Saturday, October 12, 2024

Pic(k) of the Week: Wind-swept beach (for Thelonius Monk)

Wind-swept beach

Beach dunes after a late afternoon storm.

St. Augustine Beach, Florida, USA. 1 September 2024 (18:39 EDT).

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  • Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American composer and pianist, born on 10 October 1917; he died on 17 February 1982.

    Monk's performance, here, of Pannonica — a tune he composed and named for Kathleen Annie Pannonica de Koenigswarter, an English-born patron of late 1940s and 1950s American bebop jazz ('Nica' to her friends) — displays a compositional ethos and keyboard virtuosity distilled to its essence. Utilizing null time, rhythmic surprise, dissonant harmonies, 'wrong notes,' and tones seemingly coaxed from 'between' the piano's keys, he transforms a deceptively simple melody into a miniature gem of severe beauty.

  • Pic(k) of the Week: one in a weekly series of images posted on Saturdays.
  • Photo 41 of 52, for year 2024. See a larger, hi-res version on Flickr: here.
  • Commercial reproduction requires explicit permission, as per Creative Commons.

  • Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M10 II.
    • Lens: Olympus M.40-150mm F4.0-5.6 R
    • Settings: 45 mm; 1/640 sec; ISO 200; ƒ/5.6

  • For more from YFGF:

Saturday, October 05, 2024

Pic(k) of the Week: Tearthumb autumnal

Tearthumb autumnal

Dense thickets of tiny arrowleaf tearthumb wildflowers, blooming in early autumn.

Seen along the banks of Postal Pond in Decatur Legacy Park: City of Decatur, Georgia, USA. 28 September 2024.
Persicaria sagittata — commonly known as American tearthumb, arrowleaf tearthumb, or arrowvine— is a plant, in the buckwheat family (Polygonaceae), native to the eastern half of North America (as well as eastern Asia!). It grows in moist areas along lake shores, stream banks, etc.

Persicaria sagittata is an annual herb growing up to 7½-feet tall (200 cm), with prickles along the stem. Leaves are up to 4 inches long (10 cm), heart-shaped or arrowhead-shaped (unusual for the genus). Flowers are white to pink, borne in spherical to elongated clusters up to 0.6-inches long (15 mm).

Wikipedia.

Or, as a commenter on Flickr put it:
I find that most wildflowers are really tiny compared to what we normally think of as 'flowers', but no less interesting and beautiful.


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Saturday, September 28, 2024

Pic(k) of the Week: Tick clover, pondside

Tick clover, pondside

A small wildflower with a big name: panicled leaf tick trefoil.

Seen blooming on a bank of Postal Pond in Legacy Park: City of Decatur, Georgia, USA. 12 September 2024.

Is the trefoil a late-summer blossom or an early-autumn-er? You decide.
Hylodesmum is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae, sometimes called ticktrefoils or tick-trefoils. It is sometimes treated as part of Desmodium. It includes sixteen species native to eastern North America, sub-Saharan Africa, and southeast Asia.

Hylodesmum nudiflorum — previously known as Desmodium nudiflorum and commonly known as naked-flowered tick trefoil, panicled leaf tick trefoil, stemless tick trefoil, or naked-stemmed tick clover— is a species of perenial flowering plant in the legume family (Fabaceae), native to eastern North America. Hylodesmum nudiflorum is typically found in mature, open hardwood woodlands in moist, sandy, gravelly, or loamy soil with high organic content. It is a nitrogen-fixing species through symbiosis with soil-borne bacteria.

Hylodesmum nudiflorum's delicate pinkish blooms, ⅓-inch (0.8 cm), are sweetly fragrant, occurring mid to late summer, borne on leafless stems. Reminiscent of pea-like blooms, the flowers have a rounded upper petal and three narrower lower petals, longer than the upper.
North Carolina Cooperative Extension.
Wildflowers of the United States.
Wikipedia.


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Saturday, September 21, 2024

Pic(k) of the Week: Hermetics

Hermetics

Hermetics. A field of industrial parts.

As seen from the Stone Mountain Trail, in Scottdale, Georgia, USA. 24 August 2024.

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Saturday, September 14, 2024

Pic(k) of the Week: Stretch!

Stretch!

Gather ye nuts while ye may...even when hanging by your hind legs!

Seminary Wood in Legacy Park: City of Decatur, Georgia, USA. 9 November 2023.

...with apologies to poet Robert Herrick.

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