus 2.0

 

This hummus recipe is blender based, tweaked from my first batch in June 2021 (YT video, blog article). It's thicker and smoother, very little of it getting runny by the next few days. Read the entire article and comment there, please.

June and July 2021 Full Moons, Strawberry and Buck

Did you wonder about recent hoopla about names for full moons? My emphasis is on Strawberry (June) and Buck (July) for this year.

June—moon, strawberries, neapolitan ice cream, neapolitany cakes
July—moon, bucks and other deer, composites of buck-cameo bucks

Read the entire article and comment there, please.

EZ Blender Hummus, Closer Eying 4 Ease

The "EZ Blender Hummus" article and video pertain to the actual procedure for making a batch. I include info about some substitutions of several online recipes' ingredients for convenience. This article goes into more details and extra info about hummus considerations. Read the entire article and comment there, please.

EZ Blender Hummus

A few weeks ago, I spotted a post on LinkedIn that pointed to "Homemade Hummus Dip". Some comments gave me ideas for substitutions so I might avoid winding up with excess, seldom-used ingredients. ... This hummus recipe is blender based. Read the entire article and comment there, please.

Holey Pipes--Flute, Piccolo, Recorder, Fife, Pan Flute

 Earlier this month, a classical radio station mentioned a program having recorders. "Recorder" had mystified me for a long time. I wondered why the term, when it didn't record. I also wondered about other single-pipe instruments that musicians blew into, such as flutes, piccolos, and fifes. As for pan flutes, ... Read the entire article and comment there, please.

8 Caterpillars and Inchworms from April 11-17 2021

These eight critters that I imaged in the neighborhood between April 11 and 17 had fascinated me but also mystified me. Inchworms are a subset of caterpillars. Seems that the locomotion means indicates which animal is which. Read the entire article and comment there, please.

Thread-leaf Agave in Fall 2020--Blooms, Bees, and Beyond

My video's images are from November 3 through 20, which include blooms and bees, and also noting the increasing leftward lean of the stalk. ... In researching my subject plant, I looked at several websites for differences between filifera and its close relative, schidigera, both in the Asparagaceae family. Read the entire article and comment there, please.

Thread-leaf Agave in Fall 2020--Emerging Stalk and Buds

Early October 2020, I spotted an agave with an emerging stalk (about 7' high). Also, the ballish shape of the leaves ("rosette") caught my eye. I've seen numerous agaves sprout stalks in spring. Read the entire article and comment there, please.

A 2021 Century Plant's Unfortunate Life Cycle

On January 18, I spotted the agave with an emerging stalk. (Speculating it started its growth maybe the previous week.) Its timing seemed way earlier in a year; many others I've observed seemed to start in early March. Read the entire article and comment there, please.

Feb 2021 Deep Freeze to Aftermath Images

The time period between February 11 and February 23 was exciting for the snow, ice, and cold. Environments outside were pictureworthy. I needed to take a few pix through windows, unwilling to venture into such bone-chilling cold and also risking ruining my camera. I created several composites and organized into groups that show ice, snow, and aftermath. Read the entire article and comment there, please.

Fresh Fruit Lineup Between Store Trek Cycles

My lineup of fruits per store trek cycle: grapes (usually red or black), bananas, pears, cantaloupes, and honeydews. I have learned that scheduling them in for consumption requires awareness of when they're edible or require additional ripening, portions yields, and how long they might last in storage. Read the entire article and comment there, please.

Can't Rush Fall Leaves v3

Another version of "Can't Rush Fall Leaves"? Yes! The first version had a spoken intro, real-time and speeded-up clips, in some ways, conveying a hurry-up message. The second version excluded snow days and intro. This third version includes all seven days with various excises and accommodating speedups, but none at 4x. For more info, read the entire article and comment there, please.

Can't Rush Fall Leaves v2 and Snow Daze

This article has the unusual feature of linking to two videos rather than only one. For "Can't Rush Fall Leaves, Parody of Can't Hurry Love", ... For more info about the "Can't Rush Fall Leaves" video leveraging and results, read the entire article and comment there, please.

Can't Rush Fall Leaves, Parody of Can't Hurry Love

Not sure when leaves start falling, though autumn officially starts late September. I hadn't thought to take pix or record autumn leaves and trees until late December. During raking around then, I thought of parodying "Can't Hurry Love" with initial title of "Can't Hurry Leaves". Refined it to "Can't Rush Fall Leaves" to match syllable count. I took pix and recorded clips, which accompany my music parody. Read the entire article and comment there, please.