My First …

My first butterfly at this place. The possibility of continuing to enjoy vists of butterflies is one of the reasons I wanted to live on the second floor, not the tenth.

I think an orchard butterfly, but not sure, investigating my bolly gum. I don’t have the Latin binomial at the end of my fingertips so will add in later.

In the foreground the butterfly rising from the plants, leaving disappointed, no doubt, not yet having found the citrus only a little distance toward the back of the plant array.

In the background a vast herd of Cumulus mediocris. Yes, that is what they are called. Thes are clouds of the lower altitudes, 2000 to 3000 feet above sealevel.

Cumulus mediocris appear as wide as they are tall, have proturbances and sproutings on top and do not usually cause rain, though can develop into angry and towering Cumulus congestus thunderclouds.

Cirrus uncinus

Or ‘mares tails’ elongated filaments, straight or slightly curved, without clumps or mounds on their upper sides … paraphrased from The Cloudspotter’s Guide by Gavin Pretor-Pinney.

Insert: What I forgot to say yesterday, is that mares’ tails are ‘higher level’ clouds that occur in the 5 to 14 kilometer (16k feet to 45k feet) outer layers of clouds.

They’re made up of ice spiccules that fall up there and evaporate well before they reach the ground. And, despite that these clouds look immovable, they’re speeding along at 160 kilometers or 100 miles per hour.

I was glad to see them, because up to now there have been days and weeks of the cumulous type clouds that are part of the rainy season.

Now, finally, it seems, we’ve progressed into autumn/fall. Cooler nights and days, ranging from 18C at night to about 28C in the daytime.

“Solar Punk”

I’ve known this as an SF genre for a while.

“The name spells it out. “Solar” signals optimism and a strong association with renewable energy, while “punk” reflects a DIY ethos and an anti-capitalist philosophy.”


https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-07/solarpunk-design-architecture-sustainable-future/103667452utm_source=sfmc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=abc_specialist_science_sfmc_20240410&utm_term=&utm_id=2335807&sfmc_id=338955086

Lego: Bosley’s Builders 13

13. Plans & Plants

Trish harvested lavender cabbages from her vegetable patch beside where Tim built a mysterious something. “I’d like to get on with planting the garage and bunkhouse walls,” she said. “And I’m pretty sure Nin Wizard would like to get going with his garden.”

“So what’s stopping you?” Tim said. He hammered a couple of steely runners on the underside of the thing he was working on. Whatever it was.

“I have no plants other than these and I’m not sacrificing them,” she said, gesturing over the vegetable garden on pallets that they’d planned to serve as their roof.

“And you shouldn’t have to,” Tim said. “We all enjoy the vegetables you grow.” 

“How long till we can move into our real place?” Trish grumbled. “And what is that thing?”

“It’s tricky. Canteen needs to be on the ground floor. Our cabin on that. I’m waiting for Bosley’s say-so to get going on the first.”

“Something I can do?” Trish said.

“Yeah. Take this sled for a run.”

“Sled? What for?”

“Hear Dan mention his cousin is coming back over today with a load of plants despite Ms Sander telling him they’re nowhere near ready for plants.”

“Oh, yeeesss!” Trish jumped for joy. She laughed nastily and made like she was Ms Sander. “Oh no, what’ll we do with these plants? We’re not ready. Take them away.”

She hugged Tim round his head and smacked a kiss on his face. “I’m gone.” She picked up the sled handles and danced away, pulling the empty sled behind.

She could smell the heavenly scent of flowers when she wasn’t even halfway over the ‘brudge’1— what they had christened the dam and sluice structure across the gap between their swamp and the deep channel. The word was a mix between bridge and trudge they all agreed on.

She parked the sled beside Gaz’s boat, hampering anyone else from approaching the cargo by design, and joined the altercation on the Hardware Store’s fore-deck.

As expected, Ms Sander was in full flight about Gaz’s stupidity thinking that she—Ms Sander—would take the plants when she had nowhere to put them. “As you can see, young man,” she gestured at the place reserved for the plant shop. “My builders are slow and they are never short of an excuse.”

Even Ms Bee rolled her eyes.

“I’ll take them,” Trish said. “Though I can’t pay, of course.”

“She’ll be doing you a favor,” Dan said at Gaz’s open mouth.

“Hang on, Cuz!” Gaz said, spluttering. “I need to eat!”

“We’ll pay you in-kind,” Dan said. “The minute we get the canteen up and running, you’ll eat at ours for free to the value of a boat-load of plants.”

“Have a chat with Drew,” Trish said. “He’ll work you a good deal.”

“You’re not taking our first customer, are you?” Bee said, half-joking. “Tradies always stay for a cuppa and sausage roll?”

“Never mind, Bee,” Ms Sander said. “Our real customers will have class.”

Even Trish rolled her eyes that time.

Dan helped Trish get the sled up and over the sluice. They discussed getting the rest of plants now or later. Trish said now. Dan said, have we got anywhere to put them?

“Let’s just get Gaz’s boat and tie it next to the garage,” Trish said. “Have you got somewhere he can stay overnight?” she said innocently. It wasn’t anywhere near even lunchtime.

“He won’t,” Dan predicted. “We’ll get all the plants out before he goes.”

Trish grinned.

  1. The word “brudge” and maybe concept too, comes from “The Trokeville Way” by Russell Hoban (1996) A truly mysterious read that after 28 years has not yet give up all its secrets. Read the book and let me know what you think it says?

My Sky +

+ abseiling lines … the window washers are threaded over the building. They did a great job on my windows, which are clean for the first time in their lives. If you can talk about the lives of windows.

And my sky + a few Cumulus humilis according to my interpretation of a diagram in Gavin Pretor-Pinney’s The Cloudspotter’s Guide. Minimal vertical extent, he says. ‘They look flattened and appear wider than they are tall and do not cause rain.’

I’ve had that book for about fifteen years and this is the first time I’ve lived somewhere where I can see a decent bit of sky when I look out of the windows.

Isn’t it strange by the way, that we still say ‘look out the windows’ when actually, usually, we look through the windows? I often notice a paradoxical thing in relation with doors. We walk through the doors?

Have you tried that recently? I don’t recommend it.

Playing …

Playing with shadows and reflections …

It’s just so weird that the two lights in the center of the photo are green when the two flanking them are the same sort of lights.

What I can see when I look out the window at them, is that the two outer lights are a warm yellowish glow, while the two inner light–the green ones in the photo–are a cool tone. Wonder if the difference is that they are LEDs? A mystery. I might have to ask Super Gavin who does the maintenance.

And seeing how much local light is actually sent uselessly into the night sky …

No wonder animals living in cities are changing their night time flight paths.