Hiking and wading at the Parklands

We took a little family stroll this evening at the park at Beckley Station. I waded in the creek a little but failed to catch a crawdad ( almost did, though), saw lots of darters, found a little toad (seen here on my daughter's thumb), caught big grasshoppers, looked at tons of pretty wildflowers, saw a big turtle and a big carp. Nice evening to be out.

Carcassonne

I was in Oklahoma City last week and brought some games in case I had a chance to play someone after class. The last night I was able to play Carcassonne with my co-worker. She caught on pretty quickly and seemed to enjoy it. This was the board state at the end.

Giant Wings of Glory board (work in progress)

I have a big piece of scrap MDF board in the garage, and lots of old gritty house paint in rusting buckets. So I decided to start making a game board for Wings of Glory. I am just making it up as I go, but the look I am going for is an aerial view of farmlands. It is 71 x 44 inches, and very hard to carry by myself. I am excited to be working on it and can't wait to see the finished product, though it will have to wait. It won't take much time, since it is pretty abstract and does not require much detail, but I will be working on house portraits and pumpkins every chance I get for a few months.

Cross country meet in Georgetown today

Carrots!

Last week I finally dug up my carrots. They were tiny, but delicious--sweet and crunchy.

Pen & ink, 7 x 10 inches

This was a combination of sumi ink with dip pens, bamboo pens, ink wash, and Pigma Micron-style pens.

pen and ink- commission

detail

Cosmic Encounter

I finally got to play a game of Cosmic Encounter today, as well as The Resistance. I soundly lost both but had a great time.

Downtown Louisville, evening

This was last weekend. I liked how the sky looked.

Imperial Decimator

 My board game obsession shifts focus from game to game (and occasionally changes back into an RPG obsession.) One game, however, has been consistent in its ability to hold me enamored since it was published three years ago, and that's Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures, from Fantasy Flight Games.


Like most guys my age, I started out loving Star Wars when I was a kid, and kept a fondness for it into adulthood. But I have never been as "into it" as some people I know. I always had mixed feelings about the third movie, The Return of the Jedi; Episodes I – III were OK entertainment but had widely-discussed problems. I've maintained only a vague, peripheral awareness of all the comics, video games, and novels over the past 30 years. (Though I did enjoy that old X-Wing video game, I hardly played it.)


More than anything else, I think I liked the Star Wars aesthetic. The "look" of the ships, aliens, costumes, and sets is pleasing to me. And the music, of course.


And that aesthetic, combined with a fun game system, is why I love X-Wing Miniatures. It collided with my enjoyment of tactical combat games and my fondness for nice miniatures. Even though I hardly get a chance to play the game—and I want to all the time—I covet the game components and try to figure out how to get more. I even really like most of the "Extended Universe" (read: stuff that was not in the movies, but appeared only in video games, comics, and novels) ships and pilots.


That brings me to my latest purchase. I realized a couple of weeks ago that I had a Barnes & Noble gift card that I had forgotten about, and Barnes & Noble has a decent game section. I spent a couple of weeks debating what to use it on. I realized I had not bought anything game-related since last fall. The board game Sheriff of Nottingham was a leading candidate because I thought it would be fun to play with both my family and my friends, but in the end X-Wing Miniatures won out. I had a hard time deciding between the Most Wanted expansion and the Decimator expansion. Last night I bought the Decimator.


Now I want to add a little bit of paint detailing on my own. I can't wait to see it on the table with my other ships. I hope I get a chance to play a game sometime soon.

I have a similar but milder obsession with Wings of Glory WW1. I really want to save up to get a decent starter set for that. If Barnes & Noble had stocked that, it would have won out over everything else because I don't have any good way to play it yet unless Aaron invites me over to play (he has the rules and a number of the planes.)

My hope is that soon I'll have a chance to invite some friends over to play games on a semi-regular basis (friends who used to come over to play board games pretty frequently. It wouldn't be Star Wars, but it would still be good. Great.)

Carcassonne board game

A game of Carcassonne a few weeks ago. We also played some on vacation. Such a great game.

brown anole

A couple of weeks ago when we were in Florida, my young friend B. caught this brown anole. It took some work; sneaking up on them didn't seem to pan out, but I figured out if I could find one in a somewhat exposed setting and cut off his most likely escape route, he might be trapped. It worked. I cut one off, trapping him between me and the swimming pool, and B. snapped him up. He was released a short time later.

Pen and Ink House Portrait

I finished this a couple of days ago. It's 11 x 15 inches.

detail:

Perseids

 I was sleepy last night but I did not want to miss such a good night for viewing shooting stars. I've been going out to look for the Perseid meteors since I was 16, and last night might have been the best viewing conditions I have ever had. The sky was mostly cloudless, and there was no moon. I took a drive out to a park in Oldham county that is better than any place here in Jefferson county. I had set my alarm for 1:00 a.m., left around 1:25, and got to the park's car lot right at 2:00. During the hour-and-ten-minutes I was there, I saw 61 meteors. There were a good mix of bright and faint ones. My favorite was a short, parallel pair of simultaneous meteors--they looked synchronized. Three of the meteors were not Perseids, they were moving from other parts of the sky. And this was the first time I can recall seeing the stars that comprised Perseus and seeing them well enough and high enough that I could actually recognize them.

I also saw insects lighting and fading in the grass around me; I guess they were glow worms, but I don't know much about them and will have to look it up. When I first got there, barred owls were raising a fuss. There were two nearby, and at least one more farther off. I think.

There was one other vehicle in the lot when I got there; it was two or three people watching the stars from the back of their pickup. At least, I suppose that's what they were doing, but who knows?. I parked as far from them as I could get, and they packed up and left before I did.

On the road out and back I passed two farm cats and a raccoon, but not all at once. And while I was sitting in the dark, by myself, I thought I heard something moving through the tall grass nearby, which weirded me out a little, but made a little noise to make sure any creeping critter knew I was there and could avoid me if it wanted to.

It was a fun excursion.

Last week, at the Gulf (3) [child in the water]

Last week, at the Gulf (2)

Last week, at the Gulf

Tonight's sunset

Tonight's sunset

House portrait, 11 x 15 inches

Recent house portraits

 Watercolor above, pen and ink below.

Three different depictions of Virginia Chance School

I created the first two.  The third, the cake, is not mine, and I can't remember the name of the lady who did it!  It's very well done (and was delicious).  I thought it would be fun to put up pictures of Chance in different media.

"It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman!"

 Last Friday Kim and I saw a play at the Alley Theater on Main Street. It was rarely-performed musical from 1966 called "It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman!" The first musical based on a superhero, it was fun to watch. I can see why it's not a well-known play: the music wasn't the most memorable, and the plot didn't make much sense (though that doesn't matter; like most superhero stories I've been exposed to, plot holes, silly character motivations, and poorly devised premises trump realism). But the actors sailed into with energy, and the intimacy of the small (and crowded) theater made it a good experience.

RPG gaming group

I missed a roleplaying game session with friends last Friday night. I don't regret it; I had a nice date night with Kim. But it's one of the few game nights I have missed.

I have been playing RPGs with the same core group of friends for years. Some people have dropped out and new people have joined, but we've had what I consider the same gaming group since about 1988. The newest member of our group has been with us for 15 years.

I lived half way across the country for 2 ½ years, and of course missed out on our game nights then. Except for that period of time, I think I have missed only six or seven game nights over the past 26 years.

That track record isn't as impressive if you consider that our gaming is actually fairly intermittent. When we started, we played every 1-2 weeks, but that has declined. Over the past decade we have probably averaged about once every six weeks, not counting the occasional hiatuses from gaming that spanned months as game masters got tired and took a break.

I have a few old photos of our game nights…someplace. I have been trying to find my trove of old photos for a while now.

I'd also like to compile a list of all the people who have gamed with us; there have been quite a few people who played with us for a while and moved on.

CFAC art show

My daughter with her tree painting at the re eption for the Children's Free Art Classes art show. The walls were packed with very good kid's art.

Photo taken one-handed while I was watering the peppers.

Coneflower with mason bee

Yay, they are blooming!

Spiderwort and bee balm.

Coreopsis

My coreopsis is blooming. It's good stuff.  Next year I think I'll move some things so that the yellow coreopsis and blue spiderwort are next to one another, since they bloom at the same time and the color contrast would be very nice.

Someone looking at my blog might think that I have a nice big healthy garden and take good care of it.  Not true. It's weedy and largely unmulched and is generally unimpressive.  I am happy to report, though, that my three tomato plants, in tilled soil, are the happiest-looking I've ever had, and I might actually be getting some edible carrots soon.  There are lots of little peppers on my cayenne plants and the basil is, as always, doing well.

Trees on Lime Kiln Lane

I like sycamores.

Accidental feral tennis ball planter

We participated in a kayak/canoe outing on Goose Creek last week to pick up trash.  One thing I found was a tennis ball floating in the water, with a plant sprouting in its dirty fuzz. The roots wrap around it. I decided I would keep it to see how it turned out.

Philodendron

I will post updates so YOU CAN SEE MY PHILODENDRON GROW!!!

Update 6-27-15:

Blackberry flower and ant

This ant was very happy with the blissom. I heard her saying, "Oh boy, yum!"

Wild flower detective work

I found a mystery plant growing among my Asiatic lilies and daffodils, and had to research it to figure out what it was.  First, I noticed that its flowers and stalk were similar to those of ground ivy (creeping charlie). I had recently learned that ground ivy was a near relative of mint, which completely made sense in light of its strong odor and invasive nature, plus its stem shape.  I put a photo of the plant on Facebook, and my friend Helga thought it looked like ajuga, which I also have in my yard.  It really was similar to ajuga, but the leaves were the wrong shape, but then I found out that ajuga is also in the family Lamiaceae, along with mint. Aha! So I started looking into other plants in Lamiaceae, but it’s a huge family.  But I knew I was on the right track. Finally, after looking at lots of categories of Lamiaceae, I hit upon some combination of key words that led me to the answer: Salvia lyrata, also known as lyre-leaf sage, a native wildflower.  I forget how I finally figured it out exactly, but I think I tried looking for lobe-leafed salvias and spotted it.

Anyway, I am happy to figure it out.  The information I read indicates that it reseeds easily and can be invasive, but since it’s a native flowering plant I think I’m OK with that.  That’s what I want.

Salvia lyrata

You can add a little Cinco de Mayonnaise

Gardening

Last weekend I tilled a couple of small garden spots in m yard.  They had never been tilled before.  Previously, I had always just turned them over with a spade before planting.  I am thinking that this tilling, with the compost I added, will make a big difference in my heavy-clay back yard.

I planted three different tomato plants (three different varieties: Rapunzel, Mortgage Lifter, and … I forget the third).  I also planted three basil plants, plus a Culver’s root plant (purely decorative, a native flower).

Yesterday I received some seeds I ordered.  Butterfly milkweed, plus a bonus of rose milkweed.  After reading about them on the internet, it looks like I should cold-stratify them by putting them in a damp paper towel or wet sand in the refrigerator for about 30 days before sowing them.  I’m kind of excited about them.

Metal Detecting 4-24-15

Last Friday I spent a few hours metal detecting near the house of a lady Kim works with.  In the first couple of minutes, I hit a nice signal by the back walkway, and started digging.  About an inch down I uncovered the grave marker for Copper the dog (1965 - 1969), and decided that I had better move to another spot. ("Oh, yes!" said the lady who owns the property, when I mentioned it to her later. "The previous owner had three dogs. They're all by the sidewalk.")

I surveyed different spots around the yard. I found four pennies, a dime, a wing nut, a bolt, a nail, two pull tabs, several bits of gutter flashing and can slaw (I hate gutter flashing and can slaw).  Finally, right before I left, I found this quarter-dollar:

This first photo I took because it's the first 2015 coin I have found.  Looking through the change, there were quite a few more, so I guess they have been around and I just didn't notice them.  I think this Homestead Monument quarter has a nice design; almost-but-not-quite symmetrical, rather bold, nice textures without being too busy. I've seen better, but as far as our recent quarters go this one is one of the good ones.

I found this in change and thought it was funny because it sure looks like it was found by a metal detectorist. Discolored, dirt-encrusted, like the ones I pull out of the ground. Someone dug this up in the recent past, I bet.

And speaking of which, I did some detecting for the first time in many months. A couple of months ago, as I was entering my house, I dropped a large coin--either a half dollar or a dollar. It hit the concrete one time (Kim and I both heard it) and then disappeared. I thought it must have fallen into the snow.

So a few days ago, I got out the detector and searched all around our porch and sidewalk. I did not find my big coin, but I did find $.68 (including the quarter and a few pennies from the back yard).  Some of it is from the past ten years, so it was lost by our family; some of it had been there longer, I am sure. I never have thoroughly searched our yard, so I am sure there is more change around.

...But where did that big coin go? I think it might be lodged up against the porch or in the bushes where I can't get to it, and where it's masked from my metal detector by its proximity to the downspout, underground pipes, buried scraps of gutter flashing, etc. Darn it! Maybe it will turn up. I think it was a big ol' Eisenhower dollar, so it should have been hard for it to hide.

Another photo from Shaker Village

Draft horses at Shaker Village

Undulatus

Visiting Daniel Boone's Grave

On our visit to Frankfort a couple of weeks ago, we went by the grave of Daniel and Rebecca Boone in Frankfort Cemetery.  The view of Frankfort and the Kentucky River was nice from there.

Nearby was the grave of Elison Williamson, "Friend and Companion of Daniel Boon."  My Google searches have turned up no information on Mr. Williamson, so he remains a mystery to me.

Also nearby were the graves of some Bibbs, my distant kin.

dream

A couple of nights ago I dreamed that I was running a saloon in the old west.  Some woman came in and ordered a pitcher of beer, but refused to pay for it, and my staff were angry with her.  She ended up spitting in the pitcher of beer and cussing at us. We'd had trouble with her before.  There was also a guy there who was on the run from bounty hunters, but he was going out to where they were--to confront them.  He did not expect to return, which was sad, because he was a nice guy.  So he was preparing to leave, and meanwhile my staff was grabbing this woman and holder her upside down, trying to shake money out of her pockets, and I finally told everyone, "Meet me back in my office NOW!" because I was going to start teaching everyone about conflict de-escalation.  Then I woke up.