Hobo Jungle

[sarge]

The Morning Glory my wife says is something one usually has to plant every year, but this stuff magically appears in mid-August and runs riot through the fall with no effort on our part. It has done it each year for at least the last eight.

She's had to bob the clematis back every year before I put up the rose arch and it always came back. We planted a new one on the side closest to the garage this year and won't be knocking either back, so eventually it should cover the whole arch.

We'll see...

[healey36]

Knocking out a number of projects this long, holiday weekend, starting with one of the most distasteful:

Up until about ten years ago I used emulsified coal-tar for this, but I can't seem to find that any longer. My suspicion is that ECT has crept onto someone's carcinogen list and is no longer available. The new stuff seems to have a significantly shorter life on the blacktop.

Next up, the wife needed a "Plinko" game for her booth at the fall festival held in town the end of the month:

Note the missing radiator cover in the background, still waiting to be stripped and repainted six months after the room was painted (not sure how I've gotten away with that).

The black-eyed susans are looking great a month after they would normally have bloomed:

I'm chalking this up to the winter weather which seemed to have knocked averything off-cycle this year.

I framed this engraving I picked up at a book shop in Manassas a couple of weeks ago:

Henry Halleck was General-in-Chief of the Union Armies during the ACW, but was generally unsuccessful in that role. The engraving is from a book published in 1867, of which I have a complete edition. It torques me when folks cut up old books to sell off the prints, but in this case the shop-owner indicated that the book had suffered significant water damage and rather than just throw it away they recovered what they could. I'll take his word for it. Halleck was a native New Yorker and graduate of Union College in Schenectady...I'm sending this up to my son in Albany.

Lastly, I stumbled onto this "badge" in a drawer full of costume jewelery in a New Oxford, PA antique shop:

Buffed it up a bit for a closer look. Not sure what it is or if it's authentic...I suspect something-or-other light infantry(???). Sarge???

Hope you guys have a great holiday weekend.

Healey

[The Dirt]

Love the morning glories! Prolific little b*stards.





But then again, I like my daughter's marigolds. So bright, you gotta wear shades!

[sarge]

Healey

That is a famous regiment of the British Army, a cap badge of the Durham Light Infantry, pre-Queen Elizabeth with the "King's Crown".

The King's crown has a constant radius across the top with the finial at the high-point of the crown. One for the DLI after HM's coronation will have the Queen's Crown, where the finial at the top is pulled down and the top of the crown would then have two distinct radii.

[healey36]

Thanks Sarge...for whatever reason I was thinking this might be South African or Australian. I hadn't a clue...need to get a book on regalia of the British Army.

I have recently been researching the counterattack at Arras in 1940, in which two battalions of the Durham Light Infantry played a considerable part. I would have thought that might have occurred to me but it did not. My one book on the regiments of the British Army affirms their long and storied history. Thanks for pointing me right.

Healey

[webenda]

Love the morning glories! Prolific little b*stards.

Gorgeous blue morning glory photo Pete.

[sarge]

Here are a few photos of what is now running riot here.









I guess there are two types, given they are two colours. Only a week ago you could count the number of flowers on one hand. Now look at the industrious little fellows!

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Looks like some of your day lilies are still blooming, too.

[webenda]

You guys encouraged me to go out and see what's blooming. Poppies in the back yard and Mexican Petunias in the front yard, with butterflies and hummingbirds in attendance. Butterflies would not hold still long enough to have their picture taken. The Tiger Swallowtail images were all minus the butterfly. One Sulfur butterfly showed in an image, but was blurry. I include here anyway.

[rogruth]

Something not often seen around these parts---a perched hummingbird.Nice.

The yellow butterfly is similar to some we have here,

[The Dirt]

Sarge, gorgeous pics of the morning glories. Especially that first one- it looks like they are lit from within.

Wayne, your flower pictures are also outstanding, especially the petunia. You oughta submit that somewhere.

My Canon S2IS bit the dust, and I bought a Canon SX50. Supposed to be more sophisticated, but I don't get nearly the optical clarity I used to get with the former, and though it has a 'macro' feature, it lacks the 'super-macro' of the other that I loved so well and used so frequently. It's been a disappointment, and I'll be more carefully discerning with the next one, as I'm ready to throw the SX50 over the fence.

Here's some pictures I took of my daughter on her horse. My father-in-law is finally comfortable with her riding, having finally sold the mule that was causing the difficulty. Thinking her mare belonged to him, he hee-hawed like a maniac everytime they were separated, which made the mare jumpy when being ridden away from barn, as she was immediately wanting to return amidst all the godd*mn hubbub. And he was LOUD. Ray's been a horseman all his life, and she was even hard for him to ride.

But the mule is gone, and Peace reigns. It was an amazing little look at the social intricacies of horses. Something to behold.

Here they are, Leah and Ray, riding down through a field of Queen Anne's Lace from his place...



...and getting closer. Ray was looking at the neighbors in the hollow, who were firing up an old flatbed. He was nervous it would backfire and startle Leah's horse...



...and down onto our lawn. Her's is a good-looking mare, if you like a paint, and she's getting real good at riding her...



... and pulled to a stop. She was eyeing her black lab, ready to calm Lacey if the dog made her nervous, but the dog had other interests, and was heading to the pile of dirt on the tarp at the right of the picture. That dirt is from over the uncovered lid of our septic tank, which the dogs found interesting and irresistible. Horses? What horses?

Funny thing is, once it was sucked-out and re-buried, our pug sat by the grave-shaped dirt like we had just buried her best friend.



A quick yak, and they were off again to follow other fields.

[healey36]

It's nice to see that there are still places in this country that look like that. Thanks...

Healey

[rogruth]

It's nice to see that there are still places in this country that look like that. Thanks...

Healey

YES!!!!! And your photos even with the camera you don't like.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

It's nice to see that there are still places in this country that look like that. Thanks...

Healey

Yes; very nice to see those pictures.

[Mitch]

Here's some pictures I took of my daughter on her horse. My father-in-law is finally comfortable with her riding, having finally sold the mule that was causing the difficulty.
...and getting closer. Ray was looking at the neighbors in the hollow, who were firing up an old flatbed. He was nervous it would backfire and startle Leah's horse...



... and pulled to a stop. She was eyeing her black lab, ready to calm Lacey if the dog made her nervous,

Pete, that horse is lookin' wild eyed to the right! You sure it was just the dog and not a rattlesnake?

She's lookin' good on that horse, and soon will be ridin' in a parade somewhere. Good job!