Hkaagh, hkaagh
Is that a choking noise coming from the screen? Something must be misspelled. Well, it happens. I’m not an accomplished typist. I look up from the keyboard to see what’s wrong.
But what catches my eye first is something I haven’t seen before: my email app has taken a lesson from my phone and is offering me options to correct my (presumed) mistake.
Back-and-frothing
What a thrill! A lunar eclipse. In the early evening, in my time zone. On a warm-enough night.
What a disappointment! A cloudy night, fuzzifying the moon and eliminating any colour from the equation. Dagnab it.
I went out anyway, just because. Because I’d already assembled my camera equipment. Because I’d figured out where the moon would be, when, and where it would be going. Because I’d chosen a location that would capitalize on those facts.
First I went into the backyard, to catch the full and uneclipsed moon low-ish in the sky. Then I drove to a local park, to catch the Earth’s shadow halfway up the moon.
Here’s what other people got – to see and to photograph. How annoying is that? And how splendid?
As dry leaves drift down off the trees and skitter across the path ahead of me, I admire the new growth beside me.
As I noted a few years ago, the mixed-up seasonal signals in Phoenix abound, but I’ve learned to live with it.
I’ve almost given up trying to get freeze-frame photos of hummingbirds in flight: the special equipment and the superior patience required are both unavailable in my case. Almost given up: I won’t commit to swearing off it entirely.
But the little flitters are a staple of my frequent walks along the desert wash that snakes (figuratively and literally, I suppose) through my winter neighbourhood, so I’m still trying to catch them in static but interesting and well-lit poses. And the game continues.
I look up to see the Big Guy — back inside from scraping down the rental-accommodation’s BBQ, yech — brandishing something sharp. Was it the task that made him crack? Was it something I said?
No, it was just to show me a face. And an excellent example of the genre it is, too.
We are now welcoming guests . . .
Sitting in my own flight’s holding pen, I hear loud loudspeaker announcements without end, amen, from Another Airline. They seem to have several flights departing from adjacent gates within a few minutes of each other. Thus do their standard boarding announcements gradually repeat themselves into my consciousness. Continue reading
In its copper mining heyday, Bisbee was the biggest centre between St. Louis and San Francisco. It’s on the National Historic Register, but is now more commonly visited, I expect, for its restaurants and for its twinkly lights. But there are a few who go to Bisbee for its proximity to Whitewater Draw, where ten- to thirty-thousand sandhill cranes winter. You might have skimmed over that, so let me say it again, slowly: Ten. To. Thirty. Thousand. Continue reading
For every action,
there is an equal and opposite reaction.
– The Physics Classroom
The equality might be tough to measure, but the oppositeness seemed obvious, anyway.
As we watched about 10,000 sandhill cranes at Whitewater Draw in SE Arizona, our attention was drawn by a northern harrier — maybe a male and a female, judging by the colouring – hunting over the marsh. Continue reading
They test my resolve immediately. So be it.
The recent Cabinet shuffle saw Jody Wilson-Raybould moved from Justice to Veterans Affairs with the usual blather from those involved, summed up thusly.
What, don’t you think veterans matter?
Posted: 2025 Jun 21
Thanks to John Whitman for this slightly dismayed face from downtown Ottawa.
This space is available for other submissions.
