Photos around Cape Archives

July 1, 2012

Walnuts, Woodpeckers and Wind

When Brother Mark brought his chainsaw down a visit or two ago, I asked him if it was time to take down a long-dead walnut tree in the corner of the yard. (You might recall my adventures as a tree trimmer from earlier.)

He said we should leave it up: it had a bunch of woodpecker holes in it, so he didn’t want to foreclose on any bird homes if he didn’t have to.

Take a look in the yard

A couple of mornings ago, Mother told me to come out to see something in the yard. Looks like we had just enough wind to take down a big chunk of the old snag.

Didn’t see any woodpeckers

The tree was mostly hollow and it DID have some woodpecker and other holes, but we didn’t see any sign of birds in it.

The wood is old and dry enough that it should be fairly easy to cut up for winter firewood. Maybe I can convince Mark that it’s too hot to attack a firewood project right now and I can slip out of town before it cools down. Who knows, maybe the rest of the tree will come down and he (note I said “he”) can make one big job out of it.

June 30, 2012

How Hot is Cape Girardeau?

It is PLENTY hot. Blast furnace hot. As hot as Texas was one summer I was there, and I use that as a gauge for hot.

I rented a bike in Dallas for a weekend ride, and the poor thing skittered from one pool of shade to another. It was so hot a highway work crew had to hang out in an air conditioned pickup until it was their turn to lean on the shovel. (Click on any photo to make it larger.)

100 degrees on the porch

Mother’s got one of the most comfortable porches in the universe. It faces east and is shaded, so you can generally sit out there in the hottest weather without even turning on the ceiling fan. Today, though, the thermometer on the wall registered just barely under an even 100 degrees.

That’s not a cardinal on the left; it was a bluebird. I TOLD you it was hot.

1969 high temperature record broken

A new high temperature reading of 106 degrees at the airport topped the previous high of 103 set in 1969. The bank sign at William and Mount Auburn thought it was 107.

It doesn’t look like we’re going to get much relief soon. The weather gurus have issued an excessive heat advisory to run through Monday evening.

Low reading on Mount Auburn

The lowest reading was just up Mount Auburn road from the 107 degree reading. I didn’t feel any pool of cool air when I stepped outside to photograph the sign showing 103 degrees.

108 in Jackson

This bank sign coming into Jackson from Cape says it’s 108 degrees. The grass is so brown and dry that it crunches when you step on it. This is not going to be a good year for shooting off fireworks.

Getting ready for hell and brimstone

The highest reading I found was at the Lutheran Church near the corner of Kingshighway and Cape Rock Drive. Maybe the pastor is getting the congregants ready for a real hell ‘n’ brimstone sermon on Sunday when temperatures are supposed to drop to a mild 104 degrees.

You can’t have this much heat without some big storms coming in behind it. I wonder if we’ll have a replay of last year. The ground is so dry and hard that a heavy rain would probably run off fast.

June 28, 2012June 28, 2012

Girl Scouts in White Gloves

All three of these subjects look familiar, but I’m going to let you put names to faces. What I can’t figure out is what the guy is holding, what is being passed, and in which direction it’s going. I thought it looked a little like a bird, but it’s not.

June 27, 2012

Mississippi River Panoramas

This was the week for shooting panoramas of the Mississippi River. Friends Bob and Claire Rogers are walking to the very tip of Illinois where the Ohio (left) and Mississippi rivers join at Fort Defiance. The Mississippi must be running slightly higher, because you can see that it is holding the Ohio back. Click on the photos to make them larger.

There are seven frames stitched together by Photoshop in this panorama. What’s amazing is that Bob and Claire were walking away from me when I swept the scene, so they appeared in two photos and different locations. The program was smart enough to know that there’s only one Bob and Claire in the world and not to duplicate them.

View from Trail of Tears

The overlook at the Trail of Tears State Park offers a beautiful view of the river. While we were there, we spotted a guy in a rowboat making his way downstream. The way his gear was packed, we figured his destination was New Orleans.

“If he lands in Cape,” I commented to my friends, “I wonder who is working the Huck Finn Beat now that I’m gone.”

This was made of five frames.