Volunteer sunflower

I’m not sure where it came from, but we were amused to notice an unexpected sunflower blooming amidst the plants in the back bed earlier this week.  Happy July.

Virtual Choir 6: Sing Gently

One of the virtual projects that I participated in last May has finally been put together — Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir 6.  Go here to see it or google "Virtual Choir 6" to learn a bit about the project.  With over 17,000 singers, you won’t actually see me, but I’m in there somewhere and it is an interesting example of a large online collaborative choir.

I did take a screenshot of the “The choir” page right after I uploaded, when it was easy to find my picture.  Something like 10,000 more videos were uploaded after this point.  I was amused to get an email from a friend I sing with elsewhere mentioning that he thought he saw me when he perused the large array of singer photos.

The biggest challenge in my end was setting up the required plain white background for the video, given that there are no blank walls in the house.  I ended up attaching a white piece of coroplast to a tripod to put behind me.    I had to use a large bar of chocolate to clamp it properly (that's the orange thing you can see below the white backdrop; it came to hand when I was looking for something to use as a stabilizer), and then ruefully discovered when I went to eat it later that it had been crushed...
The little gray thing attached to the top of the music stand is a 3-D printed holder that Chad made to hold the phone while it was recording the video.

You may note that the music on the stand in that picture is not the Whitacre “Sing Gently”, but music from one of the other virtual music projects that I did that same week In May which are still pending:  one with Collage, and two with my hardy gurdy with some others I occasionally sing with.  Given that the people doing the post processing to compile videos have discovered that the process can be time consuming, I am not sure if or when those will ever be done, but I’ll pass them along as they arrive!

Delivery

One of Chad’s friends had a birthday; we made a surprise delivery to him on our bike ride this morning.  I figured you’d be amused by the shot said friend snapped as we showed up.

Doves

There has been a pair of dumb dopey doves hanging around our back yard for the last month or so.  They spent seemingly forever looking for a place to nest.  On the lip of the awning?  Nope.  At an inch wide, too small.  On top of the grill?  Nope.  Too exposed. On the light fixture?  Nope.  Too slopey.  On the hangboard?  Nope.  Denizen of the house chases you off.   Watching doves look for a place to nest gives one the impression that they are not the brightest bulbs on the planet.

Eventually the doves seemed to disappear, until Chad noticed that they had found an actual good nesting spot in a hanging pot that has been mostly covered by the passion fruit vine.  I peeked in and saw a chick (accidentally giving them a fright, which they fortunately got over).

Given that Chad can see this part of the yard from his temporary office in the living room, he has been privy to lots of dove drama.  Squawking, feeding, playing dead on the patio to distract a crow attacking the nest. All quite entertaining.

The best part so far was today.  Chad observed the doves checking out the area near where the bike rack extension is sitting, and the he texted me to come look when they brought their fuzzy chick out to explore with them.  Cute!

Beach day

Restrictions locally are starting to ease up a little, for better or worse, so the kid and I felt justified in driving over to the coast to take a hike yesterday.  I had never explored the salt marsh over by Pescadero, but knew there were a few trails, so off we went.  This entailed an earlier start than Kean prefers, as I wasn’t quite sure how much demand there would be for the limited parking that was open.

We arrived around 10, which was just about right, as the lot was empty when we arrived, but began to fill up as we got out of the car.  We found the trailhead down to the beach, and crossed under the freeway to find the marsh trail.

The trail was a bit overgrown in places, but was just delightful, filled with interesting plants and surrounded by bird song.  We even startled a couple of deer!  (Look closely and you will see one.)

The trail eventually ended at a slightly higher spot, which gave a nice view over the marsh.

 After crossing the marsh, we were able to skitter across highway 1 and walk back along the beach.  A fine outing!

(Though Chad was working and missed this one, he and I did get out for a most excellent 5 hour mountain bike ride along the ridge earlier in the week.)

The not-so-mighty hunter

Behold the Cat.

She has delusions of grandeur, thinking she can catch one of these.

Not a chance, Cat.

Pandemic pantry

A while ago, I got fed up with tripping over things.  Boxes in the garage, overflow food in the TV room.  Ugh.  As a result, I decided to turn the sturdy box that the sink came in (so sturdy I knew it would come in handy someday — but also a trip hazard) into temporary shelving for the extra food we currently have on hand.  I chopped up the lid to make shelves, and used the reinforced edge bits of the lid as shelf brackets.  Most satisfying:  there is no more heap of grocery bags on the floor, it didn’t cost anything, and I can just put it out with the recycling when we are done with it!

Flocked

I opened the garage door this morning to find this:

Upon closer examination, I found that the flock must have come from a fundraiser.  Aha!  Now I know which friend was the likely culprit.  We got a day of pink flamingos to celebrate the kid’s graduation, and the food bank got a donation.  Presumably, the flock will disappear in the dark of night tonight.

They are sure funny while present, though!  We will miss them.

Grad cake

Tonight, we will finish off the last of the kid’s graduation celebration cake:  a layered confection of chocolate sponge cake and espresso custard, flecked with chocolate and covered in whipped cream.  The picture below shows it when it was still intact; there is only one serving left at present.  For the kid, of course!