USS Macdonough DD-9 Thursday, Jan 16 2014 

Historic Photos , , , acairfearann 08:09

pre WWI four stack destroyer

Frustrating mystery.  This ship was photographed off the Mid Atlantic coast (roughly near the Delaware) in August 1909.  Now, I thought it might be one of the three Truxtun class destroyers, the only ships that fit her profile even remotely (at least to my untrained eye).  But two of them were in the Pacific at that time; and the third was supposedly inactive.  And they don’t really quite seem to fit; the length of the stern and the close placement of the stacks is a bit off.

Any guesses anyone?

Ha! I think I found a possibility: the two Lawrence class torpedo boat destroyers.  Though it looks like something got changed on some of the deckwork, the stack placement is right. Furthermore, the USS Macdonough was in the right place at the right time!
http://destroyerhistory.org/early/lawrenceclass/

 

Glory of the Morning Wednesday, Jan 15 2014 

gardening and Modern Photos , acairfearann 09:29

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Morning Glory ‘Grandpa Ott’s’

 

The Rain in Spain Tuesday, Jan 14 2014 

gardening acairfearann 18:12

does anybody recall that song anymore? It’s from My Fair Lady and is a earworm par excellence.

Anyway, it is raining here when it ought to be snowing….  At least the ground is now completely thawed, which means aside from the MUD, the water table is benefiting. Lord knows we need it. The river is higher than I have seen it in three or four years. Still, if anyone goes off the driveway or tries to turn around at the top, I will do something unspeakable, the lawns are beyond fragile at this point.

I’d prefer snow, if only because my family members would like to try out their cross-country skies and snowshoes.  It is very English of the weather though, I expect a daffodil to pop up at any moment.  I never could get used to daffodils in February in Edinburgh!

 

 

Mud Season Sunday, Jan 12 2014 

Modern Photos , , acairfearann 17:29

We should be having snow….not 55 F, several inches of rain, and partially frozen ground.  The end result is MUD. The end result of that is a certain furry member of the family taking full advantage of the MUD.

He should look like this:

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He enjoys this:

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Same horse…actually he was much worse looking today, the mud was about an inch thick.

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Creak… Saturday, Jan 11 2014 

gardening and Trees , acairfearann 09:22

Nothing makes one’s ears perk up as well as walking through the woods (in this case the Rabbit Hole’s stand of Norway Spruce/Pine/Maple) on a windless, warm day and hearing an ominous popping creak from high above.  It might be the massive double trunk White Pine near the drive, it has several pieces of climbing Euonymous jammed in the crotch of the trunk and consequently it sometimes makes some very odd noises, even on a day with essentially no wind.*  It might be an innocuous branch rubbing somewhere; it might be a tree reacting to the changing temperature.  Or it might be gravity asserting itself.  It is the sort of noise that is very hard to get a solid directional fix on, you’re doing well to pin it down to about 90 degrees.

You can’t go and visually inspect all those trees, not when there are well over a dozen Norway Spruces and Pines standing at between 80 and 110 feet in height.  Besides in my experience, you can never tell.  The White Pine on the North Lawn all those years ago was a lovely example: a perfectly fine, fully mature pine when I walked past on a day with light wind; fifteen minutes later and it had snapped like a toothpick.  On the other hand, there is an ash that is busy defying physics: it has a spiral crack so large that a child could hide in the hollow of the trunk and on windy days you can see the crack shifting.  It has been that way for about five years and two hurricanes.

If it is something…well, we will KNOW about it one of these days!

*even 5mph wind is enough to get a little bit of sway at the top, which is just enough to get it to rub.

 

World War One logistics Friday, Jan 10 2014 

Historical Events , , acairfearann 11:55

Finishing up a transcription here, from a letter by Capt. Bradford Ellsworth (306th Inf, 77th Division) to his sister Helen van Loben Sels, written in January 1919.  While those in the military are acutely aware of the headache that getting a force from one side of the globe to the other entails; those of us who are civilians tend to overlook it.  The almighty traffic jam after WWI is hinted at in this paragraph:

“Not much of interest happens now that Jerry has quit and even the threatened revolution doesn’t seem to come off and the only excitement has been the rumors which were many and interesting until last night when our preliminary order for going home came in. We leave this area (ed. note: unspecified area of Northern France) before 14th February and go to the delousing – pretty word- station at Le Mons and from there to the ports as the boats become available. We ought to sail about 15th March and be in New York 1st April, where a quarantine of 2 weeks will make us all sore. About 15th May we ought to be out of uniform and sitting around and telling ‘what a helluva a fellow I was’ and other stories. Everyone has cheered up immensely and we’ve forgotten to knock even the Y.M.C.A. which has always been a favorite indoor sport with the A.E.F. We say ‘the military police of Paris Won the war, the Marines got the glory, and the Y.M.C.A. got the money, where does the doughboy come in?’

His comment on the revolution, refers of course to the upheaval in Germany, and that rather nasty affair in Russia…in which a few American forces did end being involved in.  The rumors probably had been quite wild.

His estimated timing for demobilization wasn’t too far off, only about two weeks too optimistic, the advantage of being the I.O.

 

Reminders Thursday, Jan 9 2014 

Esperanza and gardening and Landscapes and Modern Photos , acairfearann 08:58

A reminder that last winter was no more kind than this year’s; and this was the result…

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Shhh… Wednesday, Jan 8 2014 

gardening acairfearann 12:45

We’re hibernating.

Actually, this wouldn’t be so bad if there was any snow on the ground.  But there is no snow here.  So the ground is working on freeze-drying, rather than just freezing.

I have to be impressed with the cellular mechanics of the broad-leaved evergreens (rhododendrons/azaleas).  During the rain (and 55 F) last weekend the leaves were wide open and flat.  In the deep freezes immediately before and after they are either limp and loosely curled (rhododendrons) and stiff and tightly curled (azaleas).  It is an impressive bit of bio-mechanics. It would be interesting to see what exactly is happening on the cellular level.  Do the leaves always curl in the same direction? I would think so…I am not, however, going to go out and look!

 

Intrepid Photographers Monday, Jan 6 2014 

Historic Photos acairfearann 15:26

Somewhere on the St. Lawrence, summer of 1908, on the yacht Mavourneen.  Photographers taking photographs of each other never does get old.  Not sure who the subject is, I could look it up in the ship’s log.  (this is actually simply a scan of the original negative, converted on the computer)

1908001104

 

Pick one and stick with it Sunday, Jan 5 2014 

gardening acairfearann 20:21

My suggestion to the weather…  Yesterday morning, we were down below zero. Today? Rain.

I think the seed catalogs are a much better form of entertainment than the outdoors!  Of course, seed catalogs are probably even worse than clothing catalogs.  You at least get the clothes that are advertised from the latter (even if you never can look like the model).  With the seed catalog (or plant) you don’t get the lovely flower, you get the seed and then you have to figure out how to grow it.  Actually, the tropical/flowering plant/tree ones are really the worst: the ad is always some decade plus plant, carefully grown, pruned, and photographed.  The one you get? A two year cutting.  We’re all dreamers!

 

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