Email Archive Archives

State of the Garden: August 2021, plus a bonus

August 27, 2021

August is usually a good time for reaping the benefits of our garden. Growing season is not at the end by any means, but once September wears on, plants think of slowing down somewhat. This is what I have seen often.

This is assuming that the planting was done in late March/early April.

I wasn’t sure of this year because I didn’t get started until the warm weather had arrived for a while. COVID-19 saw to it that I didn’t visit Home Depot for plant seedlings until late May/early June.

The garden has still tried to produce what it could.

You can see the smattering of items I gathered from the garden over the past few days. Some of them just today.

You may recall the state of the Jalapeno and Habanero pepper plants back in early July. They have grown now.

Orange colored Habaneros are showing themselves in the picture below and several green peppers of both kind are camouflaging themselves among the green leaves [if you want to see those click on the images for a larger version].

We haven’t tried any of the habaneros but I can affirm that the jalapenos are potent. We need some good recipes to make use of these in quantity. If you know a good recipe or two to make them into sauces or the like for longer term preservation and use, please send them to me. I’d love to try them. Perhaps I can report on the experience in a future newsletter issue.

The tomato plants are the victims of late start as well as our two-week absence in July/August. We could not trim and train them at the right time. But here they are, still producing reasonably well:

Usually, I would carefully monitor their growth and clip wayward shoots and train them up a trellis for healthy production of tomatoes that can also be picked easily. But that window has gone by this year!

In addition to the produce, I also tried a few annuals this year. The vincas are doing well, but the petunias couldn’t handle the abuse of irregular watering and the heat combo while planted in a pot.

Begonias are happy in a pot and are relishing the porch while the Christmas Cactus is biding its time to flower during Christmas.

I have never planted many annuals before, but decided to try the petunias, vincas, and the begonias for the first time. I learned what to do and what not to do. I hope to account for those next year!

The only produce in the picture at the very top that is the output of a perennial is the Asian Pear from a tree in our backyard. As I was picking some of the fruits from the tree just a couple of days ago, I got a great photo op from a hummingbird. It was doing its magic just a couple of feet above my head and by the time I pulled out my phone to take a snapshot it perched on the very tip of a dead branch of the tree. As soon as I took the picture, the bird flew away, as though it just posed for me!

To the mesmerizing levitation of the hummingbirds,

P. Venkat Raman

Now, the bonus: I recently published an article titled “7 “Dark Side” Dangers of Jumping Off the Job Ladder” on Medium, participating in their contest for Medium writers. If you are interested, you can find it here. Any comments, you can enter them right there on Medium, or just reply and let me know here. Thanks.

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It took 27 years…but it was worth the wait!

August 20, 2021

It was almost to the day 27 years ago when we moved to California. All these years, we had our eye on Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Park as one of the places to visit. We had made plans to make this trip several times. We even made reservations once that we ended up cancelling.

Finally, just this past weekend, on Friday the 13th, Praveena and I stood on top of Moro Rock in Sequoia National Park. The panorama from there was breathtaking. The image below hardly does justice to it.

In the Hi-Res version you can see Generals Highway on the right. That is the main artery that connects Kings Canyon to the southern entry point of the Sequoia National Park, winding through the mountainside.

Our plans to visit Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks was part of our larger project of visiting all the national parks of the US. We have visited 31 of them so far. Yosemite was the first California park that we have visited (multiple times) and it so happens that Kings Canyon/Sequoia is technically the last of our coverage of National Parks in the state. [Just technically, because we have only set foot in the mainland part of the Channel Islands National Park; still need to visit the islands.]

Back to Moro Rock, the sight of it from its base was imposing and made us wonder how we were going to climb to the top. But a carefully laid out series of steps that snaked its way up made it a cinch. The climb up Devil’s Lake State Park in Wisconsin just a few days ago was a lot more challenging.

Van Camping

Ours was a two-day trip that involved van camping. We didn’t plan on doing any cooking at the camp site, so our materials list was quite lean. We like this way of staying in national parks as it allows you to “sleep under the stars” with the least inconvenience. Not doing any cooking meant that we didn’t have to worry about attracting bears and also use the time efficiently in visiting places within the parks. But it did mean that we needed to rely on the restaurant for our food.

This was a quick two-day trip and since we treated it as reconnaissance, we limited ourselves to the notable, popular, landmarks for the most part.

Masking and Sanitizing

Being in the COVID-19 environment, we tried to avoid crowds as much as we could. Even so, we were a little concerned about exposure.

Mask compliance was varied. Staff of any establishment–restaurant, gift shop, visitor center, etc–were diligent in their use of masks, but visitors’ compliance was hit or miss.

It was interesting to see the empathy of some of the travelers who offered hand sanitizers for us to use! In one instance, I helped a gentleman from Florida with a picture of his whole family with him in it. Since i touched his phone for this, he offered sanitizer to cleanse myself, just in case.

The other instance was even more endearing. A lady who had seen us on the Moro Rock trail earlier offered her sanitizer out of the blue when she spotted us walking past her car at the end of that hike!

Unexpected education

I learned something at the Gamlin Cabin: Kings Canyon NP was originally established in 1890 and was named General Grant National Park! At that time, the park was limited to what is the Grant Grove section of today’s park. Only when it was expanded in 1940 to include the additional acreage did the name change to Kings Canyon.

Centennial Stump is a sad reminder of how a perfectly healthy tree was chopped down and cut into sections to be shipped to Philadelphia to show off California’s tall trees in the Centennial Exhibition of 1876. Worse, easterners could not believe a tree could be that tall and rejected it as California Hoax!

Wonky Sherman Tree

You never know when you learn something new. When I was admiring the General Sherman Tree in Sequoia NP, I saw someone taking a vertical panorama shot to actually capture the entire height of the tree without resorting to an upward looking angle like usually done.

Of course, I wanted to try that immediately. Look at what I got with my ‘technique’! On the left is the Wonky Sherman Tree and on the right, after a little practice, is another tree nearby.

Roaring River falls

A two-day trip like ours is just enough to whet our appetite to explore more. We have seen and experienced hardly a small sliver of what’s there to enjoy. But even a two-day visit garners enough of varied experiences that it takes more than one telling to cover them.

You can expect me to touch upon more perspectives of our discovery in future issues of the newsletter. But I want to close with a captivating scene that we came upon at the tail end of our trip.“There is one thundering plunge into a dark pool beneath a glorious mass of rainbow spray” — John Muir describing Roaring River Falls

Visiting in August, we were at a disadvantage. Most of the season’s water had already flown through. The rivers are not as full in August as they would have been in May/June. The thunder of the plunge was weak. No rainbow spray.

Yet there was a character to the Roaring River Falls. Water was more contained, less unruly. And there was a good volume. Enough to frame a beautiful picture of it feeding the pool below.

For some reason, I was reminded of Gollum in the Forbidden Pool when I saw this scene. Let me know what thoughts are kindled in your mind!

To enjoying nature,

P. Venkat Raman

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The man who opened his own abdomen to take his intestines out

August 13, 2021

My friend was passing blood in his urine. This happened just a few days ago.

The trouble was that he was on the remote Pacific Crest Trail, far away from civilization and with no one in sight to help him.

With all the modern technology in this world and medical advances that could help him out, he was helpless, and was wondering if that was going to be it for him.

My friend’s predicament reminded me of another man who faced a dire situation, hopelessly remote in location, surrounded by people who were not qualified to help him, and facing the same mortal fear of his destiny.

The year was 1961 and Leonid Rogozov was the only surgeon in the team of 12 on a Soviet Antarctic Expedition on a mission to build a new base in the icy southern continent.

After the base was successfully built in February, the team was waiting for the ship to pick them up for their return trip to Russia. In April, Rogozov developed an appendicitis, inflammation of the appendix.

Removal of the inflamed appendix is a fairly routine operation in the civilized world with proper medical facilities, but Rogozov was in a hostile territory and more importantly, with no medical staff to perform this surgery on him.

As an experienced surgeon, Rogozov had no difficulty diagnosing his condition. That was no solace, however. Appendectomy typically needs to be done within hours of diagnosis of the need. His situation was dire.

With the ship for his return trip not due until the following year, and the trip back taking 36 days to get back to Russia, help from his country was out of the question. Rogozov’s options were limited.

They were so limited that he had to choose between two unthinkable options: Wait for the appendix to burst and die, or perform an appendectomy on himself. Remember, there was no other medical staff on the team.

Self-appendectomy was the inevitable choice. Rogozov was to open his own abdomen and take his intestine out, so to speak!

Rogozov performing appendectomy on himself (Image courtesy BBC)

With incredible preparation of the non-medical personnel to assist him during the surgery, Rogozov proceeded to perform the operation using just local anesthesia, bare hands, and by feel rather than sight and completed it successfully.

There was even an injury during the operation which he needed to remedy and improvise to maintain consciousness through the procedure to achieve his eventual success.

Rogozov was the first to achieve this feat; self-appendectomy had never been attempted before.

The appendix that Rogozov removed had a dark stain at its base, implying that in another day it would have burst!

Thankfully, my friend on the Pacific Crest Trail did not have to resort to drastic measures like Rogozov and had received help eventually to avoid dire consequences.

To remaining strong in adversity,

P. Venkat Raman

P.S. For a more detailed account of Leonid Rogozov’s predicament and accomplishment, please check this BBC article.

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Travel, post-COVID-19, and what we did with it

August 6, 2021

Dear [NICKNAME GOES HERE],

Vacation is supposed to be relaxing and offer oodles of time for things that you like to do.

It does that, mostly. But the reality is that there are far too many things we like to do such that we often don’t have time for many things we like to do anyway, even during vacation.

It is thus that I find strapped for time as I write this edition of my newsletter. So, here’s a random collection of things that happened during my vacation that’s sadly coming to a close tomorrow.

You may know that I try to practice cartooning to improve my skills there. I did one yesterday that deserves to be shared:

After being cocooned at home for well over a year due to COVID-19, this vacation marks our first real travel experience that includes controlled, yet expanded exposure to fellow humans.

It involved air travel and small gatherings and, of course, hiking along trails that often involves encountering others passing by. We are not yet fully convinced that life is back to normal, but we are getting there. People of Minnesota and Wisconsin have largely ‘returned to normal’ it seems.

Two nature hikes that were highlights of our outdoor enjoyment during this trip were the Willow River Falls and Devil’s Lake State Park, both in Wisconsin.

Devil’s Lake

The loop around Devil’s Lake features a steep hill that offers a welcome challenge for hikers. The vista from atop the hill is awesome and is a due reward after the rocky climb.

Willow River Falls

While the Willow River Falls can also be accessed through a steep climb like the Devil’s Lake loop, we chose an alternate route that was much longer with gentler slopes, but with beautiful scenery of the lake fed by Willow River. The falls itself was multi-tiered and was tame enough to be amenable for frolicking in bathing suits. We passed on this frolicking and just enjoyed the scenery.

Well, it’s time to close this edition and send it your way. There will be more stories to be shared from this trip for sure. All for another edition.

Enjoy the rest of summer (if you are in the northern hemisphere)!

P. Venkat Raman

P.S. I am trying a new way to set up the greeting at the beginning of this newsletter. If you see something amiss, please let me know. If you see something that surprises you in a positive way, please let me know that as well!

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What the Saint Paul Fire Department taught me

July 30, 2021

As I stepped on to the pavement and turned the corner from the apartment building, my heart stopped.

What were all these fire engines doing?

I could not get a count of all the engines assembled at the intersection I was approaching. My car was parked just beyond that intersection. One of the engines blocked the view, so I couldn’t see if my car was safe, or was even there.

Gawkers were everywhere and their gaze was clearly trained in the direction where my car should have been. I started to imagine my car or a nearby car ablaze.

A closer approach assured me that my car was safe, but disclosed a different problem: It was hemmed in, so I couldn’t leave!

As you can see in the picture above, my car, the black one, needed just a little more gap to get out of there.

Distraught, I approached a fireman about my problem to see if just enough gap could be created for me to get out.

Incredulous, yet polite (but firm), he responded, “I can’t move.” Coming to my senses, I backed off.

We needed to be somewhere and needed the car to get there. I felt like a prisoner in a cell with a porthole, too small to pass through, that tantalized me with what freedom would entail.

Earlier, not finding any free parking space in the apartment complex, I scoured the neighborhood streets and chose my parking spot judiciously, patting myself on the back for picking out a location closest to the apartments.

It was to be a two-minute job of walking over to the car and driving off to our appointment. Instead, we were twiddling our thumbs for over an hour as the firemen toiled in the 97-degree heat, battling the fire in one of the apartments near my parking spot.

Once the fire was put out, whereas they had more work to do in cleaning up the place, the firemen were very obliging in moving the engine a little to let us escape.

The forced hour of waiting along the sidewalk where we could enjoy a warm breeze from time to time allowed us to put things in perspective:

Our troubles always appear huge, but with a little thought we can see them for what they often are: an insignificant speck in the grand scheme of things.

Yes, we were inconvenienced, but we neither suffered a loss like the residents of the apartment where the fire broke out nor endured the agony of donning the fire-fighting suit to face fire on a day of sweltering heat.

We gestured our gratitude to the brave men of the Saint Paul Fire Department and drove off.

In appreciation of all our blessings,

P. Venkat Raman

P.S. If you have any anecdotes of your travails that paled on reflection, hit reply and share!

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I was surprised by what happened when I stepped outside my comfort zone

July 23, 2021

Dear [FIRST NAME GOES HERE],

Something interesting happened to me last night. Sort of an epiphany. Or, synchronicity as described by Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way.

Before I get into it, let me give you a brief history. Almost 3 years ago, in Fall 2018, I had enrolled in a cartooning course. My drawing skills and cartooning skills were basically nonexistent.

As a baseline, my first drawing in this course is below.

True, the assignment was designed for the proper ramp-up of novices. It was a good starting point for me; my skills were thankful for it. Over the months, we worked on several skills, and my ability to draw cartoons improved along the way. You can see the brief progression below.

Even after the end of the course, trying an interesting cartoon was and still is a daunting thought. Practice makes perfect in these endeavors. But practice was lacking.

As luck would have it, I chanced upon a 100-day project where my friend Lana and I decided to challenge ourselves and create something each day for a 100 day period. Day 1 reflected the lack of practice.

It was on Day 10 that I decided to copy an original that had shading in the cartoon.

Last night, I was on Day 13 and 13 may actually be a lucky number for me.

One of the biggest impediments for me in drawing art is the mastery of shading. You can probably see that I had somewhat got comfortable with the skill of flat-filling colors in my cartoons. Last night was a break away from that.

On a whim, I wanted to step outside my comfort zone and try drawing a face without any outline and with shading. I’ve never tried that before. After all, the Day 10 cartoon didn’t have a complete outline and let the top of the head stand on its own without the help of an outline, So, why not? Below is what I got.

You’ll agree that it’s not a masterpiece, but you must admit that it does suggest a face. Especially with a little imagination.

I am excited by this turn of events and am trying the same project again with bolder colors and probably trying a few different shading choices. I’ll post what I do below.

The reason I’m particularly happy with last night was that I had already done one cartoon but was impatient to do another one in a quick attempt at shading just by itself. That in itself is progress.

The fact that it produced something discernible as a face is a cause for rejoicing. But I am thinking that Day 13 was leaving a lot to imagination and may have benefited from it though it was harder to see. What do you think?

I still have a long way to go, but I’m happy to take small wins. This small win was the result of stepping outside my comfort zone.

Try stepping outside your comfort zone. You never know what you’ll find!

To finding nuggets outside our comfort zones,

P. Venkat Raman

PS: if you want to see what I do with cartooning and how I do the 100-day project you can follow me along on Facebook here.

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The Day Niagara Falls Quit Falling!

July 16, 2021

On March 29, 1848, the mighty Niagara Falls fell silent, something it had never done before in recorded history. Locals woke up to the deafening silence of the horseshoe falls that had always roared until that time.

The next day, churches held special prayers to ward off the evil spirits that dried out the entire Niagara river and rendered the furious falls impotent.

Only later, when word reached from Buffalo, did it become clear what had happened.

While the falls never stop flowing even in the presence of ice in winter (the river doesn’t completely freeze over), it was different that time. The source of water for the Niagara River, Lake Erie, froze. Heavy winds pushed the ice formed in the lake toward the head of the river and caused a massive ice jam that choked off the water supply to the river.

The river being dry, the falls became just a bunch of rocks and cliffs.

The effects were devastating for the mills along the river and fish and turtles that needed to survive in the absence of water.

However, the fun began for the opportunists. The dry river bed was fodder for enjoying activities like walking, horseback riding, and even riding in carriages. Even the U.S. Army Cavalry joined in the fun and offered a military exhibition on the river bed!

The danger of the ice dam breaking and the gushing river washing away these stragglers didn’t deter any of them. The ice dam did hold for a long time before warmer temperatures melted the ice and restored the river to its former glory on March 31, 1848.

The dry river downstream from the falls offered its own opportunities. Scavengers had a field day and picked up historic collectibles never again possible to retrieve, including War of 1812 artifacts such as muskets, bayonets, and tomahawks.

More impactful was the opportunity that the operators of the Maid of the Mist, the boat tour on the Niagara river, got to blast away some of the rocks in the river bed. This made it safer for the boats to navigate the waters!

Ice dams were recurring from time to time, but never again to the extent it happened in that unique period. As the ice dams wreak havoc to property and industry, especially the hydroelectric generating stations, a solution was designed and implemented to prevent ice dams from forming: The ice boom.

Ice Boom at work, preserving water flow into the Niagara River
Satellite image of the eastern basin of Lake Erie March 2021
(Image courtesy of International Joint Commission)

Starting in 1964, a floating boom consisting of timbers and steel pontoons anchored to the bed of Lake Erie is installed at the beginning of winter and removed by April 1.

This practice has ensured that the phenomenon of 1848 is never to be repeated!

For more on this story and details of Niagara history, check out this 2019 post.

Ever in search of historical anecdotes,

P. Venkat Raman

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God, I Love Summer!

July 9, 2021

I do love summers. Especially in California where the days are warm and the nights are cool, with no rain to dampen your outdoor plans, literally or figuratively.

That no-rain part is a double-edged sword, though.

If you know anything about what has been happening in California–and for that matter in the Western United States–during summers of recent past, you’ll know why. Summer is becoming one long fire season.

When I shared the cartoon above a couple of days ago, a good friend of mine indicated that summer is not a reason for her to display exuberance like the guy above. With these raging fires doing damage around us and possibly threatening our home and other possessions, I should probably temper my exuberance too.

But I can’t bring myself to do that, yet.

A reason to rejoice in summertime

A big part of my exuberance comes from the plants in my garden. You may recall reading about how I was spurred into taking action regarding my garden this year.

As soon as that issue went out, reality reasserted itself and saner heads prevailed. It was too early to go shopping because we were not yet properly immunized with COVID vaccination at that time. I wouldn’t go plant shopping for a couple of months hence.

Nevertheless, I did start the growing season, albeit late, and got some plants going. Let’s take a quick look at where we are.

The tomato plants love hot weather. And we provide the heat to them:

Yes, the thermometer does register 100 degrees, but that’s generally at least 10 degrees higher than the ambient air temperature because the tomato patch is in the planter that sits between the walls of adjoining houses. The walls help to reflect the sun’s heat and keep the microclimate in the patch to be what the tomatoes like.

But I wonder what the additional heat does to the vincas and the petunias. The vincas are apparently happy, throwing in the splash of pink in the area. The petunias were happily offering their purple just a few days ago but it looks like they are rethinking the additional heat that July has brought.

Talking of heat …

We like the heat of a different kind too: Peppers. It’s hard to do justice to all the different kinds of peppers we can plant, but here’s a look at what we have:

In this patch, we used to have Thai pepper and Cayenne pepper, in addition to a Jalapeno pepper plant that had survived for many years. They died out due to neglect of sorts and I decided to clean out the patch and restart.

In this v2 rendition, I am trying companion plants of like kind. So, we have two Habanero and two Jalapeno plants. I am sure that’s going to be overkill and I need to find connoisseurs willing to take excess produce. But it feels good to try it.

Who knows, I may add some other variety to the mix as well. We’ll see.

100-day creativity project

Very recently, I came to know about the tradition of a 100-day creativity project. The idea is simple. You do something creative each day. At least one. And you do this for 100 consecutive days. That’s it.

I just started on this project on July 1. My choice of creativity is cartooning. So, I have committed to producing a cartoon each day from July 1 for 100 days. And hopefully continue the momentum afterward.

To discourage me from slacking off or giving up on it, I am sharing the creations as they happen. It started with a buddy as my accountability partner who is also pursuing her own 100-day project, but I have now created a Facebook album to let the world know about my meager contribution to art.

The featured image at the beginning of this newsletter edition is from this collection.

The idea is that practice makes perfect and this daily regimen will help me solidify this skill over time.

If you do something similar and want to share please reply and let me know. Perhaps we can get into an accountability relationship too.

In pursuit of better creations while enjoying summer,

P. Venkat Raman

P.S. If you are interested in additional info on any of these 100-day project creations, you may want to check out my website here. Some of the cartoons may have stories associated with them, or at least a master version I was trying to emulate. These may be of additional interest.

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Sundial verified!

July 2, 2021

You may have read my previous recollection of how I got introduced to the Sundial Bridge in Redding, CA.

Having learned that the bridge acts as an accurate sundial each year on the Summer Solstice Day of June 21, I wanted to go there personally and check it out.

The pictures you see below were taken on the solstice day (actually June 20 in 2021). You can see the sun making it happen at 11 am on the appointed day, as it should.

The adventure started early. It was supposed to be a weekend trip to Redding where my wife and I would take in the sundial’s performance and a couple of other locations worth visiting and get back home on Sunday. Sunday was conveniently the solstice day this year and we were going to make full use of it.

But you probably saw our travails just getting to Redding! Though sobering after the fact, we are grateful for our luck that kept us reasonably on schedule and, most importantly, safe.

You can see that the sundial was spot on, with one edge of the shadow showing precise time when the photo was taken. But I am getting ahead of myself.

On Saturday, the day before solstice, we visited the sundial for early reconnaissance. We realized that it had 15-minute graduations! A quick look reassured us that it was accurate at 1:18 pm.

It was good to see that several other folks had come to see the sundial’s accuracy as well. Some even toted an umbrella to keep the harsh sun out, just like us! I am not the only geek. Most of them were happy to seek shade under the gnomon of the sundial on that day with temperature in the 100’s.

After the quick reconnaissance under the scorching sun, we quickly retreated to our hotel room and I took a well deserved siesta in the air conditioned coolness.

But then we went right back to take in the night view of the bridge which was really something. The whole bridge was glowing in a purple mood lighting that made the river below shimmer. I doubt that the fish liked the light, but may be they found it soothing too!

You cannot but enjoy the foot bridge over the placid Sacramento River that meanders through the landscape.

But things were different less than 100 years ago when the same river was to be feared during uncontrolled floods with drainage from the Shasta region.

We’ll talk in a future issue about how this rogue river was tamed just about 80 years ago and how this river has since spurred, single handedly, the entire booming economy of California’s Central Valley and also the San Francisco Bay Area.

Have a great July 4th; stay safe and don’t cause any fire with illegal fireworks!!

P. Venkat Raman

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The day we tempted fate

June 25, 2021

Every once in a while we do things that make us shudder after the fact. The possibilities of what could have been are sometimes daunting.

One such thing happened to us last week.

We were on the road, driving along a segment that we have travelled many times before. An unremarkable section, if you ask me.

Not last Friday.

We were carrying on a happy conversation on the phone with our son to salvage an otherwise drab period of driving.

As we were moseying along, south of Fairfield on I-680N and approaching the Marshview interchange, we came across a captivating and dangerous sight.

We saw thick smoke. We saw it develop into black smoke.

Firemen approach the brush fires — Photo by Praveena Raman

A few hundred yards closer, we saw actual flames on the west side of 680 North, in the median. The wind was fierce and caused the smoke to scoot eastward before it had any chance of rising.

The wind kindled the flames and drove them towards the road surface. We actually saw the flames jump over the road where we would have been travelling just a few seconds later.

Read the full story to learn why this was a case of tempting fate

I know we all have encountered trying situations like this. Please hit ‘reply’ and let me know your story!

Here’s to tempting fate less …

P. Venkat Raman

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