30 October 2012

sandy!

we've been in the clouds all day
the low is over western pennsylvania at sundown today --- billions and billions in damages before it's all over --- and an example of exactly the sort of mega-storm science has been predicting we could expect with global warming ---

29 October 2012

 the clouds will be back tomorrow, but right now it's purty nice

sandy!

hurricane sandy, cat. 1, is going ashore in new jersey about now --- 90 mph winds, 940 mb barometric pressure, which is the lowest ever recorded for any storm to hit the northeast ---in the 50s and 20-30 mph wind here, but no rain, which is sad ----

27 October 2012

big weather


big weather on the east coast --- hurricane sandy --- and its outer bands are spiraling across georgia this evening ---  wish we could get same rain out of it, but we won't


fall in ansley park






actually this one is at metropolis porte cochere

26 October 2012

flowers

always a damn blossom open somewhere in the house --- now that crazy tri-colored cattleya is starting up again, too --

dumb name, too


there are only a handful of the early twentieth century commercial buildings left in midtown --- gilbert's expansion has just ruined one of them --- 10th & piedmont? is that the best they could do?

20 October 2012

little five points halloween parade

perhaps not as over the top as some of the parades in years past (robert blames it on the influx of children in the neighborhood) --- but a spectacle nonetheless

19 October 2012

skyline update


 the new apartment building at 12th & midtown
the exterior of skyhouse at 12th and w. peachtree appears complete

the garden

almost all of the little oncidium blossoms opened while i was gone === they'll last for a while

18 October 2012

pensacola beach

 three nights, fifth floor with balcony overlooking the gulf --- open door and ocean breeze --- kinda nice


fort pickens

fort pickens was built in the 1840s, partially destroyed by an explosion in the 1890s, but continued in use until the end of world war ii

the prolonged overwash from hurricane ivan killed many of the pine trees
and the fort pickens road out of pensacola beach is really wonderful, at points like driving through drifts of snow


 there was a series of large concrete batteries built for 12" guns during world war i, covered with earth during world war ii ---



barrancas

the scarp gallery runs the perimeter of the fort and is one of the most wonderful spaces i've entered in a while --- lined with gun ports, it faces the counterscarp gallery, also lined with gun ports, across the dry moat --- nothing but brick and light






fort barrancas de san carlos was built by the spanish in 1797, overlooking the mouth of pensacola bay --- it was altered when the united states built fort barrancas proper in the 1840s
the united states also built the so-called "advanced redoubt," which protected the peninsula on which the navy yard was located from assault by land