a weblog of whereabouts & interests, since 2010
I took these pictures on Thursday, when there was a break in the rain.
These are Anna’s hummingbirds (Calypte anna), medium-sized as hummingbirds go.
After they were done with the mahonia’s flowers, the little birds sat on the power cables that run into my house for a long time.
Their feathers are mostly green and gray. The male’s head and throat have feathers that light up in a stunning iridescent reddish-pink when the light strikes it at just the right angle.
I had to wait until midnight to see the virtual Space Needle celebrations on TV, sponsored by T-Mobile and produced by Terry D. Morgan.
The wait was worth it. The creators used sky-mapping technology and video footage to create a spectacle accompanied by dramatic music. Below are a few stills from the video that was posted afterwards.
Hooray! We get to erase 2020, annus horribilis that it was, and go into 2021.
There are no guarantees that 2021 will be better —but we do have vaccines now, to fight the pandemic with.
The Biden administration will soon start to pick up the pieces from the last four years. At least there was some economic help from the government this year, with more to come (the $600 checks, $300 per week unemployment benefits extended through mid-March).
Looks like we’re going to spill over into the new year with rain every day here in Seattle (with a little break on Thursday morning). The yearly precipitation total stands at 40.71″ ( yearly normal 37.49″ ).
Does the New Year’s Eve rain matter? No. The annual fireworks display at the Space Needle, and gatherings at Gas Works Park had been cancelled a long time ago.
There will be a ‘virtual’ Space Needle celebration/ ‘fireworks’ display instead, on the local TV station channel. One could argue it’s more or less the same as watching real fireworks on TV — or is it not?
Washington State Ferries operates the largest ferry system in the United States. The system operates 21 ferries across Puget Sound and the greater Salish Sea (the body of water that crosses into British Columbia). The vessels ferry nearly 24 million people annually, to 20 different ports of call.
The new $187 million ferry terminal in Mukilteo opened today, without crowds or fanfare. The new facility replaces the old terminal and dock (constructed in 1957).
*Washington State ferries have double-ended hull designs: vehicles can be loaded on & off from both ends of the vessel. After loading, the direction of travel switches — so the ‘bow’ becomes the stern, as the ferry departs. [Graphic from wsdot.wa.gov]
Of the 11.4 million doses distributed here in the States, only 2.1 million first doses have so far been administered, says the CDC’s website.
Slow and steady may win the race, but we need to make haste. Many lives are at stake.
Here’s an infographic explaining how the RNA-based vaccines work (in German, sorry. English translation notes below it).
There were beautiful soft grays and pinks in the blue sky today at sunset.
I had made my way down all along Harrison Street, towards the Interstate 5 overlook by Melrose Avenue.
The St. Ingbert apartments is right there by Harrison and Melrose.
I walked down to Cal Anderson Park today. It is open again after some 6 months. The illegal shelters and tents have now been removed. Crews have done overdue ground maintenance, building repairs, graffiti removal, and litter pick-up.
When and how to address the multiple other locations with homeless encampments around the city, is still an on-going and intractable challenge, though.
Here is a giraffe from the annual Johannesburg (South Africa) Zoo’s Festival of Lights exhibit.
I bet putting one in my front yard would impress the neighbors!
There was still a little snow on the ground, in the shady areas, here in the city today.
Does that count as a White Christmas?
Merry Christmas. Geseënde Kersfees.
I had the P and the E for a dessert (5,5) in my latest giant crossword puzzle, and so I needed to solve P_E_ _ |_ _ _ _ _ .
Hmm .. might it be PEACH MELBA? I thought ..
.. but then I had to do a lot of legwork to verify that it fit with the cryptic clue.
I only knew about peach melba (peaches and raspberry sauce with vanilla ice cream – I had to look this up, as well), but nothing of its history.
Galileo started to turn his telescope to the heavens in 1609.
He soon discovered Jupiter’s four biggest moons, and that Saturn had a ‘strange oval surrounding’. Right around that time, there was the Great Conjunction of 1623 – but it is almost certain that Galileo did not see it.
Astronomers and historians have not found the event mentioned anywhere in the records of that time.
Check out this incredible picture posted on Sunday night by J. Rehling on Twitter (@JRehling).
In his Twitter thread notes below, he says that he used a 9.25″ (that means wide) Celestron telescope with a 2350 mm focal length and an ASI 1600 mm monochrome camera, with separate filters for clear, red, green, and blue.
And when is the next super-close pairing of the two planets? March 15, 2080.
Here’s my ‘snow report’ from last night.
There was just an inch or so on the ground, not enough to stick to the streets and pavements for too long.
It’s winter here in the North, officially.
The city has had plenty of rainy, windy weather yesterday and today (1.58 in. measured in 48 hrs at Seatac Airport’s gauge).
.. and hey! the snowflakes coming down in the mix tonight, formed a thin layer on my back deck.
I’m not traveling anywhere for Christmas this year.
So: no excuse for not putting up a tree.
I retrieved the one I have from the basement, and put up some of my bird figures in it, along with a few other decorations.
Here is Candice Bergen (74) and her dog Bruce — the picture from a recent article about her in the New York Times.
I ran into a super-simple recipe for pasta sauce in the New York Times. Canned peeled tomatoes, butter, onion, a pinch or two of salt. That’s it.
The recipe mentioned San Marzano tomatoes. Would these be available on Amazon? I wondered.
Yes .. the original product from Italy! and so I ordered some.
Below is what I did to cook the sauce tonight.
There is a little basil with the tomato in the can.
I used Kerrygold Irish butter and white onion.
The onion is taken out afterwards.
I tossed the sauce with the pasta, and that was it.
No parmesan, so that I could savor the sunny, earthy tomato flavor better.
Well, the rain stopped long enough today for the sky to clear .. and for the tennis courts at Jefferson Park to dry out.
So when the text messages from my tennis group came in asking who could play, I jumped at it. We had 52 °F/ 11 °C, which is still OK to play in. Temperatures down to around 45 °F/ 7 °C are increasingly dicey, and 40 °F/ 4 °C is a hard no for me.
A major winter storm is bringing heavy snow into the Northeast of the country. Here in the Pacific Northwest we just have rain. (There is snow in the mountains, of course, but it’s not cold enough for snow on the city streets, yet.) November’s total came to 5.6 in, somewhat below the average of 6.6 in.
By sunset (4.18 pm), my neighbors’ Christmas lights across the street are already switched on.
Each of these Tuesdays, I sweep up the last bit of the leaves on my front lawn (to put in the yard waste bin for pickup).
P.S. There’s a ‘Biden for President’ sign on the white picket fence on the right.
All 538 electors voted Monday in the Electoral College*, and it’s now official: Joe Biden 306, Trump 232.
*From CBS news: Electors are not necessarily bound by law to vote according to the state’s results, and there were 10 “faithless electors” in 2016. But most states have laws that nullify the votes of “faithless electors,” and the Supreme Court ruled in July that states can punish them. FairVote found that since the founding of the Electoral College, there have been 167 faithless electors.
