An inquisitive old fart with a camera
General observations, generally during dog walks
First frost of the year. Very pronounced in the neighbor’s front yard, but the camera thought it more interesting to focus on the branches of the closer bush. Oh yeah, and something about having left it in macro mode the last time I took a picture.
Yesterday these still trees were pretty in the afternoon light with a cloudless sky. The last time I walked here it was cloudy, with strong and gusty winds…I felt a little uncomfortable, for some reason.
Mushrooms spotted on the dog walk today.
Until we moved to Uruguay, I thought all trees sort of got along. Then I noticed the small pear tree in the front yard had branches growing toward the neighbor’s bushes, then reversing course and curving in the opposite direction (photo except I gave up on it and removed it recently).
Likewise the lemon tree in the backyard apparently doesn’t like the pine (look closely). And the entire anacahuita to its left is leaning away from the lemon tree.
So I decided to remove the pine branch infringing on the lemon tree’s space, but spotted a nest. It’s the middle of winter, so no chance there would be birds in it, but got out the taller ladder to be sure.
This is the nest.
Lots of wind recently, and this morning I noticed another nest in the grass.
The pine tree provides shade, which is good, but I had thought about cutting several meters off the top. Didn’t do it mostly because it wold be very messy, given pine sap. However, this past year I have become aware of how birds just love its dense foliage. I won’t be removing more than necessary.
About three meters up a pine tree, its lowest branch over two meters off the ground (so not boys climbing trees), the cut-off top of a 6-liter Salus water bottle is stuck in place, presumably with its edged wedged into a piece of the bark.
But why? And how?
This is the stump of a pine tree that was recently logged (without permission I expect), and is typical of the wood used to build the house I documented yesterday. I added my foot for scale. My shoe is about 12″/30 cm long, so this is a big tree. But: less than 20 years old.
It was one of a small grove of attractive trees, and we were sorry to see it sacrificed for a few board-feet of shitty lumber, Probably 7-8 meters of the trunk was hauled off; the top and all the smaller branches and needles left behind to rot — and fuel the next wildfire.
Perhaps we should make it a project to bend young trees so they grow crooked, with no commercial value to lumberyards?
When I was growing up, my parents had a philodendron plant in their living room. I was used to seeing it there even as I watched snow piling up outside. It still strikes me as curious when I see one like this, growing on the the side of the road. When we get a frost (always gone with the morning sun) in a month or so, I might wander down there in the morning to see if it has any on it.
Today I first noticed a volunteer squash plant, growing vigorously. Which is strange, since this is the equivalent of the middle of November in the northern hemisphere. It’s even got a tiny squash started. It gets at most two hours of sun a day.
