This and That: A Blog

  Skywatch Friday A few random skies (and reflected skies) from the last few days of 2025. Early morning looking west.  The light is from one of the mills. I thought the contrail looked a bit like lightening in this morning sky. Same day, an hour later.  Here the blue sky is reflected in puddled rain water Christmas morning.  Christmas night the puddles reflected the moon.  The rain stopped for only a few days.  This is looking west from the park.  Nice tree shadow for Shadow Shot Sunday, too bad I'm using it now! Have a nice weekend. 

The theme for January's Thursday Postcard Hunt is Light.  This week is Sunshine. Sunshine hitting the pavement on Olvera Street, still a historic Mexican marketplace in Los Angeles, CA.  Linen card late  1940s - 1950s. Sunshine seen from shadow in the garden at the  Nanzen-ji temple  in Kyoto, Japan.  Plenty of Sunshine actitivies! Sunshine and Shadows in Beautiful Florida   White border from the late 1930s. Next week's theme for Light is Reflections. 

🥳Happy New Year🥳 c.1900 Happy and Prosperous New Year While four-leaf clovers have been symbols of good luck for centuries (the earliest known written record was in 1620, but it dates to long before that, to ancient Celtic times) pigs represented prosperity in the Victorian age. They doubled their odds of luck by often including four-leaf clovers with the pigs, as here. 1907 Two from 1909 c.1910 "... Auld Acquaintance " is from the an old Scottish folk song, later immortalized by Robert Burns, a Scottish poet.  Thistles are the national flower of Scotland, and the lion rampant (on hind legs, forelegs with claws extented) represents the Kings and Queens of Scotland.  You may be surprised to see this next postcard (actually a postal card) today and not last week for Christmas. It was sent to me recently from Russia, however it's an older card, c.1970s Soviet Era.   Religious holidays had been discouraged or outright banned after the 1917 Revolution.  New Year's ...

The past few nights have gotten quite cold (for here), 26° last night.  Forecasts are to be warmer nights this week though.  Here are some photos of the pretty frosts today. You've seen the deck crack ice crystals from other years, here are this year's!  You'll probably see them again if they get more pronounced and bigger. The Turkish sage (not Jerusalem sage, which it is often mistaken for) has fuzzy leaves that look nice frosted. Here you can even see the little fuzzes! Something enjoyed a few bites!  Or, one bite out of each leaf before they uncurled. "Ice" is one of Mickey's vocabulary words, and he looks forward to chomping down on the ice in the outdoor water dish! Enjoy your New Year's Eve!  

  Now that Christmas has come and gone, here are some of the items I thrifted to give as gifts, and some I got as gifts.  I know my audience, and they don't mind thrifted items, and they know I don't either!  You can find some nice gifts to give in thrift stores, or online sites.  This little glass bluebird from St. Vincent de Paul was tagged as Fenton, but I don't think it is. A bird house or feeder boot from Goodwill.  This beautiful twisted Murano style rainbow ribbon sculpture came from a yard sale. 1950s birds perched on pinecones planter. The back part, the planter part, is a nest.  It's a Japanese import of the sort that was sold in stores such as Woolworths.   A new cat toy from the Goodwill Bins.  Baby Cat isn't big on toys, not like Benny was.   A few of Mickey's gifts were thrifted.  The red grinning dog has the red and green checkered body.  Each check has its own squeaker.  That's from the Bins.  The...

 There was a short window of sunshine on Saturday morning, so Mickey and I went to the park.  It was only 10:00 am, so while sunny, very cold.  But, Mickey hadn't been on a walk in a long time due to rain.  He has a yard to run around in, which he does, right through the puddles, but a walk in the park to sniff around is special.  I took pictures of more than mushrooms, however I took a lot of pictures of mushrooms, and they were new kinds I'd not seen before!  So, the other things have to wait.   Peziza repanda , Recurved Cup or Layered Cup. These have already matured.  Apparently they are so unnoticeable earlier that most people don't even notice them.  I think I would have, I walk along this area of wood chips with my nose to the ground!  There are very, very few photos online of the immature ones.  They were good sized, the bigger ones about 4". In the same area were these unidentified mushrooms.  The second photo may show ...