Friday Morning Remembrance

Twenty five years ago I was driving to the office listening to WHAD’s Tom Clark interview someone in New York City.  The interview was punctuated by the interviewee in New York noting that first responders had been dispatched following initial reports of a small plane crashing into one of the World Trade Center towers.  

Arriving at the day job I found Mike had live coverage of the smoking tower on the television in his office. Details were sketchy.  As we speculated upon the crazy notion of how someone could possibly fly into a skyscraper a second plane crashed into the other tower - a commercial airliner.  We knew then that it was no small aircraft that struck the first.  That tower collapsed and we watched until the second structure fell. 

Four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks were carried out by al-Qaeda on that day.  So as we reflect-upon the solemnity of this anniversary let us not forget that that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi Arabia citizens.  Dozens of well-connected Saudis had fled the United States on chartered flights in the days after 9/11.  The House of Saud is a notoriously loathsome collection of individuals.  The gruesome murder and dismemberment of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi is further evidence of its odious persistence. 

As far back as the early 1980s I enjoyed multiple opportunities to tour the towers. This photo was snapped on the observation deck. I have some photos of Connie Chung doing a live broadcast from the CNN studio.  I’ve even dined at the 107th floor Windows on the World restaurant.  

That day, two and a half decades-ago, was a seriously bad day.  Strange how all of the details remain so fresh in the present day.  My Pearl Harbor life event I suppose.

Ask if you would include the Saudi royal family among your friends.....

Framboise Rouge

In the foreground is our raspberry patch.  

It’s not very large and the variety(s) of raspberries we planted decades ago is lost to history.  Most springs I prune and remove any dead canes and give it a good fertilizer drench formulated specifically for raspberries.  While it is hardly neglected it doesn't receive the level of attention a commercial raspberry grower would give it such as tidy straight rows, diligent weeding and a trellis.  We have an old school briar patch.  This year I was worried that our modest berry patch might have been done-in.  Finis.

Over winter the rabbits (or some other critter) chomped every single live plant down to ground level.  I had to remove only a handful of dead canes and there wasn't much to observe above ground.  Nevertheless, I fertilized it and crossed my fingers.  And as it warmed-up, sure enough, raspberry leaves emerged from the ground and plants began to grow.  So I fertilized it again; and a month later fertilized it a third time for good measure.  I even went in there with a string trimmer and cleared as much of the grass and weeds as I could taking pains to avoid cutting any of the raspberries.

And in the last week the berries began to ripen.  And there are a lot of them.  The dog and I go out to the patch nearly every day to pick berries; and it looks like we're gonna be busy for a while.  On a good day I estimate we'll gather almost a pint.  Doggo is fond of eating the low-hanging fruit and I pick the rest.  And eat some along the way.  Consequently, we've got seasonal raspberries for table fare.  Given the cost of diesel to get raspberries to the produce department of a local grocery nowadays, these gems are worth their weight in gold.

 

And we're freezing them for a wintertime treat.  You haven't lived until you've had one of Jill's smoothies made with Greek yogurt, local honey and our own frozen raspberries.   

The Golden Hour

 

Google Photo periodically furnishes unsolicited photo vignettes using their AI platform.  Like these brief, fleeting, moments associated with the rising and setting of the sun.

Characterized as the Goden Hour almost always these moments are not even close to an hour.  Most often they are there and gone in a heartbeat.  You snooze you lose.

Nevertheless,they are a welcome addition to my day; especially travel photos set to music.

Autumn Is Knocking On The Door

From our walk today there is further evidence of the changing of the seasons.

 

Busy bumble bees, migratory songbirds winging their way south and mast crops in the woods.

 

 

Acorns

 

 

Walnuts

 

 

Bumble bees on Canada Goldenrod

 

 

Blue birds built the first nest.  After their brood fledged some house wrens moved in and did the same.  Nest box is doing double duty this season for the migratory songbirds. 

Velvet Bucks

Antlers are unique in the animal kingdom as the fastest-growing bone structures in mammals.  

While growing, they are covered in a soft, fuzzy skin called velvet—a dense network of blood vessels and nerves that delivers the oxygen, hormones, and nutrients required to fuel this remarkable, rapid growth.

Because velvet antlers represent a rare instance of a mammal regenerating a complex tissue structure from scratch every year, scientists frequently study them as a model for bone growth and regenerative medicine.

The trail camera trap line recently captured several great bucks currently in full velvet. Be sure to check out the dandy at the end!

 

Center of the Universe

My universe anyway.

This spring we had our property surveyed.  

As near as we can tell, and based-upon our surveyor's check of the county records, the joint hasn't been surveyed since the Government Land Office moved their chains along our south and west property lines back in 1836.  We know that because our southwest corner and the northwest corner are corners of the quarter section.

The SE marker is buried under County Road D; nevertheless we found it with a metal detector and pounded a spike in the road.  We found this official marker buried at the NW corner. 

One of the tasks performed by our surveyor was to locate the exact center of our property.  I had a reasonably close reckoning of where it was located generally but did not have it precisely marked.

It is now.  And my plan is to install some sort of monument there for people to puzzle-over long after I am dead and gone. 

Yesterday morning was quite calm so Doggo and I seized the opportunity to run out to the center and send the DJI Neo up for a quick reconnaissance of the principle compass directions and an ascent and descent from its firmware operating ceiling of 120 meters. 

Click on aerial images for a closer look. 

 

That's me and Ruby in the center

The Center

View North

View South

House and outbuildings left of center

 View East

View West - somehow went missing.

And the climb to altitude and return to terra firma. 

 

Pollinator Paradise

I cannot say enough about the satisfaction that has come from naturalizing more of our immediate yard. It's been an explosion of native wildflowers that start in the spring with early ephemeral blooms to feed the newly emergent insects who feed the newly-arriving migratory birds.  This persists into the harvest season and autumn months as bees gather pollen and nectar for their colonies and migratory birds pass thru as they wing their way south.  Even our non-migrating birds are packing-away additional insect protein in preparation for the coming winter months.

Doggo and I went fut to  check on what's happening early yesterday morning.

Canada and stiff goldenrod area popular dining spot this time of year....