Pic(k) of the Week: Españolas de la alborada

Click on the image for a larger, hi-res version (on Flickr).

Españolas (2010)
painted concrete
— Marianne Lerbs

St. Augustine Sculpture Garden: City of St. Augustine Beach, Florida, USA. 12 September 2025.

St. Augustine is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the continental United States, established by Spanish explorers in 1565. One can easily picture the female colonists, known as Españolas, leisurely promenading on Sundays with their parasols, reminiscent of the scene depicted by the sculptor. The sculpture garden sits just over the city's southeastern border in St. Augustine Beach, a suburban-esque town of much more recent vintage.

I first made the acquaintance of these charming ladies on a visit to St. Augustine in 2018 and took their portraits. I wasn't overly pleased with the outcome, so I returned seven years later for another try. The park appeared a bit worn, in need of some care, and the sculpture's plaque had gone missing. Nevertheless, the ladies, with their fans and parasols, looked radiant at sunrise. Felicitaciones!

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About Marianne Lerbs

I grew up in Caracas, Venezuela during the sixties. Now, I am a multidisciplinary artist, painter, muralist and sculptress. I am a College level art instructor and recipient of Artist in Residence grants in Jacksonville, FL. I have participated several times in Jacksonville's Cultural Council Art in Public Programs, developing murals, banners and large art panels. I was pre-selected by the Police Athletic League with a proposal with large size colorful concrete pillows for their outdoor areas. I have designed and executed large mosaic murals for the Florida Museum of Natural History. I recently completed two commissions, a collection of paintings inspired on St. Augustine's female historic figures, and a series based on Floridian history. I completed three monumental sculptures for the St. Augustine Sculpture Garden in St. Augustine Beach, Florida.

— Marianne Lerbs

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Return to Forever: Spain

Album: Light as a Feather (Label: Polydor)
Released 1973; recorded 1972.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Jewelweed corolla

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Close-up blossom: just one in a riot of orange jewelweed wildflowers blooming on a woodland trail.

Mason Mill Park: DeKalb County, Georgia, USA. 21 August 2025.

Impatiens capensis — commonly known as jewelweed, orange jewelweed, touch-me-not — is an annual plant in the Balsaminaceae family, native to North America, growing in moist soil including forests, streambanks, and bogs.

Jewelweed is a herbaceous plant that grows 3 to 5 feet tall (0.9–1.5 m), branching extensively. The leaves are ovate, with shallow, rounded teeth on the margins. The plant blooms from late spring to early fall. The flowers are orange (sometimes yellow), ¾ to 1¼ inches long (2 to 3 cm), with a three-lobed corolla[collection of petals in a flower, sometimes in the form of a tube.]

The seed pods have five valves which coil back rapidly to eject the seeds in a process called explosive dehiscence, triggered by a light touch, hence the name 'touch-me-not.' Dew or rain beads on the leaves forming sparkling droplets that give rise to the common name of 'jewelweed.' "

— North Carolina Cooperative Extension.
— Wikipedia.

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Charles Mingus: Orange Was the Color of Her Dress then Blue Silk
Album: Revenge! The Legendary Paris Concerts (Label: Revenge. Released: 1996; recorded 1964)

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Pic(k) of the Week: River Oats on the Creek

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River oats in dappled morning light.

Cecilia Creek along the East Decatur Greenway: DeKalb County, Georgia, USA. 27 July 2025.

Chasmanthium latifolium — commonly known as river oats, inland sea oats, and wood oats — is a clump-forming, upright grass in the grass family (Poaceae), native to the central and eastern United States, growing in wooded areas and riparian zones.

River oats reach a height between 2 to 5 feet (⅔ - 1½ m) and a width of 1 to 2 feet (⅓ - ⅔ m). Their distinctive flat nodding seed heads resemble oats, emerging green in spring, turning tan in summer, and then purplish in fall. The bamboo-like leaves often turn yellow-gold in fall.

— North Carolina Cooperative Extension.
— Wikipedia.

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Nat King Cole: Nature Boy

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Pic(k) of the Week: Black-Eyed Susans on the PATH

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Native black-eyed Susan wildflowers bloom in a pollinator garden.

South Peachtree Creek Trail in Mason Mill Park: DeKalb County, Georgia, USA. 18 July 2025.

Rudbeckia hirta — commonly known as black-eyed Susan and yellow coneflower — is a flowering plant in the aster family (Asteraceae), native to eastern and central North America.

The plant grows to 3½ feet tall (1 m), blooming from late summer into early autumn. The flowers have daisy-like yellow heads, up to 4 inches in diameter (10 cm), with yellow ray florets circling a conspicuous brown or black dome-shaped cone, containing many small disc florets. The species epithet means 'hairy' and refers to short, stiff hairs on the leaves and stems. The genus name honors Olof Rudbeck, a 17th-century Swedish botanist.

— Wikipedia.

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Sarah Vaughan and Billy Eckstine: Cheek to Cheek
Album: Sarah Vaughan and Billy Eckstine Sing the Best of Irving Berlin (Mercury, 1958)

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Pic(k) of the Week: Should I stay or should I go?

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What I really want to know,

Should I stay or should I go?

An American bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus) sits in a small, artificial pool fed by a natural spring. Decades ago, the pool was a source of water for dairy cows. Now, it's a haven for amphibians and waterfowl.

Seminary Wood in Decatur Legacy Park: City of Decatur, Georgia, USA. 13 June 2025.

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Sheila Jordan: Anthropology
Album: Lost and Found (Muse Records, 1990)

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Pic(k) of the Week: Woodland morning

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Softly camouflaged,

Morning in the woodland

Fending the summer beast.

Melton Park: DeKalb County, Georgia, USA. 23 June 2025.

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Thelonius Sphere Monk: Pannonica
Album: Thelonius Alone in San Francisco (Riverside, 1959)

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The return of Red Sky at Night

“Red sky at night, sailor’s delight.
Red sky in morning, sailor take warning.”
— old sailing adage

Heavy Seas Brewing's Red Sky at Night Saison, served on draught (with a side scoop of hummus) at My Parents' Basement (a combination good-beer pub, graphic novel shop, and arcade game parler) in the City of Avondale Estates, Georgia, USA (some 570 miles south of the brewery).

22 July 2025.

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About Red Sky at Night

Heavy Seas is a thirty-year-old 'craft' brewery, founded in 1995 (née Clipper City Brewing) in Baltimore County, Maryland, USA. The Red Sky at Night appears to be a limited re-release for the brewery's anniversary. Here's the brewery's description of the beer in 2010, when it was an annual spring release:

Brewed in the style of Belgian farmhouse ales – using a unique Belgian yeast and authentic Belgian candi sugar. It is a potent and spicy ale with deep complexity. Pairs well with Thai cuisine and mussels.

• ABV: 7.5% [alcohol by volume]
• IBUs: 17.5 [international bittering units]
• Hops: French Strisselspalt
• Malts: Pale, 2-Row, Wheat Malt

My impression (now, in 2025):
The beer poured with a pleasantly hazy appearance, typical of the saison style. In flavor, there were hints of spice (such as anise), notes of candi sugar fusel alcohols, and a 'red delicious' apple character. Tasty!

My Parents' Basement mistakenly, but humorously, referred to the beer as Red Rum Sky at Night, mixing a cinematic horror allusion with a nautical aphorism (quoted above). To be fair, so had the beer-review app, Untappd.

About Saison

(pronounced: "say ZAWWN")

Beers in this category are gold to light amber in color. Often bottle-conditioned, with some yeast character and high carbonation. Belgian-style saison may have Brettanomyces or lactic character, and fruity, horsey, goaty, and/or leather-like aromas and flavors. Specialty ingredients, including spices, may contribute a unique and signature character. Commonly called 'farmhouse ales' and originating as summertime beers in Belgium, these are not just warm-weather treats. U.S. craft brewers brew them year-round and have taken to adding a variety of additional ingredients.

— CraftBeer
a website of the [U.S.] Brewers Association

A series of occasional reviews of beer (and wine and spirits).
No scores; only descriptions.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Like a caress

Click on the image for a larger, hi-res version (on Flickr).

Like a caress,

A woodland embrace.

Vernal fancy.

Seminary Wood in Decatur Legacy Park: City of Decatur, Georgia, USA. 25 April 2025.

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Dinah Washington: Crazy He Calls Me
Album: Dinah Jams (EmArcy, 1955)

"The difficult, I'll do right now. The impossible will take a little while."

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Pic(k) of the Week: Into the green

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After the rain,

The urban duo

Goes into the green.

Trolley Trail in Gilliam Park: City of Atlanta (Kirkwood), Georgia, USA. 28 June 2025.

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Dexter Gordon: Cheesecake
Album: Go (Blue Note, 1962)

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Pic(k) of the Week: Festival dancers

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Dance (drink!) to the music.

Inman Park Festival: City of Atlanta, Georgia, USA. 26 April 2025.

Taking place on the last full weekend in April, the Inman Park Festival & Tour of Homes is Atlanta’s largest all-volunteer festival. Organized by the Inman Park Neighborhood Association since the 1970s, the festival has grown to become a full weekend jam-packed with events, including music, kids' activities, a Tour of Homes, a marvelous street parade, an artists’ market, and some of the city’s best people-watching.

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Sonny Rollins: Tune Up
Album: Newk's Time (Blue Note, 1959)

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Pic(k) of the Week: Halfway Crooks' draught "Farina"

Click on the image for a larger, hi-res version (on Flickr).

"Farina": a delightfully delicate 'Kölsch-style' beer brewed by Halfway Crooks Brewery (in Atlanta, Georgia, USA).

Here, served on draught (in its own glassware!), at the Brick Store Pub in Decatur, Georgia, USA, on 24 May 2025.

"Farina" is a top-fermenting lager brewed with German pilsner malt, hops sourced directly from Seitzfarm in Bavaria, a classic Kölsch yeast, Atlanta water. Notes of white wine, pear, German pilsner malt, floral German hops, and a refreshing dry finish. 4.8% ABV [alcohol-by-volume]

— Halfway Crooks

Light herbal, earthy aromas. Mild bitterness, moderate spicy, earthy hop flavors, then some light white-grape acidity. Subdued soft fruit esters come out in the middle. Nicely balanced sweetness and bitterness.

— Craft Beer & Brewing

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What is Kölsch (-style beer)?

1) Kölsch has the pale color of a fine Pilsner but the fruitiness of a fine ale. It has an aromatic bitterness and noticeable hop character, is well-fermented [like an ale], but is lagered cold for 14-40 days. Kölsch is properly served in a tall, narrow, straight-sided 200-ml (6.8 US fl oz) glass about 5 inches (13 cm) tall, at 55 °F (13 °C), with a pale white collar about an inch deep.

Kölsch is defined by German law as top-warm-fermented and cold-aged, with an alcohol content of 4.4 to 4.9 percent by volume. Also by German law, the beer must be brewed from Pilsner and Vienna malts, but may also contain up to 20% wheat malt.

— Encyclopedia of Beer (1995). Christine Rhodes, Thomas Bedell, Fred Eckhardt, et al.

2) Since 1997, the term 'Kölsch' has had a protected geographical indication (PGI) within the European Union, indicating a beer that is made within 50 km (31 mi) of the city of Cologne (Köln) and brewed according to the Kölsch Konvention as defined by the members of the Cologne Brewery Association (Kölner Brauerei-Verband).

— Wikipedia.

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A series of occasional reviews of beer (and wine and spirits).
No 'scores'; only descriptions.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Pre-concert preparations

Click on the image for a larger, hi-res version (on Flickr).

Bassist Teja Veal prepares for Rhonda Thomas' Red Dragonfly concert.

Inman Park Festival: City of Atlanta (Inman Park), Georgia, USA. 26 April 2025.

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Rhonda Thomas at Inman Park Festival.

Soul/jazz vocalist Rhonda Thomas incorporates jazz, soul, gospel, house, and funk in her music. From 1997-2008, Ms. Thomas was a background singer and soloist for soul music legend, the late Isaac Hayes. She has also performed with Roy Ayers, Roberta Flack, Eric Roberson, Avery Sunshine, Frank McComb, Stephanie Mills, The String Cheese Incident, and others. She performs internationally, in her own right.

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Rhonda Thomas with Isaac Hayes: Do Your Thing.
Montreau Jazz Festival, 2005

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Pic(k) of the Week: Black Sheep brass

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Black Sheep Ensemble performed during the WigWag Art & Music Festival — "a hyperlocal art and music festival, celebrating local artists and musicians" — in Avondale Estates, Georgia, USA. 31 May 2025.

Black Sheep Ensemble is a modern brass and percussion band from Atlanta, Georgia. Our performances are rooted in Second Line traditions but with a repertoire that blends Prohibition-era Swing, Jazz, Balkan, Latin, Ska, Punk, and more into one danceable sound. We bring a crowd to its feet and keep them there. Low brass belts out the bass line while drums drive the rhythm.

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Black Sheep Ensemble: St. James Infirmary.
Clips of live performances, in 2020, in New Orleans, Atlanta, and Boston.

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Pic(k) of the Week: At Rest

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At rest: street tableau as a festival abounds.

Decatur Arts Festival: City of Decatur, Georgia, USA. 4 May 2025.

The Decatur Arts Festival brings the community together through a multi-day offering of live music, dance, comedy, theatrical performances, children's book festival, exhibitions, and an expansive and diverse artists’ market.

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Count Basie: Cute
Album: Basie Plays Hefti (Roulette, 1958)

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Pic(k) of the Week: Before the storm

Click on the image for a larger, hi-res version (on Flickr).

Swamp thing! A dead tree retains grandeur as a spring storm gathers.

Frog Bog in Legacy Park: City of Decatur, Georgia, USA. 3 May 2025.

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Leo Parker: Blue Leo
Album: Let Me Tell You 'Bout It (Blue Note, 1961)

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Pic(k) of the Week: Redbud in the field

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The vibrant yellow and green foliage of a native Rising Sun redbud tree, in spring.

Trailhead Community Park of the East Decatur Greenway: City of Decatur, Georgia, USA. 7 May 2025.

Cercis canadensis —commonly known as the eastern redbud tree— is a large deciduous shrub or small tree in the legume family (Fabaceae), native to eastern North America.

The Rising Sun™ cultivar —Cercis canadensis (JN2)— was discovered in a Belvidere, Tennessee nursery in 2006. Of unknown parentage, it had been planted from collected seed and was growing in a row of nursery seedlings. Unlike a 'standard' Eastern Redbud tree, the Rising Sun grows only 8 to 12 feet tall (2½ - 3½ m) but is drought and heat-tolerant.

Rising Sun's abundant pea-like, rosy pink flowers appear in early spring before the foliage. Its heart-shaped foliage emerges deep golden orange and matures through shades of orange, gold, and yellow to a speckled lime green. New leaves appear throughout the summer, resulting in a continual mix of colors. The fall foliage is yellow and orange.

— Missouri Botanical Garden.
— Wikipedia.

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Clifford Brown: Sandu
Album: Study in Brown (EmArcy Records, 1955)

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Pic(k) of the Week: Dwarf crested iris

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A native dwarf crested iris (Iris cristata) wildflower, blooming creekside.

Trailhead Community Park of the East Decatur Greenway in the City of Decatur, Georgia, USA. 7 May 2025.

Iris cristata (also known as dwarf crested iris and crested iris) is a species in the genus Iris, and is part of the subgenus of Limniris (bearded iris). It is a rhizomatous perennial plant, endemic to the eastern United States. Purple blossoms arise on a stalk above the 4 to 8 inch tall leaves. There are 3 unmarked petals; the yellow, fluted crest is on each of three sepals. It is usually found in colonies of several to many plants, growing in chalky soil, in oak woodlands, on rocky hillsides, in ravines, and along streams.

— Wildflowers of the United States
— Wikipedia

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McCoy Tyner: Love Surrounds Us
Album: Uptown Downtown (Milestone, 1989)

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Pic(k) of the Week: Clarkston poppies

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Brilliant red poppies (Papaver rhoeas) bloom in an urban wildflower meadow planted along a CSX railroad track.

Stone Mountain Trail: City of Clarkston, Georgia, USA. 13 May 2025.

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Hank Mobley: This I Dig Of You
Album: Soul Station (Blue Note, 1960)

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Pic(k) of the Week: Sextuplet brood

Click on the image for a larger, hi-res version (on Flickr).

A mallard hen (Anas platyrhynchos) was swimming in a bog, right in front of me, just below the camera's angle. She noticed me and, not pleased, let out a stream of loud, agitated quacks. Her six ducklings, alerted to danger, quickly scattered for safety. I couldn't help but apologize to them all as I exited...but not before capturing a photo!

Frog Bog in Legacy Park: City of Decatur, Georgia, USA. 24 April 2025.

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Maurice Ravel: String Quartet (II. Assez vif – très rythmé)
Musicians: Auryn Quartet
Album: French String Quartets (Tacet 2003; Naxos 2020)

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Pic(k) of the Week: 3-2-1 Sketch!

Pens down! In a 'sketch-off,' participants had only a short time to draw a portrait of the person sitting across from them.

Atlanta Dogwood Festival in Piedmont Park: Atlanta, Georgia, USA. 13 April 2025.

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Sheila Jordan: You Are My Sushine
Album (George Russell): The Outer View (Riverside, 1962)

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Pic(k) of the Week: Five Points ceiling

Ceiling over subterranean rail station.

Five Points MARTA: Atlanta, Georgia, USA. 13 April 2025.

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John Coltrane: Giant Steps
Album: Giant Steps (Atlantic Records, 1960)

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Pic(k) of the Week: Tree over beaver dam

The residents of a beaver lodge have been busy building a dam on Cecilia Creek.

Seminary Wood in Legacy Park: City of Decatur, Georgia, USA. 15 March 2025.

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Reuben Brown: All My Tomorrows
Album: Blue and Brown (SteepleChase, 1998)

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Pic(k) of the Week: Tree over hill

A tree comes into blossom

Over a dun hill.

A moment recursive

In Brigid's turn.

A municipal golf course, as seen from the Stone Mountain Trail in Candler Park of the city of Atlanta, Georgia, USA. 21 March 2025.

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Nina Simone: My Baby Just Cares for Me
Album: Little Girl Blue (Bethlehem Records, 1959)

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Pic(k) of the Week: Spring comes to Beaver Pond

The trees were blooming on Beaver Pond.

Clyde Shepherd Nature Preserve: DeKalb County, Georgia, USA. 2 April 2025.

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As I was framing the shot, a bird photographer (aka 'birder') was standing nearby, wielding a 'bazooka-sized' lens. Unbeknownst to me, he had sidled very close.

"What did you spot?" he asked, catching me off guard. "A tree!" I replied. He smirked, saying, "There are many of those," and strolled off. Of course, that was the point.

Quam stulti isti mortales sunt. 

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Shirley Horn: A Lazy Afternoon

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Pic(k) of the Week: Vernal celandine poppy

A native yellow wildflower —celandine poppy— blooms in an early-spring woodland.

Clyde Shepherd Nature Preserve: DeKalb County, Georgia, USA.
2 April 2025.

Stylophorum diphyllum —commonly called the celandine poppy or wood poppy— is an herbaceous plant in the poppy family (Papaveraceae), native to the eastern United States and Ontario in Canada. Its typical natural habitat is moist forests over calcareous rock, particularly in ravines.

In spring, the deep yellow flowers of the celandine poppy appear as a brilliant display on the forest floor. The flowers have 4 yellow petals, two soon falling sepals, many yellow orange stamens, and a single knobby stigma. They appear singly or in umbels of two to four flowers from early spring to early summer. The flowers issue from between a pair of leaves at the top of the flowering stems. They produce pollen but no nectar.

After fertilization, a bristly blue-green pod hangs below the leaves. Seeds with white elaiosomes ripen in midsummer and the pod opens by four flaps.

— Wikipedia

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Maurice Ravel: Mother Goose Suite (The Fairy Garden)

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Pic(k) of the Week: Morning bird in winter forsythia

And smale foweles maken melodye

A peripatetic ruby-crowned kinglet (Corthylio calendula) momentarily stops to sing in a forsythia bush, its red crown shining in winter morning light.

Ruby-crowned kinglets typically inhabit northern North America. I spotted this male, however, much farther south (in DeKalb County, Georgia, USA), where it was probably preparing for its imminent migration back north.

26 February 2025.

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Ralph Vaughan-Williams: The Lark Ascending

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Pic(k) of the Week: Vespers for Callery

A copse of Callery pear trees (Pyrus calleryana) is limned by low-angle late-afternoon late-winter sun on the shores of Postal Pond.

Although beautiful when blooming, Callery pear trees —also known as Bradford pears— are considered invasive in the eastern and midwest United States. Plus, they stink!

Decatur Legacy Park: City of Decatur, Georgia, USA. 7 March 2025.

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Frank Morgan: A Flower is a Lovesome Thing
(Album: A Lovesome Thing, 1991)

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Pic(k) of the Week: Flowering Quince, flowering in winter

Native to China, a flowering quince shrub (Chaenomeles speciosa) blooms in winter, far from home.

Briarlake Forest Park: DeKalb County, Georgia, USA. 25 February 2025.

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Scott Joplin: Solace (Joshua Rifkin, piano)

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Pic(k) of the Week: Pink gnome #7

Pink gnome no. 7,

Whimsy on a front stoop.

Diagonally, I'm hip.

DeKalb County, Georgia, USA. 1 March 2025.

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Blossom Dearie: I'm Hip

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Pic(k) of the Week: High Alley

Mural and cityscape, up high.

As seen through the windows of the Skyway —connecting the Anne Cox Chambers Wing and Wieland Pavilion— of the High Museum of Art: Atlanta, Georgia, USA. 9 February 2025.

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Bill Evans: Some Other Time (Everybody Digs Bill Evans, 1959)

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Pic(k) of the Week: Follow yellow line

A warehouse dock during golden hour.

As seen from the Stone Mountain Trail —a 19-mile urban pedestrian trail— in DeKalb County, Georgia, USA. 13 January 2025.

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Benny Carter: Crazy Rhythm (Further Definitions, 1962)

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Pic(k) of the Week: Studying "The Shelton with Sunspots"

“One can’t paint New York as it is, but rather as it is felt.”

— Georgia O'Keeffe

The Shelton with Sunspots, N.Y. (1926)
oil on canvas
— Georgia O'Keeffe (American, 1887-1986)
— on loan from The Art Institute of Chicago.

Displayed during Georgia O’Keeffe: “My New Yorks”, an art exhibition at the High Museum of Art: Atlanta, Georgia, USA. 9 February 2025.

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About the painting

This blazing canvas, which captures a fleeting juxtaposition of the natural and the human-built environments, was inspired by O’Keeffe’s perception of nature’s power even in an urban setting. She later recalled, 'I went out one morning to look at [the Shelton Hotel] and there was the optical illusion of a bite out of one side of the tower made by the sun, with sunspots against the building and against the sky.' The painting boldly exemplifies O’Keeffe’s response to the novel structure of the skyscraper, a subject almost exclusively represented by male artists.

— museum plaque

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About the exhibition
(October 25, 2024 – February 16, 2025)

“I had never lived up so high before and was so excited that I began talking about trying to paint New York,” recalled Georgia O’Keeffe late in life. In 1924 the artist and her husband, Alfred Stieglitz, moved into the Shelton Hotel, then the world’s tallest residential skyscraper. The hotel’s stunning views inspired O’Keeffe to explore midtown Manhattan’s soaring geometries: she experimented across media and scale and with various subjects, forms, and perspectives during an energetic five-year period beginning in 1925. Through these works, which she called 'my New Yorks,' she investigated the dynamic potential of the cityscape, often depicting it in dialogue with nature to represent her personal perceptions of the built environment.

This exhibition is the first to critically examine O’Keeffe’s paintings, drawings, and pastels of urban landscapes while situating them in the diverse context of her other compositions of the 1920s and early 1930s. The exhibition establishes these works not as outliers or as anomalous to her practice but rather as entirely integral to her modernist investigation in the 1920s—abstractions and still lifes made at Lake George in upstate New York and beyond and works made in the Southwest beginning in 1929. O’Keeffe’s 'New Yorks' are essential to understanding how she became the artist we know today.

— museum plaque

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David Grisman: Minor Swing

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Pic(k) of the Week: Elfen Glenn

Elfen 'waterfall' of Glenn Creek, on a frigid winter's morning.

Decatur Cemetery: City of Decatur, Georgia, USA. 25 January 2025.

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Harold Mabern Trio: To Wane

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Pic(k)of the Week: Underfoot

Every time I walk down

into the hollow

through the winter woods

or up the mountain again,

I stop right here.

Standing on the packed earth

at an old logging road

where the creek slips quietly

through its rusty culvert

underfoot,

I'm not so much listening as feeling

a kind of tickling caress

through the soles of my shoes

and I recognize

a crossing of paths, a choice,

a way back,

if I could only turn

and follow.

— Underfoot

Stephen Wing (Atlanta, Georgia)

There were no logging roads or mountains in the parkland of this cemetery...but there were a creek and a culvert, hilly inclines, winter woods, a crossing of paths...and, considering the solemnity of the surroundings, places, like this, where one could quietly contemplate the feel of the earth underfoot.

Decatur Cemetery: City of Decatur, Georgia, USA. 25 January 2025.

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Teddy Wilson: Sweet Lorraine

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Pic(k) of the Week: Wetlands, illuminated

Winter afternoon sun dappled the wetlands of Burnt Fork Creek.

Photographed from a boardwalk along the South Peachtree Creek Trail: DeKalb County, Georgia, USA. 20 January 2025.

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Gunther Schuller: Variant I on a Theme of Thelonious Monk (Criss Cross)

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YFGF gets 'Explored'

Flickr is a website for uploaded images. Since 2006, I have been posting most of photographs there (@Cizauskas).

Each day during the year, Flickr employs a 'secret' algorithm to select five hundred images for a daily-posted Explore page —all exemplifying some sort of 'interestingness.'

During 2024, Flickr selected seventeen of my images for Explore.

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● ROW 1

• Tree falls into winter (12 December 2024)
  ☞ 8,534 views; 266 'faves'; 78th chosen of 500 selected that day.
  ☞ This image achieved the highest Explore position of any of my seventeen images.
• Woodland at Glenn Creek (22 November 2024)
  ☞ 8,766 views; 217 'faves'; 102nd/500.
• Purple aster (13 October 2024)
  ☞ 8,992 views; 232 'faves'; 150th/500.
• Bird of paradise, against blue wall (13 September 2024)
  ☞ 6,177 views; 188 'faves; 313th/500.
• Paddleboard morningtide (28 August 2024)
  ☞ 6,632 views; 128 'faves'; 479th/500.
• Strasburg pitches (04) (28 August 2024)
  ☞ 6453; 73 'faves'; 186th/500.
• Umbrella in the foliage (12 August 2024)
  ☞ 9,728 views; 171 'faves'; 92nd/500.
• Moving Keys (24 July 2024)
  ☞ 7,379 views; 103 'faves'; 351st/500.

● ROW 2

• Gnomes' back beat on parade (26 June 2024)
  ☞ 8,358 views; 120 'faves'; 216th/500.
• Dancing to the tunes (02) (26 June 2024)
  ☞ 8,514 views; 118 'faves'; 157th/500.
• Geese, too? (19 June 2024)
  ☞ 6,882 views; 162 'faves'; 269th/500.
• Percussionist in the green (3 June 2024)
  ☞ 10,310 views; 119 'faves'; 85th/500.
  ☞ The most viewed of my 2024 images, 'Explored' or not.
• Lanceleaf coreopsis (sepals & petals) (10 May 2024)
  ☞ 9,497 views; 282 'faves'; 98th/500.
  ☞ The most 'faved' of my 2024 images, 'Explored' or not.
• Arabia Lake (in early spring) (24 April 2024)
  ☞ 7,658 views; 215 'faves'; 230/500.
• Arabia Mountain spring landscape (03) (5 April 2024)
  ☞ 8,822 views; 217 'faves'; 104th/500.
• Holy hellebore (5 February 2024)
  ☞ 6,921 views; 207 'faves'; 474th/500.

● ROW 3

• Winter beech woodland (12 January 2024)
  ☞ 7,873 views; 210 'faves'; 474th/500.

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WHAT IS EXPLORE?

Explore is a Flickr feature with the intent of showing you 'some of the most awesome photos on Flickr.' Photos are automatically selected by computer according to a secret algorithm called Interestingness. The top 500 photos ranked by Interestingness are shown in Explore.

Flickr has stated that many factors go into calculating Interestingness: a photo's tags, how many groups the photo is in, views, favorites, where click-throughs are coming from, who comments on a photo and when, and more. The velocity of any of those components is a key factor. For example, getting 20 comments in an hour counts much higher than getting 20 comments in a week.

Is Explore a showcase for the top Flickr photographers? No. It's for photo viewers, not the photographers. It exists so that, at any moment, anyone who wants to view interesting photos can go to Explore and have a reasonable chance of seeing something interesting.

Does that imply that photographs not in Explore are uninteresting? Of course not. Many wonderful photos are uploaded to Flickr each day not selected for Explore. But, to serve its purpose, Explore only includes a small sampling of all of the photos on Flickr, showing photos from many different people to create a diverse selection.

— Big Huge Labs.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Winter morning pines

"Pine trees, son. I said, pine trees!" the Georgia distiller's father once remonstrated, perplexed by my Yankee question.

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Pines trees under a winter morning sun (with a bit of snow, to boot). Hawthorne Nature Trail: DeKalb County (Northlake), Georgia, USA. 12 January 2025.

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Johannes Brahms: "String Sextet no. 2"

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Pic(k) of the Week: The roots

Roots and tendrils and boughs, oh my.

Seminary Wood in Legacy Park: City of Decatur, Georgia, USA. 22 December 2024.

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Joanne Brackeen: "Haiti B"

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Pic(k) of the Week retrospective for 2024.

Since joining Flickr in 2006, I have uploaded 25,417 photographs and images. I've used the website as a cloud backup, a journal of 'good fermentables,' and, more recently, as a photography portfolio. Since 2009, I have culled through those images every week and selected one as Pic(k) of the Week: fifty-two, of course, for each year.

Here's a retrospective of the images I selected for 2024. Clicking on the thumbnail will take you to the full-sized image.

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

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DATA

Of my fifty-two selections in 2024:

• 18 images (35 %) were landscapes: intimate, grand, or tangentially (including trees and woodlands)
  vs. 21 (40 %) in 2023.
• 16 (31 %) were of flowers, blossoms, plants, or fungi
  vs. 15 (28 %) in 2023.
• 4 (7 %) were of birds or other animals
  vs. 9 (17 %) in 2023.
• 7 (13 %) were neotopographical: structures, objects, vehicles, or signs (excluding breweries, wineries, distilleries).
  vs. 7 (13 %) in 2023.
• 8 (15 %) were street-photography or human portraits, primarily or tangentially. (This and neotopographical can intersect).
  vs. 7 (13 %) in 2023.
• 4 (7 %) were images of the sky or astronomy-related.
  vs. 5 (9 %) in 2023.
• 3 (6 %) were fermentable or comestible related.
  vs. 6 (11 %) in 2023.
• 4 (7 %) were of art, music, or culture in one form or another.
  vs. 2 (3 %) in 2023.
• 1 image (2 %) was processed as black-and-white.
  vs. 0 in 2023.
(The percentage total is greater than 100 %, as categories overlap and percentages were rounded up.)

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PREVIOUS RETROSPECTIVES

I began the Pic(k) of the Week feature in 2009; I began collating image retrospectives in 2014.

• 2023
• 2022
• 2021 retrospective (n/a)
• 2020
• 2019
• 2018
• 2017
• 2016
• 2015
• 2014

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CHANGE OF EMPHASIS & CONCLUSION

I began my Yours For Good Fermentables blog in 2002, as a vehicle for examining beer (and other fermentables). Since 2020 or so, it and my photos have moved on to explorations of intimate landscapes, nature, and 'new topographics.' A beer may sneak in now and again, but I now refer to the blog simply as YFGF (even though I have yet to change the masthead.)

As to so-called 'social media,' I last posted to Facebook on 16 May 2022, and to Twitter (aka 'X') on 17 December 2023. On the other hand, I have maintained my Instagram account (@tcizauskas) and I have added Threads (@tcizauskas) and, most recently, Bluesky (@tcizauskas.bsky.social)...after a short, now ended, dabble on Vero. Whether I continue to do so, I have yet to decide.

To conclude, I thank of all of you who continue to patronize my blog and I wish you health, safety, and fulfillment in 2025. Sveiks!

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