… “that tree is going to fall one of these days.”
Author: doug
Planter logs
Since I had both dogs on leashes, I walked the way I used to, before. It has been a while. The big eucalyptus tree has finally been cut up, and some of the logs turned into planters. Interesting idea.
Green-barred woodpecker
After shooting the short video, I closed the door and the bird flew away from the car …
… only to settle on a chair outside my office window (also a favorite of the cat).
Green-barred Woodpecker (Colaptes melanochloros)
French: Pic vert et noir
German: Grünbindenspecht
Spanish: Carpintero Real or Carpintero Nuca Roja (Red-naped Woodpecker)
Other common names: Green-barred Flicker; Golden-breasted Woodpecker (melanolaimus group)
(Thanks to Jim Wiemann for the identification)
The art auction
I’ll save for another time why I happened to be at a modern art auction at Castells in Montevideo last night.
The auctioneer appears on the right, elevated. At the left, auction house employees bid on behalf of clients on the phone. The guy in front of the painting is doing the same by mobile phone. The waiter approaching the women has a tray with champagne, whiskey, water (sin o con gas), and fizzy brown high-fructose-corn-syrup water.
The pieces sold from USD 1,200 to over USD 30,000 while we were watching.
Totally irresponsible
Heading up from the beach, I saw a column of smoke rising. Before crossing the dunes, putting my shoes on, I heard men’s voices. Getting to the road, I saw a blazing, untended fire not far from one of the flammable garbage containers.
Twenty meters further, a woman backed out of her driveway, stopped by me and said ¡Que horrible! I asked her who did it. Los jardineros. But there’s nobody here, I replied. It appears that the gardeners who had been working nearby piled up the brush, lit it on fire, and left for the day.
I’ve mentioned this behavior before, but this is a little extreme.
But hey, it was time to go home.
What do you get when you tell the leñero …
Q: What do you get when you tell the leñero (firewood seller) that you don’t want pieces longer than 40 cm?
A: An excuse to buy a chain saw.
To be fair, he doesn’t cut it himself (that’s not him in the link above; last time I saw Dardo he was driving a taxi). And he charges me 20-25% less than the going rate: UYP 3,000 (USD 130+) per metric ton. Yes, per ton — I’ve discussed this before.
I just took readings of the stuff I got today: of maybe fifteen samples, most in the high teens-20%, one at 30%, and two at 11-12%.
Alas, there is no more curupay.
Cero.
Zero degrees Celsius this morning (32° F). The sun made quick work of this frost on the car, as it did last year and the year before.
Yesterday our neighbors from the campo stopped by in town, commented on how cold it was, and taught me a new saying: Julio los prepara y agosto se los lleva. July prepares something and August takes them. Huh?
Old people, they explained. The two coldest months of the year.
Julio los prepara y agosto se los lleva.
Julio los prepara y agosto se los lleva.
Yellow trees
It’s the time of the yellow trees. I don’t know what kind they are, but for their own reason they all turn yellow for a while in the middle of winter.
Beetles weekend in El Pinar
I’ve wondered what they race at the autodrome between here and the airport, and the answer, this weekend, is fuscas, only they refer to them as escarabajos (beetles). Despite my fascination with them (example, example), I won’t be there. Other plans, and it will be cold.
The “Superescarabajos” are reportedly the largest and most popular category here. There will be 30 of them racing.
Balloon season again
Something orange in the front yard just caught my eye. When I went to investigate, it had found its way into the drainage ditch. Guess I’d better check the back yard.