Bright Spots

BY THE YARD: We've been spending lots of time in the great outdoors lately, as things are blooming, the lawn needs mowing, weeds are out of control, and we have dozens of vegetable starts to tend to.

We're happy to report the new colony seems to like its new location. Bees are buzzing about everywhere, and not just our honeybees. I have spied mason bees on our daisies, and bumblebees seem to live the ice succulents (see above). They flowers are so vibrant, they almost seem like they're neon lights. Check out how much pollen the bumblebee has packed on its haunches in the photo up top.

The Jerusalem sage are coming on strong. I just love these multi-tiered wonders. 

According to Wikipedia, "Phlomis fruticosa, the Jerusalem sage, is a species of flowering plant in the sage family Lamiaceae, native to Albania, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Turkey, and countries of the former Yugoslavia. It is a small evergreen shrub, up to 1 m tall by 1.5 m wide."

Wonder how these foreign flowers wound up in a Skyway yard. I've not seen them before we moved here nearly four years ago.

I love this California poppy that popped up in a crack in our driveway. Quite the hardly little flower!

FLY BY: This USA TODAY headline caught my eye first thing this morning: "Potentially hazardous? An asteroid the size of the Space Needle will pass near the Earth on Tuesday."

Naturally, in my mind's eye, I saw a Space Needle whizzing by in the sky over our house. That would be something to see! 

According to the article, "A massive asteroid is expected to whiz by Earth in a relatively close encounter – 4.5 million miles – on Tuesday, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory." The asteroid's official name is 2021 KT1. It's about 600 feet long, which is about the same height as the Space Needle.

It earned NASA's “potentially hazardous object” classification due to it being larger than 492 feet and passing within 4.6 million miles of Earth. That sounds far off, but apparently it's a bit of a buzz when talking space distances. 

MONDAY FUN DAY: We spent a sunny Monday afternoon at a Mariners matinee. It was a MUCH more fun day at the ballpark than the last time we went, when the Mariners were no-hit. 

We had $10 seats in the bleachers under the massive scoreboard in centerfield. They are part of a promotion where fully vaccinated people get a cheap seat, a free t-shirt, and 20 percent off at concession stands and the team store. 

We made our way into the stadium, entering at the home plate gate.

We walked around the concourse to the right-centerfield spot where we got our special wristbands and those allowed us to head down to the bullpen area of the stadium - without a mask (gasp!). We posted up at a stand up bar along the Mariners bullpen and wound up staying there until the ninth inning. It was a great view, we were in the shade and it was interesting to watch the bullpen goings on for the entire game. We'd never done that before.

I had to laugh when I saw the 'batter' in the bullpen yesterday. I said to the kids, "No wonder the Mariners can't hit. They don't even remember to bring their bats."

By the way, the Mariners' team batting average is .205 right now. That is absolutely abysmal. 

While watching the pitchers work out, I thought someone should go out to the bullpen and take notes/video and post the warm ups/workouts to YouTube. I'll bet a "Major League Work Out" video would get a lot of views.

Standing in the bullpen gave the kids easy access to some concession stands they've been eager to patronize. They had legit looking Lil Woody's burgers for lunch.

And Salt and Straw for dessert. Both were reportedly delicious.

People tend to come and go in the bullpen area during the game. At one point I turned around and there was a large-ish group of tall, thin young men standing behind me. I noticed a couple of them had UW shirts on and a couple of them had 'champion' shirts on. I realized it was the UW men's crew team who just won the national championship a couple of days ago.

The Mariners had a 4-12lead going into the 8th inning, but then they brought in a certain pitcher that seems to blow it every time I watch him pitch. Yesterday was no exception. Sigh. When his 'work' was done, it was a tie game. Ugh. The 'reliever' wasn't helped by the guy who followed him, JT Chargois, who managed to BALK in the tying run. Double ugh. 

I've always told the kids, when you go to a game, you never know what you're going to see. Believe you me, none of us have ever seen a run balked in before. (In case you're wondering what a balk is, there's a quick video here: )

Neither team scored in the ninth, so it was on to extra innings.

We decided to go ahead and start walking around the main concourse toward home plate and our exit.

We lingered for a little near the left field foul pole.

We wound up standing, and then sitting, on the main concourse up above third base.

When the Oakland As scored a run in the top of the 10th, truth be told, I thought that was it for the Mariners' chances. However, 

As we headed into the bottom of 10th, Annabelle reminded us all to don our 'rally caps' to 'help' the Mariners win. We dutifully did so.

And it worked!!! I'll be darned if the Ms didn't come back and win the game! In case you haven't already seen it, it's worth taking a few seconds to check out Tom Murphy's reaction to his walk-off RBI. 

ON THE WEBB: Email from the European Space Agency reminded us that launch day for the International James Webb Space Telescope is growing nearer. Right now, the target launch  date (atop an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana) is expected to be  on Halloween this fall. 

In the meantime, the ESA is encouraging people to partake in creating James Webb inspired creative projects by making a spacecraft or rocket representing the mission using everyday household items. Once that's done, "Share your missions ‘launching’ on your social media accounts using the #WebbAtHome hashtag (Twitter or Instagram) or via private message to ESA’s Facebook account. For the creations that make us smile the most, we’ll send a package of ESA and Webb mission goodies." 

The contest is open to people of all ages, in any country. More information is available here: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Webb/Build_your_own_WebbAtHome

The ESA also has a nifty Webb Launch Kit you can download here: https://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/science/Webb-LaunchKit_EN.pdf