WW: Desert snapshot

(Photo taken during my outbacking trek through the Columbia Basin last summer. Mt. Rainier in the distance.

Open link in a new tab to see it to better effect.)

WW: Sunset on the Columbia Plateau

(Another shot from my trek through Eastern Washington last summer.)

WW: Sky on the Hanford Reach

(Here's a photo from my outbacking excursion to Spokane last summer, taken on the northwest limit of the Pasco Basin, just a few hundred yards short of the Priest Rapids of the Columbia River. This view is west to Umtanum Ridge. [Open the link in a new tab to see it bigger.]

I never get used to those electric Gold Side skies. People who live there walk around under them like nothing's going on, oblivious to the Greensider ratcheting off shots of nothing in particular above them.

But I recommend you avoid driving these backroads – lowest elevation in the state – in July if you have the shadow of a choice. Especially if your truck has no air conditioning. A thermos of heavily-iced tea was all that stood between me and posterity.)

WW: Prairie farm

(Appearing also on My Corner of the World.)

WW: Scottish thistle

(Emblem and patron of my father's people, as any who know us will understand, this well-armed weed flowers in surpassing beauty on the North Coast this time of year. Hated invader notwithstanding, compromising pastureland, and misguidedly considered coarse and unseemly.

As are we.

Cirsium vulgare; though this being the avatar of Scotland, disputes abide over which exact species is truly the authentic Scottish thistle, amongst the many, well... er...

pretenders.)

Appearing also on My Corner of the World.

WW: Collapsed apple tree

(This 20-odd year apple met its end last week, a victim of its own success. In the late 20th century, varieties such as these, bearing heavily but not growing very tall, became all the rage; they really pump out crop and it’s all in reach, at least of picking ladders and apple hooks. Since that time, little else has been planted.

Trouble is, this blueprint results in a top-heavy tree, balanced on a root ball smaller than evolutionary spec. So one good breeze on dry soil, and that’s that.

Sometimes traction and tree surgery can save such casualties. In fact, in the ancient abandoned orchards where I grew up, many of those old heirlooms actually bore from a reclining position, having fallen in some winter storm and retained enough root contact to keep producing.

But those were hardy, full-sized, union-built trees, falling where no-one cared what they looked like, of a wet, dormant season.

And so this beautiful new-guard girl is done for. How sad to lose a thing that gave so generously for so long.)


Appearing also on My Corner of the World.

Rock Groups 2025

So it's July again, when Internet readership drops off sharply and strange things happen on this blog while no-one's looking. Arguably the strangest is the annual Offering of Rock Groups Yearning to Be, that yearly list of potential group names posted for the benefit of literally anyone who wants one. (Full details here.)

Included in the deal is permission to reveal to anyone who enquires that your group's name was bestowed by a Zen hermit monk. And that all by itself is worth the price of admission. (Which is zero. Don't ask; it's a Zen thing.)

So once more into the breach. Extra credit to anyone who catches the literary, historical, scientific, and pop culture references that follow. In Google veritas.


Rock Groups 2025

The Window

Holgar

Tsunami Turtle

Der Pfeilstorch

Concrete Animals of Mexico

Einsatz

Exidor

Fala Does Mind

Hyōgaiji (may I suggest that you also take 丂 as your logo)

Vines's Boot

The Offcuts

Morton's Fork

PTT

The Skeleton Men

The Dumb Waiters

Headbolt

Deadbolt

Gasket

The High-Fivin' White Guys

Daily Driver

Harfang

Elon

Musk

Membrane

Jonas Grumbey

The Heat Monkeys

The Luck

Hinge

Plug Ugly

The Roadside Dinosaurs

Pilori

French Club

Uh-Oh Chongo

Gaturro

Motormouse


(Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com and a generous photographer.)

WW: Raising bread

(As I recently pointed out, at high summer you can often raise bread dough outdoors in the shade. An 80 to 95-degree day ought to do it.)

Appearing also on My Corner of the World.

WW: Highest dome on the continent

July Haiku

even one-penny
fireworks...
ooo! ahh!

Issa


(Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and a generous photographer.)

WW: Late summer sunset

Appearing also on My Corner of the World.

WW: Backyard buck

(This guy came by one hot afternoon last July and spent the evening in the backyard.)

Appearing also on My Corner of the World.

WW: Summer rest stop

(Stopped for a rest on a long bike ride the other day and noticed the picnic table pretty much told the whole story. Helmet, gloves, granola bar, Alan Watts' autobiography. These are the sweet days of summer.)

Appearing also on My Corner of the World.

WW: 2024 teeshirt

(Every summer I issue myself a new teeshirt. Here's this year's pick.)

Appearing also on My Corner of the World.

Rock Groups 2024

Welcome, honoured sangha, to your annual festival of potential rock group names here on the Ring. This makes an eleventh year of this odd and inexplicable July ritual, which is offered in the cause of the entertainment of all sentient beings.

Those needing reminder will find an explanation, such as it is, of this phenomenon here, as it first appeared away back in 2013.

As for rules and regulations, I suspect the 2021 post stated them most clearly.

Remember that any suggested genres are just that; there is no obligation of any kind, moral or financial, associated with this list, in whole or in part. You're a group as yet unnamed, you grab anything you like, with no apologies.

Let's crack on, shall we?


Rock Groups 2024

Roobar (Australian alt-country)

The Riot Dogs

Synesthesia (acid rock jam band)

Visible Filth (seems like it's gotta be punk, but hey, why not a boy band?)

The Drop Bears

Albino Platypus

Palindrome

Head Cannon

None More Black (Spinal tap reference)

Farmer John and the Weeds of Concern

The Sea Lions

No Thru Traffic

Demogorgon (metal)

Prometheus (hair band)

Bedfellow

House Hippo (Canadian twee pop)

Fingerstop

Matthew

Drywall

Maßkrug (metal band too sophisticated for an umlaut)

Ziggy Says

Monitor (the lizard, not the teacher's pet or computer screen)

Apeechequanee

Pantser

The Brothers German

Rook

Crankover

Ten Penny Nail

Blork

Menȝies (pronounced properly)

Gar Ye Grue (Scottish punk band)

Elementary Penguin

Viaticum (death metal)

Fustibalus

Номенклатура

Article 58

Alice Blue (dream pop)

When Ready Fire

The Pump Jacks

Puck Bunny

Fox 3


(Photo courtesy of Kelly Sikkema and Unsplash.com.)

WW: July mountain

(Mt. Rainier, icon of much of the Puget Sound Basin.)

Appearing also on My Corner of the World.

WW: Old City Hall

(Brilliant summer day in Bellingham, Washington.)

Appearing also on My Corner of the World.

WW: Strawberry Moon

(24 June 2024, 0454 GMT.)

Appearing also on My Corner of the World.

WW: Late summer still-life, August 2022

WW: Wild blackberries

(Rubus armeniacus.)

Appearing also on My Corner of the World.