Tom's 70th Birthday

  Next Tuesday (07-29-26) Tom will have his 70th birthday. We're not into celebrating but one thing I do every year is make him his favorite cake, a Coca Cola Cake.

 It's certainly not hard to make though I approach the project in four stages: make the chocolaty syrup that gives the cake its flavor (this step requires boiling), mixing the dry ingredients in a bowl, combing the two and then making the frosting. It requires some dish washing.

 I use the Cracker Barrel recipe. Click here.

The baked cake is certainly, decidedly, overwhelmingly chocolate!

 And the final cake, now frosted, could as easily be called Death by Chocolate.

 I prefer Hershey's Dark Chocolate cocoa but I had Kroger's cocoa on hand. Chocolate is so expensive nowadays that it was an easy choice, though perhaps not quite as good nor as dark.

Canadian Wildfires

  I hadn't noticed smoke in Farmersville but on Friday, when we went to the YMCA, Dayton was heavily  shrouded in haze. We mowed yesterday so I was out in the open air for some hours and never noticed anything unusual.

 Yesterday the AQI peaked at 156 between 8 am and 9 am. [Credit: IQAir]

 I decided to watch the sunset last evening as sometimes the deep reds give away the status of the atmosphere. Here is what I saw:

 What's going on with the wildfires in Canada? Here's Google's response to the query: "Over 850 active wildfires are currently burning across Canada, with the vast majority out of control. The largest and most severe clusters are located in Northwestern Ontario (near the Minnesota border) and Quebec, along with significant fire activity in British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and Alberta." [Source: IQAir et al]

This map shows the location of the many fires:

Credit: aljazeera.com

 Tomorrow we have rain predicted and that should give us a break, however brief, from the haze.

Real Photo or AI?

  Plenty of people have been having fun with the Mitch McConnell photo: is it real? is it current? is the 84 year old Kentucky U.S. Senator dead or alive? He's been missing from his Senate duties since June 14. So for more than a month he's been unexplainably absent.

 Other pictures have shown him, not with his wife, but with Senator Lyndsey Graham (known to have died June 11), Elis Presley, Michael Jackson  and John Wayne. People are having fun with AI.

 So yesterday my friend Alex sent me an AI-generated picture that shows me in place of McConnell and Tom in place of his wife.

 I figured it was just a fun take-off of the McConnell picture but a number of friends briefly thought I was hospitalized.

 Alex said he "put a prompt into Chat GPT" - he calls it "AI magic" - asking for the official picture to be recreated with Tom and I. Actually I don't make a bad McConnell look-alike.

That's the picture I posted on Facebook with the text "Everyone! I'm still alive here!"

 And here's the original for comparison:

Credit: Office of Mitch McConnell

 In the end,  I hope it was good for a laugh.

Later: Alex was at it again. These are good!

Red-headed Woodpecker Regular Visitor

  While a Red-headed woodpecker is considered a common bird in Ohio, they aren't here. I hadn't seen one at Pinehaven in the almost forty years I've lived here ... until two days ago. And since then, its been returning daily, usually with another woodpecker (a Red-bellied), to visit our suet feeder.

 I first saw it two days ago while I was doing dishes. I was most surprised by it's snow-white belly. It's a hard bird to miss.

 My camera died earlier this year but I've managed a few shots with my cell phone, all cropped.

 Ah, the joys of bird-watching. We never know what will show up next. But each is a colorful mystery that often arrives unawares.

Farmersville 250 Held

  Though Farmersville held a 250th celebration yesterday, neither Tom nor I attended. Instead I walked into the back yard at 10 pm to see if I could view the fireworks show. I could ... and quite well.

 Tom went over to feed his cats before 10 am because Center Street was to be closed between 10 am and midnight. That's hardly convenient for those who live on that street; many do not have driveways nor garages. Tom said just after 9 am there with concessions being set up.

 Neither of us enjoy crowds so this year's event was no different for us.

 I did have a good view of the fireworks show from my back yard. It was being shot off south of where I'd have expected.

 This shot is from my weather camera mounted in the garden.

Eye Wounded by Spruce

  How does a spruce cause eye damage? Yesterday morning I was mowing on the south lawn and passing beneath the spruce closest to the garage. As I passed by, a spruce branch swiped across my eye. It seemed a dead-center bullseye hit, too.

 It began tearing and I could barely mow with all the water running down my face. But I finished half the yard since that was my goal.

 When I came in the house I cleaned the eye as bet I could and washed it out with a commercial eye drop. It didn't feel any better but I couldn't see any real damage. We wanted to shop at Meijer and I knew I couldn't go anywhere with tears streaming down my face so I placed a cotton ball there and taped it in place.

 I took a nap in the afternoon, thinking having the eye closed and resting would be a good thing. I can't say the eye ever felt much better afterwards but I think it was improving by small degrees. I wanted to avoid the ER if possible.

 I continued adding over-the-counter lubricating drops to the eye and also Systane, a greasy substance in a tube that my eye doctor suggested for my dry eyes after cataract surgery.

 When I went to bed I took a second Ibuprofen and slept well. I woke with my eye no longer in pain and my vision seems about normal. I'll monitor it today and see whether things continue to improve.

 My friend, Alex, sent me this picture of how he sees me at the moment.

 That's exactly how I felt at Meijer yesterday.

Trying to Attract Monarchs

  This is the third year Tom has a "flower" bed devoted to Ohio native plants. Top of the list was milkweed. He dug up samples from nearby fields and planted then here. This is the first year they're really done well. The whole idea is to attract Monarch butterflies.

06-02-26

06-02-26

06-05-26

06-08-26

06-09-26

06-09-26

06-09-26

06-09-26

 I've been carefully watched the undersides of the leaves to see if I might find a Monarch egg. But so far nothing. How is this done? Check here.

 The plants are beginning to form the seeds pods. We'll probably collect seeds and expand our plants:

06-29-26

06-29-26

06-29-26

Seed pods are developing beautifully. But no Monarchs.

07-12-26

Now the Joe Pye Weed blooms ...

07-16-26

I think the bottom line is that we're going to have no young Monarchs this year. We'll keep trying every summer unmtil we have success.