In the back yard this afternoon

 

A new volunteer

Here's a recent addition to our back yard.  Google Lens says this is Moth Mullein (Verbascum blattaria), an introduced biennial weed.  The Missoula County Department of Ecology and Extension has it on their Noxious Weed Watch List, which doesn't surprise me in the least. 

The same, only different

It's another recent blossom of the same kind of flower shown in the previous post, except this time the image was taken late in the afternoon, and with a camera instead of a phone.  Definite improvement.

Another newcomer, and another

 

In early spring this year, I picked up a packet of flower seeds and planted them in our back yard.  Most of the flowers that have come up are cornflower, although a few other types have shown up as well.  This one just appeared yesterday, and the name Google identified it by is listed on the seed packet.

Much the same with this one, which I photographed on Monday.  Google says it's Clarkia amoena, and Clarkia amoena appears on the seed packet.  Maybe more of them will appear later, but for now we've only seen one of each.

Keeping busy

"Shorter of breath, and one day closer to death."  -- Roger Waters

"Can't we talk about something more pleasant?"  -- Roz Chast

"It was a good day." -- Ice Cube

In fact, it was a good day.  Fair and comfortable, with cumulus clouds across a bright blue sky.  PG and I drove a little, walked a little, enjoyed two good meals together.  I learned some things, accomplished others, made dessert (vanilla pudding from scratch), and practiced a piece until I could get through the first third without error at 75% speed.  

Oh, and this.  I was driving on a side street when I spotted a cottontail rabbit in a yard to my right.  The rabbit began moving in the same direction I was driving, and I momentarily lost sight of it behind a parked car.  

Just in case, I slowed down, and a second later, the rabbit hopped across the road in front of me.  It was barely visible in front of the car hood, and if I'd been going faster, the close call might have been too close.  Didn't anyone ever tell it about hrududil? 

Out in the country

Yesterday, Pat and I drove west just to get out of the house and stop scrolling.  In a few minutes, we were in rural farmland, and she enjoyed the scenery.  

At one point, we approached a traffic circle I hadn't used before, and I took the time to make sure I knew where traffic was coming from, how much of it there was, and that I would be safe getting into the circle.  A split-second before I applied the gas pedal again, the car behind me honked impatiently.  I'd expect that in the city at a red light, but at a traffic circle way out in the country?  What is it with these people? 

At the former Farmer Brown's Market out past Kutztown, I stopped at a Dollar General and got some snacks.  The parking lot was across from a working dairy farm where Pat and I once saw a newborn calf in a field.  I remember there were two adult cows, and they stared at us with a look that seemed to say "This doesn't concern you.  Keep moving."  

Before leaving the lot, I didn't bother consulting the map app before turning onto a road I hadn't traveled before.  It was headed north, so I knew at some point it was going to run into I-78, so no worries.

Shortly before reaching the interstate, I saw a sign for a covered bridge, and pulled off the road to get a snapshot of the Dreibelbis Station Bridge.  Hadn't heard of it, so a nice surprise for both of us.

Something to remember

Several years ago at age 65, and faced with the results of blood tests that indicated how close I was to being a full-on diabetic, I got serious about losing weight.  

The physician's assistant who gave me the warning I didn't need -- my parents and both older sisters had been obese and had developed adult-onset diabetes, so I knew -- told me I could do something to improve my test scores, but, she tossed off, I'd have to lose 10 percent of my body weight.  I believe "tossed off" describes it; it wasn't as though she said it with hope in her voice or that she sounded at all optimistic that I could do it.  Kind of an unspoken "...as though you could do that."

Maybe it was reverse psychology on her part, but if it was, it worked.  I'm sure I would have done it anyway, but her spoken skepticism was just that much more incentive.  "I'll show you" has led to good outcomes.  

No medication was necessary.  I just did what it takes, the simple "eat less, exercise more" that is harder than it sounds, because that phrase leaves out "no sweets, no fats" and other fun stuff that had inflated me to 253 pounds.

Back then, I could have told you how long it took, but I've forgotten that part.   But at my next annual Medicare appointment a year later, I weighed in at 228.  A year after that, I could say to her, "I dropped 25 pounds and have kept it off."  She didn't say anything in return.

More recently, I've fluctuated, as low as 220 after a low-grade URI, and as much as 233 after high-grade stress eating.  The annual Medicare physical is two months away, and I want to go in there as close as I can get to that low number.  I've been eating less and either walking, rebounding, or both, and this morning, I weighed 228 again.  Reading the scale gave me a good feeling, and it's one that I understand I have control over going forward.

I can't believe I haven't used this before, but now I just ask myself, "Are you hungry?"  Usually, the answer is "No," which has led to two meals a day instead of three, one in the morning sometime after coming downstairs, and the other in mid-afternoon, between the traditional lunch and supper times. 

There's a heat advisory in place for the area, so elderly folk like me shouldn't go for the usual evening walk.  Before the temperature reached the 90's, I did some gardening and dug up some stuff for replanting elsewhere, which was sufficient physical activity for the day.

Putting my time to good use

My wife and I were about to leave the house for a ride this afternoon.  I went outside into warm sunshine, and while I waited for her I looked at the bush just outside the garage door.  This insect flew into the picture and landed on a leaf, and I snapped four or five quick shots before it left.  

 

My Day(s)

Keeping my attention:

Checking the Internet Archive a few days ago, I learned that a book I was interested in had been added to the IA collection.  "The 168 Days" was written soon after the FDR proposal to enlarge the Supreme Court had been rejected, and while I'd known about it for some time, only last year it was made available online.  

Through that book listing, I learned about the Bellamy Salute, which was supposed to accompany the Pledge of Allegiance and predated the Fascist and Nazi salutes that resemble it.  Just the same, in 1942 the hand gesture while reciting the Pledge was changed to placing it over the heart, the one I remember from grade school.

Then yesterday, I learned about the following.  After reading Fred Allen's autobiography, Much Ado About Me, I knew he had written for Variety, and here's an excerpt from a piece from 1923.  More than 20 years later, the anti-South jokes in the original article were flipped into pro-South and anti-North jokes and delivered by Senator Claghorn, voiced by Kenny Delmar. (Yes, Delmar.  I noticed that too.)

Return visit

On April 16, I was looking at the wood violets on the formerly landscaped area of our back yard, when a movement nearby caught my attention.  A garter snake slithered away from me, but I got one adequate photo of it.  

Yesterday morning around 8:30, I went out the front door to show a contractor where I wanted him to start work. On the way back to the door, I saw a garter snake on the mulch beneath a small tree.  At first, I wasn't sure if it was alive, but it moved its head just a little, and I realized it was warming up in the early morning sun.  

One snake spotted in more than 25 years, and in the 26th year, two sightings in just over a month.  If it hadn't been for the contractor, I wouldn't have seen this one, so maybe I should get outside more.

A purpose and a place

Our front yard has been weed-and-feed-ed, and I recently paid to have several square feet of mulch added to the south side of the house.  The prior layer of mulch had broken down and was apparently an ideal potting mix for a number of weeds, which made it look shabby as seen from the front sidewalk.  Curb appeal, I get that.  Can't be lowering the property values in this neighborhood.  

The back yard, which isn't so visible, has had a crop of dandelions, and the formerly landscaped "island" near the back edge of the property is now largely covered with wood violets, since they are a natural low ground cover that needs no maintenance or mowing.  

Not to say it's all wild and unkempt; I keep the plentiful catnip from growing tall, and ruthlessly uproot the spiny thistles when they pop up.  From a distance it just looks green and intentional.

There are exceptions, though. Landscaping in the front yard was airtight (or "weedtight"?) for the first couple of years, but in the past two that has given way to patches of speedwell (left, above) and yellow wood sorrel.  I couldn't get a picture today of the latter with pollinators, but there were hoverflies helping themselves to the former.  They're colorful, they're pretty, and they're attractive to pollinators, so they're staying put.

Sunny Bunny, 10 May 2026

 The morning of May 9, I looked out the back window and saw two rabbits, probably the same two in the post of May 5.  One of them was in the sun, and I considered getting out the camera again, but I was on my way somewhere and passed up the opportunity.  The rest of the day I regretted it, though.  

So when I saw this cottontail the next morning, I stopped everything else and took this picture.  

"Whatever it is that you love, go and photograph it... Go photograph what you can’t not photograph. The things that upset you to miss." -- Kyle Agee, https://petapixel.com/2022/05/21/you-are-still-a-photographer-even-if-no-one-likes-your-images/

The Happiest Day of My Life (lately)

Around 6:45 this afternoon:

Across the room, my wife of 41 years 

My cat on my lap

Kaleidoscope on the iPad; I had listened to it in high school, more than 50 years ago

Useful information on Xitter, confirming I happened onto the right answer to something years ago

Homemade chocolate pudding for dessert

And then I went outside, and in our back yard I saw two rabbits.  I wanted to remember them, and make a note of all the good things of that moment.  Like the man said, "If this isn't nice, I don't know what is."

Not dead yet

Our next-door neighbors have a dogwood tree on their property, so I'll guess that this volunteer in our yard came from there.  It picked a good location, too, just inside the landscaping without interfering with any of the other greenery.  Something happened about five years ago that was a shock to its system, but it survived and each spring the blossoms appear as shown above.  

Almost, but not quite

I always thought trees were supposed to live on and on.  That's not been our experience at this house.  Some trees have thrived.  The township, or the developer, or someone authorized the planting of two maple trees in everyone's front yard back in 1998, shortly after we bought the house.  In 2026, both trees are still alive and well.

Landscapers planted other trees in the yard that are no longer alive.  The Bradford pear was the victim of a freak snowstorm in October 2011 that overloaded the leafy branches and broke them off at the trunk.  The red maple in the back yard just died for some reason, about 20 years after it was planted.  The cherry tree in front of the storm door leaked sap for a few years before dying.  Don't know whether any of this had to do with the invasive spotted lanternflies or some disease.

This weeping cherry tree got sick around 2022 and two or three full-size limbs stopped producing leaves, but a couple of others have survived every winter since then.  For a few days in spring, the blossoms appear just like always, and I take pictures because I think it's going to be the final year for the tree.  

Lucky timing

We've lived here for decades, and I can count on one hand the times I've seen a snake.  Here's the one I saw today while appreciating the wildflowers and tree blossoms in the back yard.  

Wildflowers along a stream

April 10, 2026, Ringoes, NJ 

New appearance

Yesterday, this wasn't in our back yard.  Today, a few clumps of verbena appeared near the stump of a red maple.  I found images of the same kind of flower in the same area and dated July 2025, so if it's not a perennial, it self-seeded.

 

Only one

The back yard has a growing number of dandelions, to go with the speedwell and the violets.  Today, this yellow flower appeared for the first time, and was the only one of its kind in the yard.  A quick search reveals it to be mock strawberry, and likely more of its kind will follow throughout the spring and summer.

First the speedwell, then the violets

These are growing along the sidewalk and slightly over the property line, so not ours, but still the first wood violets I've seen this spring. 

Undercover Cat

  

 Our little tabby girl has dragged the chair cover away from the arm and seat of the family room chair, along with the blue and white fleece blanket atop it that was meant to be her burrowing place.  After taking the photo, I pulled the edge back down so she could remain snuggled away from the light.

Along the front sidewalk

Always glad to see the creeping speedwell emerge in our yard.  It's a sign of spring.

 

Tuesday Morning

There's a folder of bookmarks at the top of the browser window, labeled "Anytime now."  I've had similar folders in the past with other names, like "Read sooner" and "USA" (not as descriptive, but it didn't take up much space on the bookmark bar either).

The majority of the bookmarks in those folders probably never did get followed up, but this morning I opened one of dozens saved under "Anytime now," and the following is what I learned.  

Source:  "Show Girl", J.P. McEvoy, 1928

Skillabootch?  Here's where I found out more about McEvoy, whose writing style likely would have fit in well a hundred years later.  

A few pages earlier, he'd referenced a business that was clear from the context, but I went down the rabbit hole anyway...

... and found a 1938 article from the New York Times that served as The Rest of the Story about Cain's Warehouse.  Big in '28, closed for good in '38.

"In the old days, [Cain] continued, there was always the rental from shows stored for the Summer. But soon he found consignments left overtime, and he had to sell them. Electrical fixtures might bring a fair return, but there wasn't much of a market, say, for the tropical love setting in 'Congai,' or a chariot-wheel from an ancient Klaw-Erlanger 'Ben Hur.'"  

  --  "Curtain Is Rung Down on Cain's, Warehouse for Closed Shows," 9 February 1938, no byline

Something to show for it

Kit Charlemagne, March 9, 2:00 p.m.

First creeping speedwell of the year, March 8, 12:30 p.m. 

Nope, not really close

From time to time I look for interesting rabbit holes at Duke University's Library, the Resource of Outdoor Advertising Descriptions (ROAD).  Last night, I saw a photograph of the illuminated billboards at Broadway and 37th Street in New York City.  

Inexplicably, its date is given as 1898, considering that one of the billboards promotes a production that claims it has been seen by President Taft, Vice-President Sherman, and Speaker Cannon.  It took a few seconds to confirm William Howard Taft was President from 1909-1913 and that the play, "Tillie's Nightmare", ran from May 5, 1910 - July 09, 1910 for 77 performances, and again for 8 more in December 1911.   

It should come as no surprise that a popular Broadway show was turned into a moving picture, although under an altered title.  The female lead remained Marie Dressler, while the male lead role went to a rising star who had already appeared in dozens of short films for producer/director Mack Sennett.  

The days just fly by

Enjoying every day with my wife, my best friend of 41 years.  After her long hard 2025, we appreciate her good days even more.

Walked a mile, rebounded for 15 minutes, ate only one full meal and part of another.  Vice:  12 oz Mexicoke.

It's just been that kind of month

 

Afternoon napping

From left:  Nelson and Kit Charlemagne

Back yard, late afternoon, the day after a foot of snow

Early morning snow

Taken at 6:00 a.m., or about 90 minutes before sunrise.  Details on the file say that it was 1/4 second at f/1.8 and ISO-2500, with no flash.  The neighbors have several ground lights in their front yard.  

 

Kit Charlemagne in the late afternoon sun

Waiting with faint hope

To begin with, I was pretty, pretty, pretty close to 40°33'56.9"N 75°35'07.2"W in the map screen shot immediately below.  

The next image gives you an idea of what I saw looking west from nearby Grange Road, April 21, 2024.  One white flower was visible in the middle of an open field, and I walked over for a closer look.   

Soon the flowers were gone and the field was planted in soybeans.  But next spring, April 29, 2025 to be exact, the same kind of white flowers reappeared, shown in the third image.  They're called ornithogalum nutans, or drooping star-of-Bethlehem, and evidently their bulbs are pretty hardy, if not always welcome.

Finally, a view of the same field looking south, January 6, 2026.  The area shown in the prior pictures hasn't yet been dug up or graded, but in my experience, there's not much reason to be optimistic.

Until the early part of the decade, the roadside was seldom tended, and wildflowers grew all along it, including chicory, hawkweed, red clover, and Queen Anne's lace.  A short distance away, purple asters thrived near the bypass.  All that has changed, and I'm glad I took pictures while I had the chance.

March 13:  Township appears to have scraped off all remaining topsoil and piled it up for transfer somewhere else.  And that's that.

May 3:  A recent township public meeting announced that a new police station will be built on the site. Late last year, the township bought the property from the estate of its former owner.  The house on the property would be razed, and several tall trees have already been cut down. That includes the biggest one in the center of the above photo, lined up roughly between the 2nd and 3rd orange cone.  

Shrug

And then things started happening, and writing in here went to the bottom of the priority list.  Let's see how I feel in a few days before going any further.