happy new year, y'all!

2014: on the way out

personally, i shan't complain about this, my first full year of "retirement"--- italy, a first-see of cumberland gap, and a return to cuba got me out of the house and i did a little productive work, some of which has been renumerative as well ----

plus obama's back in fighting form, as well he should be, and we can add some movement on immigration and fair relations with cuba to his many accomplishments --- viva, barack!

late bloomers

i got this little dendrobium when i moved into this place in december 2005 (that's it at the end of the counter below) and it was real purty there for awhile --- and then never bloomed again --- until now --- i must have stumbled upon the proper conditions

rebuilding downtown

i always love an excuse to walk downtown, such as it is (atlanner is ok if you just quit wanting it to be nueva york or barcelona or wherever) --- after months of delays, the new streetcar started running on the "a line," and there was a big ceremony and what mary has dubbed the blessing of the streetcars (seriously, 3 preachers!) --- the route is basically a figure-8 between ebenezer church at mlk natl. hist. park on the east side and centennial olympic park and all the museums on the west, clearly pitched first and foremost to the conventioneers --- which is ok by me, if it leads to a really useful system connecting, e.g., to a similar belt line system or a line out peachtree! --- the city's first (mule-drawn) streetcar in 1871 ran from five points to the streetcar owner's home in west end, but it was definitely the start of something bigger --- i hope this will be, too

a big ol' mud hole in midtown

rebuilding midtown

starbucks on p'tree at seventh closed today while they relocate a couple of hundred feet away in the spire while a new building is built on that corner --- they'll probably start demolition next week ---- it'll be kinda cool to have the narrow sidewalk widened and to know that the rich people buying the over-priced condos going up there will have to look at that bill board for a while --- but, otherwise, there goes the neighborhood

the krystal cum starbucks should be eligible for the national register of historic places but probably isn't due to what many would deem unsympathetic alterations and additions --- in any case, it's a goner --- this image from 1964 (lane bros.coll. at gsu) also shows the relatively new federal office building that is now the peachtree lofts

in 1949, the neighborhood was on the cusp of great changes --- in this image, eighth street is at top, and peachtree and juniper down the center of the image --- the same year this image was made, the feds were commissioning design of a building on the northwest corner of peachtree and seventh --- completed in 1952 and occupied by the department of agriculture and early cdc offices --- it is one of three federal office buildings that were built on peachtree between fifth and eighth streets around 1950 --- the krystal, the stein club, and many other old favorites from the 60s and 70s followed

reach for the sky

morning and evening were purty fine today

christmas in (and out of) the gene pool

christmas eve

an excellent evening, a little time with a.d.hill and then dinner with rvdp --- 

merry christmas

darwin's orchid

angraecum veitchii --- this species was hybridized in england in 1899, but one of its parent species is

. . . best known within the botany community for its association with the naturalist Charles Darwin. After being sent several flowers of A. sesquipedale by James Bateman, Darwin noted the defining characteristic of the species, its extremely long spur. From his observations, Darwin surmised, in his 1862 publication On the various contrivances by which British and foreign orchids are fertilized by insects, and on the good effects of intercrossing, that there must be a pollinator moth with a proboscis long enough to reach the nectar at the end of the spur. . . . For some time after this prediction the notion of a pollinator with a 35 cm long proboscis was ridiculed and generally not believed to exist. . . . . In 1903, such a moth was discovered in Madagascar by Lionel Walter Rothschild and Karl Jordan. This confirmed Darwin's prediction.

all of which is purty awesome --- thanks, robert --- i hope i don't kill it

merry christmas, y'all!

antechristmas

been fog bound all day, feeling like dickens or edward hopper or something --- brightened by a most excellent water color from cousin a.d.hill --- i have her wonderful work all over my house 

and by a new orchid, from cousin robert, with large buds there that are a little scary but that promise big showy white flowers that are supposed to have a very good fragrance --- i will get a lot of good use out of that come january 

old friends dear and true all round they are

chwismas!

rebuilding midtown

two more of the six or so construction cranes between fourth and twelfth streets --- this is the old baptist church site at fifth street --- it'll be good to get that gap filled in

and even some of the old buildings in midtown are getting a chance --- i would've sworn this one just a block east on juniper was a goner a year ago, it was such a huge mess, with rotting eaves, missing windows, etc. etc. 

the good people at lost and found youth have done an outstanding job of restoring the exterior

from the nether reaches of the gene pool

the sewells as artistes

solstice

"Data indicates that the rotation speed has actually sped upslightly over the past forty years, likely due to melting of ice at the polesand the resulting redistribution of the Earth's mass. So, as far as we know,the longest night in Earth's history likely occurred in 1912."

a great moment in the teevee

re-building midtown

lighting up the night

cranes all over the viewshed

the one on the left won't be up much longer since that building is almost topped out --- the one behind the plaza will be another two or three months i guess --- the one in the foreground will be going on for most of the next year --- none of them will negatively alter my viewshed, atlhough some of the folks at plaza midtown are going to feel kinda hemmed in before it's all done --- and all three towers are residential, representing another thousand or so residents in the neighborhood --- yay, midtown!

the blue ridge

we spent a fine day saturday driving up the blue ridge parkway --- a section of it was closed above asheville and much of the route over the balsam mountains --- but we got on at spruce pine and drove 80 or 90 miles north and then back south until the road barricades --- 

hiked around linvale falls, which i had never seen before --- purty wonderful ---  one of your more interesting water falls, geologically speaking

grandfather mountain is now a biosphere reserve or something like that, which is part of why they built the linn cove viaduct (1987) around part of the mountain, and the last segment of the parkway to be completed, more than fifty years after construction began in 1935 --- seeing it was another first 

moses cone's flat top manor was all closed up, but it didn't matter --- the place is really spectacular

the parkway is one of our greatest treasures and even in the winter is really wonderful,with all the browns and grays of the deciduous trees and huge swaths of dark green of the rhododendron and an occasional splash of color from some lichen-covered stone or the galax --- and there weren't very many other people at all, which was luxurious