31 July 25
A New Wallet
For some time now I’ve been dissatisfied with my wallet. I originally bought this because it was about half the size of a traditional women’s purse/wallet, which was always too big, the kind that also fits a checkbook. This particular wallet has served me well — it has more than enough room for cards, ID, paper cash, and change. But the change has a clever way of escaping out the side, and I find myself using cash less and less anyway (late to the card-only party, which I guess I will never be a true-blue member of).
My sister has used a credit card holder for some time. At the front there is a transparent panel for the ID; at the back there are slots of credit cards. I need one more slot than she has so we looked online at the Mywalit store, the colorful Italian brand she’s used for years which has never failed apart from the plastic transparent ID section (which prompted the store to replace the whole cardholder free of charge). These pieces are well designed and very well made, and I’m always looking for an opportunity to support good design.
We went to the local travel shop (Tripquipment in Falmouth) to have a look. They had one of the four-pocket cardholders left. This is my birthday present from her (which I accepted under protest until she reminded me I always knit her a pair of socks for HER birthday, which is certainly true and which does always take hours). It fits very easily in my pocket, has a zipper for any potential change/bills, and is bright and cheerful. No more black things to get lost inside the other black things I have; this is red, orange and green. The colors of summer vegetables.
30 July 25
Daily Sketch - Delphinium
Today’s sketch is of a delphinium in our garden. There are not too many flowers left on the plant as a whole, and the seed pods are developing well.
29 July 25
Geology from the Air
The flight path from Sacramento to Seattle is full of volcanic wonders. First are the Sutter Buttes, proclaimed the smallest mountain range in the world. Next comes Mount Shasta, towering over Northern California and still, in late July, snow-covered. Into Oregon is Mount Hood, the astonishing Crater Lake, then approaching Seattle, Mounts Baker, and Tom in the distance, and Rainier to the east.
I know we live in a geologically active area of the world, but in Davis, you see little evidence of this. Today I had a good reminder that there’s a lot of geology all around.
Postscript: I do know it’s not a great idea to bring fountain pens on planes, but I do it anyway… Also, I wrote this before I heard about the 8.7 magnitude earthquake in Kamchatka, which reminds me also that yes, the Pacific Rim is a powderkeg.
28 July 25
The Monk Of Santa Cruz
I was saddened to learn yesterday of the death a couple days ago of the satirical songwriter and performer Tom Lehrer at age 97. By coincidence I was watching an interview yesterday with the creator of the website hosting all of Tom Lehrer’s works. The interview was from three weeks ago, when Tom was very much alive. The interview prompted me to check his entry in Wikipedia and I was taken aback to learn he died the previous day.
Tom Lehrer’s songs were very much a part of my childhood in the early 1970s. I don’t know if it was my record-collecting father or my record-collecting brother who brought the recordings home, but I heard his songs often. Judging from the accolades these past couple of days, many other people loved his songs as well.
He withdrew from songwriting and performing in the late 1960s, but his satire remains surprisingly relevant in 2025. The flip side of this is the unfortunate truth that we really haven’t solved any of these issues since then! (E.g. his song “Who’s next” is all about nuclear proliferation.) Starting in 1972 he settled into a quiet career teaching mathematics for non-majors and musical theatre at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Here is a just-posted musical eulogy for Tom Lehrer by the interviewer referred to above, Kira Coviello (aka Honest2Betsy).
27 July 25
Tour de Fleece Reckoning
I’ve been watching the Tour de France from about 5:20 am every day it’s been on for the past three weeks, which has also coincided with the Women’s Euros (Spain lost the final to England today, boo-hoo), which I’ve also watched pretty avidly, both of them on Spanish television (RTVE) through a VPN. The Spanish commentators on the cycling are all ex-cyclists and had a different guest on every day of their coverage, which made it interesting — today it was a Spanish women’s champion who rode for Spain in the Olympics and knew the Butte Montmartre circuit the cyclists were going to be riding (in the rain and mostly over cobbles; it wasn’t a comfy saunter as it has been in previous years).
My spinning has been less avid. I’ve certainly spun a sock-quantity of fine BFL 3-ply (well it will be when I ply it) and made a good start on the chocolate corriedale a friend picked up for me at Black Sheep Gathering in June, but I confess to having been seduced by some lace knitting and wasn’t monocraftual.
Time to pick up a pen and get more focused on drawing in time for SAWgust, which starts on Friday.
26 July 25
The Yolo County Slugger
We haven’t been paying much attention to baseball in recent years, in part because our old team the San Francisco Giants has been financially outclassed by their rivals down the road the Los Angeles Dodgers, and have not had a lot of success lately. The other Northern California major league team, the Oakland Athletics, has decided to seek their fortune in Las Vegas, but before the Las Vegas stadium gets built they have temporarily landed nearby, playing in the minor league park in West Sacramento as an interim home. This means Yolo County has a major league baseball team for the time being. But the A’s have not done well here either in the standings or in attendance.
Things might be looking up for them however. The A’s have a 22-year-old rookie slugger named Nick Kurtz who was fast-tracked through the minors in 2024 and arrived on the major league team on April 23rd. Last night against the Houston Astros he had an offensive performance for the ages. He hit four home runs, becoming the first rookie to ever do so, and went six-for-six overall. He also tied the record for most total bases in a single game at 19. Kurtz has been the best hitter in baseball over the last nine or so weeks, and is in the conversation for becoming American League Rookie of the Year. His nickname is “Big Amish” since he hails from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It’s always fun to watch new stars emerge.
25 July 25
Travel Comics
I’ve been participating in the Friday Night Comics workshops offered by the “Sequential Artists Workshop (SAW)” for some time, though I’ve missed the past few. Tonight we were invited to make a page of a travel comic, led by Corinne Newbegin. I chose my recent trip to the East Coast to visit my now 92-year-old mother and spend a couple of days with my birding friend Linda. I have missed spring migration on the east coast for many of my trips there, and this was a great opportunity to address that.
Wistful, though. Would I ever see mum again? I hope so. I’m going back on Tuesday, leaving Numenius in charge of the cats.
24 July 25
Daily Sketch - Prunus
Here is a sketch of a branch from a small volunteer tree that is growing in the yard on the north side of our house. I’m pretty sure it’s some sort of Prunus, quite possibly Prunus cerasifera ‘Atropurpurea’.
23 July 25
Two Days at The Marine Mammal Center
I have just spent two days in the fog on the Marin Headlands, doing graphic recording for a workshop on vessel strikes on whales. Climate change and other causes are forcing whales to change their movement patterns and when they get hit by a ship — or even a pleasure craft, like a sailboat — they get injured and often killed. There is an estimate that of every dead whale that is recorded, either floating or washed up on shore, there are probably ten that are never seen. This is particularly bad in the case of gray whales which have been coming into San Francisco Bay more and more to feed, a body of water that is full of risks for them.
This was a group of scientists, tech folks and policy folks assessing the ways to find out more about where the whales are, what the boat traffic is doing (this is very well recorded for large vessels, less so for small fishing or pleasure craft), and what can be done to reduce or mitigate the risks. It’s a bit depressing especially in the current funding crisis but being around people who are so passionate about what they do, who keep trying to find ways to save the planet in the face of unbelievable odds, was inspiring.
22 July 25
A Photographic Diary
I recently watched a YouTube video by Emily Lowrey (her channel is “Micro Four Nerds”) entitled “how to document your life with your camera (and WHY!)”. I like this concept and am trying it out. One’s day-to-day life produces plenty of photographic material — look for it and have a camera with you. But the photos should be about what you do in your own life rather than other subjects, however visually interesting they may be. In this vein, I went grocery shopping this morning, and here is my record of that event.