Since shortly before Ida paid a visit to the Eastern Shore, we have not recovered. The ground was saturated with the 6 to 9 inches of rain that fell and we’ve had another 6 or so since. For the most part, the farm land has managed to break even. The ground was soft but generally there was little standing water.
Last night and this morning brought another 3 inches and it appears to have been more than the soil or driveway could take …
Oh yeah. One more thing …. it went from 42 degrees yesterday to 62 this morning ! I think they call this El Niño
I’ve been watching, and attempting to record, the defensive behavior of the common Barn Swallow. When they feel one of the nests is in danger, all of the swallows take to the air and dive and swoop and make noise. The goal is to confuse the predator and then to scare it away with "attacks" consisting of fast fly bys with screeches at the moment when the bird is closest to the predator.
The video captures a few of these dives and starting at 00:55s you can see a pass in slow motion. This is followed by another pass in slow motion and then still frames.
I may have a lot going on but I still find excitement and awe in some of the most simple things like a thunderstorm, the sound of bees, wheat fields, or a hawk soaring on a thermal.
I enjoy watching my morning espresso nearly as much as drinking it (although watching it does not help me wake up any faster).
OK, so you got the venetian blinds. They are white but in the limited early morning light, they appeared brownish yellow.
What I really liked was the dot pattern that reminds some of old punch tape. That is not a pattern on the blinds. It had rained the night before and there was heavy wind. Some of the droplets of water still filled the holes of the screen over the window. So, in the morning light, there were random dot patterns.
