Pic(k) of the Week: Watch for baseballs!

Watch for baseballs! It's a sign of spring.

Pictured:
Eight (!) youth baseball fields abut the southern entrance of the South Peachtree Trail, in Medlock Park, DeKalb County, Georgia, USA.

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But there's no sign of 'adult' baseball yet in sight.

The labor agreement between baseball owners and players expired last year and Major League Baseball's owners are 'locking out' the players. In fact, spring training games were to have begun this week ... and none were played.

In their negotiations, baseball players are looking for a new agreement to:

• enforce a commitment to winning on the part of all teams
• to pay the younger players producing an increasing share of on-field value commensurate with that production,
• to encourage more spending on players instead of discouraging it.

Team owners are either disagreeing with each demand or to the requirements for each.

If the two sides cannot reach agreement by Monday, 28 February 2022, baseball's Opening Day —originally set for 31 March— will need to be postponed (or worse).

First the virus, now this. Sigh.

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UPDATE

After the second-longest labor dispute in baseball history, the owners and players reached a deal on 10 March, clearing the way for baseball’s return. With, now, an abbreviated spring training schedule, Opening Day was set for 7 April, a week later than originally scheduled. More: below.

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Pic(k) of the Week: A welcome sign

Coming soon! "Southern. Soulful. Spirits."

In 2014, Independent Distilling Company opened in a small warehouse on the eastern edge of the city of Decatur, Georgia, USA. Now, in early 2022, work has commenced a few blocks west, to transform a former auto service garage into the artisinal distillery's new, larger, 22,000 square-foot digs.

A welcome sign, indeed.

Photos taken: 12 February 2022 (top), 16 February 2022 (bottom).

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Pic(k) of the Week: Steps to the Dene

Stone steps lead down to a ford over Deepdene Creek in the eponymous city park, "reminiscent of the majesty of great piedmont forests before Atlanta was settled." ¹

The park is located in DeKalb County, Georgia, USA, just outside the city of Atlanta.

Deepdene Park is the largest segment of the six-park Olmstead Linear Park system, forming the eastern end. Unlike the other five pastoral segments [within Atlanta], it is a wooded tract with a stream winding through its 22 acres and a topography that ranges from steep slopes [i.e., dene ²] to a flat meadow.

— Olmstead Linear Park Alliance.

Frederick Law Olmsted, born in 1822, is considered the founder of American landscape architecture. Among his more famous works, he designed Central Park in New York City, Prospect Park in Brooklyn, the Emerald Necklace of Boston, the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, and the grounds of the U.S. Capitol building. And Atlanta's Olmsted Linear Park. Olmsted began work on the system in 1893; his sons completed it in 1905. ³

Olmsted was an early leader of the conservation movement in the United States. He lobbied Congress to designate Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Big Tree Grove as public reserves, the first lands set aside by Congress for public use. Activities are planned throughout this year to mark the 200th anniversary of his birth. ⁴

Drawing influences from English landscape and gardening, Olmsted emphasized design that encourages the full use of the naturally occurring features of a given space, its "genius"; the subordination of individual details to the whole so that decorative elements do not take precedence, but rather the whole space is enhanced; concealment of design, design that does not call attention to itself; design that works on the unconscious to produce relaxation; and utility or purpose over ornamentation. A bridge, a pathway, a tree, a pasture: any and all elements are brought together to produce a particular effect. Olmsted designed primarily in the pastoral and picturesque styles.

— Wikipedia.

Photo taken 12 December 2021.

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Pic(k) of the Week: From barley comes beer

A barley malt silo outside of Three Taverns Brewery, in Decatur, Georgia, USA. 30 January 2022.

A brewery silo is a container used for bulk storage of unmalted or malted grains, generally made of steel —constructed to maintain the proper moisture level of the grains— with smooth sides and bottom cones [for grain egress into the brewery, often via an augur].

— Encyclopedia of Beer (1995).
Christine Rhodes, et al.

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