Pic(k) of the Week: Frog Bog autumn afternoon

The light, the light, the glorious light. Late afternoon on Frog Bog, a marshy channel of Cecilia Creek.

Legacy Park: City of Decatur, Georgia, USA. 3 December 2024.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Light going down

Late in afternoon, late in autumn,

Light going down

In golden hour before the dark comes.

One final glorious grasp.

Postal Pond in Decatur Legacy Park: City of Decatur, Georgia, USA. 26 November 2024 (5:46 pm ET).

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Pic(k) of the Week: Turkeyfoot riffles

Riffles on Turkeyfoot Creek.

Serene, tranquil.

Urban cacophony, vanquished.

Cascade Springs Nature Preserve: City of Atlanta, Georgia, USA. 9 August 2024.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Woodland at Glenn Creek

Summer vestige versus autumn gamut: a woodland at the confluence of Glenn Creek with South Fork Peachtree Creek.

Ira B. Melton Park: DeKalb County , Georgia, USA. 8 November 2024.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Hiking summit's edge

In morning, two hike the summit of Arabia Mountain: DeKalb County, Georgia, USA. 20 October 2024.

Composed primarily of granite-gneiss migmatite rock, Arabia Mountain is a monadnock —"an isolated small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain." Its almost barren summit sits 955 feet (290 m) above sea level but rises only 172 feet (52 m) above the surrounding countryside of pine and hardwood woodlands.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Mountain Lake (from Arabia Mountain)

The prosaically-named Mountain Lake is a reservoir created during 20th-century quarrying of granite, gneiss, and migmatite on Arabia Mountain, a monadnock in DeKalb County, Georgia, in southeastern United States.

Here, the lake is seen in mid autumn on 19 October 2024, looking down from a southeastern slope of the mountain. (Some of the rocky outcrop can be seen in the foreground.)

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Pic(k) of the Week: The deejay & the muralist

Overhead, a vaping deejay spins as, below, a climbing muralist paints.

As seen during the East Atlanta Strut, a street festival in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. 28 September 2024.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Taking a break

During a busy street festival, a waiter takes a break from restaurant service, around back.

East Atlanta Strut: Atlanta (East Atlanta Village), Georgia, USA. 28 September 2024.

The East Atlanta Strut, always on the fourth Saturday in September, combines a parade, a street festival with live music, artists' markets, and a 'porchfest' to show off the entire neighborhood. East Atlanta also has a thriving business district, with restaurants, bars, and shops showing off more local music and art.

Since its inception in 1988, the East Atlanta Strut has been completely run by volunteers. That allows the Strut to return 100% of its profits to the community. More than $100,000 has been donated in just the last few years — for programs that assist the unhoused, groups that feed people, organizations that help keep our longtime neighbors in their homes, and to support our local fire station and library, pet rescue groups, child mentoring groups, local schools, arts organizations, and neighborhood beautification projects.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Sunrise over St. Johns Pier

End-of-summer sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean.

St. Johns Ocean & Fishing Pier: St. Augustine Beach, Florida, USA. 3 September 2024 (7:23 am EDT).

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

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


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Pic(k) of the Week: 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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• Pic(k) of the Week: one in a weekly series of images posted on Saturdays.
• Photo 40 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: Meike MK 25mm f/1.8
• Settings: 25 mm; 1/80 sec; ISO 200; ƒ/5.6


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Pic(k) of the Week: 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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• Pic(k) of the Week: one in a weekly series of images posted on Saturdays.
• Photo 39 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: 150 mm; 1/500sec; ISO 800; ƒ/5.6


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Pic(k) of the Week: 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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• Pic(k) of the Week: one in a weekly series of images posted on Saturdays.
• Photo 38 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.14-42mm F3.5-5.6 II R
• Settings: 27 mm; 1/40 sec; ISO 400; ƒ/8.0


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Pic(k) of the Week: 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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• Pic(k) of the Week: one in a weekly series of images posted on Saturdays.
• Photo 37 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: 102 mm; 1/25 sec; ISO 200; ƒ/5.6


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Pic(k) of the Week: Umbrella in foliage

Umbrella in foliage,

Under summer rain.

Tableau at the park.

Mason Mill Park: DeKalb County, Georgia, USA. 25 July 2024.

On 12 August 2024, Flickr's editors selected the image (as one of five hundred) for inclusion in Flickr's daily Explore feature.

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• Pic(k) of the Week: one in a weekly series of images posted on Saturdays.
• Photo 36 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: 150 mm; 1/200 sec; ISO 1600; ƒ/5.6


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Pic(k) of the Week: Turkeyfoot cascades

"If you hold my hand and sit real still, you can hear the grass as it grows." 

I took this photo of small cascades on Turkeyfoot Creek. And then I sat there and listened.

Cascade Springs Nature Preserve: City of Atlanta, Georgia, USA. 9 August 2024.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Blue sturgeon supermoon

A rare lunar convergence: August's full sturgeon moon was a blue moon AND a supermoon!

As seen over the Columbia Presbyterian Church, in the City of Decatur, Georgia, USA, on the evening of 19 August 2024 at 22:06 EDT.

☞ The name Sturgeon Moon comes from the giant lake sturgeon of the American Great Lakes; this native freshwater fish was readily caught during this part of summer and an important food staple for Native Americans who lived in the region. At one time the lake sturgeon was quite abundant in late summer, though they are rarer today.

☞ The super moon part refers to the moon's orbit, which brings it slightly closer to Earth this month, making it appear bigger and brighter. This occurs since the moon’s orbit around the Earth is elliptical instead of just a circle, and thus there are times when the moon is further and closer to our planet.

☞ A blue moon is not about the color of the moon, but instead the frequency of the full moon. There are two definitions of a blue moon—the first describes when there are two full moons in a single month. Since the moon’s cycle is 29.5 days, and our average calendar month is 30-31 days, this blue moon occurs every two to three years. There are also seasonal blue moons, in which a calendar season contains four full moons instead of the usual three, and the blue moon is the third of the four full moons. August’s full moon is of this variety. The next seasonal blue moon is expected in May 2027.

☞ The combination of the super moon and the blue moon is rare, and the time between their occurrences is quite 'irregular' and could be as much as 20 years, with 10 years between the average. Though we had a super blue moon somewhat recently, in August 2023, the next super blue moon will not occur until January 2037.

— Old Farmer's Almanac.
— Time Magazine.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Hail, ale!

On 9 August 2024, the pub, My Parents' Basement, celebrated its ninth anniversary of good beer and food, comic books and graphic novels, pinball and arcade games, good folk and good times (and proper use of an apostrophe). Congratulations!

City of Avondale Estates, Georgia, USA.

The pictured beer is Night on Ponce IPA, a permanent on-draught offering at the pub. It is brewed by 3 Taverns Brewery, which is located only a half-mile from the pub. To be precise, I was at the pub that day but, this image, I captured one month earlier, in July 2024. The felicitations remain the same.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Welcome to East Atlanta

A macabre greeting.

Mural by Atlanta-area artist Emily Cadena at a suburbanesque crossroads between the city neighborhoods of East Atlanta and Gresham Park.

Atlanta, Georgia, USA. 18 July 2024.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Daybreak over Constitution Lakes

Two small lakes —once excavation pits for an early-20th-century clay-brick manufacturer— now are beautiful bird-and-plant-fecund wetlands of the South River. Here, pictured just after daybreak.

Constitution Lakes Park: DeKalb County (Gresham Park), Georgia, USA. 18 July 2024 (7:35 am EDT).

Constitution Lakes is a 125-acre park operated by DeKalb County, the land purchased for $1.28 million in 2003. Part former brickworks, part wildlife refuge, part hiking trail, part snake pit, and part art exhibit, the land has been transformed by both humans and the flooding South River into an ecological sanctuary smack in the middle of an industrial district.

At the center of the park lie two small lakes that were excavation pits created by the former South River Brick Company [late 19th and early 20th-century] digging out the soft red clay for bricks. The lakes feature countless turtles, crappie, and catfish, along with bass fish: large mouth, small mouth, spotted and striped bass. For bird watchers, you’ll see belted kingfishers, woodpeckers, ducks, blue herons, >[ibises], geese, hawks, and more.

— History Atlanta.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Sputnik in the marsh

Like nature's Sputnik,
A buttonbush blooms
Spike'd white
Standing on marshy ground.

Cephalanthus occidentalis —commonly known as buttonbush, common buttonbush, button-willow, buck brush, and honey-bells— is a species of flowering plant in the bedstraw family (Rubiaceae). Native to eastern and southern North America, it is a common shrub of many wetland habitats, including swamps, floodplains, mangroves, and moist forest understory.

Cephalanthus occidentalis is a deciduous shrub or small tree that averages 3 to 10 feet in height (1 to 3 m). Its flowers bloom in late spring and summer, arranged in a dense spherical inflorescence [cluster of flowers], ¾ to 1⅓ inches in diameter (2 to 3.5 cm), on a short peduncle [stalk supporting the inflorescence].

— Wikipedia.

Photo taken in Constitution Lakes Park: DeKalb County, Georgia, USA. 12 July 2024.

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Pic(k) of the Week: A confluence of creeks

A confluence of creeks: where the six-mile Burnt Fork Creek (left) joins the fifteen-mile South Fork Peachtree Creek (right and foreground).

Peachtree Creek is a major stream in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. It flows for 7.5 miles (12.1 km) almost due west into the Chattahoochee River. Its two major tributaries are the North Fork Peachtree Creek and the South Fork Peachtree Creek. The southern fork is 15.4 miles (24.8 km) long. The southern edge of its basin borders the Eastern Continental Divide.

— Wikipedia

Ira B. Melton Park: DeKalb County, Georgia, USA. 2 July 2024.

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Seen from a rock ford in the South Fork Peachtree Creek, along the Three Creeks Trail: one in a "labyrinth of soft-surfaced trails" in and around a 120-acre suburban-Atlanta Piedmont forest.

The trail connects Ira B. Melton Park (south, to the right) to the larger Mason Mill Park (north, to the left). The third creek of the trail's name is Glenn Creek, a 2-mile creek that empties into the South Fork Peachtree Creek about 1/5 mile downstream of this image.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Master of his domain

Waiting and watching,

The green frog sits atop the pond,

For the moment,

Master of his domain.

Postal Pond in Legacy Park: City of Decatur, Georgia, USA. 15 June 2024.

Lithobates clamitans —commonly known as the green frog— is a species of frog native to eastern North America. The two subspecies are the bronze frog and the northern green frog.

Green frogs usually have green heads while the body is brown, gray, or dark green. The green head can be more or less prominent on certain individuals. The belly is white with black mottling. Male green frogs in breeding condition have yellow throats. Green frogs are darker colored on colder days to help absorb heat. Adult green frogs range from 2 to 4 inches in body length (5–10 cm); the typical body weight is 1 to 3 ounces (28 to 85 g). The mating call of a green frog sounds like the single note of a plucked banjo.

— Wikipedia.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Pollinator coneflowers

Pink coneflowers bloom in a native plant pollinator garden. A sign of the South!

East Decatur Greenway: City of Decatur, Georgia, USA. 1 June 2024.

Echinacea purpurea — commonly known as the eastern purple coneflower, purple coneflower, hedgehog coneflower, or echinacea— is a North American species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae, native to parts of eastern North America. Its habitats include dry open woods, prairies, and barrens.

Many pollinators are attracted to E. purpurea flowers, such as bumblebees, sweat bees, honey bees, the sunflower leafcutter bee, and the mining bee, Andrena helianthiformis. Butterflies that visit include monarchs, swallowtail butterflies, and sulfur butterflies. Birds, particularly finches, eat and disperse the seeds through their droppings.

— Wikipedia.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Feed the Ducks

Come feed the little birds,

Show them you care.

And you'll be glad if you do.

Their young ones are hungry

Their nests are so bare.

All it takes is tuppence from you.

Feed the birds, tuppence a bag,

Tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag.

The birds in the water are a mother mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) and her ducklings. On land, the larger, braver bird (feeding to the right) is a Moscovy duck (Cairina moschata), native to Mexico, Central America, and northern South America. Small wild breeding populations have established themselves in the United States.

The photo is unposed. None of the participants knew they were being photographed.

Avondale Lake: City of Avondale Estates, Georgia, USA. 6 June 2024.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Percussionist in the green

Percussionist Gaurav Malhotra performs during the Decatur Arts Festival. We don't see his face...but we can almost hear his all-important hands in action.

Decatur, Georgia, USA, on 4 May 2024.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Live. Laugh. Love.

Just a happening-to-be-at-the-right-place-at-the-right-time moment.

The shot is unposed; I think this is a jewelry artist who had just finished using a mural as a product photo backdrop when she turned toward me. The pastel of her clothing seemed to complement the pastel of the mural; "Live. Laugh. Love" was the phrase on her hat. The image isn't askew; it's the city street that was on an incline!

Photo taken during the Decatur Arts Festival in the City of Decatur, Georgia, USA, on 4 May 2024.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Creek chiaroscuro

Creek chiaroscuro.

Suburban wilding.

Look and listen.

Rapids on Burnt Fork Creek in Mason Mill Park: DeKalb County, Georgia, USA. 21 May 2024.


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Pic(k) of the Week: Stay in your lane, buddy!

An eastern box turtle on the trail (literally).

Three Creeks Trail in Ira B. Melton Park: DeKalb County, Georgia, USA. 21 May 2024.

Terrapene carolina carolina — commonly known as the the eastern box turtle— is native to the eastern United States. It is a subspecies within a group of hinge-shelled turtles normally called box turtles. While in the pond turtle family, Emydidae, and not a tortoise, the box turtle is largely terrestrial.

Eastern box turtles have a high, domelike carapace [upper body shell] which is normally brownish or black and accompanied by a yellowish or orangish radiating pattern of lines, spots, or blotches. Skin coloration, like that of the shell, is variable but is usually brown or black with some yellow, orange, red, or white spots or streaks. This coloration closely mimics that of the winter leaf of the tulip poplar tree.

Box turtles are slow crawlers, extremely long-lived, slow to mature, and have relatively few offspring per year. These characteristics, along with a propensity to get hit by cars and agricultural machinery, make all box turtle species particularly susceptible to anthropogenic, or human-induced, mortality. In 2011, citing 'a widespread persistent and ongoing gradual decline of Terrapene carolina that probably exceeds 32% over three generations,' the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) downgraded its conservation status from near threatened to vulnerable.

— Wikipedia.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Lanceleaf coreopsis (sepals & petals)

A native lanceleaf coreopsis wildflower blooms in May in the Trailhead Community Park of the East Decatur Greenway.

City of Decatur, Georgia, USA. 5 May 2024.

Coreopsis lanceolata —commonly known as lanceleaf coreopsis and lanceleaf tickseed— is a species of tickseed in the aster family (Asteraceae). It is native to the eastern and central parts of the United States, growing in open woodlands, prairies, plains, glades, meadows, and savannas.

Coreopsis lanceolata is a perennial plant sometimes attaining a height of over 2 feet (60 cm). April through June, it produces yellow flower heads singly at the top of a naked flowering stalk, each head containing both ray florets and disc florets. Each flower measures 2 to 3 inches across (5–8 cm).

The genus name 'Coreopsis' means 'bug-like'; it —as well as the common name, 'tickseed'— comes from the fact that the seeds are small and resemble ticks. The specific epithet 'lanceolata' refers to the shape of the leaves: narrow and lance-shaped.

— Wikipedia.

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Pic(k) of the Week: "Early Azalea" blossom

A native early azalea shrub blooms in the Trailhead Community Park, of the East Decatur Greenway: City of Decatur, Georgia, USA. 5 April 2024.

Rhododendron prinophyllum —commonly known as the early azalea, roseshell azalea, woolly azalea — is a rhododendron species in the heather family (Ericaceae), native to the eastern and southern United States, found in damp thickets, open woods, and along streams.

Rhododendron prinophyllum is a woody, spreading, deciduous shrub that grows 2 to 8 feet in height. The flowers, light pink to purplish in color, appear in early spring before the emergence of the foliage. The flowers have a pleasant, clove-like fragrance, and are up to 1½-inches long (4 cm), with protruding stamens and 4-5 petals occurring in large clusters. The foliage is smooth and blue-green, and turns purplish in fall.

— Wikipedia.
— North Carolina Cooperative Extension.
— Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

And, as a bonus image, a bud of an early azalea, pre-bloom...

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About the accompanying music

The tune is Up Jumped Spring, a jazz waltz composed by trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, performed on his album Backlash from 1966/67. Belying the the piece's 3/4 time, Hubbard's playing is crisp and driving, leavened with a joyful sense of dance and melody. Mix that with James Spaulding's sprightly flute, the left-hand comping and right-hand runs of pianist Albert Daily, and the powerful backbeat of bassist Bob Cunningham and drummer Otis Ray Appleton: it's a crystalline masterpiece (and, yes, appropriate to this week's image!). The tune has since become a standard in the jazz repertoire.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Small Venus' looking-glass

Look down! It's a tiny, native 'weed' with a sublime name:
"Small Venus' Looking-Glass."

Seen blooming alongside a sidewalk in the City of Avondale Estates, Georgia, USA. 6 May 2024.

Triodanis perfoliata — commonly known as Clasping bellflower, Clasping bellwort, or Small Venus' looking-glass — is a small, annual flowering plant belonging to the bellflower family (Campanulaceae), native to North and South America (from Canada to Argentina). It grows in prairies, along the edges of woods and rocky outcrops, and in disturbed soil, such as roadsides [and sidewalks!].

Triodanis perfoliata grows to a height of 4-18 inches (10–46 cm). On the upper part of the stem, the plant produces bell-shaped five-petaled flowers, approximately ½ inch or less across (1.3 cm), that range in color from blue-violet to pink-purple to lavender, with a white center. There are also flowers on the lower part of the stem but they do not open. These are cleistogamous — automatic self-pollinators that produce seeds.

— Wikipedia
— North Carolina Cooperative Extension

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Pic(k) of the Week: Winter red bud

A native 'Rising Sun' eastern redbud tree, blooming on a lazy day in late winter. Or was it early spring?

The Trailhead Community Park of the East Decatur Greenway in the City of Decatur, Georgia, USA. 7 March 2024.

Cercis canadensis —commonly known as the eastern redbud tree— is a large deciduous shrub or small tree in the legume family (Fabaceae), native to eastern North America from southern Michigan south to central Mexico, and as far west as New Mexico. It generally has a short, often twisted trunk and spreading branches.

The Rising Sun Redbud (Cercis canadensis ‘JN2’) is a smaller variety of the more common Eastern Redbud, growing only to about 8-12 feet in height (2.5-3.5 m). In early spring, the tree bursts into bloom before the leaves appear, with tiny, sweet pea-like flowers of lavender-pink hue. This spectacle is followed by the emergence of heart-shaped leaves, which start as a vibrant shade of apricot-orange. As the season progresses, the leaves transition through shades of yellow, gold, and finally, a rich, deep green.

— Wikipedia.
— Nature is a Blessing.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Vernal honesty

Pastel delights

Singing aubade

In vernal chorus, assembled.

Wildflowers called honesty(!), blooming in mid-spring morning light.

Dearborn Park: City of Decatur, Georgia, USA. 20 April 2024.

Lunaria annua —commonly known as annual honesty, dollar plant, honesty, lunaria, money plant, moneywort, moonwort, silver dollar— is a species of flowering plant in the cabbage and mustard family (Brassicaceae). It is native to southern Europe but is cultivated throughout the temperate world.

The plant grows up to 3 feet tall (90 cm). In spring and summer, it bears terminal racemes [short stalks] of white or violet flowers. The fruits appear in midsummer. They are paper-thin, flat, silver dollar-sized fruits, called siliques, that become white-translucent with age, resembling a full moon or coin, hence some of the common names of the plant. Another common name, 'honesty,' relates to the translucence of the plant's silique membranes, which 'truthfully' reveal their contents.

— Wikipedia.
— North Carolina Cooperative Extension.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Riparian ragwort

In early spring, tall, yellow ragwort wildflowers were growing abundantly in the wetlands of Glenn Creek.

Ira B. Melton Park, in DeKalb County, Georgia, USA. 22 March 2023.

Packera anonyma — commonly known as Small's Ragwort, Appalachian Ragwort, Southern Ragwort, Plain Ragwort — is a wildflower in the aster family (Asteraceae), native to much of the eastern United States, south of New England.

Small's Ragwort flourishes in habitats that are wet during the winter and dry in summer and is one of the first native flowers to bloom in abundance, beginning in March and continuing into June. The ray and disc flowers are bright yellow, 8-15 rays per flower. The plant grows up to 3 feet tall (1 m).

— North Carolina Cooperative Extension.

Seen alongside the Three Creeks Trail, a "labyrinth of soft-surfaced trails" in and around a 120-acre Piedmont forest in suburban Atlanta, Georgia. The trail connects Ira B. Melton Park to the larger Mason Mill Park. The three creeks of the trail's name are Glenn Creek, Burnt Fork Creek, and South Fork Peachtree Creek; the first two are tributaries of the much larger third.


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Pic(k) of the Week: Nitrogenated abbey

Abt 12 is a 'quadrupel' abbey ale, brewed by Brouwerij St. Bernardus in Watou, West Flanders, Belgium.

Seen here, served, on draught in appropriate glassware, at My Parents' Basement —a combination pub and graphic novel/arcade game emporium— in Avondale Estates, Georgia, USA, on 6 March 2024.

Monks making beer? Why not? Beer —brewed from water, hops, yeast, and barley malt— is, after all, liquid bread. So, please give us this day our daily bread!

But, like any good story, there's more to it than meets the glass.


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St. Benedict and the Trappists

In 529 CE, an ascetic Christian monk, St. Benedict of Nursia, founded a monastery in Italy wholly centered on prayer, sacred contemplation, and manual labor (“ora et labora”). With the founding of several other monasteries, his group of followers became known as the Order of Saint Benedict or Benedictines.

In 1098, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (co-founder of the Knights Templar) believed that the original purpose of the Benedictines had become diluted. Desiring to more closely follow the Rule of St. Benedict, he founded a new 'reformed' order at Citeaux Abbey near Dijon, France. His followers became known as Cistercians.

So, we come to 1664, when yet another splinter goup of monks wished to further reform the Cistercians. Led by Armand Jean le Bouthillier de Rancé, the abbot of La Trappe Abbey in Normandy, France, they created the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance, or, more commonly, the Trappists (officially becoming a religious order in 1892).

To this day, Trappist monasteries self-support themselves by producing and selling goods such as cheese, bread, fruit preserves — and beer (!)— in order not to make a profit but to simply sustain the necessities for life and prayer.

Let them not be discontented;
for then are they truly monastics
when they live by the labor of their hands,
as did our Fathers and the Apostles

— Rule of St. Benedict (c. 530 CE).

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Trappist breweries

By the mid 20th-century, six Trappist monasteries were producing beer, world-wide:

1. Scourmont Abbey (producing Chimay)
2. Abbaye Notre-Dame d'Orval (Orval)
3. Abbey of Notre-Dame de Saint-Rémy (Rochefort)
4. Brouwerij der Trappisten van Westmalle (Westmalle)
5. Saint Sixtus (Westvleteren)
6. Koningshoeven Abbey (La Trappe).

And, not really world-wide, but Beneluxian: the first five are established in Belgium, the last in the Netherlands.

Fast-forward to 2024. There are three more added to the register:

1. Brouwerij Abdij Maria Toevlucht (brewing Zundert) in the Netherlands
2. Abbey of Saints Vincent and Anastasius (Tre Fontane) in Italy
3. Mount St. Bernard Abbey (Tynt Meadow) in the UK.

Since the 1990s, a few other Trappist monasteries also have opened breweries, only to close them for various reasons —including one in the United States.

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Trappist trademark

Even before Word War II, Trappist monasteries had begun to take legal action against non-monastic businesses which made use of the name “Trappist” for their products. In 1985, the Commercial Court (now, Commerical Tribunal) in Brussels made this protection even more explicit:

It is now common knowledge that customers attribute special standards of quality to products made by monastic communities, and this is especially true of Trappist monasteries.

And, in 1997, the International Trappist Association (ITA) was established, creating standards and a trademark of “Authentic Trappist Products.”

Our label guarantees the monastic origin of the products as well as the fact that they measure up to the quality and traditional standards rooted in the monastic life of a real Trappist community. Even though this label can be used on other products, at present it is only used on beer, liqueur, cheese, bread, biscuits and chocolates.

Imagine receiving a cease-and-desist letter from a legal agent for God!

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Abbey beers and St. Bernardus

Per Wikipedia:

In 1945, the Belgian Trappist monastery, St. Sixtus essentially stopped selling its Westvleteren beer, brewing only for themselves (but with some sales at the monastery and local taverns). The monks gave a license to a local cheese factory to brew Saint Sixtus beers for outside sales and Brewery St. Bernard was founded. The brew master from Westvleteren, Mathieu Szafranski, became a partner in the brewery and brought along the recipes, the know-how, and the St. Sixtus yeast strain. Since 1992, these beers brewed in Watou, West Flanders, Belgium, have been sold under the brand name St. Bernardus.

So, St. Bernardus, although not brewed in Trappist monastery and not ITA-approved, does have an easily traceable Trappist provenance. Beers such as these — and others brewed to resemble the taste and appearance of Trappist beers or simply pay homage to them— are commonly refered to as “Abbey” or “Abbey-style” beers, without any strict legal standard.


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St. Bernardus Abt 12

As an old brewmaster once growled: “That's all well and good, but how does the beer taste?”

Generally speaking, the Trappist monks (and their imitators) brew their ales with distinctive yeasts (producing spicy, fruity, and estery/phenolic character), with extra ingredients, such as candi sugar (disdained by the Reinheitsgebot, the German Beer Purity Law), and often high in alcohol (even though that's not always the case).

The ales often are given the appellations of Singel, Dubbel, Tripel, and Quadrupel. These designations are ordinal numbers, indicating a ranking (1,2,3,4) of the brewery's beers in order of alcohol content, from less than 6% to more than 10% (by volume). They are NOT cardinal numbers; they do NOT imply double, triple, or quadruple anything.

So, St. Bernardus Abt 12 —a 'strong' Abbey-style ale of 10% alcohol— is designated a 'quadrupel.' It pours a dark reddish-brown but, unlike today's 'hazy' beers, if you hold the beer up to the light, you can see through it. The body is lush and somewhat unctious. After aromas of raisins, caramel apples and sweet cooking spice, the flavors are bittersweet chocolate, dark stone fruit, coconut, and malted milk balls. And finally, the finish is warming, with a smooth burn.


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Conclusion and the trouble with quibbles

One more thing, though. And, it's a quibble.

All Trappist ales and most

Abbey

ales — including St. Bernardus — traditionally have been carboanated. However, the kegged Abt 12 I drank at the pub pictured above had been nitrogenated — that is, infused with nitrogen gas— at the brewery.

The bubbles of beer come from carbon dioxide (CO2), a gas naturally produced by yeast during fermentation. Yes, many, if not most, beers today are fermented flat — that is, the carbon dioxide is allowed to escape during fermentation and, then, when the beer is packaged (be that in keg, bottle, or can), carbon dioxide is reinjected, under pressure, to create beloved beer bubbles.

But, the fact remains, those bubbles produced by carbon dioxide are part of the natural character of beer. They add, shall we say, 'life' to a beer, a satiating texture (as opposed to a 'flat,' uncarbonated beer).

The bubbles literally transport volatile beer aromatics to the human nose; simply put, without those bubbles, there's less aroma in your beer. Furthermore, the bubbles impart a tactile sharp yang to the yin of beer's residual malt sweetness. And, in the human mouth, some of those CO2 bubbles are even converted enzymatically into carbonic acid, adding more balancing 'bite.'

As to nitrogen gas in beer: it's artificially added. It's produced nowhere in the beer fermentation process. Nitrogen does not waft aromas to your nose; it adds no balancing bite to the finished beer. It doesn't even dissolve into the beer well; in fact, the beer under that creamy nitro-head is essentially flat! Nitrogen bubbles just sit there and look pretty. And, I guess that's the point. Creaminess, gentleness, and dimunition of aroma.

So, even though I prefer the get-at-you carbonated, cellar-ageable, and traditional bottled version...how did the nitrogenated draught St. Bernardus Abt 12 taste? Like a comfortable, boozy, pretty, malted milkshake. And that's not a bad thing!

A series of occasional reviews of beer (and wine and spirits).
No scores; only descriptions.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Diamorpha in bloom

In late winter and early spring, tiny red diamorpha succulents grow white blossoms atop Arabia Mountain, a 955-foot high granitic monadnock in southeastern DeKalb County, Georgia, USA. 27 March 2024.

Also called elf orpine, diamorpha —a rare plant endemic to the southeast United States— appears, during during winter and spring, as a vibrant red covering patches of Arabia Mountain in shallow solution pit pools. In March and early April, the diamorpha flowers, growing delicate white blooms. The blooms do not last long – they will soon begin to fade as the diamorpha prepare for the hot summer months.

Diamorpha are dormant in the summer due to the extreme heat of the bare rock face. During the warmer parts of the year, these hardy plants look like little more than brown twigs sticking up out of patches of soil on the monadnock. This stage of the diamorphas’ life cycle is critical: during the summer, they hold their seeds above the ground, conserving energy until the fall (seeds that fall to the ground in summer burn and die in the hot sun). Then, in the autumn, the seeds drop to the ground and begin to germinate. The process starts again around December. Now, in April, this complicated life story is at its most vibrant stage.

— Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area

This photo is a 'macro' closeup. The diamorpha, at most 2 inches tall, appear much larger in the image than they did in 'real' life.

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