Intersection Logs

These flowers on bare twigs (willow?) are tiny, but exquisite. There was some kind of small brown bird -- not a sparrow -- hopping around in the branches, too.

They're working on the long-neglected rock garden at Whirlow Brook Park; the rockery has been cleaned out and planted with new shrubs. It's not very attractive at the moment, but it should be an improvement once it settles in. On the other hand, the lovely red maple by the (badly silted-up) lily pond looks awfully dead. The Mexican skunk cabbage is just starting to sprout, making splashes of yellow-green as bright and unnatural-looking as neon plastic.

The mobile camera is a bit hit-or-miss, but I'm pleased with this one, snapped on my way to the shop this lunchtime.

Witch Hazel (we think.)Viburnum



I took the big camera for a walk this afternoon. It's been colder and colder lately, and today it never got above freezing, but the sun was bright. This shrub has been flowering on bare branches all winter; it was there in October, and it's still going.

So we did go for a walk in the woods today, and it was a little muddy but worth it. Swish and crunch of leaves underfoot; faint earthy scent of autumn; acorns and sweet chestnuts glossy-brown on the ground; wood-pigeons thudding from branch to branch.

We checked out the new information center, but it was quite busy and largely under construction, so we didn't linger long. Interesting building, though. I wonder what the wooden buildings around here were like when they had them?

Today was the conference excursion to the little coastal town of Cassis, not far from Marseilles. The day included a boat ride to view some spectacular limestone cliffs and the inlets -- believed to be drowned river valleys -- known as the Calanques. The weather was lovely in the morning; in the afternoon, as we were turned loose to wander the harbor and surrounding streets after a lavish lunch, it clouded over and even rained a bit.

There are more pictures at the Flickr set.

It's traditional, in my corner of the astronomical community at least, for a week-long meeting to include an afternoon outing. So this afternoon, two coachloads of astronomers toured the Jylland frigate and the little town of Ebeltoft, as well as climbing to the 137-meter top of one of the highest hills in Denmark and visiting an ancient dolmen and stone circle. The weather was perfect, the guides were amusing and informative, and a good time was had by all.

The frigate was built in the 1860s, part of the replacement of the Danish fleet after it was confiscated by the British at the Battle of the Baltic, and fitted with a steam engine and retractable propeller as well as 2000 square feet of sails that could move her at 14 knots. Wooden warships were pretty much a dead end by then, and she was both the longest ever built and one of the last. She saw action once, standing off an Austrian ship in a two-hour battle. What stands in the dry dock at Ebeltoft today, carefully supported and haavily restored, is at least 60% modern, but quite impressive, and fascinating to a Patrick O'Brian fan. (It seems like cheating to use a modern crane to set up the rigging.) As usual, you can click through the photo to see more on Flickr.

The town had its heyday as a walled market town in the 1600s or thereabouts, and then went into decline as the harbor deteriorated and trade shifted elsewhere, so that it got to keep a lot of its half-timbered buildings instead of replacing them with modern brick.

From the hill, we could see blue see in two directions, and wind turbines in threes and fours, lazily turning in the distance. And there were poppies, bright scarlet in the fields, and lupins in colorful clumps by the highway, and wild roses.

I really wasn't expecting to see this when I popped out for coffee and a bowl of chili at lunchtime. These usually bloom at night, and wither within a couple of hours of sunrise, but today was so cool and cloudy that this one bloom -- out of half a dozen or so on the large plant -- was still in good shape.

The hedgehog cactus flowers are starting to open. (Actually, by my Flickr records, probably only about a week later than usual.)

Yesterday the temperature in Tucson rose to the mid-70s. Today, the mid-80s -- the first time over 80 this year. The spring flowers are starting to come out; poppies in front of Old Main, a little blossom on the kumquat trees, delicate posies of jasmine. The big orchid-flower tree is full of buds, and buds are swelling on the hedgehog cactus. In the cactus garden, where the wildflowers are running riot to an extent that makes me worry about the smaller cacti, the last surviving boojum tree is covered in rich new leaves.