restoring the recent past

the visitor center (1958) at flamingo overlooks florida bay and has been painted a neutral off white for years --- it has been transformed by returning to the original flamingo-pink and sky-blue color scheme ----

 

mahogany hammock

old-growth mahogany, gumbo limbo, and all kinda palms

yesterday evening at royal palm

south florida

they dug up a good chunk of the everglades for agriculture a hundred years ago --- some of the land has been restored and a lot more built over, but there are still vast fields of everything from english peas to palm trees

fowey rock light

we got out to fowey rock light yesterday but it was too rough to get close and actually tie up --- a very cool structure

shark valley slough

this was a part of the everglades i'd never seen before --- the tower was built in 1966 --- great views --- there were a lot of birds, anhinga, egrets, and wood storks and others i had never seen before --- alligators all over the place with the boy alligators growling and fussing over territory ---

surprise

this greeted me when i got home this evening --- it's never bloomed for me before ----

saturday in the park and on the beltline

enjoy the trees while you can --- wi-fi may be killing them

quiet but busy

the worker people out front must have stayed up all night digging around, putting in wiring and installing the little fences --- and the other worker people were up bright and early climbing all over what was the tall radio tower, which they will have disappeared from view entirely within the hour

tp

it was probably a wondrous thing at the time

elections have consequences redux

"If I become chairman, we'll be reexamining the light bulb issue, no problem," Upton said.

keep the gummint outta my medicare and my light bubs

elections have consequences

The ghastly truth is that we have one political party that is as close to organized vandalism as one can imagine. START, the debt ceiling, civil rights, real spending cuts and tax reform: all these will be subject to the pure nihilism of the will to power. Their goal is the destruction of Obama. That is all.

i'm dreading the next two years as we watch ignorance and nihilism on parade

dog yawning

they're adding little fences around the tree islands in front of the building, with some sort of new lighting --- i hope all the digging doesn't kill the trees ---

xmas on p'tree

 too soon, as usual --- even one of my neighbors

another boring sunset

down, down, all the way down

they've brought in a big crane for the last of the take down

good news for alabama street

designed by w. l. stoddart, who also designed the ga. terrace and the ponce apts., was begun in 1916, but construction was interrupted by world war i and not resumed after the war --- in 1995 an additional ten stories were constructed and it was re-opened as a hotel, which didn't last long --- then it was eaten by ga. state, which has now burped it back up again, to be reborn as a comfort suites hotel --- a first for south of the tracks and something that will get a lot of use from visitors to the various agencies in the federal center, just a block to the west ---

why the ajc sux

The Atlanta papers were the voices that steered Atlanta, Georgia and the South from a segregated, backwards state to one of the most dynamic and progressive regions in the country. But that voice — the voice of reason, hope and progress — has been muted at today’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Instead, the newspapers seem hell bent to portray the City of Atlanta and the core of the region in the worst possible light. It is no secret that leaders in the newsroom now say that their target audience is not those living/working inside the perimeter. Instead, they openly covet readers living and working in the areas north of I-285, even telling reporters that the south side of the region is not a top priority.

new light

"gustav klimt unexpectedly crossed with con edison" --- now that's a vision

rain rolling in

more damn trees and shrubberies

what can i say? it's fall and the gaudy colors are everywhere ---


only a few of the early 20th century water oaks left around the lake --- they can be handsome trees --- notice one of the few 1960s light standards left in the park

the euonymous alatus that d.o.t. planted all over is just about the reddest thing available right now ---

a thought

"As we all occasionally forget, it's important to remember that all of the Social Security reform talk is about letting rich people steal from the Social Security trust fund."

kitty, kitty, kitty

cats do not slurp like a dog ---



don't you love the things people spend their time trying to figure out?

uncluttering the viewshed

both radio towers are coming down, not just the big one ---

veterans' day

 i got an ancestor or two that participated in the revolution and another couple in the war of 1812 --- some in the war against northern aggression, one of whom is buried at vicksburg --- just as many avoided the whole thing if they could ---

my maternal grandpa was stationed in puerto rico in 1918 , but my grandpa jones was in france, amid mustard gas and unending trench warfare (that's him at extreme left)--- stroked out in his old age, he use to sing to me when i was a kid, "on top of old smokey," with which he tried to relay some memory of a comrade in a watchtower in france, singing that song for some unexplained reason that might or might not have included drunkeness---

this photo was taken toward the end of that "great war," "the war to end all wars" ---

only it wasn't --- here's paw paw in 1943 before shipping out to the south pacific --- saipan and tinian being the high points of his tour of duty ---



i'll save the rest for memorial day

fall light

a fine afternoon to inspect natural resources at the river and rottenwood creek --- or anywhere for that matter --- enjoy it now --- next week it is supposed to rain all week, after which there will be a lot more bare trees, and the weather itself will get progressively more dank and dismal in order to have us in the right mood for the upcoming holiday season

city night

the belt line

a great presentation by the guy behind what may be a major transformation of the city --- at least over the long run

frieda cat (1996 - 2010)

we will miss her, from a flea-bitten orphan to a fat baby girl cat to the last princess of sinclair ---

the raw deal

Few states were impacted by last week’s Republican victories as much as Georgia. In addition to defeating Blue Dog Rep. Jim Marshall (D), Republicans seized control of every single state-wide office and expanded powerful majorities in the legislature, giving them a position of strength they have not had in modern political history. . . .This morning, the Deal campaign released a list of staffers who comprise his transition team. The list reads like a who’s who list of some of the state’s top special interests and lobbyists — people who have represented corporate giants ranging from Georgia Power to Goldman Sachs.

it's been fall all day today

 first freezing temperatures this morning for a lot of north georgia but just missed here in town ---

fayette county

this afternoon

blooming things

orchids are wonderful for the way they surprise with a sudden bud --- this is the first time this cattleya has bloomed for me

saw the 80th anniversary performance of big bethel's folk drama "heaven bound" tonight --- wonderful singing, even to a heathen like me ---

this was not their best number, but the lights were on so i could shoot the video

saving them from themselves

If I were one of the big corporate donors who bankrolled the Republican tide that carried into office more than 50 new Republicans in the House, I would be wary of what you just bought. For no matter your view of President Obama, he effectively saved capitalism. And for that, he paid a terrible political price.

the heliotropic view

it seems like the sun is racing to the south these days --- racing for the solstice

no gridlock in georgia

absolutely no democrats in state-wide office, but most encouragingly a governor-elect who may or may not be indicted before he's inaugurated and an attorney-general-elect with no prosecuting experience --- who knows what other wondrous surprises await us --- all of them working for the good of the plutocracy on behalf of a lazy dumb electorate that has always, and i mean for 200-years-always, been easily bamboozled by slogans and cant

on the bright side, clayton county voted overwhelmingly for a non-binding resolution to join marta, which is a first; jill chambers, the bane of marta's existence, was defeated; and sanford bishop hung on to his house seat by the skin of his teeth, although i don't know if that's worth too much

nationally, it's not much better --- we will have to suffer with rand paul and the crazy white lady from minnesota, but at least won't have to endure those scarily crazy white ladies in delaware and nevada --- plus most of the progressives made it through (minus feingold) while the so-called blue dogs lost half of their caucus

onward and upward

urban artifacts

artifacts from early in the last century are few and far between in midtown, and the great recession is the only reason that this particular one is still there ---- i've walked by it dozens of times and never really paid much attention to it --- the gamewell company was a fire alarm company that was in business as early as 1878 --- this box is on sixth street, part of the urban debris, which includes the site of the armory, a midtown landmark, left by the developers of the spire

you gotta love the semi-fascist thunderbolts in the clinched fist --- that's how you know it's before ww2 and not after

rising from the doo

i really like this piece, "the pheonix," better than the "phoenix rising" at the southwest  corner of woodruff park --- this is on broad street, by francesco somaini in 1964 --- it originally was installed at the southwest corner of five points, when there was still a first national bank, which commissioned the sculpture in the first place ---

they have just taken the scaffolding down after a major conservation project, a big portion of which was devoted to the removal of pigeon droppings

showing your colors

i meant to post this earlier but forgot --- i was wondering why drew lewis didn't put up a gay flag during pride since most of the other merchants did --- it took  me a while to catch on to their window --- kinda goes with their semi-closeted image i guess