Cars

I've always loved the details on cars. Here are a few that have been sitting in the folder forever.

Saturday reflections

I need a lot of soothing these days, and these tranquil blues and greens are doing their best.

Urban poetry

There are a lot of alleys in lower Manhattan, but you rarely see them festooned with clotheslines and laundry.

I didn't look closely when I took this picture, off Walker Street last summer, and thought that the towels and undershirts were banners or pennants of some kind. But it's very festive!

Badland detail

That harsh geology looks better in black and white.

How about some of those bad Badlands

Since I posted pictures of the Painted Canyon badlands in North Dakota, here's another look at their southern cousins. Similar geology, very different landscape.

Welcome to the Corn Palace

Thank you to Mary Kay for providing such a cheerful welcome, and letting me take a picture of her and the Fourth of July flags in her hair.

And for the popcorn, which ensured that when you walk into the Corn Palace, you smell...corn.

I also want to mention that I didn't eat any popcorn because we had just had really excellent Mexican food, which I did not expect in Mitchell, South Dakota.

Inside the Corn Palace

There are more murals, and exhibits covering the history of the building. The combination auditorium/basketball court that takes up much of the building also serves as the gift shop.

The Sydney Opera House, in corn

This closeup of one of the mosaics shows how they do it. Twelve different colors of corn, grown locally, are used and the designs are created by local artists. The corn cobs are split lengthwise and then nailed to the walls.

The Corn Palace

The Corn Palace, in tiny Mitchell, South Dakota (well, tiny by my standards—its 15,000 inhabitants make it the seventh largest city in South Dakota) is the last of what was once a series of “crop palaces” across the Midwest, built to promote their cities and the local agriculture.

All of the art on the facade, depicting the wonders of the world, is made out of corn. The theme changes every year, and new corn mosaics are created.

Astronomy Tuesday

When galaxies collide! This image from the James Webb telescope shows two spiral galaxies (IC 2163 at the upper left, and NGC 2207,the larger galaxy in the center and lower right)

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/Webb; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare

A closer look at those two bison in the video

Some bison

 This herd couldn't decide which side of the road had better grazing, so we sat in a line of cars and waited for them to make up their mind.