Moonrise

Last night's full moon rose through the haze in the east.

Four Legs and Two Legs

First the four legs.

It's spring -- and Dakota is losing his thermal undercoat of hair. Lon is covered with dog hair.

Just a bit of Dakota's hair. No wonder our house needs to be swept two or three times a day!

Now for two legs.

I noticed this tree of heron nests in January. At first I thought that vultures had chosen to settle in this tree near the one I photographed earlier this week.

But a closer examination made it clear that these were great blue herons, not vultures.

Note the long beak and tufts on the head -- it's a heron.

Since we go by here everyday on our way to the Y, I brought my better camera. Here's a heron on a nest.

It looks like this pair is adding a new nest to the tree.

Herons aren't the only birds looking for nest sites. A pair of bluebirds have been trying to come in our bedroom window, but just end up hanging onto the screen. I have four bluebird boxes available for them, but they seem to prefer other places.

Contrails

One of the many differences between India and the U.S. is the volume of air traffic. Outside of major cities (Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai), you rarely see an airplane in India. Here it's difficult to not see a plane in the sky. They are particularly noticeable at night -- those blinking stars that keeps moving.

Yesterday at sunrise the weather conditions were good for contrails. Most of the planes are going north-south along the eastern seaboard, but there's one that was going east-west.

Miscellany

There's really no theme to this post -- just a bit of this and that.

This photo doesn't do justice to this morning's mix of fog, sun, and clouds.

Patches of early morning sun and fog on Fore Mountain. The red-orange flush is red maples just beginning to bloom. The white tree trunks are mostly oaks. The vivid green is pines. (Not quite sure how to handle the grammar there. Nothing sounds right -- "green are pines" or "green is pine" or "green is pines"?)

As I was cleaning out a flower bed this afternoon, I came across this remnant of a seed pod from a daylily (Hemerocallis spp.). It's about 1 inch (3 cm) long.

We've had a lot of helicopters flying over recently. This one hovered for minutes at a time over different locations near Clifton Forge.

And finally, a short slide show:

Dakota and Sadie on our front porch.

Hunt Library at NCSU

For three years MeadWestvaco (aka MWV, now WestRock) had their engineering and product development departments on the Centennial Campus of North Carolina State University. Just before we left, the back parking lot was closed and work began on the Hunt Library. The library is now complete, and it's a spectacular structure.

An overview of the main lobby/reading room.

The modern "circulation desk" is still in the customary location near the entrance to the library, but since so much is done on line (or robotically -- see below), it's really downsized.

The "stacks" are very utilitarian. Libraries have always struggled with how to house the heart of their collection: books and periodicals. This is the modern solution for housing 2 million volumes.

The books are retrieved by "Robert the Robot".

Retrieval in action.

A box of books being retrieved. Since the computer keeps track of where a book is "shelved", the books are organized more by size than by topic. Retrieval time is typically about 5 minutes between making the request and having the book ready at the circulation desk.

The library is loaded with technology. In this room, visitors can choose which among several dozen displays and presentations to view.

There were many group study rooms, including several set up as specialized spaces for music or CAD or presentations. This duck appeared to have two heads when viewed with its reflection in a glass door.

The stairways between levels were painted this bright yellow, and one half was set up as bleachers with cushions for sitting. The caption below the large screen in the center says "The Dynamic Sun will return shortly" -- I presume after the clouds go away!

I really liked this wall-sized art. I thought it had some resemblance to Arabic calligraphy. Turns out the title is  "Nature of Language". (For those who want to know, the artist is José Parla.)

Another reading/study area. Each area had a different style of chair. Some of the chairs were "out of the box", while others were more conventional.

The top floor has an outdoor patio. This is a view of the building that MeadWestvaco occupied.

The outside patio also overlooks the lake where a rower and geese were paddling.

Vultures

Vultures may have disgusting habits and are far from the most attractive birds, but they play an essential role in an ecosystem. Today we saw a tree full of turkey vultures sitting out the early morning fog.

Trees along the Jackson River near Low Moor -- filled with turkey vultures (Cathartes aura). I counted at least 25 vultures.

A closer look at the upper group of vultures.

It's a bit pixelated, but here's a shot of a turkey vulture. It gets its name from the red head.

Bits of India in the U.S.

We've finally gotten around to getting our India "stuff" on display in our house. Looking at and using these beautiful objects really helps us remember our wonderful friends and experiences in India.

I know Ganesha should be over the front door, but he couldn't be seen there. So we have our Ganesha panel over the window in one of the most-used places in the house -- the kitchen sink.

Many of our best pieces are in the "piano nook": Kashmiri embroidered hangings, a wooden screen, marble plates from Agra, a lady-beetle kite, and a rug from Jaipur.

The sofa pillows are also from Kashmir.

A closer look at the large Kashmiri embroidery panel. It goes well with the "nature" theme of our house.

Invasive Asian lady beetles are a real pest in our house, so I couldn't pass up this kite when I saw it in Vapi.

Not from India -- but just to show that lady beetles are a recurring theme for us.

The top of our masonry fireplace has items that can stand a bit of heat (thermal, that is, not spice).

I have a great affection for Nandi. Back in January he was poking his head our of the snow.

Now he awaits spring in the garden.

Not in our house -- our grandson, Amos, in his Gujarati cradle along with his admiring parents in their house in Pittsburgh. By the time we were able to get the cradle to him, he had just about outgrown it.

A Thorn in the Sole

I'd been feeling a thorn in my left sock today -- tried four or five times to find it, but couldn't see anything. Finally I decided to check my shoe instead. Wow! THAT was a thorn.

A blackberry thorn embedded in the sole of my crocs.

The thorn was about 12 mm long. I also pulled another shorter thorn from my shoe as well.

I love to eat blackberries, but those thorns can be hazardous!