Happy Atheist Forum

Getting To Know You => Laid Back Lounge => Topic started by: billy rubin on April 16, 2023, 06:57:29 PM

Title: where do you live?
Post by: billy rubin on April 16, 2023, 06:57:29 PM
ive been thinking about how lucky i am to live where i do. i suppose ill take some pictures directly, buit for the moment i just want to remark on the noise.

there isnt any.

now that the coal mine two miles to the south has closed, there is literally no noise near me all day and all night except for the birds, frogs, and the soft sound of the wind.

quiet is incredibly important to me. ive lived in very noisy cities all over the world, and while im in pleistocene hell here during the winter, im stepping into the seasonal transition now when appalachia is actually a good place to be.

right now im typing here in the warehouse where i live (i'm on the outs with the wife again, so i live in the barn) and there is literally nothing to make noise for miles around except the wind. i hear the sound of the wind in the young elm trees outside, and the rattle of the ropes on the sides of the warehouse door. thats it. no aircraft, no traffic, no machines, nothing.

in the evening i can sit quietly and listen to the frogs about 1000 feet away in the creek bottoms. in the m ornings there are redwing blackbirds, meadowlarks, starlings, crows, woodpeckers, and so on. in the afternoon th emockingbords finally wake up. later on there will be a bobolinks, maybe. theyve been here every year for ten years now. plus the kingbirds and at night, the owls. and the hummers

i hate the wnters here, but in my current conditin there is nowhere else on earth i would rather be, and ive been a lot of places.

well, maybe i would rather be in sri lanka. but theres a lt of political crap there. still sri lanka is beautiful anyway.

id live in arizona except for all the gringos.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Dark Lightning on April 16, 2023, 08:33:54 PM
I live in a tract home in southern California. in a city of ~100k people. It has little industry, so it's pretty good during the day. Pretty much dead quiet at night, too. Good enough, for now. I wouldn't mind living where it rained more, but I will never live where it snows again (two winters in Idaho were entirely enough).
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: billy rubin on April 16, 2023, 10:20:20 PM
snow is great for people who live where the local government runs a plough.

where i iive snow means i have to pull my kids out of the road when they do stupid thing, like try to get home. . .

(https://i.imgur.com/pvhFkvcl.jpg)
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: billy rubin on April 16, 2023, 10:26:22 PM
mostly theyre smart, tbese days. but not always

(https://i.imgur.com/CHpWCCMl.jpg)
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Asmodean on April 18, 2023, 07:10:24 AM
I live in the suburbs of Oslo, Norway. It's a quiet, well-established neighbourhood with mostly single family homes, so even though I live near one of its main access roads and the local metro station, it's pretty quiet.

A lot of hills though, so in winter, it gets difficult to get around when the conditions are icy.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Tom62 on April 18, 2023, 08:18:13 AM
I live in a small, charming town near Wiesbaden. It has however seen better days as a spa town for the rich and famous. It is in the Rhein-Taunus-Kreis, which is well known for its excellent Riesling wines. The town is very hilly, which means that in winter you'd need a SUV.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Tank on April 18, 2023, 08:43:00 AM
I live on the eastern edge of the Leeds suburbs. It can be noisy if the wind direction is coming from the motorway. That said there is a lot of local walking access so in 5 minutes I'm in woodland. My wife was born and brought up in the center on London. I grew up in a little country village. Where we live is a good compromise with access to town and country.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Ecurb Noselrub on April 18, 2023, 06:49:28 PM
I live in a city of about 25,000 in Central Texas, about an hour north of Austin and two hours south of Dallas. Not a bad place to live.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Icarus on April 19, 2023, 01:08:30 AM
I live in a small town, now not so small, that was once the loveliest village on the plains. I moved here in 1948. It was the friendliest town I have ever known.  In the beginning the population was about 30,000. We had everything that we needed, things such as a good fire department, police department, a small but adequate hospital, Libraries,churches,our own electricity generating plant,and lots more of the well done essentials for a quiet and self sufficient municipality. Our problem was that we were mostly really nice people who would welcome strangers

Way too many outsiders discovered this little village and it now nears 200,000 population. It has expanded beyond its capacity to absorb more  inhabitants. Traffic is a nightmare. The town was well planned and laid out in the past. The influx of new people has almost outrun our ability to cope with the new demands for utilities, streets, water, waste disposal, and all that sort of essential component for a viable community..

My town is still my hometown and I love it.  I do wish to hell that a lot of the newcomers would go home, wherever that might be. Bless 'em all but please be kind enough to go some other place.
 
 Hmmmm.....Billy has cleverly figured out a suitable alternative by living in the boondocks.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: MarcusA on April 24, 2023, 09:10:57 AM
I live in my mind, much to my regret.

Only from the heart can you touch the sky.
- Rumi

The mind's just not godlike.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Asmodean on April 24, 2023, 02:10:23 PM
Quote from: MarcusA on April 24, 2023, 09:10:57 AMOnly from the heart can you touch the sky.
- Rumi
Or, if you have the inclanation and coinage, you can skydive. That way, the sky touches you. (In all them inappropriate places too, one must add :unsure: )
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: billy rubin on April 24, 2023, 02:37:08 PM
sup, marcus?
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: billy rubin on April 24, 2023, 02:38:21 PM
that boondocks thing has been a lifelong plan for me, icarus. ive lived in big cities and they have nothing to offer me that can rival the boondocks.

sure, theres no indian restaurant within 75 miles, no access to public transportation

sunday i had to get up at 0200 and drive 3 hours to pick up my wife at the nearest train station

but nobody is interested in living out here for the most part. so i have peace and quiet, except for deer hunters and occasional oil field traffic.

where else can you take a walk for an hour from your front door and come back without seeing anybody else?

not in noo york citty fer sure
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: MarcusA on April 24, 2023, 08:08:32 PM
Quote from: billy rubin on April 24, 2023, 02:37:08 PMsup, marcus?

What's up with me, billy? What's not? Everything in life seems illusory. I am an atheist, therefore I must think.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: billy rubin on April 24, 2023, 11:45:24 PM
or youre a buddhist, perhaps
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: MarcusA on April 25, 2023, 12:07:25 AM
Quote from: billy rubin on April 24, 2023, 11:45:24 PMor youre a buddhist, perhaps

Buddhism is but dharma and meditation. I hate rules and regulations, pomp and ceremony.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: MarcusA on April 25, 2023, 05:38:03 AM
Buddha laughed when he was explaining metaphysics and was laughed at by one man in a hall full of monks. He named that man his successor.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: MarcusA on April 25, 2023, 05:50:48 AM
I live on my own in an one bedroom unit which is nothing much to laugh at. Charles Darwin visited King George Sound and loathed the place, but I'll forgive him as it had been a long voyage.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Icarus on April 26, 2023, 12:14:55 AM
Quote from: billy rubin on April 24, 2023, 02:38:21 PMthat boondocks thing has been a lifelong plan for me, icarus. ive lived in big cities and they have nothing to offer me that can rival the boondocks.

sure, theres no indian restaurant within 75 miles, no access to public transportation

sunday i had to get up at 0200 and drive 3 hours to pick up my wife at the nearest train station

but nobody is interested in living out here for the most part. so i have peace and quiet, except for deer hunters and occasional oil field traffic.

where else can you take a walk for an hour from your front door and come back without seeing anybody else?

not in noo york citty fer sure

There is something to be said in favor of your chosen lifestyle. In my case, I have become disenchanted by the tremendous growth of my former Shang ri la, a small town that had all one would want or need. It has now become hugely overdeveloped and traffic snarled and far far less Shang ri la like. In some cases "progress and growth" sucks.

At this point in life I cannot muster the courage to get away from the madness of the chamber of commerce perception of "progress".

When I was about six years old, I lived in a tiny little town in Georgia called Cuthbert.  It is still a small little town in the middle of nowhere. For an unexplained reason I still have a desire to visit there where my father had a machine shop that catered to the timber trade thereabouts. That was 1936.  I fell off my bicycle while returning from school one day. I broke my upper leg. I wont forget that body cast that I had to live in for about eight weeks. Somehow the local country doctor treated me with whatever skill and care that he could muster. It worked.

One of the things that I have found that people do not believe is this; In first grade I was required to memorize the multiplication tables from two to twelve. I was also encouraged to learn to factor as an essential part of multiplication and division. I did and so did the rest of the six year olds. Who would think that a backwoods little community, in backwoods Georgia,only a few miles from Alabama, would demand such academic achievement from little kids? As I recall, there was not much if any opposition from parents who might have thought that the kids were being forced to think beyond their capacity.

With the best of my recall, the people were not overly religious. Go figure.

There is something to be said for living in the boondocks Billy. I have been there and done that. a long long time ago.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: MarcusA on April 26, 2023, 03:21:13 AM
Between life and death, I would choose life every time.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Asmodean on April 26, 2023, 07:13:44 AM
Then, of course, once you are dead, there is no capacity to choose, so those who choose death thereby make the last choice they ever will. Hm... Imagine that...
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: billy rubin on April 26, 2023, 02:22:41 PM
icarus, you should look at some of the curricula the horse and buggy  amish around here provide for their kids. they all quit at the 8th grade, but their math and reading is way above public school of that level.

science, not so much.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Icarus on April 28, 2023, 01:56:32 AM
https://imgur.com/gallery/tLmMvO5 (https://imgur.com/gallery/tLmMvO5)

This could be where the Asmo lives.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: MarcusA on April 28, 2023, 02:58:20 AM
Quote from: Icarus on April 28, 2023, 01:56:32 AMhttps://imgur.com/gallery/tLmMvO5 (https://imgur.com/gallery/tLmMvO5)

This could be where the Asmo lives.

Asmo lives wherever he damn well pleases.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Tank on April 28, 2023, 08:38:05 AM
Quote from: MarcusA on April 28, 2023, 02:58:20 AM
Quote from: Icarus on April 28, 2023, 01:56:32 AMhttps://imgur.com/gallery/tLmMvO5 (https://imgur.com/gallery/tLmMvO5)

This could be where the Asmo lives.

Asmo lives wherever he damn well pleases.

Except Luxembourg. They have history.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Asmodean on April 28, 2023, 09:02:56 AM
Also, Smart cars. The horror!

That said, The Asmo is a city-The Asmo. While His place is at the end of a fjord, it's surrounded by processed stone rather than natural.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: The Magic Pudding. on April 28, 2023, 10:43:48 AM
Quote from: MarcusA on April 25, 2023, 05:50:48 AMI live on my own in an one bedroom unit which is nothing much to laugh at. Charles Darwin visited King George Sound and loathed the place, but I'll forgive him as it had been a long voyage.

That sounds like an interesting place, as long as the fish don't get too bitey.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: billy rubin on May 04, 2023, 08:23:00 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/hAplemRl.jpg)

thats my house there towards the right. it was the last house on the road for about a hundred years after the blacksmith closed up and the mill fell apart, but then a neighbor pulled a single wide in about a mile down and lives there part time
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Icarus on May 04, 2023, 09:14:07 PM
Wow! That is pretty place Billy. Maybe not so convenient when covered with snow. One of the notable positives is that there will be little or no industrial air pollution in such a place.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Tank on May 04, 2023, 09:34:04 PM
It looks like a remote farm from The Walking Dead!
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: billy rubin on June 03, 2023, 01:23:04 AM
you know wot?

ivebeen sittin g in a lawn chair on the front slab of tbe warehouse out here for an hour. drinking some bushmills.

listening to the redwings, the crows, the woodpeckers, meadowlarks mockingbirds and so on as the sun slowly sets

stark fucki g nekkid

not a single car, ute, bike, or lorry has come by to make me duck.

my kind of country. walking dead or not
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Bluenose on June 03, 2023, 03:32:59 AM
This is just up the road from my place

(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/2f/b0/35/2fb035b7c7c680f6eb8725c21d6fb990.jpg)
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Dark Lightning on June 03, 2023, 03:50:10 AM
Quote from: Bluenose on June 03, 2023, 03:32:59 AMThis is just up the road from my place

(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/2f/b0/35/2fb035b7c7c680f6eb8725c21d6fb990.jpg)

Nice! Wife and I went camping (motorhome with hookups-I've spent enough time sleeping on the ground hiking into the hinterlands to last me for a lifetime). We were surrounded by lots of oak trees and such.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: billy rubin on June 03, 2023, 07:11:39 PM
beautiful
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Icarus on June 04, 2023, 12:51:35 AM
A fine example of mother natures ambition, Bluenose.

The density does not appeal to me for a hike in that forest. There may be drop bears, funnel webs, angry kangaroos, and all sorts of Antipodean hazards in there.  It is beautiful nonetheless.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: billy rubin on June 04, 2023, 02:31:14 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/dfGu6bcl.jpg)
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: billy rubin on June 04, 2023, 04:41:30 PM
my year is marked by milestones

first peepers

vernal equinox

first kingbirds

first hyla versicolor

first mowing

and so on . . .

we're at the first mowing. up until today the hayfields have been masses of agelius phoenicius, staking out territories. the sturnella neglecta have laid out their first nests in the fields days. threee ago the lightning bugs came out in force.

today the neighbors came in with the mowing machines. the hay is high enough to bale, and so the blades are coming through about 6 inches up. if youre a black bird and havent got the fledglings out, theyre dead. same with the meadowlarks. the lightnng bugs can fly, so theyll mostly be okay.

occasional mammals get chopped up by the sickle bars. possums and such. not much in the wider scheme, but a big deal to people like me who live the details. i can remember killing hundreds of small mammals before my sea change in belief. i wont kill things anymore.

but the day is still a benchmark in the year. up until now, the hayfields bseides urs have been a metre high in monocots. now theyll be turned into fodder for the milk and beef cows around here that are part of the local unsustainable variety of farming.

we're doing okay-- broadleaf nut trees, as many native fruits as i can get in the ground. if i have free space, i cver it in sunflowers, milkweed, or whatever else will support the local native insects, pollinators or not.

we only have 25 acres in th emidst of a different mindset, but in a hundred years we ll have something to show for it maybe.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Anne D. on June 04, 2023, 05:07:29 PM
Gorgeous pictures, bluenose and billy. Be mindful of those mosquitoes, billy, sitting out there in the buff.  ;)
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: billy rubin on June 04, 2023, 07:53:37 PM
not many yet, anne.i have a big net to put over my bed when they get numerous.

ony two places in my life have ever needed a mosquito net. malindi and ohio
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Bluenose on June 05, 2023, 03:01:06 AM
Quote from: Icarus on June 04, 2023, 12:51:35 AMA fine example of mother natures ambition, Bluenose.

The density does not appeal to me for a hike in that forest. There may be drop bears, funnel webs, angry kangaroos, and all sorts of Antipodean hazards in there.  It is beautiful nonetheless.

The only notable wildlife I've encountered in mountain ash forest are lyrebirds, echidnas and sundry other birds. Drop bears prefer dry sclerophyll forest (LOL), you might see the occasional brush tailed wallaby, but large roos prefer open grasslands.  Our lizards are generally harmless, even if they look ferocious, but again they're unlikely to be found in cool, moist mountain ash forest.  Oh, and Sydney funnel-web spiders (the deadly ones) only occur within about a 100-mile radius of Sydney, so you're well out of their range down here...

I like playing the "Aussie critters will get you" game as much as the next guy, but the reality is that you're pretty safe in the bush.  We don't have large predators to worry about (except estuarine crocodiles up north - but that's thousands of kilometres away), remember it's in North America that you might get eaten by a bear!
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Icarus on June 07, 2023, 04:49:34 AM
 Good information Bluenose.

Indeed we might be eaten by a grizzly bear, Gored by a western bison, dismembered by a Florida or Louisiana swamp alligator, or castigated by christian nationalists.  The USA is a dangerous country, more so by humans than by animals.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: MarcusA on June 07, 2023, 05:54:10 AM
God, it's cold and you are to blame.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: billy rubin on June 07, 2023, 12:37:00 PM
echidnas!

how common are tbey?

how big?

how close can you get?
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: The Magic Pudding. on June 07, 2023, 12:54:53 PM
Quote from: billy rubin on June 07, 2023, 12:37:00 PMechidnas!

how common are tbey?

how big?

how close can you get?

They're mostly couth but you get the occasion crass one.
Four to five bananas long, two to three high, twoish wide.
In my state if you get within 50 metres of an echidna you're supposed to slowly back away.
Other states differ, are either draconian or criminally lax in their protection of echidnas.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Bluenose on June 07, 2023, 01:34:00 PM
Quote from: billy rubin on June 07, 2023, 12:37:00 PMechidnas!

how common are tbey?

how big?

how close can you get?

They're reasonably common in areas around the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne where I live, not so much in built-up areas, but certainly in parks and surrounding bushland and, of course, in the bush.  I think Magic Pudding must be using lady finger bananas, as I would have said that echidnas are about half that size.  I have encountered plenty of them when camping or fishing, even had them come right through my camp site.  They seem pretty impervious to the presence of humans in my experience.  I have gotten close enough to reach out and touch one, although I wouldn't.

I took this photo on Kangaroo Island a few years ago, the echidna let me get directly overhead of it, maybe 30 cm (1 ft) away.
(https://scontent.fsyd4-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/352269592_827601518974997_8161541167582861416_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_p180x540&_nc_cat=107&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5cd70e&_nc_ohc=Ho6XWVxRT4UAX84LYBA&_nc_ht=scontent.fsyd4-1.fna&oh=00_AfBgyH34qtKsMTLsuakvUk05heKNsVi1aQNl6QSOde97Wg&oe=6484F96A)
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: billy rubin on June 07, 2023, 05:32:33 PM
that is as cool ss they can be.

we have a spiny thing here in the woods and deserts that is as big as yourveztinate, pudding. but its a big rodent and doesnt lay eggs

i have never seen a monotreme, wild, zoo, or otherwise

do platypuses really glow in the dark?

fungi?
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: MarcusA on June 08, 2023, 02:35:27 AM
Platypus were mistaken for a hoax when first removed to a museum in Britain.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: MarcusA on June 08, 2023, 02:36:40 AM
Australia also has black swans.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Asmodean on June 08, 2023, 07:54:01 AM
Quote from: MarcusA on June 08, 2023, 02:36:40 AMAustralia also has black swans.
Swans of colour. :smilenod:
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: MarcusA on June 08, 2023, 10:22:02 AM
Australia also has numbats, wombats and fruit bats.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Asmodean on June 08, 2023, 10:48:05 AM
That's a lot of bats. Some of flightless variety, even.

Although, if you put an wombat on a airplane, it could fly. :thoughtful: Hmm... Yes. A lot of bats. :smilenod:
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: MarcusA on June 08, 2023, 04:45:25 PM
Quote from: Asmodean on June 08, 2023, 10:48:05 AMThat's a lot of bats. Some of flightless variety, even.

Although, if you put an wombat on a airplane, it could fly. :thoughtful: Hmm... Yes. A lot of bats. :smilenod:

I had never heard of flightless bats until now, thank you.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: billy rubin on June 08, 2023, 07:36:41 PM
Quote from: MarcusA on June 08, 2023, 04:45:25 PM
Quote from: Asmodean on June 08, 2023, 10:48:05 AMThat's a lot of bats. Some of flightless variety, even.

Although, if you put an wombat on a airplane, it could fly. :thoughtful: Hmm... Yes. A lot of bats. :smilenod:

I had never heard of flightless bats until now, thank you.

it gets worse

Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Dark Lightning on June 08, 2023, 08:01:23 PM
That would be terrifying, if true.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: billy rubin on June 08, 2023, 08:20:09 PM
imagine the amount of shit that would rain down when they took off
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Dark Lightning on June 08, 2023, 09:39:09 PM
:lol: Exactly my thought. What with all those fish they eat, the stench would be unbelievable.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Asmodean on June 09, 2023, 07:49:37 AM
Quote from: MarcusA on June 08, 2023, 04:45:25 PMI had never heard of flightless bats until now, thank you.
Well... Why would they call an wombat an wombat if it wasn't? Obviously, it must be! The Asmozoology. It makes sense. :smilenod:
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: MarcusA on June 13, 2023, 06:24:22 AM
Where I live, you have to make your own entertainment for the most part.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: MarcusA on June 15, 2023, 02:28:43 AM
Where I live, I live on tobacco smoke and coffee.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Asmodean on June 15, 2023, 09:27:35 AM
Many a good life is fueled by those particular variants of narcotics. :smilenod:
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: MarcusA on June 17, 2023, 02:43:58 AM
My life is full of misery. I need something to brighten me up.  Why not tobacco and coffee for starters?
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: MarcusA on June 17, 2023, 03:41:09 AM
Where I live is lost in space.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: MarcusA on June 18, 2023, 12:09:32 AM
Where I live is where my heart beats.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: MarcusA on July 18, 2023, 02:49:19 AM
I live in Jurassic Park with the other dinosaurs.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: billy rubin on September 20, 2023, 12:32:27 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/4WYQP2Al.jpg)

equinox in two days.

due west is somewhat north of the middle most powerline.

its about 1915 but thats meaningless as its not solar time and im not in the middle of the artificial time zone
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: The Magic Pudding.. on December 13, 2023, 12:11:09 PM
where do you live?

Behind my eyes.

I don't get how you could think otherwise, unless you're a cephalopod or such.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Ecurb Noselrub on December 14, 2023, 04:58:55 PM
Well, I experience life behind my eyes, but geographically I live wherever my body abides - in other words, wherever I occupy space on a permanent basis.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: billy rubin on December 14, 2023, 11:57:54 PM
iwas wondering yesterday just where the fuck you had got to
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: billy rubin on May 06, 2025, 08:27:53 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/eoHCpNjl.jpg)

(https://i.imgur.com/T3TkCMkl.jpg)

my son took these yesterday on the way back from town
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Icarus on May 07, 2025, 03:34:59 AM
^Except for the dark clouds, that looks like a scene from Camelot. Gorgeous view.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: billy rubin on May 07, 2025, 10:39:56 PM
this place is at its peak, right now through the equinox. after that it starts to dry out and is still pretty, but not in a springtime way.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Niya on May 09, 2025, 07:25:54 PM
Not to put too fine a point on it, but I am currently living in a war zone. 
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Icarus on May 10, 2025, 01:51:07 AM
Niya. The news we get about the conflict in Kashmir is disturbing. According to my limited knowledge, there are two distinct cultures there; India and Pakistan.  It does not help that the region is on the border with China and Tajikistan, who no doubt have even different cultural adherence. 

I do hope that is not the war zone that you have referred to.  I say with utmost sincerity: May the lord bless and keep you.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: hermes2015 on May 10, 2025, 06:50:15 AM
Quote from: Niya on May 09, 2025, 07:25:54 PMNot to put too fine a point on it, but I am currently living in a war zone. 

I feel for you, since I also lived in a war zone, Beirut, for 3 years in the late seventies. Stay safe.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Niya on May 11, 2025, 09:06:02 PM
Well India and Pakistan just fought a limited war for 88 hours. And from what I have learnt, if global powers hadn't stepped in, it would have gotten much worse. TBH, I did not sleep for two nights straight because of the threat of both States being nuclear...and nuts.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: billy rubin on May 27, 2025, 02:45:13 AM
tulup poplars!

(https://i.imgur.com/0vvwknul.jpg)

(https://i.imgur.com/lRw6wZOl.jpg)

(https://i.imgur.com/N43KFSXl.jpg)

(https://i.imgur.com/qsIcGAOl.jpg)

beautiful trees. largest broadleaf in the americas, up to 200 feet tall with enough time.

large cup-shaped creamy white flowers that produce seeds to plant. i put these in about twelve years ago to mark property corners and to shade the south side of the house. theyre twenty feet tall now.

beautiful trees
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Dark Lightning on May 27, 2025, 04:38:23 AM
Looks like something has been chomping on the leaves. I carved a project out of tulip wood many years ago. I'm guessing that it was this type. It was early on in my carving "career"; I had a hell of a time with it. Turns out there are knives made specifically for it, which I did not have.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: billy rubin on May 27, 2025, 11:58:17 AM
have you ever dobe anything with osage orange?
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Dark Lightning on May 27, 2025, 02:34:56 PM
No, I don't see any of it for sale in local stores, except for wood boutiques such as Rockler or WoodCraft. I hear it's pretty hard, so I would go out of my way to get some to carve.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: billy rubin on May 28, 2025, 12:09:50 AM
i pick up the horse apples every autumn from them on my way home from work and throw them out in the property to see if any grow. the trees are dense with brushy limbs and are pretty thorny, but they have large white flowers in the spring and im a sucker for flowers.

i have read that the wood is pretty tough and was used by native americans for hunting bows. dont know any more than that. stay with me for another fifty years and i will ship you a saw log.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Dark Lightning on May 28, 2025, 01:18:01 AM
:rofl: I'll be dead in about 20 years or less. I should plant my ass under one of them. Then you'd have an Osage orange crab apple tree. :D
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: billy rubin on June 09, 2025, 03:24:37 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/cwjHYh6l.jpg)

my son really likes this part of the road home.

and this opposite our mailbox

(https://i.imgur.com/XbxlhVIl.jpg)
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Icarus on June 09, 2025, 03:36:18 AM
^ Gorgeous shots. I could appreciate the quiet in a place like that, and accept the sounds of nature
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Dark Lightning on June 09, 2025, 04:03:57 AM
^ Indeed.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Harmonie on June 11, 2025, 05:20:30 PM
I live in the beautiful state of Connecticut.  :frolic:

Sorry, these pictures were taken with my phone, not my camera, so they aren't winning any awards, but I can share my state!

Spoiler
(https://i.imgur.com/Ho5ubYr.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/qdOaxSE.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/2idoLvr.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/qkctUcQ.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/gpKZzl5.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/CezupKI.jpeg)
And lastly, a view of my town from afar (taken from a car [No, I wasn't driving!]):
(https://i.imgur.com/oqIvHPO.jpeg)
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Dark Lightning on June 11, 2025, 06:59:35 PM
^ Nice! Now that the snow has melted...  ;D
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Harmonie on June 12, 2025, 09:54:08 PM
Quote from: Dark Lightning on June 11, 2025, 06:59:35 PM^ Nice! Now that the snow has melted...  ;D

Ah, but you see I like the snow!  :P I have plenty of snow pics, too, but a lot of them were shot while in the car and just aren't optimal to post. It's very pretty here with the snow, though!
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Icarus on June 13, 2025, 06:08:25 AM
I lived in the Nutmeg State for a while Harmonie.  It is beautiful for most of the year, but one has to live there for a while to believe that the winter scene is beautiful. I never did make friends with black ice and that sort of winter phenomena.  Chains on tires were not my favorite implements either.

One of the things I liked best about Connecticut is that I found my wife there. I loved her dearly for thirty five years. She went to the happy hunting grounds in 1984 and I still love that "damn Yankee" woman with all my heart. The words "Damn Yankee" are  terms of endearment in this case.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Asmodean on June 13, 2025, 07:37:43 AM
I live in Bærum municipality, on the outskirts of Oslo, Norway. I rent a small-ish annex building, which is basically all on one floor, but with a sleeping and storage loft. It suits me and hey, under a thousand bucks a month. Over here. That's mildly impressive for what I get, which includes electricalness and the interwebs, though I have my own Internet subscription because faster.

I may be moving some time this summer or autumn because I'm changing jobs in September. (You may have noticed that I was completely under a rock for a while. That's why. Ridiculously busy doing stuff like documenting over ten years of how I kept my part of the ship chimney side up. Well, that, and I've tried and succeeded in getting rid of some extra kilos I acquired over the past forty years. Hiking...) Ah! Yes. Also turned forty. Everything hurts now - what else is new? ;D

Anyhoo, if I do move, it will be within some ten miles-ish from where I currently live. But then again, mebbe not - the metro line that stops "right outside" my place also stops "right underneath" the new job. It's still a bit far though.

So there you have it. Oslo area. Can recommend. Pleasant climate, fair enough public trnasport, fair enough parking conditions outside the city centre... Ridiculous property prices unless you are lucky and/or patient and/or both.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Harmonie on June 13, 2025, 03:19:45 PM
^Ah. Norway. Sounds absolutely beautiful!

Quote from: Icarus on June 13, 2025, 06:08:25 AMI lived in the Nutmeg State for a while Harmonie.  It is beautiful for most of the year, but one has to live there for a while to believe that the winter scene is beautiful. I never did make friends with black ice and that sort of winter phenomena.  Chains on tires were not my favorite implements either.

One of the things I liked best about Connecticut is that I found my wife there. I loved her dearly for thirty five years. She went to the happy hunting grounds in 1984 and I still love that "damn Yankee" woman with all my heart. The words "Damn Yankee" are  terms of endearment in this case.

Oh... I'm sorry to hear about that. =( She must have been pretty young. Considering that was before I was born and now I'm 36!

I hope so much that I finally find someone here!

I relocated to CT a year ago, so I have been through a winter. And I had to deal with a lot of black ice. I don't have a car yet, so I do lots of walking to get around. I'm no fan of black ice, but it didn't change my opinion that I found the winter to be great.

I have something weird. I don't know if it's reverse SAD or what, but I need a winter. This last winter was so refreshing to me.

I can't imagine that Indianapolis is much better for you? I don't know too much, but it seems like it's north enough to get cold and winter storms, maybe even kinda like CT (but the midwest is different, of course). But on top of that you also have to deal with tornadoes and conservative Christian governance. D:
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: Icarus on June 15, 2025, 02:46:07 AM
Harmonie I do not live in Indianapolis.  I was born there in 1930. My parents were Gypsies of a sort.....no not the Rumanian kind of Gypsy. In any case I moved around the country with them for a few years until WW2 and Pearl Harbor happened. Those were depression days and responsible fathers went where work was available.  We happened to be in Tampa Florida at the time of Pearl Harbor. I have been a Floridian ever since that time. My three yearstint in Connecticut was when I was in the military during the Korean war.

Here is a cracker kid who had to learn about the New England language quirks and culture. Not quite the same as Florida in the 1950s.  It took a while but I learned that those damned yankees were not as permanently angry that I thought them to be. They just had a different way of expressing themselves. In time I became very close to several of them and I remember them well and respectfully.

I still ain't much attached to clam chowdah and Guinea grinders however.
Title: Re: where do you live?
Post by: billy rubin on September 16, 2025, 01:50:50 AM
sunset!

solstice in a week.

(https://i.imgur.com/CtKFqQcl.jpg)

the sun moves south about one diameter per day. on the solstice it will go down to the left over some trees. usded to use a barn there on the horizon, but the vegetation has grown over it.

in other news. the goat, THX:

(https://i.imgur.com/a1kGRdBl.jpg)

goldenrod, ironweed, asters, and my tulip poplars in the background

(https://i.imgur.com/O821QEDl.jpg)

looking west over the goat pen

(https://i.imgur.com/YI4o8sUl.jpg)