Category Archives: home

by

Picking apples

I have two trees: a Wolf River and a Gravenstein. I picked the Gravensteins over a month ago, but the Wolfe Rivers like to stay on the tree longer. I will pick a bunch today. They are lovely and wonderful pie apples. Picking is not quite overdue!

Meanwhile, my magnolia has damage this morning.

Human? No, I don’t think so.

That spike or the 3 prong in the neighborhood, sharpening their antlers. I have watched them other places in town. It feels safer from a car. I think I need some protection for the magnolia.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: overdue.

by

Design and build

The Great Port Townsend Bay Kinetic Sculpture Race has some serious designers. I don’t know if they use a forge, but the sculptures have to go in the 52 degree water and come out a few blocks away. They have to move in the water, not just float. They have to have functional brakes, since they go over a significant hill and they are human powered. They have to get through the mudbog somehow.

Some go for power and some try to go light. This one looked the lightest this year.

Many have been in more than one race and the racers and their support teams are happy to lift the hood and explain.

The two bundles under the hood are lifejackets and floats for the water course. They have to carry all the parts on the sculpture. Each team can have support personnel. Our local school kids’ STEM groups had a Maker’s Fair near the water course. We have a group that has made an underwater robot to fish out lost crab pots. If the pot’s line is lost, crabs and other creatures can be trapped inside to die. The robot helps to fish out the trash that traps creatures.

Wikipedia lists ten locations for Kinetic Sculpture Races. Ours has been going for 35 years. Will someone forge a new vehicle that we start using daily? I hope so.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: forge.

by

Dark flowers

It is getting darker and the sun is rising later. Halloween is on a Tuesday, three weeks from now. I am walking the cats in the predawn time and sometimes in the dark. Sol Duc is black and her harness is dark red and I can’t see her at all if it’s good dark night. Our rules are that I let the leash go if they stay in my yard or the neighbor’s yard. We have a fast road for our town and I have had a cat get killed.

When it’s really dark, I either need to keep the leash or put a light on Sol Duc.

Meanwhile I am taking spooky photographs of flowers in the near dark.

For Cee’s Flower of the Day.

by

Not blonde?

Ok, wait, green hair?

Also not blonde. This is the Great Port Townsend Bay Kinetic Sculpture Race. The fabulous parade and bribing of judges was Saturday morning, when I took these photographs. The costumes are wonderful. After the parade comes the brake test and the water portion of the race. The Kween was there and the Unexpected Brass Band. Then Sunday is the hilly portion and mud bog. The sculptures are all human powered.

Oh, look, blonde.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: blonde.