Ayeli Alohi

A perfectly ordinary roadside, along U.S. Highway 29 just west of Hartwell, Georgia.

There have always been roads here, and this particular spot was considered the Center of the World by the Cherokee people. As the sign by the Georgia Historical Commission notes, tribal councils were held here, and it became a venue for trade with white men from Augusta. I'm guessing that before that, it may have been a trading location with the Muscogee (Creek) Indians, and if so stickball games were likely played here as well.

Business still goes on here; visible behind the D.A.R.'s stone marker is Fabritex, a company specialising in structural steel fabrication. The factory was closed when we passed by, so I didn't have the opporunity to ask if any of their people are of Cherokee ancestry.

The Daughters of the American Revolution and the Georgia Historical Commission have obviously left their markers here. I'm not sure who put up the red-and-white signboard, but it looks like a Cherokee quilt pattern, so perhaps it was The People themselves.

The Commission sign also tells of a passenger pigeon roost located here back in the day. We didn't see pigeons breaking tree limbs or darkening the sky, but there were eastern bluebirds and chipping sparrows.

It may be diminished, but the world goes on.

[Some gentlemen from just down the road in Athens, on what feels to me like a similar theme:]

Summertime bunnies

I spend a fair bit of time in the company of rabbits, but during the hawking season, they're usually either trying to be invisible or running for their lives. So it was a treat recently to spend an hour or so with Jessa as she photographed young-of-the-year cottontails, one tiny and the others merely quite small.

Unlike the ones I'll see this autumn, these little bunnies were quite at their leisure...

...spending much of their time feeding in a desultory manner, for at this time of the year virtually everything is edible and they don't have to work too hard at it.

Plenty of time, too, for grooming.

Maybe a quick stretch...

...and then a bit of lounging about.

So relax while you can, a choinín...

Stekoa and I will be back in the autumn.

(The starlings and sparrows might want to watch out, too; after a long hiatus, I expect to have a bird hawk as well.)

The gales of November remembered

On this date in 1975, the freighter Edmund Fitzgerald was lost with all hands on Lake Superior.

Your local radio station will likely play this today, but just in case...

Lyrics and music by Gordon Lightfoot, who rightly considers this his best work; electric and pedal steel guitars by Pee Wee Charles and Terry  Clements.

"Decoration Day"

"No Birds Today"

A polar vortex has held us in the grips of near-zero weather for a week now: a few degrees above, a few degrees below, but decidedly frigid. As I write this, it's sixteen below outside and it's likely our pipes are frozen, which I'm not yet ready to deal with...and I can't escape this song.

 

"No Birds Today" has always transported me to the more desolate parts of eastern Montana or the Dakotas—or, since the Junkies are a Canadian band, perhaps Alberta or Saskatchewan—on the kind of overcast day that makes it seem winter will never let go. Not a glorious sunlit winter day, but foreboding, gloomy, and bleak, when the life on the prairies is hidden away. When the beauty has to be looked for. But it's out there.

"I Can See Clearly Now"

One of the favourite songs of my childhood; it came out when I was five. There have been covers—who wouldn't want to have a go at a song this pretty?—but the original is perfect.

Pop/reggae singer Johnny Nash has passed on—he died two days ago at the age of 80—but this song will never die.

"Friday I'm in Love"

"None of Us Are Free"

Possibly the song for our times. Written by by Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, and Brenda Russell. This version by Solomon Burke with The Blind Boys of Alabama.

 

Golden

Pictured: a golden shiner caught whilst fishing for sunfish at a small lake in one of the Omaha suburbs. I must have landed a dozen of the distinctive minnows that morning. (Oddly, even though Ellie was fishing alongside me using very similar flies, she caught plenty of bluegills but not a single shiner.)

The golden shiner is recognisable not only by the gold-coloured scales of larger specimens (smaller ones are silver) but by the distinctive downward curve of the lateral line.

The golden shiner is very similar in appearance to a European species, the rudd, and apparently closely related as well, as the two species can hybridise where they occur together. Golden shiners are native to eastern North America but have been widely introduced elsewhere because of their popularity as bait; they are also kept as ornamental fish in small ponds.

The Fish Book put out by the Nebraska Game & Parks Commission states that golden shiners, though bony, can be good eating. Ellie and I were doing C&R, so I'll take their word for it.

Since it's been a while, let's have some music. From the 1987 film Athens, GA: Inside/Out, "Golden" by Dreams So Real.

"Good Friday"

This performance is from 2008, but I'm happy to say the Junkies can still bring it. Jessa and I saw them do this one at the City Winery in Atlanta last month. Great show from one of my all-time favourite bands...
 

"Bad Day"

"New Year's Day"

Where the sky loves the sea

The Cinque Terre isn't just the villages and the hillsides; it's also the Ligurian Sea. For the week we were there, I kept hearing "Tales of Brave Ulysses" in my head—long one of my favourite Cream songs, but the imagery seemed unavoidably immediate here on the Med. I'm going to post some pictures, but let Jack Bruce and the boys provide the soundtrack.



[Unbelievable turquoise waters.]

[Kayaker off Monterosso.]

[Cliff jumping at Riomaggiore. Jessa and I did this, too—from a much smaller rock at Monterosso.]

[Sailboats. There were lots and lots of sailboats.]

[There were lots of other boats, too, including traditional gozzi and barchetti along with more modern speedboats, Zodiacs, etc.]

[Evening in Vernazza: a little something for everyone.]