Camping with my pal Magic Chris, escaping last week’s heatwave in the Catskills. He brought his juggling equipment and I thought the rocky stream and the camp would be cool locations to show off his skills. chrismagic.net Here he meets the challenge of keeping his balance on these rounded and unstable rocks while throwing the diabolo high into the air. If he can do this, he can certainly entertain the guests at your party on level ground.
The viewfinder of my camera was useless for getting the high shots, not registering the blur of the diabolo at all. I ended up following it with my eyes, hoping I was aiming where I was looking. That actually worked pretty well, though the translucent yellow greenish diabolo does disappears into the blown out sky.
My pal Chris the magician got me out of the city and up into the Catskills during last week’s brutal heat wave. This is our favorite spot to camp. I think we’ve camped there twice before, the last time in 2009. Chris named it Camp Duomo because the trees above us reminded him of the domed roof of the Duomo in Florence. I’m going to try to be as vague about where it is as possible, though if you have any Google skills, I’m afraid you will be able to find our camp. And then I will have to kill you. (more…)
This is an elm near the corner of Avenue A and East 7th Street. I noticed these growths on the leaves. With help from reddit.com/r/whatsthisbug/ I found out that they are finger galls. Bottom line: Icky but not dangerous to the elm.
Galls are formed by insect/mite feeding or egg-laying activity. Either mechanical damage or salivary secretions (introduced by insects and/or mites) initiate increased production of normal plant growth hormones. These plant hormones cause localized plant growth that can result in increases in cell size (hypertrophy) and/or cell number (hyperplasia). The outcome is an abnormal plant structure called a gall… Most galls do not adversely affect plant health. Therefore, management is generally not suggested to protect plant vitality. extension.umn.edu
I took this photo as a part of my ongoing Tompkins Square Park Tree Identification Project. As an update on that, It’s already been done. A very nice wall map is available from East Village Parks Conservancy for $20. The map was a 1998 project of what looks to be a collective of volunteer artists and cartographers. The map uses common names and is not species specific, and of course some of the trees on the map are no longer there. The project I am still thinking of is web-based, species specific, and probably way too much work for me to do on my own. I think I will start with keeping an eye on the oldest and largest, and most interesting trees over the course of a year and see what happens.
This raccoon visited our camp every night. She (we decided she looked feminine) seemed almost tame. She boldly walked among us in the dark, showing no fear, only revealing herself by the soft patter of her feet a foot behind us, or her nose gently nuzzling the trash. I suspect other campers gave into her charms and fed her. We named her Cooler.
She wasn’t able to get into the cans.
These defenses kept this raccoon out of the the food, but obviously the bag is at bear dining height and the rocks on the cooler would also be no challenge.
Yelling at her or shining our flashlights in her direction had little effect. But flash photography seemed to annoy her enough to make her go away until I went to sleep.
A brief windstorm blew down this temporary stoplight installation on East Houston Street. The stoplight pole was not attached to the sidewalk just but to the large concrete block resting on the sidewalk. I wondered about this arrangement when I first saw it installed, but I figured they must know what they are doing. It is fortunate that the pole didn’t fall on anyone. Though it did clip a branch off that tree.
I took my +4 close-up lens out with me this afternoon. I think it helped. This bee was aprox 3/8 inches.
Looks like a yellow ladybug. aprox 3/16
In the 6th and B Garden.
Boldly marked wasp. Aprox 1 1/8 in. Probably an Eastern Cicada Killer, a wasp non-aggressive to humans.
After stalking all these insects today, this one crawled down the back of my tee shirt as I was crossing Houston Street. I’m afraid my quick grab, before he made it all the way down, injured it. Aprox 1 1/8 in. Beetle not roach, or at least that’s what I’m telling myself.
