I hung out the goldfinch feeders last week in hopes of attracting goldfinches. At first, there were lots of house finches (with the red heads), but, finally, over the last couple of days, the goldfinches have arrived. this is three of them on one of the two finch feeders on the hill above the RV Drive. Click on the image to enlarge.
We bought this Bishops cap barrel cactus over ten years ago in the Phoenix area. It lived with us at the California house for most of that time and had flowers most every summer. Since living here in Arizona, it has had many flowers – more and more often – than in the California patio. Today, eight flowers were open simultaneously – a record for this cactus. Click on the image to enlarge.
I got up early this morning to take the truck to the tire dealer in town. I wound up getting four new Firestone Destination LE tires mounted and installed. Doing some on-line price comparisons, I think I got about the average price, but I’m satisfied with the local dealer and spending the money here in town.
We probably could have gone another few months on the old tires, but Damsel pointed out that summer is almost here (it is 108° here today) and with some near future I-10 desert crossings, it would be appropriate to get them now. We can just picture ourselves on the side of the Interstate halfway between Blythe and Chiriaco Summit waiting for help when it’s 117° outside. Aargh!
One of the four new tires is pictured at the right. Well, it looked brand new at the dealer this morning, but it’s showing the dust and gravel collected along the 500 feet or so of “unimproved road” between the paved road and our concrete driveway. 🙂
Click on the image to enlarge.
Today was our grocery shopping day. I usually pick out some flowers to take home and today I picked a dozen of these pretty “Duett” roses. They are very showy with their pinkish orange color. The color is similar to that of salmon steaks or flamingo feathers. Click on the image to enlarge.
This is from the “You’ve gotta be kidding me” file. A group of so-called scientists in India wrote a paper addressing the topic of “increasing pressure on land is making meat production from macro-livestock less sustainable than ever before.” Their solution to the so-called problem is for people to stop raising cattle, hogs, etc. and to commence harvesting and eating insects.
Sherwood Idso of the CO2 Science website thinks that global-warming and climate change activists themselves should be leading the charge for entomological cuisine:
Globe-trotting Al Gore, for example, could dine on wasps, bamboo caterpillars, crickets and locusts, which Premalatha et al. tell us “are sold as delicacies in the finest restaurants and food shops in Thailand.” Or he may choose the very special rice-field grasshopper, which they say “is a luxury food item in Japan,” as are canned hornets. And James Hansen: when in Mexico, he could feast on escamoles (the pupae of an ant species) and gusanos (butterfly larvae), which are sold there for half the price he would have to pay in Canada, where they go for almost two U.S. dollars per gram (that’s over $900 per pound!).
Well said, Mr. Idso. Read the entire article at CO2science.org.
We were standing at the courtyard wall watching the Curve Billed Thrasher nest, when a parent bird returned to the nest to feed the chicks; they are toward the bottom of the frame with their beaks wide open. Click on the image to enlarge.
We started planning on viewing the total eclipse even before experiencing the annular eclipse last week. We think that we will observe the total eclipse from Casper, WY, although that could change.
The eclipse is still more than five years in the future and since it will occur on a coast to coast path across the United States, there are a lot of places to view the phenomenon. The greatest eclipse will occur in Western Kentucky – that is when the duration of totality is the longest – two minutes and 40 seconds of totality in this case.
Image: Path of totality across the states. Click to go to the official NASA eclipse site.
Wherever we decide to view the eclipse, I’m sure it will be spectacular. In Wyoming, totality will last about 2 minutes and 24 seconds. That’s plenty of time to see the stars and planets come out and for the surface temperature to drop noticeably.
This is a long time away, but we wanted to make this note about it on the blog. Maybe over the next five years we can organize an expedition of family and friends to enjoy the event. We’ll see . . .