Little Planet - David Mathre Photography

Friday (22-May-2020) — New Jersey

Backyard Springtime Nature in New Jersey.

Birds of the Day — Brown-headed Cowbird, House Finch, Northern Cardinal, Mourning Dove, American Goldfinch, and Eastern Phoebe. It seems like there are a number of juvenile birds showing up. There continues to be lots of action at the Eastern Phoebe nest with both parents feed the new hatchlings.

Adult Birds of the Day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Juvenile Birds of the Day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Spring flowers of the day — Yellow and Orange California Poppy, Red, and Oriental Poppy, Rhododendron

Springtime Flowers of the Day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

I spent the afternoon on the patio assembling the new Grow Towers and transplanting the indoor hydroponic strawberry plants to the outdoor Grow Towers. The activity was recorded by a Garmin VIRB-360 camera and used to create a time-lapse Little Planet video.

Daily Electric Energy Used (47.6 kWh) from meter readings the Sense Home Energy Monitor. The daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (39.9 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Cloudy much of the day. A deficit 0f 7.7 kWh.

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Wednesday (20-May-2020) — New Jersey

Backyard Springtime Nature in New Jersey.

Birds of the Day — Blue Jay, Gray Catbird, American Goldfinch, and Eastern Phoebe. A whole bunch of American Goldfinch showed up today. The eggs in the Eastern Phoebe nest above my front door have started to hatch. The parents are now bringing insects, grubs, and worms to feed the hatchlings. I set up a video camera to monitor the nest.

Blue Jay. Image taken with a Nikon D5 camera and 600 mm f/4 VR telephoto lens (ISO 1600, 600 mm, f/5.6, 1/200 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)

Gray Catbird. Image taken with a Nikon D5 camera and 600 mm f/4 VR telephoto lens (ISO 1100, 600 mm, f/5.6, 1/1250 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)

American Goldfinch. Image taken with a Nikon D5 camera and 600 mm f/4 VR telephoto lens (ISO 220, 600 mm, f/5.6, 1/1250 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)

American Goldfinch. Image taken with a Nikon D5 camera and 600 mm f/4 VR telephoto lens (ISO 1000, 600 mm, f/5.6, 1/1250 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)

Spring flowers of the day include Rhododendron, Red Oriental Poppy, Cosmos, and Foxglove. What I thought was a Gladiolus plant growing up through a crack in the patio blue-stones turned out to be a Foxglove plant.

Springtime Flowers. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

I spent most of the day out on the patio assembling the new Grow Towers and transplanting the indoor hydroponic strawberry plants to the outdoor Grow Towers. The activity was recorded by a Garmin VIRB-360 camera and used to create two time-lapse Little Planet videos.

Daily Electric Energy Used (46.3 kWh) from meter readings the Sense Home Energy Monitor. The daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (81.1 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Sun with some clouds. A surplus of 34.8 kWh.

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Sunday (09-February-2020) — New Jersey

Wintertime in New Jersey — Maple Syrup Production.

This was the third neighborhood maple syrup boil down this winter, although I was not here for the first two. The weather has not been conducive for maple sap production (cold nights below freezing and warm days above freezing). The following Little Planet Time-lapse Videos were recorded with a Garmin VIRB-360 camera. Approximately 80 gallons (~300 L) was boiled down to 11 quarts (~10.4 L) with a density of 1.14 g/mL. The material needs to be further concentrated to get to a sugar concentration of 66 wt%. We had issues near the end of the day where some of the solution burned so there will be a smokey flavor issue.

Daily Electric Energy Used (75.2 kWh) from Sense Home Energy Monitor and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (43.3 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Sunny most of the day. Actually, the most solar energy produced since 05-October-2019. Still not enough to completely power the indoor hydroponic gardens, keep the house warm, and power the Synology image servers. A deficit of 31.9 kWh.

Current Weather Conditions

Tuesday (05-February-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

A bit of a heat wave after the cold temperatures last week. Colorful morning clouds at dawn. It was warm enough during the afternoon to completely melt the ice in the bird bath, allowing the solar-powered fountain to start working. After it got dark I made a time-lapse video of the fountain.

alt_title. (David J Mathre) — Fulll Sky View. Colorful Clouds at Dawn. Composite of 26 images taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 8-16 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/5.6, 1/60 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and AutoPano Giga Pro (Inverse Little Planet). (David J Mathre)

Three-Years Ago (27-January-2016) — Japan

Gone to See the World. Semester at Sea Spring 2016 Voyage on the MV World Odyssey. Day 22: Hiroshima.

I am not going to say much here. We visited the Hiroshima Peace Park and Museum. I just wish we could learn from the past and not be two minutes left on the Doomsday Clock. Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock.

Little Planet View of the Display of Ground Zero at the Hiroshima Peace Museum. Composite of 19 image taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 23 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 800, 23 mm, f/1.4, 1/30 sec). (David J Mathre)

Individual Images from the slide show can be viewed here.