Life in our back yard, plus something unrelated

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And now for something completely different:

Exactly like the Woody Allen joke:  the food is lousy, and such small portions.  

By any other name

I know, I know, it's hedge bindweed and it's an unwelcome invader.  It's almost impossible to get rid of when it gets its roots in, and it chokes out desirable greenery.  But I say it's Morning Glory, and I say it's pretty.

Cervenka Farm, New Jersey

 

Fatal accident

Yesterday morning, at about 11:15 I began driving to Tabby's Place.  Four miles later, I saw a line of cars and their red tail lights on the part of Route 309 that connects to I-78.  Fortunately, the long line hadn't reached the Cedar Crest exit, and neither had I.  

Shortly before, a 20-year-old guy on a motorcycle had been boxed in the middle lane behind a semi slowly climbing a hill.  The motorcyclist tried zipping into the fast lane to get around it, but clipped the semi and rebounded into an Escalade that was already there.  All this at high speed.  

One news report said the accident had been reported at about 9:45, and a different source said the young man was pronounced dead at the scene at 11:15.  

When I took the Cedar Crest exit, I stopped in the parking lot of a medical building and checked local news sources plus a map/traffic app.  After collecting those facts, I understood that the road would be closed for some time (in the end, it was two hours), and turned around and went back home.  

Kind of stands out, doesn't it?

If we are to believe Google Lens, this is a solitary Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus), "a large conifer native to eastern North America."

Also seen in the park:  Swamp Rose Mallow, White Vervain, Prunella vulgaris (aka Common Self-Heal), and a lot of purple loosestrife.  They're the reason for the wiggles in the path on the lower right below.

Thoughts While Scrolling

Barclays US?  Or Barclay Sus?  

What do you think?  Is it AI or not?  Looks like he has a normal amount of fingers, but rescuing children in uniform and the "Dodgers quarterback" description make me wonder...

Straight and tall

Well, straight anyway.  Conocybe Apala (Milky Cone Cap), taken tonight in our back yard. 

 

It used to be landscaped

Now it's loaded with volunteer greenery and insects that accompany it.  I like this way better.

Honeybee on oregano flower, 26 July 2025

Been thinking about this already

Lately, the President of the United States has let it be known that the sugar-sweetened Coca-Cola from Mexico is superior to the HFCS-sweetened Coke currently made in USA.  My opinion is the same as his.

After the storm

It wouldn't have seemed possible during the thunderstorm that hit the area at about 5:00 this afternoon, but by 7:00 things were calmer, drier and especially, cooler.  It was just a little too late for this tree the next street over.  

Conditions were much better this evening for walking around the neighborhood, and I got in about a mile and a quarter.  Map My Walk credited me with 2,569 steps, which is about a third of what some medical concern claims is the proper daily amount. 

I saw this about a few hundred steps from home, in addition to a great many other rabbits along the way, which made it worth the trip.

Tonight's recap

Good Queen Swirly (9:44 a.m.)

But why?  (7:30 p.m.)

Two of the many seen along the way.  (7:35 p.m.)

Back in my own yard.  The Indian Blanket flower that began as a volunteer

 in late June 2020 is still thriving, more than five years later.  (7:47 p.m.)

Google Lens says, "The image displays a cluster of Verbena flowers, 

also known as Vervain."  (7:48 p.m.)

Welcome to the new arrival

I found some old nasturtium seeds in the garage and planted them in a planter this spring.  Just three seeds sprouted, and until a day or two ago, no flowers had been produced.  

 

Nice

Rabbit Holes

For the first time in months, I uploaded a photo of mine to Pinterest.  While on the site, I saw someone else's upload, and it had to do with a Chevrolet dealer in Allentown.  An hour later...

When I moved to the area in 1987, there was an appliance dealer whose building had obviously been an auto showroom in years past.  The Pinterest pin provided more detail, and what with one thing and another, I learned that the used car lot on the southwest corner is still a used car lot today, only under another dealer name.  The showroom/appliance store on the southeast corner was torn down in 2006 and a bank erected on the site.  The Esso station on the northwest corner became an Exxon, then a Hess, and today is a Speedway gas/convenience store.  The diner on the northeast corner is still a diner, although last time I drove by, it appeared to have gone out of business.

Then there was the 1971 purchase of a former A&P store a little south of the corners described above.  The A&P had been there for something like 25 years, but it was a small neighborhood grocery store, not a large supermarket, so it didn't fit in the company's plans.  A newspaper ad from the following year, found on WikiMedia, showed the rebranded building.  Then a look at Google street view from May 2008 showed the same building, which now housed a restaurant, but still had the Centennial peak on its roof.  However, in a 2011 photo of the building, it had been remodeled and the peak removed.  As of today, the same restaurant was open in the building, as it had been in 2008, but the outside had been landscaped and looked much nicer than before.  

That's where I stopped with the former Allentown A&P and looked at the Pleasant Family Shopping graphics that showed a newspaper ad for a grand opening of a Centennial A&P in Sandusky, Ohio.  I didn't dig as hard here, settling for learning that the building that opened in 1960 had been replaced by a huge Kroger Marketplace.  Enough for tonight.  That was interesting.

Because I Can

  

PG can't walk very far anymore, so if I want to take a walk around the neighborhood, it has to be done alone.  If I see something interesting, I take a picture to show her afterward.  This is what I'd call interesting.  Farther away in the yard were two more cottontails, but they would have been tiny specks compared with these three.  

Google calls this Wild Bergamot, aka Bee Balm.  There was a good-sized patch of it near the creek that runs through the local park.  

The oregano in our back yard has grown to a few feet tall, and its flowers are attracting numerous honeybees.  (Oregano honey?  Hmm.)  No picture yet, due to the quality of the light.  When it's nice, bright, and indirect, as in the bee balm snapshot above, I'll haul out the phone.  

Some Fun Now

I was watching an episode of Victory At Sea when this screen came up.  Automatically, I tried to figure out when this footage was taken.  

At far left, I can read "Chester Morris", but not the name of the film or the theatre.  A little to the right, there's "Special Agent" at the Central, I believe, and above that I have no doubt that "Bengal Tiger" is at the Strand.  

Some minutes later, I have learned that all three films were released in mid-1936, and that the Morris film is named "Counterfeit."  What's more, the three stars of "Bengal Tiger" are Barton MacLane, June Travis, and Warren Hull.  The New York Times of July 29, 1936 notes that the film is scheduled to open on this day.

But information available says that "Counterfeit" was released May 25, 1936, two months earlier, and that bit about "Second Smash Week" doesn't add up.  Not a big deal, though.

Now all I want to do is screenshot it, and that's where it got weird.  WIN/SHIFT/S caused the YouTube screen to go black, first in Chrome, then in Edge and Firefox.  Anything I'm doing wrong to cause it?  Search says try double-clicking and then choosing save from the menu that comes up.  Nope -- the save function is there, but it's grayed out.  Then to Reddit, where they said hardware acceleration should be turned off, but that didn't change the result either.  

By this time, I would have used my phone to get it over with, but I'd left it downstairs.  A few more minutes, and I think I've found the answer:  It's a feature, applied to copy-protect copyrighted material.  OK then, I'll just bookmark it and come back tomorrow with my phone.

Which I did...

So anyway, the Globe is now the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre.  The Central became the Columbia, the Gotham, the Holiday, and more before being demolished in 1998.  Likewise, the Strand was razed in 1987.  

Once more, adding to the sum total of human knowledge.

A long day

Swirly's been under the weather, up one day, down the next, and after the past weekend Pat and I wanted to take her right away this morning to our usual vet. Trouble was, they said they were completely booked for the day.

We went to one of the 24-hour vets they recommended, and within minutes of getting there, Swirly was checked over and triaged, and we all sat down to wait our turn. Then a person arrived whose dog was having seizures. Then a couple walked in with an old dog with difficulty breathing.

It took longer than anyone would have wanted, but staff members kept us informed throughout, so we never felt like saying "Remember us?" Eventually we and Swirly were taken back to an exam room, and after they took a closer look, they found one bladder stone stuck to her fur, and more still inside. Vital signs good, no damage to kidneys, but a UTI in progress.

She's staying overnight with an operation scheduled for tomorrow, and we should be able to pick her up before the end of the day. Jack and Jennie loaned us one of their dog enclosures on short notice, which will really help with our Good Queen's recovery. 

Kids these days

On Xitter, one discussion involved how Sandy Koufax would pitch in 2025, based on his Cy Young and NL MVP season of 1963.  One man opined that Koufax had dominated all right, but not against the kind of hitters who dominate today.  "Janitors," he called the old-timers.

Another poster weighed in with a list of so-called janitors, shown below.

To which list I thought, um...  the names are those of players who had been, or were rising stars, along with those whose prime was in 1963.  But I held my tongue.  

Probably the best action in that venue was no action.  But here, where Asian skimmers and scrapers are the most frequent visitors, I can speak more freely.  The poster knew the players, but plainly did not check their statistics.  No complaint with Mays, Aaron, Clemente and McCovey, but Ernie Banks batted .227, Frank Robinson had a down year (.259/.379/.442), and Brock, Schofield, Mazeroski, and 19-year-old rookie Staub all finished below the league average of .245/.306/.364, while 42-year-old Musial, in his final season, posted a .255 average.  Orlando Cepeda, Bill White, and Johnny Callison would have fit better on the list. And Pete Rose?  Rookie of the Year, but a couple of years away from perennial .300-hitter status.

1st of the year

At mid-day yesterday, I saw one chicory flower growing along Grange Road.  The first of many...

Thoughts while strolling

A mile and a quarter at a slightly faster pace than I set when walking around this neighborhood.  I saw two deer, many swallows swooping over the surface of the pond, and one large downed tree.  

High muddy water in the pond and the creek that feeds into it.

Another first

This morning in our back yard.  Looks like a kind of ladybug, but the back isn't smooth like wings.

So let's look around and try to learn something.  

Larva (left), adult (center), and pupa (right)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonia_axyridis

"Harmonia axyridis is a large lady beetle or ladybug species that is most commonly known as the harlequin, Asian, or multicoloured Asian lady beetle."

My Day

(1) caregiver (meds, prescriptions, appointments)

(2) TP volunteer image-link fixer

(3) info on cat-calming products

(4) make vanilla pudding?  make cinnamon buns?

(5) cranberry juice sweetener - how much / proportion?

(6) Dr ___, GI specialist - look up

(7) Take a walk and look for interesting images

Tiny and Tinier

 

Yellow wood sorrel flowers are no bigger than a dime, and the mite is larger than a grain of sand, but not that much larger.

 

There he goes again

No information, really?  Pig Latin was the first thing I thought of when I saw the name "Akshay".         

      

And another one

 

I took a walk around the neighborhood early this evening, and moments before I got back home, this fox hurried through a yard across the street.   A few steps later, I saw a cottontail at the corner of the house where the fox had briefly visited.  

First a coyote, now a fox in our neighborhood.  The arrival of new and hungry predators means that the area rabbits -- and the mother cat who has mooched off us since February -- will have to be still more cautious.  

An unexpected visitor

Just before 6:00 this afternoon, a coyote trotted through a neighbor's yard behind us.  First time I've seen one this close!

I was strolling in the park one day

A couple of brief stops along the way, first to watch a bluebird whose box I'd walked by, and then to admire a patch of Dame's rocket along the creek.  Interested today in the distance, not the time on task.

Automotive Geography

 Palisades drive.

Palisades park.

I ask you...

... if you get wings at a wing bar, then what do you get at an Asian bar?

Spring flowers

Seen along area roads today.

Philadelphia Fleabane.

Dame's Rocket.

I didn't bother

Things I saw but didn't photograph:  At the traffic light exiting a shopping center, across from the former world headquarters of Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.   In the grass between the sidewalk and a chain link fence, two Canada geese were walking.  As I turned onto the road, I saw several goslings walking with them.  

I took a shopping list into a store, and in one aisle I found someone else's shopping list.  Both lists had been written on paper that bore the name of the same children's charity.  

At the end of the day

   

The worm/caterpillar on the left was dangling at eye level over the sidewalk from an oak tree on the next door neighbor's property.  Between its size and its constant motion, I knew it would take a miracle to get a good focused image, and after four blurry tries, I settled for the one you see above.  What it is doesn't feel as useful to remember as just recording that it was there, and that I almost walked into it.

And now, what you've no doubt been waiting for:  Google Lens guessed that the thing in the photo above right is possibly an x-ray of a tibia, or else an image of paint peeling from a Ford F-150.  Guess I'll have to try something else.

Later:  Blue-tailed damselfly?  OK, I can accept that.

Ancora Imparo:  (1) learned that the WIN/Shift/S combination that does screen grabs also records videos, the way Dropbox used to do.  Used it to save a clip from a post on Xitter that showed a dog jumping ropes being twirled by a human and two other dogs.  (2) learned that FastStone accesses the latitude and longitude recorded on pictures taken with my Samsung Galaxy, and it can place them on a screen in Google Maps (Windows 11).  The grab below shows where I saw the insect on the right above.

Lots of unnecessary eating today, so I needed a walk late this afternoon.  The timeline on Google Maps (Android) isn't as detailed as it used to be, so when it told me just now that I'd only walked half a mile, I had my doubts.  (There should be an app for that.  A free one would be best for my budget.)

EDIT:  Did some searching and eventually settled on MapMyWalk.  Yesterday's walks totaled a bit over a mile and a half.