merry christmas!
picture is from a little video I shot in 2002, so long ago…
song of the day, Merv Griffin, Christmas City
today’s early morning phenology: gray skies, fog, 31 degrees, icy.
type
Song of the day: Tommy Tutone, 567-5309
Today’s Phenology:
Grey sky, gray snow, and gray spirits.
A typical January day, minus 11 inches of snow and plus 12 degrees. Squirrels seen sunning themselves on rocks.
Record Stores of the Twin Cities: Vintage Music Co, Minneapolis
Song of the day, Albert Ammons and Pete Johnson, Sixth Avenue Express
Reduction I, 2013, by Kondō Takahiro, at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Song of the day: Laurie Anderson, Gravity’s Angel
Sunny Prairie Day
Song of the day: Paul Simon, Graceland & You Can Call Me Al
black bird and green
Song of the day: Los Lobos, Peace
crossing the mighty minnehaha
Song of the day: Ralf Bendix, Minne Minnehaha
Picnic Grounds of the Ancients
These mysterious structures were built millions of years ago, perhaps, by ancient suburbanites of this locale. The local legends speak of something referred to only as “weenie-roasts.” What actually took place here, what purpose these small monolithic structures served, what happened to the forgotten tribes that used them for some long lost purpose… well, we may never know the true story. We are left with conjecture and imagination. Could this be the representation of an ancient spacecraft that landed here before recorded time? Or it is an igloo precursor, hewn from stone by long-lost technology? Or some sort of communication device? Or an early sauna? Or the beehive of the gods???
Song of the day: Theme from the X Files
Summertime: Enjoy Life!
Song of the Day: Loudon Wainwright III, Got a Ukulele
The Call of the Wild
Yesterday’s Phenology: A bit of a front moved through. Or something. Anyway it started raining in the early morning and rained most of the day. A good soaking.
Song of the day: Los Lobos, Will the Wolf Survive
One from the archives, march 2012, Gotham City
Yesterday’s Phenology: A nice sunny warm dry day. And a bit breezy. And everything is pretty green again
Song of the day: The Vogues, Five O’Clock World
mo cro
Yesterday’s Phenology: Almost a perfect day, especially from a bike-riding perspective: overcast. upper sixties, low seventies? Not much wind at all. All this led to a pretty nice ride. There’s a lot of water locally. There’s a gully by the greenway that is usually dry. I see cats down there sometimes when I’m just getting onto the bikeway. Today: 4 mallards, paddling about. Now that all the trees are leafed out, I hear more birds than I see. Today featured the Red-winged blackbirds.
Song of the day: Los Lobos, Wicked Rain
early morning fog
Yesterday’s Phenology: In the upper 40s in the early morning, a bit chilly on the bike. Warmed up a bit as day wore on , but still, mostly cloudy and cool, with some gusty breezes.
Song of the day: the Beatles, Hey Jude
Coffee Roaster, Dunn Brothers Coffee, St. Paul
Yesterday’s Phenology: Another good day, overcast and cool. Maybe a few sprinkles in the evening, maybe a little sunshine. Seagulls wheeling in the sky, making a racket. May have been Parking Lot Gulls, actually.
Song of the day: Sarah Vaughan, Black Coffee
cardinal time
Yesterday’s Phenology: an overcast day, sprinkling a bit of rain occasionally, but mostly just gray and apparently planning on rain. Temp in the 40s, I think. Many birds about, woodpeckers pecking away, cardinals claiming territory, other little birds flitting about. The crows have a lower profile.
Song of the day: Lyle Lovett, Summer Wind
crows in control
Yesterday’s Phenology: Positively nice. Mid 50s. Magical disappearance of most of pond ice and snow scraps. Cardinals and Red-winged blackbirds singing their morning songs.
Song of the day: Sheryl Crow, Everyday Is A Winding Road
Tired dog
Yesterday’s Phenology: Well, we return to winter. About 4 inches of snow or so on the ground this morning, and, what with daylight saving’s time beginning, we are plunged back into early morning darkness. Such is life. Nothing lasts. The early morning snow was very good for displaying animal tracks, though, in actuality, it was only squirrels running from tree to tree. But squirrels are all right. They could be worse. The pond by work is all frozen over again and snow covered. And I had to dig the snow blower out after work to clear the sidewalks. But really, it was just a bit of a dusting. Can’t complain about 4 inches of snow in March. We’ve seen worse.
Beautiful big full moon this morning, in the dark blue morning sky. Kind of magical up there.
Song of the day: Duke Ellington, C Jam Blues
Winter of the Crows – 21
irridescent wings
shimmering in the moonlight
caww caw calling caaaww
Yesterday’s Phenology: Heard a cardinal singing a spring song, though it was only in the 20s all day. Everything is drabby brown and cold and dry.
Not Nice! Sad!
Song of the day: CocoRosie, The Moon Asked The Crow
Winter of the Crows – 19
Yesterday’s Phenology: There was so much talk about the coming snow that the mass of hot air over the twin cities moved the storm pattern south a bit. So now it looks like we’ll get a little, but maybe not. Sunny day, but colder, more like February, in the 30s, probably. Clouded up in the evening. Not snowing yet.
Song of the day: Iceland Folk Song, Krummavisar
Winter of the Crows – 16
usually hateful
yet the crow too
in this dawn snow
Basho
Yesterday’s Phenology: Yet another peculiar day, in the low 50s, with rain much of the day, hard at times. Would have been a lot of snow, back in the day. But today it was rain. This evening, I stepped out into the yard, and it was like a summer night. One of those summer nights after a hard rain, when the temperature drops abruptly from the hot summer day, and everything is fragrant and dripping. My kind of night. But it is February.
Song of the day: Александр Маршал, ЧЁРНЫЙ ВОРОН
Winter of the Crows – 15
on a withered branch
a crow is perched
autumn evening
-Basho
Yesterday’s Phenology: Another April day. Upper 50s and mostly sunny morning, cloudy later in the day. A few small islands of snow, and the puddles are starting to recede. Pitchers and Catchers have reported to spring training, it seems they are reporting earlier than usual this year, but everything is amok in the phenology area these days. When it’s 60 degrees in February, what will be the temperature in July? I consider that the scientists have their forecasts about how global warming will go, but perhaps this is all guesswork, no one really knows how fast a global climate can change and which effects will cascade into a downward death spiral.
Just for the record, Carbon Dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere is about .04% (average surface temp about 57 degrees F), where as on Venus (average surface temp about 872 degrees F) it’s 96.5%. I was just curious about that.
Song of the day: Molly Healy, The Crow
Winter of the Crows – 14
in one spot
the crows congregate…
snow is melting!-Issa
Yesterday’s Phenology: Another day from mid-April, stuck smack dab in the middle of February. Looks like we topped out at 58 today, which ties the record high. A beauty of a morning, whispy clouds bright sun, crows, cardinals, woodpeckers, geese, and flickers all doing their thing.
Song of the day: Schubert – Winterreise – “Die Krähe”
Die Winterreise No. 15. The Raven (Die Krähe)
A raven has flown beside me
Since the day I left the town
Raven, bird of ill-omen
Will you ever leave me?
Do you stalk me
In the hope I will be yours?
My journey can’t last much longer
My strength begins to fail
Raven, surely you will be true
Until death overtakes me
