Month: April 2015

PL8ATUDES – April 14, 2015

Jeff


Plate-A-Tude

We continue our series of personalized (vanity) license plates in Arizona. To maintain individual privacy, we try to show as little information about particular cars as possible as long as we can reveal the license plate.

NOTE – License plate photos may have been archived for quite some time. The years indicated on the registration stickers DO NOT necessarily reflect the current status of any given plate!

We hope you enjoy these PL8ATUDES!

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Of Course I Have A

“IMAGE

I’m From

“MOTOWN"/

.JBRish.com originally published this post

STATUS QUOtes — 20150414

Jeff

“Indecision is the seedling of fear.” — Napoleon Hill

“The crumbs are not the same as a place at the table.” — Andrew Solomon

“Talent is nurtured in solitude; character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“The difference between try and triumph is a little umph.” — Unknown

Birds at the Gilbert Water Ranch – 20150412 – Part 1

Jeff

I awoke at 3:30am this morning to prepare for my “bird watch” outing at the Gilbert Water Ranch in Gilbert, Arizona. We had to be at the park by 6am and my wife and I were going to car pool with a person we had never met so we needed to be on time. Their home was 22-25 minutes away and they wanted to leave at 5:25. Of course I needed my requisite cup(s) of coffee and I also needed to get my STATUS QUOtes out to my mailing list.

[Self promotion here: If you like quotes, really good quotes, check out my STATUS QUOTes posted daily on this blog. Click here – STATUS QUOTes– to view the entire category.]

In any event, all went smoothly and we met up with our tour guide, Kathe, and proceeded to the Gilbert Water Ranch arriving on schedule. We saw a good number of birds this day. I might also mention that this is a transition time for birds in our area and some are moving out while less are moving in ahead of the long, hot summer days.

As we started our tour, a some birds already on my seen list were spotted. The first new-ish experience for me was a Mourning Dove in the crook of a Saguaro cactus. I have seen many Mourning Doves, but not in the arms of a Saguaro! Most likely this was a nest built by a Curve-billed Thrasher and usurped by the dove.

Mourning Dove in Saguaro Cactus Nest

As we walked along the paths meandering through the reclamation ponds, we came across a white-crowned Sparrow. I am sure I had seen these before, but never noted it so this was a new entry on my list.

white-crowned sparrow

Even though this is the desert, we do have riparian and oasis-type areas that draw water birds. One such resident this day was the Neotropic Cormorant.

Neotropical Cormorant

Walking on the path ahead of us was an Abert’s Towhee.

Disclaimer here: There wasn’t much light early on the walk because it was cloudy. My Superzoom really needs a lot of light to render crisp, clear shots so this may be a bit “fuzzy,” but certainly good enough for my bird-spotting history.

Abert's Towhee

There were several sightings of Great Blue Herons. This particular bird remained perched on a man-made platform for some time so we could get a clear picture.

Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron

When we came to the bird below, there was some discussion whether this was a Lesser Yellowlegs or a Greater Yellowlegs. For those non-birders, this is what we do! After referring to the the Sibley Field Guide and a brief debate, it was decided that based on the size of the bird and markings, it was a Lesser Yellowlegs.

Lesser Yellowlegs

As I might have mentioned in one of my previous posts somewhere on this blog and most certainly on my previous Internet persona, Gardening on the Moon, we live on the edge of the desert and one bird we have in large numbers is the Gambel’s Quail. These birds are round and not exactly aerodynamic and thus they would rather walk or run than fly. Approaching them in a car often causes them to scurry ahead, but when forced, they do take to the air. It is unusual to spot them perched high in a tree as the bird below was spotted posing for its closeup.

TGambel's Quail

The last bird I will present today is a Green Heron. It is an unusual name for a majestic bird that doesn’t actually contain much green anywhere in its plumage! Supposedly under certain conditions, it has a blue-green “gloss.”

Green Heron

We saw a good many other birds this day and I will post our other sightings soon. Until then, I hope you have enjoyed following me along my birding journey.

STATUS QUOtes — 20150413

Jeff

“Do not free a camel of the burden of his hump: You may be freeing him from being a camel.” — G.K. Chesterton

“I have my faults, but changing my tune is not one of them.” — Samuel Beckett

“Sometimes it’s the journey that teaches a lot about your destination.” — Drake

“A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.” — Winston Churchill

Bower Vine Blast Finally

Jeff

We have been growing a variegated Bower Vine with pinkish flowers for three seasons, this being the third. It has been a disappointing performer up until now. This year however, we tried something new! Like any vine, we supported this one on a trellis. Each year the vine would grow long and unwieldy, but would not cover the entire trellis as our Snail Vine had done on it’s support.

This spring we decided not to let the Bower Vine grow as tall as it wanted. We began clipping the long tendrils as soon as they reached the top of the trellis. Much to our amazement and delight, the plant put the energy into producing copious blooms. It is understandable that a more mature plant would generate more flowers, but this vine had produced only a sparse display of a few flowers a year and the memories of last year’s bloom are vague to say the least.

Below is a closeup of a cluster of this pink Bower Vine’s flowers. The dark purple throat is beautiful!
Variegated Pink Flowering Bower Vine

The second picture (below) gives a better view of the plant and the contrast between the flowers and the variegated leaves. There is one school of thought that variegated plants do not bloom as much as their non-variegated cousins, but this year that does not seem to be the case.

Variegated, Pink Flowering Bower Vine

How do you think the color of the flowers look contrasted with the variegated leaves?

Photography: Peeping Tom or Rembrandt?

Jeff

There is an interesting issue involved with personal privacy and photography nowadays especially when considering the popularity of street photography and recent attempts in some places to outlaw the art form.

Photographer Arne Svenson has created a project called “The Neighbors.” He has focused his lens on the lives of Manhattanites, apparently his neighbors, by photographing them with a telephoto lens through their open windows.

If this were you in the picture below, would you be offended? Would you feel that your privacy had been violated? If your face was identifiable would that change your opinion?

A picture from Arne Svenson's Neighbor Project

As a fan of Edward Hopper and other artists who depicted day-to-day life in a stylized fashion, I enjoy these photographs and appreciate the artistic vision behind them.

According to this post via PetaPixel, two of Svenson’s neighbors pictured in the project sued him claiming their privacy had been violated. For now, however, the courts have decided that the work did not violate NYC’s right-to-privacy law which prohibits using a person’s likeness for commercial purposes without permission. Svenson’s work was declared “art” and not used for “‘advertising or trade'” purposes.

The ruling may not be final as the door appears to have been left open much like the windows in the pictures. There is no easy answer here. Read some of the comments and you can see that this raises many issues which will only get more complicated as technology increases our ability to reach further into the world undetected.

STATUS QUOtes — 20150411

Jeff

“Unless today is well lived, tomorrow is not important.” — Alan Sakowitz

“Each man must look to himself to teach him the meaning of life. It is not something discovered; it is something molded.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupery

“I define joy as a sustained sense of well-being and internal peace – a connection to what matters.” — Oprah Winfrey

“I do benefits for all religions – I’d hate to blow the hereafter on a technicality.” — Bob Hope

Pickleball: Did you Know…When is a ball Dead?

Jeff

Those who play the sport of Pickleball learn early that it is a fault to step into the kitchen after hitting a volley UNTIL the ball is dead. So the question arises: “When is the ball dead?”

According to the International Federation of Pickleball (IFP), p. 29, Section 8 – Dead Ball Rules:

8.B. A ball is not declared dead until it has bounced twice or has violated one of the fault rules (See Section 7).

After a second bounce or if the ball has violated one of the fault rules specified in Section Seven it is declared “dead!”