Fire and Ice
Twin Cities ephemera: The thaw/freeze period is underway. Even when the air temperature is below freezing, any degree of sun visibility is enough to instigate some melting of the snow cover: seven to...
View ArticleWhat About Spring?
Twin Cities ephemera: The sky has cleared, mostly, after a day and a half of on-, off- and on-again snowfall—about eight inches in my backyard, officially nine at the airport. It’s the second biggest...
View ArticleSpring 2013 Review
Twin Cities ephemera: The past four days have been catch-up time in the garden and yard. Everything, except the young vegetables, grew extravagantly during the time I was on the road. The dandelions...
View ArticleBelt-Tightening Time
Twin Cities ephemera: After what has seemed like a season of monsoon rains, it’s now been four days since a general rainfall through the area. Amazing, and yet largely as expected (see previous post)....
View ArticleDamage Done
Twin Cities ephemera: A twenty-five minute hurricane blew through here in the hour before sundown on Solstice Day. Up here on the relative heights of Minneapolis, lots of trees came down, along with...
View ArticleSnark und Schadenfreude
Twin Cities ephemera: It’s hot and muggy. That’s the story. Folks are miserable around here, and a new heat record was set yesterday. Two actually: a record high temperature, and latest date for a low...
View ArticleFracking Awful
Twin Cities ephemera: The season has definitely turned. The last pretend-summer day, the “heat-spike” day (9 September, when the temperature officially reached 94), actually served notice that summer...
View ArticleThe Pause
Twin Cities ephemera: It’s been a lovely week here near the Falls of St. Anthony, after the five-day siege of clouds and rain. About an inch and a third of rain fell in my backyard, most of it during...
View ArticleWinter 2014 Overview
Twin Cities ephemera: The first flakes of wet snow began falling yesterday a few hours before the New Moon, concluding a notably dry week, as anticipated. I’d been noting how dry the soil surface was...
View ArticleFall 2013 Review
Twin Cities ephemera: A bright dawn under a fat-crescent waning moon lit the blanket of snow today: Sunrise actually came about two minutes later than on the solstice–one of the many factoids to be...
View ArticleGround Zero
Twin Cities ephemera: Ah, spring in Minnesota: It’s the second full day of astronomical spring, and I went out just before sunup to check conditions and walk what’s left of the Nazca pattern in the...
View ArticleSoggy Season
Twin Cities ephemera: The solstice moment here, minutes after sunrise, was, unsurprisingly, a bit murky, even though the Sun shone and the waning Moon was visible. I jumped on my bike for a ride to the...
View ArticleA Chill in the Air
Twin Cities ephemera: As much fun (and obsessive) as the process generally is, I’ve found it challenging lately to find / make time for this endeavor. One might think that by midsummer the garden would...
View ArticleThe Occultation Factor
Twin Cities ephemera: The Harvest Moon is setting, opposite a rosy sky with Venus and Jupiter, as I set about winnowing a collection of somewhat random notes. The window beside me is open, letting in a...
View ArticleSaguaro Tales
Twin Cities ephemera (or should it be, report from the desert?): It was a bit of a rude return, from hot, dry Arizona to chilly, breezy Minnesota. It was also a welcome return, from a land with little...
View ArticleZombie Ideology
Twin Cities ephemera: The snow arrived on the schedule laid out by the techno-weather folks, although in less amount than forecast. After a gorgeous October that seemed almost endless, the reality of...
View ArticleRegime Change
Twin Cities ephemera: Short, cold, sunny day follows shorter, cold, sunny day, as the siege of clouds slips into fading memory. Even considering that December tends to be the cloudiest time of year in...
View ArticleEquinox Epicenter
Twin Cities ephemera: It’s yet another cloudy, chilly, although so far not breezy, day. At least I got myself outside for the seven a.m. look at the precipitation gauge, and was rewarded with a glimpse...
View ArticleCricket Crescendo
Twin Cities ephemera: I don’t think it’s that my ears are suddenly more sensitive, and I don’t think it’s because the weather has turned warmer and more humid: I do think the crickets are making more...
View ArticleSatisfied Mind / Idiot Wind
Twin Cities ephemera: How does that old song go: “Satisfied Mind”? I can’t quite recall. But that’s how I feel just now, this Saturday morning. Satisfied in mind and belly, because I’ve just pushed...
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