Doug's Project 365

My woodworking project this gorgeous Saturday was to make an enclosure for a Raspberry Pi and display, to serve as a home-automation console in our foyer. I used some leftover mahogany deck boards, and it came out more formal-looking than I was anticipating. I had been using an obsolete iPad in this location, which was really too slow and unreliable to be useful.

This cloud formation eventually downpoured on us, putting an end to another Doug’s Office Hours. We all agreed it looked like a dog, but there was some disagreement over the location of specific anatomical parts.

At the Arlington Center beer garden with Kat and Bob. I think my beer may be technically illegal for being outside the fence line.

We went to the Mystic Aquarium, which is nice but expensive. Their animals seem happy and well-cared-for, and there were plenty of interpretive staff, so I think admission dollars are going to the right places. Here’s a picture of a penguin under water, and another of a fur seal. Did you know fur seals are actually not seals, but closely related to sea lions?

On another nature walk, we came across a pond, and wondered what lived in it. Then we saw the 18″ snapping turtle. We named him Hector. This is his nose & eyes, peeking out of the water.

We went for a nature walk in a small park near our inn, expecting to find some shore birds. That’s not what we found at all.

Click through for some other shots from this walk.

 

In Mystic, CT for a long weekend. After we checked in to our inn we went to have a look at the local beach. It turned out to be a pathetic excuse not worth swimming at, but did have a nice view of the setting sun.

When life gives you raspberries, you eat them. But the ones that are past ripe, maybe you should crush them and put the pulp in a mixture of white wine vinegar and unfiltered apple cider vinegar and let it ferment for a week. Then you’d have a nice bright red raspberry vinegar with which to make salad dressings.

Our raspberry bushes are out of control this year.

As someone who considers myself a serious photographer, it’s vexing that my phone takes a better fireworks photo than I have the skills to produce with my big camera. But there you have it.

I also uploaded my phone’s video of the finale: https://youtu.be/LIFWV4kjzuE