The Field

Total Luner Eclipse

I got a clear view!  Pictures from my backyard...

2:11 AM:  Beforehand, the moon is too bright for my camera to handle -- it completely washes out into a pure white disk.

3:08 AM:  A small cloud passes as the top left corner of the moon begins to darken.

3:32 AM:  More than half of the moon has already fallen into shadow.

3:45 AM:  Only the southern tip of the moon shines.

3:51 AM:  Still glowing within the penumbra, the moon darkens further as the umbra begins to creep across its surface.

4:20 AM:  Umbra.  Shadow.  The moon smolders like a dying ember, providing no light.  The stars, formerly drowned out by the moon's brilliance, now shine as on any moonless night.

4:37 AM.

4:55 AM:  The umbra shifts to the southeastern side and the northwestern region becomes lighter, now in the penumbra.

5:35 AM:  The moon returns!  And just as the sky begins to lighten.  Good news, villagers -- the moon has not been swallowed up forever by a horrible moon-eating demon, and the sun returns as well.  I guess we all prayed hard enough -- this time.

I took these on my 6 megapixel Panasonic Lumix camera, which despite its limitations performed well enough.  Tripods work wonders.

5:38 AM.   

Changes?

My love has gone home again, but this time she will return soon, and permanently.  We've found an apartment (probably) and are preparing to leave our old lives behind in order to be together.  Hers is the bigger transition, since she's moving 800 miles while I'm going about one and a half, but still I'm feeling contemplative about the enormity of us finally striking out on our own.  So I went for a walk today around sunset.  Earlier I spied a couple of teenage boys taking potshots, probably at the prairie dogs, with a bb gun.  As it happens, there was an article in the Denver Post today about increasing poaching of urban wildlife.  Otherwise it was peaceful -- it rained earlier today but then warmed up and dried out.  The work crew is finished repaving the path near Mayfair park and has gone (the old bridge remains, incidentally).  Their biggest contribution in my mind is all the Russian olives they removed from around the creek there, opening up the landscape and giving the cottonwood stand some breathing room.  But those Russian olives, weeds that they are, are already sprouting little bushes of new shoots from the roots, so I raced nightfall to weed them.  Clearing some from around a cottonwood sapling, I felt I was giving it a better chance.  I also provided a blood meal to a few needy mosquitoes (I'm such a saint).  Hopefully they were promptly eaten by one of the many bats I saw wheeling about the darkening sky on my way home.

If we do move to the Walnut creek area, I may be compelled to adopt a new "the field" -- the Walnut Creek open space area.  We'll see!

Late July cleanup/Russian olive kill

So I hastily cleaned up on Tuesday, trying to beat the setting sun, which hung over the mountains as a big orange disk that you could almost look at directly for some reason.  I've seen the sun in that muted orange "wow, so that's what the sun looks like when it's not blinding as long as you just glance at it for a second" color when rising, and when setting over the ocean, but I don't recall seeing it that way over the mountains before.  I picked up a bag of trash and cut down a few Russian olive saplings.  Today (the 2nd) I went out to finish the job, hauling the Russian olives I didn't haul before to the drop point because I was too tired/it was too dark.  It took quite a while, since they were over at the far end of the hill near the baseball fields, and I had to make about four trips.  I have decided not to cut any more Russian olives until winter, when they are not heavy with seed and leaves, and will be easier to cut and carry without the leaves in my face.  I've also been having the disturbing thought that the seeds might be dropping off as I carry the trees I've cut, which could result in multiple new RO's popping up to replace the one cut down in an ironic twist of my good intentions.  Best to remove them during times of year when they don't have seeds.

The big news from down in the Mayfair park area is that a crew is down there repaving the paved portion of the trail, and it looks like they may replace the bridge over the creek as well.  I actually like the old, ugly bridge and will be sad to see it go.  However, they've also removed the whole stand of Russian olives from the bridge area!  Those trees were bigger than I probably could have handled, and there were probably several dozen in all.  It's really opened up the landscape there, making it more airy and giving a better view of the little cottonwood stand that was buried in them.  I hope they remove many more of them while they're at it.  It would be even better if they'd replant with natives, like cottonwood trees.

Last month saw two more expeditions to Mt. Audubon, the last of which was finally successful despite rather dreadful weather, and an educational wildflower hike.  I haven't posted anything, probably because I need to upload appropriate photos to go along with those entries, and who has the time, really?