Category: Spring

Between March 22nd and June 21st, most years.

This year’s best meteor shower prepares to take center stage | Astronomy.com

This year’s best meteor shower prepares to take center stage | Astronomy.com.

Debris from an obscure comet could light up the sky with 100 or more meteors per hour the night of May 23/24.

Astronomers expect the shower to peak sometime between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. EDT the morning of May 24 (11 p.m. to 1 a.m. PDT). This timing works perfectly for observers in the United States and southern Canada. For the best views, find an observing site far from city lights. Light pollution brightens the sky and washes out fainter meteors, lessening the shower’s impact.

The weather forecast for Lansing is dismal.  Cloudy Friday and Saturday, thunderstorms predicted.  Unless I want to take a long long drive somewhere, I won’t get a chance to see this new meteor shower.

Hope you have better luck in your neck of the woods!

Circle of Life

I solved the mystery of the missing robin’s nest once my husband woke up.  I asked him if the nest was intact before he fell asleep.  He replied that as far as he knew, the nest was there until the early morning hours.  Once he was dressed, he walked out into the back yard and spotted the empty nest in the middle of the lower half of our yard.  Quite a ways away from the upper patio and the back porch light.  Here are some photos to give you an idea:

Empty Robin's Nest Far From Porch Light
Empty Robin’s Nest Far From Porch Light

Continue reading “Circle of Life”

Bye Bye Birdies

Gone. Vanished.Gone.

Vanished.

Barely left a trace behind.

To say I was shocked this morning would be an understatement.  Just last night Terry and I witnessed Mother Robin feeding her babies from the edge of her nest (see other posts for the actual nest since there’s little to no trace of it this morning above our porch light).

I’m worried now that Continue reading “Bye Bye Birdies”

Hatching and Hatched

Yesterday I reported that my back porchlight housed a squatter. A robin’s nest rests atop it complete with Mother Robin and her eggs.  Later in the evening, I checked the nest and the robin had flown off to find her own dinner.

I managed to get a blurry shot of the nest’s contents.  I had to do this while standing on a chair, hiding inside the house and leaning out with just my smartphone hovering over the nest.  I couldn’t see the screen and snapped a couple of photos to pick the best to show here.

Mother Robin took a brief break. Continue reading “Hatching and Hatched”

Places to Avoid Walking During My Lunch Break

This year for Mother’s Day my kids bought me a Fitbit Flex. I got it setup late last week and have gradually increased my walking, both at home during the evenings and at work over part of my lunch hour.

Flush creek as seen while walking at lunch on Mon 5/12/2014Monday I headed out of my building and eventually ended up along the banks of Brush Creek (sometimes referred to as Flush Creek), which flows east along the south side of the Country Club Plaza.  As you can see from the photo above, I will most likely NOT be retracing my steps on this route in the near future.

Continue reading “Places to Avoid Walking During My Lunch Break”

Kansas Transportation: Throwback Thursday

http://kansastransportation.blogspot.com/2014/03/throwback-thursday.html?m=1

O my goodness!  I remember this storm (I was eight). The flag pole in our front yard was bent over 90 degrees to the ground but did not break or pull out of the base. My dad’s amateur radio tower did not fare as well though.

For the next 10-15 years I was terrified of thunderstorms and tornadoes. But once the Andover tornado chased my kids and I home, I conquered that fear and put it permanently behind me.

Posted from WordPress for Android via my Samsung smartphone. Please excuse any misspellings. Ciao, Jon

Pleasant Evening Stroll with Apollo and Spring Flowers

For the first time in nearly a month, Apollo and I took a pleasant evening stroll around our neighborhood.  I didn’t get much exercise, as I became easily distracted by all the beautiful blooming spring flowers and trees.  The temperature stayed in the 70s and the sky remained cloudless as the sun dipped toward the western horizon.

Flowers with Apollo
Flowers with Apollo (click for rest of album)

The forecast for the next couple of days, however, predicts more rain, so Apollo and I may not get out and about until later this week.

Terry and I also visited our local Home Depot to purchase a replacement day lilly (for the one lost to the driveway re-construction a year or so ago) and a couple of new flowers to add to the bed around the mailbox. As soon as the day lillies bloom, I’ll snap some photos and share them here.

Happy Birthday Apollo

This past Thursday May 9th, Terry and I celebrated the anniversary of our adoption of Apollo seven years ago. Since we rescued him we don’t know his exact birthday. Our family vet estimated that he was a year or year and a half old when we rescued him.

So we will give Apollo the benefit of the doubt and round down to eight, which is probably over 50 in human years. Welcome to your midlife crisis Apollo. You’re over the hill now and it’s smooth sailing from now on.

image

This morning I took a half dozen pictures of Apollo as the lounge on the couch. I tried to take a couple more outside but there was too much difference between the shadow of the house and the bright morning sunlight on the grass behind him. I upload them to my Flickr feed but I uploaded one separately here to this blog for your enjoyment.

Happy Birthday Apollo!