June 2015

Red Bird of Paradise Flower

Red Bird of Paradise Flower

The third of our three Pride of Barbados (a.k.a. Red Bird of Paradise) shrubs in the courtyard now has flowers opening. It has been over three weeks since we saw the first flower and now all three have these wonderful colors that I love so much. Click on the image to enlarge.

The shrubs are still coming back from their winter hibernation and are getting taller every day. We cut the plants down to less than a foot for the winter and all of them are getting to be three feet tall now. I like it when I can see my beautiful flowers from the road below the front of the house when they are tall enough to see over the courtyard fence.

Alarmists Buy In To Solar Climate Influence

The Sun

Alarmists seem to be buying in to solar influence on the climate, but only when it suits their agenda and narrative. Ace of Spades posted an article yesterday, Scientific Paradigm Breaker Roils Academy, in which they note that climate alarmists are now saying that the current solar minimum is the reason that our terrible anthropogenic global climate change is being held in check. Yet the Greenbats will refuse to acknowledge that solar maxima have contributed anything to the environment. They cherry-pick the science to suit their insanity.

We have been posting about how the sun is the major influence on climate for nine years or so, and that sunspot count is correlated to periods of warming and cooling. There is stark evidence that numbers coming out of the alarmist community have always been “adjusted.” This includes (unfortunately) federal government agencies like the National Weather Service, National Aeronautic and Space Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency. All of them are taxpayer-funded doomsday sayers in the quest of complete government domination of everything.

I pray that the next administration will throttle back most of the bullsh1t, but I have my doubts about that if the RINOs keep control of the nation. Plus, in light of recent SCOTUS decisions, we may never be able to recover through the judicial process. God help us.

Vendela Roses

Vendela Roses

The Spider Mums from last week had run their gamut, so it was time to replace them in the vase on the sofa table. The flower concession in the supermarket didn’t have much in the way of lilies or mums this week, so we opted for the more costly, but well worth the slight extra expense, roses.

We have come across this light cream colored rose variety many times as they are pleasant to look at, smell nice and last the better part of a week. These look very nice in my tall crystal vase. Click on the image to enlarge.

Summer Traffic in Town

Main Street

Damsel took this photo of the main drag through town today on our way to an appointment at the clinic. There is only one car in motion in the two block long main part of town and most of the roadside parking is available. Just the way we like it.

The summer weather has always been abusive for the Snowbirds, who have largely vacated to their northern enclaves and is also a minor deterrent to tourism in town, but not to the extent of most businesses shutting their doors. People still come here in the summer, but only the hardiest of the road warriors. We still get a lot of biker traffic on weekends, even through summer.

These are the days, in the absence of the Snowbirds, where there is abundant parking at the supermarket and in the tourist district. After our visit to the clinic this afternoon, we were able to park curbside in front of a local merchant where we were making a purchase and when we stopped at the supermarket to get a couple of things, the parking was ample, the aisles in the store clear of the winter zombies and there was almost no waiting at the one checkout stand open today. How sweet the summer is . . .

Water Lily

Water Lily

Our local hospital has an enclosed garden and visiting area for patients, staff and visitors to enjoy. One of the features is a Koi pond in which there are water lilies. That’s not something you see everyday in Arizona. Click on the image to enlarge.

Not visible in this view is a large Koi fish lurking beneath the lily pads. There are several other Koi in the pond in diminishing sizes. There is a waterfall that flows into the pond in the corner of the garden area.

Asterism

Asterism

Last evening, Damsel and I went out to watch a flyover of the International Space Station. The conditions were right for it to be a very bright and spectacular pass. As a bonus, we were also treated to a beautiful conjunction of the Moon, Jupiter and Venus in the western sky.

The flyover was everything we expected with the ISS appearing in the twilight to the north northwest and flying overhead at sixty degrees above the horizon. The magnitude of the spacecraft was very bright and registered at minus 3.6 according to SpaceWeather.com. We watch it until it winked out crossing the terminator (Earth shadow) well to the southeast of here, about three minutes after the initial sighting.

I was intrigued by the asterism, however, and went back inside to get my camera and a tripod to attempt to capture the stellar event. I got set up and experimented with various camera settings. The image above, even though slightly overexposed, shows the positions of the Moon, Jupiter and Venus as they appeared to us. When you click on the image to enlarge, you can see the earthshine-illuminated darkside of the Moon.

Canon SL1, 1/20sec., F4.0, ISO 6400 and 75mm focal length.

Spider Mum Bouquet

Spider Mum Bouquet

Lately, the flowers at the supermarket flower concession stand have been less than spectacular (to say the least). Today, however, there were these gorgeous yellow spider mums on the shelves. I picked out a couple of the packaged flower bundles and some baby’s breath and arranged them into the large vase on the sofa table. Click on the image to enlarge.

Spider mums are actually a variety of chrysanthemums grown throughout the world and originally from China. This interesting information is from GardenGuides Dot Com:

Spider mums belong to the chrysanthemum family, with some of that family’s largest blooms. Spider mums are also known as football mums in the United States, as they are the flower most commonly appearing in homecoming corsages. Long revered in China and Japan, versatile chrysanthemums retain their blossoms long after they’ve been cut, have antibacterial properties and even represent a substantial cash crop for their ability to produce a natural insecticide.

Native to China, mums became popular in the United States over the last century. The 18th century Swedish botanist Karl Linnaeus created the name chrysanthemum by combining the Greek words chrysos (meaning gold) and anthos (meaning flower). In 1989 chrysanthemums made news in NASA’s study on plant abilities to remove toxins from indoor air; the report indicated that mums absorbed 61 percent of the formaldehyde in its environment. The mum is also a significant source of pyrethrum, a naturally occurring insecticide used in flea repellent. Tea made from the flower has long been used throughout Asia for medicinal purposes.