Always a fan of the great Walter Cronkite, but seldom in agreement with his political leanings, it is with nostalgia and a bit of sadness that we acknowledge the life and works of a great American News Icon. We grew up and spent most of our young adulthood watching and listening to the way it was.
God bless the family in this hour of loss.
Walter Cronkite – 1916-2009 – Rest in peace.
Out of the Black and into the Blue
On July 17, 1989 at Edwards Air Force Base, Northrop and the United States Air Force rolled out this magnificent aircraft. I watched the closed circuit TV coverage from the media center at Northrop Electro-Mechanical Division in Anaheim, California.
Damsel and I later had the privilege to visit the B2 production facility in Palmdale for a group tour and a fly-by. It was spectacular.
Photo taken by The Flying Kiwi at the 2005 Air Show at Edwards Air Force Base. Be sure and visit the link for more photos from the air show. Click image to enlarge.
One of the most beautiful flowers in our collection of succulents (and all of the flowers are beautiful), is the Devil’s Tongue Barrel Cactus flower. These waxy, delicate, yellow flowers emerge from the most hostile-looking array of spikes and hooks that protect the flesh of this cactus. We don’t know if the flowers have any fragrance because who wants to put their nose close enough to tell?
When I’m puttering around the house and yard, I have this little ensemble clipped inside my waistband. It’s my little S&W 442 .38 caliber J-frame (loaded with plus-P anti-personnel* rounds) in a Bianchi leather clip-on holster.
When the weather is a little warmer, she rides in a special holster on my leg under the sun dress. Either way, she is light enough that you just might forget you’re packing and venture somewhere you shouldn’t under such circumstances – not that I’ve ever done that, of course.
* One of our commenters described hollow-points as “limited penetration” rounds. He says that description is less apt to get a reaction from liberals than “anti-personnel.”
This cluster of tiny globes is part of a “thimble” cactus, in a pot on the patio. This variety is native to central Mexico. The cactus consists of these little round buds, each of which has clusters of interlaced white spines. If left on the open ground, it will spread to form large mats like a ground cover.
In late winter, this little cactus produces satiny, creamy yellow flowers. It likes bright light and warm temperatures, although it will tolerate short duration temperatures down to as low as 20 degrees F.
In the photo, the clusters appear near actual size on the computer screen. To see the globes and spines close up, click on the image. By the way, those little spines are extremely sharp and stiff.
Glenn B from Ballseye’s Boomers asked if there was any way I could post the video from which I extracted the “Burnin’ Ring of Fire” image posted here a few days ago. The short answer is yes, but with the caveat that, by bandwidth necessity, the picture size has to be reduced resulting in half the resolution.
Regardless of the reduction, the video shows several of the muzzle flashes captured during the seven-rounds that Damsel fired on target. No two are the same, and I can’t tell you exactly which was the flash we posted here last week. It’s one of the two prominent rings near the middle of the sequence, I assume.
I use SWiSHVideo, which is a tool to convert most video formats into Flash™ animation format. I wrote my own set of on-line tools to seamlessly embed the animations into our webpages and posts. We hope everyone enjoys them.
In recent months, I’ve added several new succulents to the cactus and succulent section of our patio. We get them either from the gift shop at the Botanic Gardens or at the local home supply outlet’s garden shop. This morning, we had this lovely “rainbow” appear.
Click the image to enlarge.
Echinobvia hybrids, “Rainbow bursts,” are so named for their spectacular display of colorful flowers during the spring and summer months. These hybrids are crosses between Echinopsis and Lobovia succulent species, hence the Echinobvia hybrid designation. This cultivar must be protected from frost and be placed in an area that gets direct sunlight for most of the daylight hours.