Bou, the "foster dog" : FebPhotos Day 14

We got a call last week from a close friend in poor health, who asked us to take care of her dog Bou until she recovers. Bou is short for Boudicca, the Iceni queen of the East Anglia who rebelled against the Romans in 60 A.D. Did I mention that our friend is a retired English History professor (and one of the smartest and wittiest people I know)?

So we drove down to Mt Olive, NC, today and picked up Bou, an 11-year old beagle who's full of sweetness and beagle-esque mischief. We might have Bou with us for a while, so it was great to see that her and Asta got along pretty well on their first day as co-habitants. Here's some photos from our trip and Bou's first hour here:

Yes, we went to Mt. Olive, home of the famous Mt. Olive Pickle Company, as you might surmise when you see their town sign. You can see a very stylized image of the town of Mt. Olive, with their famous street intersection of Cucumber and Vine, by checking out their website.

Any ideas that we might be starting our own kennel here in Blacksburg were quickly put to rest when this truck passed us on Hwy 52 north of Winston-Salem. While we had one small bag of Science Diet with us as Bou's provisions, this truck passed us with a bed filled to the brim with bags of dog food. You can see from their license plate that these folks are serious about dogs. Hounds in particular, it appears:

Like a good beagle, as soon as we got here Bou immediately started to sniff the entire perimeter of the backyard. No smell went undocumented. Asta watched as Bou checked out her new foster home yard, occasionally trying to get Bou to play, to no avail.

In an expected twist to the FebPhoto project, I accidentally switched my camera to the video mode and, much to my surprise, ended up taking this 10 second video of Asta and Bou scurrying around each other in the kitchen. You can tell by how deftly I aimed the camera that I had no idea it was in video mode:

Kitchen Window: FebPhotos Day 13

Our south-facing kitchen window is filled with indirect lighting in the morning, filtering nicely through the double panes, backlighting the bottles, and illuminating the Christmas cactus and African Violet.

Interiors: FebPhotos Day 12

It's not too hard to figure out where these were taken:

Red Sky at Morning: FebPhotos Day 11

This red sky greeted me this morning, looking southeast from my backyard about 7:00 AM.

There's the old weather adage of "Red sky at night, sailor's delight; red sky at morning, sailor take warning." A front came through today, with winds gusting up to 37 mph and a forecast of severe thunderstorms tonight. There's a long history of the "red sky at morning" weather lore, and it's been well documented by the Library of Congress:

Shakespeare... said something similar in his play, Venus and Adonis. “Like a red morn that ever yet betokened, Wreck to the seaman, tempest to the field, Sorrow to the shepherds, woe unto the birds, Gusts and foul flaws to herdmen and to herds.”

In the Bible, (Matthew XVI: 2-3,) Jesus said, “When in evening, ye say, it will be fair weather: For the sky is red. And in the morning, it will be foul weather today; for the sky is red and lowering."

In order to understand why “Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky in morning, sailor’s warning” can predict the weather, we must understand more about weather and the colors in the sky.

Usually, weather moves from west to east, blown by the westerly trade winds. This means storm systems generally move in from the West.

The colors we see in the sky are due to the rays of sunlight being split into colors of the spectrum as they pass through the atmosphere and ricochet off the water vapor and particles in the atmosphere. The amounts of water vapor and dust particles in the atmosphere are good indicators of weather conditions. They also determine which colors we will see in the sky.

During sunrise and sunset the sun is low in the sky, and it transmits light through the thickest part of the atmosphere. A red sky suggests an atmosphere loaded with dust and moisture particles. We see the red, because red wavelengths (the longest in the color spectrum) are breaking through the atmosphere. The shorter wavelengths, such as blue, are scattered and broken up.

Red sky at night, sailors delight.
When we see a red sky at night, this means that the setting sun is sending its light through a high concentration of dust particles. This usually indicates high pressure and stable air coming in from the west. Basically good weather will follow.

Red sky in morning, sailor’s warning.
A red sunrise reflects the dust particles of a system that has just passed from the west. This indicates that a storm system may be moving to the east. If the morning sky is a deep fiery red, it means a high water content in the atmosphere. So, rain is on its way.

Source: Library Congress' "Everyday Mysteries: Fun Science Facts from the LOC"

Found Objects: FebPhotos Day 10

My FebPhoto goal today was to find colorful things on the ground and take photos of them. No specific seeking, just whatever seemed colorful. The morning walk up to the golf course found these old tees, with some interesting colors and what amounts to tee-rot:



And then, what should I find while walking across campus this afternoon? Amazingly, this iconic bit of American food lore. I couldn't have planned this one - it was just there, beside the parking lot, and behind the Alumni Garden:

Early Morning Cactus: FebPhotos Day 9

Very early morning photos of our Christmas cactus, in full bloom.

Looking different, eh?

We interrupt this installment of Bantering Bibliocrat to move to a cleaner template and add a new header photo. We hope you like it! Back to our regularly scheduled FebPhoto series tomorrow....

Asta Frolicks: FebPhotos Day 8

A warm, partly-cloudy Sunday afternoon - what better fun than chasing partially deflated balls and mangled flippy-floppers in the backyard? Asta was having such a good time that I had to pull out the camera and catch her in action.

Gleefully running with the flippy flopper, with some funky mossy stuff dangling from it.

Playing with the ball is serious work. Note the intensity.

Waiting for the next flung object.

Eastern Bluebird: FebPhotos Day 7

An Eastern Bluebird out for a midwinter spring outing in Blacksburg: