It is hot. This is the time of year that the sycamore trees (Platanus occidentalis) throw off their clothes with abandon, flinging their garments here and there, and revealing their most beautiful, sensuous, smooth new bark. At least that is what I think they are doing.
Thanks to Robb and Regan for this reference.
I have posted before about craft-cat connections. I do know someone who has knit objects from dog hair. In this book, the projects incorporate or are totally composed of hair that your cat is no longer using. Crafty recycling.
From the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, DC, again, click here to see the Asian fishing kittens which were recently born. Unfortunately these lovely animals are endangered due to habitat destruction.
Bonus Sappy Cat photo:
This is Maine Coon kittie, Sam Vimes lounging in the breakfast nook. (My cats never climb on the furniture.)
Reference and photo credit for the fishing cat: Smithsonian National Zoo.
June 30 marks the 104th anniversary of the Tunguska Impact. This event was not well recognized at first. It happened in a remote location; 1908 was a time of political unrest in Russia; and the seismic activity from the event could have come from a number of sources.
The origin, track and outcome of the explosion that took place in the early morning on June 30 are still under debate by scientists.
Some have concluded that it was a near earth asteroid that came really near. A group of Italian scientists proposethat Lake Cheko in western Siberia might be a crater formed when a chunk of debris broke off the cosmic object and created a trench that then became the lake. The most often discussed possibility is that a comet, or piece of a comet, entered earth’s atmosphere and exploded before impact.
According to an eye witness who was questioned by an investigative team,
Suddenly in the north sky… the sky was split in two, and high above the forest the whole northern part of the sky appeared covered with fire… At that moment there was a bang in the sky and a mighty crash… The crash was followed by a noise like stones falling from the sky, or of guns firing. The earth trembled.
Most dramatic are the photographs of trees that were burned and blasted away from the impact, losing their branches and looking list the results of a clear cut on the most massive scale.
Tunguska remains a mystery and a talking point among scientists and lay people to this day,
“If you want to start a conversation with anyone in the asteroid business all you have to say is Tunguska,” says Don Yeomans, manager of the Near-Earth Object Office at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “It is the only entry of a large meteoroid we have in the modern era with first-hand accounts.”
References:
Cheetah cubs at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.
Three weeks after their unconventional and rocky entrance into the world, two 3-week-old cheetahs were transported May 18 to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in good health, thanks to the hard work and swift actions of animal care staff at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Virginia. They are being hand-raised at the Zoo and will require around-the-clock care until they are ready to make their public debut late this summer.
Thank you, C for this video:
And, don’t forget to watch the soon-to-be flyers. The peregines have 4 eggs in their nest on Cleveland’s Terminal Tower. Here is the falconcam.
Happy Birthday to Robert Frost, born March 26, 1874.
Spring Pools
These pools that, though in forests, still reflect
The total sky almost without defect,
And like the flowers beside them, chill and shiver,
Will like the flowers beside them soon be gone,
And yet not out by any brook or river,
But up by roots to bring dark foliage on.
The trees that have it in their pent-up buds
To darken nature and be summer woods —
Let them think twice before they use their powers
To blot out and drink up and sweep away
These flowery waters and these watery flowers
From snow that melted only yesterday.
It was a busy week last week, what with all the looting and pillaging I had to take care of. I did, however, take time for a walk around the garden and I found these little white crocuses blooming. The first indication of spring returning. This week the temperatures have been in the eighties and the bulbs are blooming all over the place. Lovely to see and not typical for March in Cleveland. Happy Spring.
Firearms, fibers, any news or behaviors that make me say, "hmm, let me take another look at this."
I still miss my man, but my aim is getting better.
Gunsmoke and Knitting 