Sunday afternoon nap with dirigible

I often hear aircraft overhead in this house-in-the-woods, and my drowsy mind wondered "Why does that motor sound so loud? Why hasn't it passed over me yet?" until I woke up and looked out the window.

The iPod touch camera may not be very good, but it was beside the bed. If I'd had to run into the next room to get the real camera, I might not have bothered, since I'd have been missing part of the show. Of course, two of the shots have no dirigible in them, because I couldn't really see what was in the view screen.

This one is from outside on the balcony, looking almost straight up. I don't think you can see the "Goodyear" on the side even if you enlarge it. It had a red LCD readout on the belly, but I couldn't read what it was saying, so I have no clue why it was there. My reaction makes me feel like someone from 1920 running outside to see an airplane.

volunteering again

I planted morning glories around the corner from here two years ago. There was no sign of them. Last year, they came up here. Now, they're back again!

Although my second job means I'm not home to see them much. Or to do any weeding.

a walk in the park

Sunday afternoon I found time to go to the county park, which is ten miles from me. (There's second county park, which is nearly twenty miles away.)
The walking trail goes around the outer edge of the park, with the playing fields and the fieldhouse in the middle.

I meant to walk a mile, but I had the iPod in my pocket, and I tried using it outdoors.

The problem is that outdoors, it's too bright to see what's on the screen when you click the touch screen shutter.
This is what moved me to get the thing out of my pocket:

I don't think that any of this was planted on purpose; it's outside the park fence on the embankment for the highway.

After that I kept seeing things I wanted to shoot. Here's my favorite piece of the Par Cours equipment. I always leave the asphalt to walk the balance boards on every circuit, even though I go to this park to walk when I want to keep my feet dry. (Or avoid ticks.)

Of course, when the creek's up, it's not possible to keep your feet dry. Right now it's very low.

I decided to take pictures of all the Par Cours equipment. It's beginning to decay, and the signs telling you what to do are gone.

I don't remember what you're supposed to use this one for, but I did ten "wall" pushups on it.

More finger over the lens, in my haste to catch these joggers before they disappeared. Many people actually run at the park, instead of walking. If the creek had been up a lot, though, that stretch of trail would have been under water.

Next, this piece of equipment. I think you're supposed to jump over each piece like a hurdle, but the sign is gone. When I raise my leg that high, my keys poke into my leg quite painfully, so I've never tried it.

In my childhood, I could have swung along these without any trouble. They built these for adults, though, and I can't jump high enough to catch them.

I never could do much with parallel bars, but I meant to see if I could get my legs up into a pike. However, one of the bars moved when I tried, because the wood is rotting, so I didn't.

I tried a pullup just for Crabby. This bar I could jump high enough to catch. I can raise myself about an inch. Not very impressive.

Then I walked another half mile round and went home to a late lunch. I have a feeling I will be pulling the camera out of my pocket a lot.

the shiny arrives

My three year old first generation iPod touch, that I bought refurbished in the fall of 2008, suddenly stopped having a touch screen. I feared this would be expensive. I was right: replacing/repairing the touch capability would have cost 75% of the cost of a new (refurb) fourth generation iPod touch, which could actually be upgraded to the current iOS.
So. Even though I really can't spare the money, I now have a working iPod.

I like to buy second-hand for this kind of thing. I've become used to always having an up-to-date address list and calendar at hand, plus a library of ebooks in case I'm stuck anywhere, plus electronic notes. I also find that the Boring Exercise Bike is much easier to use while listening to podcasts. (Music just doesn't do the same thing. Neither does video.) Plus it has a timer.
In addition to these amenities, the new one also has voice memos. I will be using that!

It was extremely well packaged.

And it has a camera. A much better camera than my phone's pitiful 1.3 megapixels with truly awful lens (I think it must be plastic.)
The iPod doesn't see through screen very well, though. There really is a deer out there.

Really.

Then I learned to use the zoom function:

There's the deer:

I was hoping I could get some shots of wary wildlife, if I have it in my pocket instead of having to sneak off to another room, and I will be taking it down to the creek as soon as the weather cools off enough that I can think about walking through woods in long, tick-preventive pants.

enough red?

Recently when I was dressing to go somewhere other than work I got out all the red necklaces I have. I only wore three of them, but I love them all.

I have other necklaces. You have been warned.

late hay

I was much too late getting out into the heat with a camera to take pictures. The unknown person who cuts my hay has already moved it. (I asked my neighbor, L, before the house was even finished, to find someone to do that.) I wondered, this very wet and then very dry summer, when my horsy neighbor has moved away, if he would even bother, so I was thrilled to see it had been cut. This year, because it was July hay, instead of May hay, he got four bales instead of two.

From the archives:

what happened?

I came into the living room and saw this:

I looked up.

I finally figured  out that it was a piece of drywall mud, not a piece of drywall, but I still don't understand why it fell off. I do suspect the unusually dry heat this summer had something to do with it.
And no, I'm not climbing up more than ten feet to try to mend it.

Sunday morning coffee with "gazpacho"

I've left out so many things I was allergic to over the years that it isn't really gazpacho, it's a vegetable smoothie. As I commented over on Cranky Fitness, I don't often bother with fruit smoothies. I like fruit, but I like it unblended. I mostly don't like my cooked vegetables messed about with, either, but in the case of my allergy-friendly version of gazpacho, I find the whole greater than the sum of the parts.

I put it together (heirloom tomato, zucchini, bell pepper, and just a touch of cayenne) and it was so pretty I had to take a picture.

Liquify.

Drink for breakfast. (I don't do protein powder. I ate some chunks of cheddar.)