a weblog of whereabouts & interests, since 2010
Happy Earth Day.
There is reason for a little optimism that we can save our planet.
Experts say that global carbon dioxide emissions will probably peak next year and certainly by 2030, using a scenario based on current policy settings.
The transition to clean energy is happening worldwide and it’s unstoppable.
The reason is that using renewable resources (such as solar, wind) are now the cheapest ways to capture or generate energy.
Sometimes when I water my lawn, there is a robin nearby.
They must be looking for earthworms crawling out of the wet soil.
Christmas Robins
Iss. 1995, 30 Oct. Perf. 15×14 Two phosphor bands
1897 1222 25p Silver, greenish yellow, vermilion, orange vermilion, bistre & black
[Source: 2003 Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue Vol.3]
Iss. 2001, 6 Nov. Die Cut Perf. 14½x14½ Self-adhesive Photo.
2004 A516 E Multi-coloured
*E means the stamp is valid for mail to anywhere in the European Union. At the time, the stamp was sold for 37p.
[Source: 2003 Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue Vol.3]
It has been nine days since my lawn got a fresh start with topsoil and grass seed mix.
I keep the soil damp, watering it up to three times per day with a watering wand and nozzle.
(It’s been mostly dry, with just a little bit of rain today).
Happy Friday.
State Route 20 opened today, a little earlier in the year than usual.
The jury is seated, in the first-ever criminal trial for a US president (or former president).
Rafael Nadal (37, 🇪🇸) was back on the court again today at the Barcelona Open.
His comeback from hip and abdominal injuries after three months was ended by Alex de Minaur (25, 🇦🇺), though.
The 12-time champion got a standing ovation as he waved goodbye to the Barcelona Open— for possibly the final time.
Here’s Jonathan Jurejko reporting for BBC Sport:
Nadal is hoping to be fit enough to make a return to the French Open, where he won a record 14 men’s singles titles, next month, and suggested he was preserving his energy for Roland Garros during the latter stages of the De Minaur match.
“On a personal level, for what is to come, the 6-1 in the second set is what had to happen today,” he said.
“It wasn’t today that I had to give everything and die. I have to give myself the chance to do that [at the French Open] in a few weeks, or at least try to.”
Cancellation mark:
POSTAL EXPRESS
Siempre a tiempo (Always on time)
Mailed on Apr. 3 in Sant Cugat del Vallès— a town and municipality in Catalonia, Spain, located north of Barcelona.
Let’s see what the stamps tell us about España.
Iss. 2002, Feb.20 Die Cut Perf. 13 Litho.
3145 A1129 € 0.25 Orchid
Clocks from Royal Palaces in Spain
Iss. 2004, Mar.31 Perf. 13¼x12¾ Litho. & Engr.
3284 A1246c € 0.77 Clock w. Empress Maria Luisa, child & harp, 19th Century
3284 A1246a € 0.27 Clock w. Muse Calliope, 19th Century
3284 A1246b € 0.52 Clock w. Cupid, 18th Century
[Source: Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalog Vol. 6A, 2021 Edition]
Iss. 2015, Jan.19
Perf. 13¼x12¾
Litho. & Embossed
4019 A1796
1c orange-brown
[Source: Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalog Vol. 6A, 2021 Edition]
Check out this amazing picture taken last Monday during the solar eclipse (seen as a partial eclipse from Montreal).
Chloe Rose Stuart-Ulin explains in the New York Times:
The plane passing over Montreal during the partial phase of the eclipse left a typical contrail in its wake. When this happens in full sunlight, the shadows cast by contrails on clouds are usually too diffuse to see. In this case, the sharpness of the shadows was explained by the eclipse.
Though the shadows of the contrails appeared to be on a layer of clouds above the aircraft, as though cast from reflected light from the Earth, this was an illusion. The shadows were made by the light of the sun, cast downward onto clouds below it.
Monégasque (say “mon-i-gask”)
noun
a native or inhabitant of Monaco
adjective
of or relating to Monaco or its inhabitants.
The 2024 clay season for men’s tennis is in full swing.
Today was a beautiful Monégasque clear spring day at the Monte-Carlo Country Club— where Stefanos Tsitsipas (25, 🇬🇷) squared off against Casper Ruud (25, 🇩🇰) for the title match of the 117th annual Monte Carlo Rolex Masters tennis tournament.
Tsitsipas emerged as the winner 6-1 6-4, winning his third title there.
I don’t follow Formula 1 racing, but Leclerc has caught the attention of F1 fans since becoming the youngest member of Ferrari’s team in 2019, landing a role in his early 20s, says People magazine.
[Picture posted on X @leclercdata]
Charles Leclerc with his girlfriend Alexandra Saint Mleux, a 21-year-old Art History student from Italy.
[Picture posted on X @leclercdata]
There are still blossoms on the trees here in the city.
Here’s one on a young magnolia tree.
Happy Friday.
Break open a cold one: a beer, a cocktail, an orange juice, a lemonade.
There it is: the first time ever since I had lived in my ole house, that new topsoil and grass seed have been put in.
(Yes, yes- I know that lawns are anathema to some environmentalists, but mine is really small. And my lawn services company says we don’t have great solutions for the Seattle climate yet, for ground cover greenery as an alternative).
South African Constitution (1996) Art. 47.1.e.
1. Every citizen who is qualified to vote for the National Assembly is eligible to be a member of the Assembly, except ..
e. anyone who, after this section took effect, is convicted of an offence and sentenced to more than 12 months imprisonment without the option of a fine, either in the Republic, or outside the Republic if the conduct constituting the offence would have been an offence in the Republic, but no one may be regarded as having been sentenced until an appeal against the conviction or sentence has been determined, or until the time for an appeal has expired. A disqualification under this paragraph ends five years after the sentence has been completed.
This year, general elections will be held in South Africa on 29 May to elect a new National Assembly as well as the provincial legislature in each province.
It’s been 30 years since Nelson Mandela was elected South Africa’s first democratic president. The African National Congress has in been in power all this time.
Let’s just say that after Mandela left office in 1999, the ANC has not exactly covered themselves in glory.
Jacob Zuma (elected in 2009) and his ANC cronies in particular, engaged in racketeering, money laundering, and fraud on a grand scale.
Zuma spent time in jail 2021, but only two months of his full sentence of 15 months. This was due to a ‘remission’ program approved by the current president, Cyril Ramaphosa (the equivalent of a ‘pardon’ in the US).
Now 82 years old, Zuma is back in politics. He wants to become president again.
South Africa’s election court ruled that he cannot be disqualified by the 12 month rule in Art. 47.1.e. of the South African constitution.
There was mail from the Royal Mail in Great Britain for me today— with South African stamps inside, of course.
I looked up the details of the stamps used on the envelopes.
Issued 1974, Oct. 9. | Perf.14×15 | ‘All-over’ phosphor Gum
962 444 4½p | Prussian Blue, pale turqoise-green and silver | Churchill in Royal Yacht Squadron Uniform
[Source: 1997 Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue Part I Volume I]
Issued 2023 | Perf. 15×14½ | Gravure print with phosphor bars | Bar-coded | Self-adhesive
£2.20 Dark green Portrait of His Majesty King Charles III
[Source: royalmail.com]
Anticipation of the total eclipse of the sun that is about to be visible in a large swath of North America, is at a fever pitch.
The eclipse will be visible starting at 12:06 p.m. CDT near Eagle Pass, Texas, before progressing to totality by about 1:27 p.m. CDT.
It will progress along its path to the northeast over the next few hours and the last of the eclipse in North America will be seen from Caribou, Maine at 4:40 p.m. EDT.
It does look like there will be cloud cover in several places along the way.
Here in the Pacific Northwest we will only see some 20% of the sun being obscured by the moon, and that is if the clouds allow it.
I spent a few hours on my South African stamp collection today, poring over my Scott stamp catalog to find the fine— but distinct— differences between the various issues of the ubiquitous 1 p Dromedaris stamps issued in 1926, 1932, 1940 and in 1951 (shown below).
About this stamp:
From the First Definite Series of the Union of South Africa (a redesign of the original 1926 version, issued in 1951)
Photogravure printing Perf. 15×14 Wmk. Multiple Springbok head
49 A6 1 p carmine & black Afrikaans-English se-tenant pair (’51, size 18x22mm) of Jan van Riebeeck’s ship, the Dromedaris
[Source: 2021 Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue Vol. 6A]
Another month, another burst of better-than-expected job gains.
Employers added 303,000 jobs in March on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Labor Department reported on Friday, and the unemployment rate fell to 3.8 percent, from 3.9 percent in February. Expectations of a recession among experts, once widespread, are now increasingly rare.
– Talmon Joseph Smith writing for the NY Times
Here’s tonight’s sunset.
I am standing at the 13th Ave East & East Mercer St intersection.
Sales of electric vehicles grew only 2.7% to just over 268,000 during the quarter, far below the 47% growth that fueled record sales and a 7.6% market share last year.
The slowdown, led by Tesla, confirms automakers’ fears that they moved too quickly to pursue EV buyers. The EV share of total U.S. sales fell to 7.1% in the first quarter.
– Reporting by Associated Press
Pete Buttigieg (Secretary of Transportation in the Biden cabinet) was asked today by some Fox News Channel (purveyor of right-wing propaganda) interviewer why President Biden was “pushing electrical vehicles down Americans’ throats”.
Buttigieg’s reply: 1. that is what car buyers want (more EVs are still bought every year), 2. that is where the auto industry is headed worldwide, and 3. the US should not fall behind China and import their EVs but rather manufacture them here in the USA.
