I woke up to this sexysexy tropical sky. Even if none of these heavenly clouds brought any rain, only extremely high humidity, aren’t they breathtaking?
I look up to the sky for peace and serenity.
#WordlessWednesday
“If you become a bird and fly away from me, I will be a tree that you come home to.”
Margaret Wise Brown
Margaret Wise Brown wrote at least a hundred books, including The Runaway Bunny and Goodnight Moon.
Our oppressive heat seems to have abated a bit and there’s the slightest chance we might see rain from Tropical Storm Marie, but I’m not overly optimistic. It would be awesome, though.
I was lucky enough to capture the swift travels of the full moon’a partial eclipse.
I used to think it was the moon that flew across the sky but I learned the rapid journey of the moon is an optical illusion caused by the Earth spinning on its axis, rather than the moon zooming through space. As Earth rotates, it makes the moon look like its traveling westward at a rate of about 15 degrees per hour but that’s really not the case. Like so many other things in life, it’s not what it seems.
That was enough education for one day — it makes my brain hurt — although I’m sure most people already learned that even if I didn’t. I can only assume it was yet another topic on yet another day I didn’t pay attention in school.
I love every phase of the moon and its significance. A partial lunar eclipse symbolizes a powerful period of emotional illumination and a transitional turning point where the subconscious shadow meets conscious awareness. As above, so below.
The moon and
her shadow side
Reveals exactly what we hide
Here’s the first pic with a bit of spooky cloud cover…
The eclipse’s progression…
Almost fully eclipsed, right around 9pm…
It’s still oppressively hot and humid here, but that’s supposed to change in the next couple of days, fingers crossed!
Were you able to experience this amazing partial lunar eclipse?
I ended up having a relapse of whatever upper respiratory infection I originally had, and doc prescribed different antibiotics so I wouldn’t end up with pneumonia.
This gave me time to go through old photos and share an awesome camping adventure we went on a few years ago to Crescent Beach in Washington. Near Port Angeles, it’s an amazing sandy, private beach with spectacular views of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Vancouver Island.
It’s fun to take the ferry there and back, such a treat, and not long enough to get seasick, which is a plus!
We camped right across the street from the beach, and there were decent waves for a little surfing, too. The weather was amazing, no one else was there, and the only negative were the mosquitos at night but the magical sunsets made it all worthwhile.
Fun facts:
Deer in Port Angeles:
Random wood structures:
Deer at campsite!
I love this view:
And this view:
Spectacular sunset from my tent!
View of Seattle from the return ferry:
The Original Angel Boy and I purchased olive trees at about the same time from our individual Trader Joe’s stores, just as a sort of experiment to see what would happen.
While his tree is about five feet tall now with many little olives, mine is stuck at two feet and, after a couple of years, here’s my bountiful harvest! I’m so excited!
Yes, I know you can’t eat olives directly from the tree because it’s extremely bitter and unpalatable due to a compound called oleuropein. Olives must be cured using salt packing, water soaking, or a brine process to make them edible.
I wonder who was the first person to figure out that it wasn’t a good idea to eat them raw?
And who first came up with these methods?
Dry Salt Method: Layer ripe black olives with coarse rock salt (about a 3:1 ratio of olives to salt) in a breathable container or a perforated bag to draw out the bitter juices over three to six weeks.
Water or Brine Curing: Soak the fresh olives in clean water, changing the water daily for two to three weeks until the bitterness fades, then transfer them to a salt brine solution for storage.
Rinse the cured olives thoroughly, then pack in olive oil, vinegar, or fresh herbs for final flavor enhancement.
There’s another method using lye, but that seems dangerous, so I didn’t include it.
I’ll let you know how delcious it is when it’s ready to eat and I arrange it on a miniature charcuterie platter.
There is nothing that seems more alive than a summery blooming California Poppy, the state flower of California. It’s the best orange EVER!
California poppies (Eschscholzia californica) are tough, low-maintenance wildflowers that thrive on neglect. They need at least six hours of direct sun daily, poor-to-average sandy soil that drains very well, and only occasional, sparing water once established. Avoid using any fertilizer, as rich soil or nutrients reduce flower production. It’s the perfect summer flower for a drought landscape!
Last night as I was closing the windows, I looked out and up, and witnessed the rising of the moon.
I hadn’t used my real camera in a while, but I knew my phone would never be able to capture the details, so I snapped a few pics with my Canon and this was the best of the bunch…She’s a beauty!
Yes, it was really that reddish-orange-gold color, probably from whatever wildfires are raging in the area, and those are the power lines near the lagoon.
Thank you, Mother Moon! Happily, I found a Leon Russell song to accompany a full moon…When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold:
I couldn’t locate a live performance, but it’s still Leon being Leon, Master of Space and TIme.
I’m not referring to myself, haha, not this time, anyway… but I’m so proud that I propagated this rose and cared for it so lovingly until it produced a first bloom!
I feel like I just gave birth to a beautiful rose baby.
Near a local Asian grocery store, I parked my car next to an empty space that should have been filled with some sort of landscaping but it was resolutely devoid of all life.
The skateboard definitely belonged to no one. I thought the shadows and shapes and red wheels were interesting enough to snap a photo of it, like the skateboard was purposely planted there, but for what reason?
Where did it come from? Who left it there? Why was it abandoned? Is it some kind of sign? We can only speculate. Considering the location of the store which is in a sort of sketchy part of town, it’s not unlikely that someone was arrested for shoplifting and had to abandon his board as he was handcuffed and whisked away in the back of a patrol car. At least that’s the story I’m telling myself.
I edited a version in black and white. I can’t decide which one I like better…
I felt like I should call the uber cool guy from YouTube, Crime Pays But Botany Doesn’t, and ask him to plant something in that dead zone. He’s really good about stuff like that.
Which photo do you like more, color or black and white?
I didn’t find a whole lot to celebrate on the 4th of July — Independence Day seems to have lost its meaning for a lot of us in the-not-very United States, but I did snap a photo of the sky in all of her glory, and that seems more significant.
In the garden as the sun waned, it was still quiet, the idiots hadn’t yet begun to set off their illegal fireworks, and Mother Nature put on a spectacular show.
I think I finally see the light at the end of the long, dark shingles tunnel; I slept all night and woke up with less pain, so that’s my good news. I am definitely getting the vaccine as soon as it’s safe, after completely healing.
Enchanted Seashells | Princess Rosebud 