From a couple of weeks ago, some fuzzy close-up that I couldn’t resist fiddling with. Sometimes PhotoShop captures what you can’t get with the camera.
Primulas and pansies
Blog
End of accelerating sunlight
As spring progresses, our days grow longer, faster as the sunset gradually moves down the ridge to the west. It all starts accelerating around the equinox. The downside: Accelerating darkness in fall.
Scanner test: African violets
The old computer driving the office scanner was acting funky for one of our grad students the other day. So I had a chance to test it out this afternoon. Worked fine. Just couldn’t decide which I liked best — the one with the cover up and the lights off or the one with my black windbreaker draped over the platen.
Why I love my job: Mulch races
One of our faculty in the Department of Horticulture at Cornell University is Nina Bassuk. She’s the director of our Urban Horticulture Institute and knows more about how to choose and grow trees in cities than anyone else I know. She co-teaches a woody plant course along with her husband, Peter Trowbridge, who is a faculty member in landscape architecture.
The last few weeks, Nina and Peter’s students have been working on their final class project — installing a new planting along the north side of the Plant Sciences Building, right outside my office window. The new plantings — which feature mostly newer cultivars that are popular in the industry but not found elsewhere on campus — are replacing some old, scarggly yews and will serve as a living lab for future classes.
Lest you despair that youth today aren’t interested in plants, I live on another planet where 20-somethings are passionate about plants. They got a taste of the real world today, when the mulch deliverers dropped the mulch at some distance from where it was needed. There weren’t enough wheelbarrows to do the job. So they grabbed some rubber mats from the construction material lying around from the library renovation, made some twine handles, and races around with the mulch, making short work of it.
Does my heart good to see the joy with which they go about their work.
50th thanks (lotsa pix)
A great big thanks to everyone who made my 50th such a very, very special day. I’ll share some of the pictures below …
Elly scanned a bunch of old pictures for a ‘through the years’ poster [1.7 mb]
Corey came home from school in Albany. Fred was so happy he was dancing.
Carol made the cake and a mighty wind got all the candles first try.
David and Rosemary, what a pair. They both wore black in mourning for my passing (the 50 mark).
The big surprise, Dad (with Corey) and Sandy (pictured later) came up from Florida for the bash.
Corey and cousin Becky. Becky set up the scope so we could see the crows nesting in the pines. And she made me granola. Another Uncle Craig mystery exposed.
Charles was in charge of the speedies on the grill so I could relax. Jack mentors Cay on her business plan in the Camry office.
The wise ones, Eunice (my mother in law), Cal (my father) and Sandy (my stepmom).
I only hope that I can be half the man my dog thinks I am.
Marc made me a cold frame to replace my dilapidated one in the background. And he painted it bottle-tree blue.
Sister Sue gave me a trellis, and Kim and Nance brought a Thunbergia. And they didn’t even plan it out ahead of time. Robert roamed his barn looking for things an eccentric gardener might do something with. What can I plant in this disk blade?
More goodies from Robert’s barn.
A vase (rhymes with was) from the Museum of Modern Art from Steve. I’m not sure many of my flowers are classy enough for this work of art. Thanks Steve!
Sue and Corey reading one of the weiner cards, no doubt.
Look dear. You open and close the card and the guy picks his nose.
Niece Nancy. Bowling pin vase Marc made me. The bowling ball in the garden story will have to wait until a future blog. But by now you should understand Marc is one serious artist. Check out his bowls and other woodworking. The make great gifts.
Lori and Paul from the balcony.
