Infinite Thread XXXXI » « Illinois has a real winner

Almost October!

Finally, the colorful garden plots my wife planted are beginning to match my mood.

Those flowers weren’t quite so black earlier this summer.

They look quite dead, actually.

Did I mention that the overall texture was wet and slimy?

I think this might be my favorite time of year.

Infinite Thread XXXXI » « Illinois has a real winner

Comments

  1. birgerjohansson says

    I don’t know how to help insects and spiders deal with the winter, but this is the time to check the bird feeders. Please set them up in places where they quickly can retreat under cover when birds of prey are around.
    .
    BTW did some suspicious colorful meteor land in your garden? I don’t think that worked out well for the dude in the film.

  2. says

    PZ, I struggle to maintain emotional balance while riding the death spiral this country has been pushed down by plutocrats, magats, rtwing xtian terrorists.
    But, I admonish you and others of conscience, please, as I do, find some reasons to feel joy to offset your responsible, but distressing knowledge of the direction of society.

  4. birgerjohansson says

    Shermanj @ 2
    I have found that something as easy as feeding the pigeons cheers me up in the mornings. They can recognise individuals, and when I come around the corner there is a loud sound as they take off simultaneously to be first in line.
    .
    If you have hibernating mammals you can help them find protected dry sites. You do not have hedgehogs but it is a good analog. Here we can buy ready hedgehog hibernation sets that can be placed at appropriate sites. As the animals reappear in spring with their young it is always a source of joy. I do not know if bats are in need of artificial refuges, maybe consult an expert.
    .
    If you have a garden, you of course have an infinite source of distractions. Some people even make small ponds for birds and land animals alike.
    I think PZs slimy garden would be a great place for a groke, if Finland can spare one.

  6. Tethys says

    I hope we remain frost free until Halloween. I currently have two black swallowtail caterpillars who need a few more weeks of devouring my pot of dill before they are ready to overwinter in their pupal stage.

    Our winter looks like it will be missing this year due to El Niño, so they have a good chance of making it to fully grown, 5th instar caterpillars.

  7. redwood says

    @3 larpar I seem to be stuck on Sept. 26 of the Infinite Thread with no changes the past few days. I think this has happened before, but I don’t remember how it got fixed and nothing I’ve tried is working.

    Autumn is my favorite season in Japan because it’s usually the driest and sunniest season. That is, if the typhoons ever stop coming along. The farmers around me are having a hard time harvesting their rice and corn because the typical sunny weather hasn’t yet made much of an appearance.

  8. Pierce R. Butler says

    ??? The spiders (& webs) I’ve met were neither wet nor slimy.

    Is our esteemed host reverting to molluskophilia?

  9. robro says

    Frankly it looks similar to my wife’s garden. She’s very “into” native plants, and while some of her plants aren’t native, they fit the environment. She’s also consciously creating habitat for birds, lizards, insects, and yes, even spiders (she likes spiders). So the garden is wild with plants at different phases of their year and natural life cycle. And, there are a lot of plants. As one fire inspector commented, “Wow! That’s a lot of plant material.” Indeed.

  10. psanity says

    PZ, I need to send you something, and no longer have your email. Ben Shapiro is making a pro-ICE movie in Livingston, Montana, apparently based on events in Minneapolis. It looks to be as creepy as you might expect, or creepier. Local folks not thrilled. The local paper won’t let non-subscribers look at articles, so a link would be no good, but I took a pdf of the page. Excerpt:

    Last week Jongeward recalled crossing the street on her bicycle. What appeared to be armed men in tactical gear allegedly ran at her.

    “I yelled, ‘What are you doing?’ at them,” Jongeward said. “One of them was like, ‘We’re shooting a movie.’ I was like, ‘Why are you running at me with guns?’ It was scary.

    “Someone later pointed out the guns aren’t real. It would have been nice to know. Everyone’s dogs (are) freaking out: gunshots, loud mobs, screaming heard for blocks at a time. They didn’t tell any of us (about this production).”

    Jongeward took issue with some setting details in the script regarding the street and how that portrayal of Livingston could affect the city’s image.

    The script describes the street as previously “… picturesque, a long time ago … A place where families might have raised their kids. Once.”

    The Livingston Food Resource Center’s headquarters is located across the street from the set buildings, and its parking lot was initially blocked off by production. The center provides food assistance, nutrition education and community support throughout Park County.

    “We found out about the movie … because I saw the sets go up,” said Executive Director Kaya Patten-Fusselman.

    Patten-Fusselman then called City Manager Grant Gager to complain.

    “I asked if I could see a copy of the permits and why I wasn’t informed,” she said. “Everyone I talked with at the city was surprised (the production) didn’t reach out to me, which is part of the permitting process — informing people at the homes and businesses they would be (affecting). That didn’t happen. No permits are supposed to be issued until that is done.”

  13. birgerjohansson says

    More for the garden: “Where songbirds came from and why we should listen to them”
    .https://phys.org/news/2026-09-joy-song-songbirds.html
    .
    Shermanj @ 2
    (and everybody else)
    Take heart, there is good news from the Labour party conference in Britain. And if Britain can change for better, so can USA. Take this with you as you prepare your garden for winter, spring will come.

    The PM Andy Burnham is not only rejecting the legacy of 15 years of corrupt Tory rule, he also seems to abandon the ‘conservative lite’ policies that has dominated Labour since Tony Blair. The most important part is electoral reform, finally abandoning the ‘first past the post’ system that automatically leads to a two-party system and has given the conservatives a disproportionate share of the seats in parliament.

    I have put two links in the infinite thread if you are interested.

  14. Jazzlet says

    birgerjohansson @#13, Burnham is only promising to put electoral reform to proportional representation in the Labour Party manifesto for the next election. A Party manifesto is not a legal commitment, items in manifestos are often not implemented, and obviously Labour has to first win the next election to have any chance of implementing the change. Burnham has a lot to do before that win is in any way assured.

  15. psanity says

    Thank you, John! I was looking all over for that – used to be on the left somewhere. Sorry to be OT, gang.

  17. StevoR says

    Here In South Oz, Adelaide hills, its Spring and the best time of the year for the native wildflowers in the Bush. The creeks are still flowing, well almost, some have just stopped, the local lake is still almost at the fullest level ever and .. uh oh :

    More than a dozen places in South Australia have recorded their hottest September day as temperatures soared 10 to 15 degrees Celsius above average.

    Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Dean Narramore said hot, dry and gusty northerly winds spreading across the state caused the burst of hot weather. “This time of year we normally see temperatures in the high teens to the low 20s, and for many areas we saw temperatures get into the mid to high 30s,” he said.

    “It felt more like January than September.

    “We’ve seen more than a dozen records broken right across South Australia, particularly in and around the Adelaide area.”

    Mr Narramore said September records were smashed at Port Pirie (35.9C), Kadina (34.4C), Clare (31.5C), Minlaton (35.2C), Edithburgh (34.4C), Parawa (27.7C), Murray Bridge (35.8C), Mount Lofty (27.9C), Roseworthy (35.9C), Edinburgh (35.2C), Parafield (35.6C), Noarlunga (33.2C), Hindmarsh Island (34.4C) and Cape Willoughby (28.1C) on Kangaroo Island.

    He said Adelaide — which has data dating back more than 100 years — had its second hottest September day on record with 34.4C at 1:36pm. The city’s hottest ever September day was 35.1C, captured at its West Terrace observation site in 1961.

    Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09-29/sa-september-high-temperatures-records-broken/107208004

    For those NOT using the much more reasonable Celsius system this :

    https://www.metric-conversions.org/temperature/celsius-to-fahrenheit.htm

    Site translates that into Fahrenheit ranging from 27.7°C = 81.860°F to 35.9°C = 96.620°F with Adelaide yesterday reaching 34.4°C = 93.920°F as its second recorded hottest Sept day behind only 35.1°C = 95.180°F.

    (Yeah, I could do the maths but I’m tired and can’t be bothered and would have to double check for accracy so..nah.)

    I am absolutely dreading Summer with the heatwaves and bushfires that will likely bring.

Leave a Reply