• Early yesterday evening I was outside with Scout. I looked up and saw this.
The sun was to the right (out of picture range) and was it the moon glowing under that cloud? I’m not sure, but that little rainbow-like slash of light appeared. Since my eyes are very sensitive to light, I thought maybe I was seeing something that wasn’t there.
But the camera saw it, too.
A lovely little moment in time.
• We bit the bullet yesterday and ordered heating oil. Gas prices are pretty low at the moment, so we thought this would be a good time to do it and sure enough, our oil guy told us that now was the time because prices were soon going up. High or low, heating oil is expensive.
The heavy gold quilt is covering the bed once again. I’m wearing my flannel pajamas.
I’m pretty sure it’s Autumn.
Meanwhile, the zinnias just keep on blooming.
• Design Sponge, one of my favorite sites, did a Guide to Ulster County, NY yesterday. That’s where we live. You might find it interesting. Grace Bonney, the founder of Design Sponge, recently moved up here – she’s not all that far from us – and has fallen in love with this beautiful area, just as we have.
We’ve got it all here. And this time of the year? Simply glorious.
• Housekeeping: If you’ve noticed the Cookie pop-up at the bottom of the blog, let me explain why it’s there. The European Union has a law that requires websites to indicate if cookies are being used on their site. Cookies, in case you’re not familiar with that term, are:
‘small pieces of data sent by a website and stored in the user’s web browser while the user is browsing that website…Cookies were designed to be a reliable mechanism for websites to remember information (such as items in a shopping cart) or to record the user’s browsing activity (including clicking particular buttons, logging in, or recording which pages were visited by the user as far back as months or years ago.” Wikipedia.
Every website uses cookies. Ads use cookies. The EU thinks anyone viewing a website should be alerted to that fact. And Google is now enforcing that law. So, any of us who have potential visitors from the EU have to have a ‘cookie warning.’
Blogger blogs already have one. The rest of us have to take care of it ourselves, hence the plug-in I added yesterday (on both my blogs.)
Oy. It’s a bit of a pain in the tush, since anyone who goes on the web for even a minute encounters cookies. You can set your web browser to not allow cookies, if it’s of any great concern to you.
But we do what we have to do, right? I’ve tried to make it as unobtrusive as possible. So, there you go.
I spent a chunk of time yesterday diddling around with all of this and it’s time I’ll never get back. Sigh.
• Book review of X by Sue Grafton on Just Let Me Finish This Page today. Click here.
• Whoops! Forgot to add that The Poisoner’s Handbook (starring Don Sparks) is now showing on Netflix! We saw it listed last night and Genevieve, one of my readers, also wrote me to let me know about it.
Happy Wednesday.
My entire life we have called those rainbow spots sundogs. I saw one here in Indiana yesterday also. I always heard that when you see one you will have rain in three days. It usually holds true. Recently I heard someone call it a sunbow. I believe it’s a rainbow ring around the sun because a few days ago I saw those spots on equal sides of the sun. Everything I have told you is personal and family obversation…hhhmmm…maybe I should research it. Have a great day.
Oh, thank you, Rachel! I don’t believe I’ve ever seen one before. Sundogs. Love it.
We’ve always called them sundogs. When we see them we know there will be a change in weather.
So interesting. I don’t know how I got to be this age without knowing about them! But then again, Pat, I love knowing I keep learning something new every day!
P.S. I do know how to spell observation! :)
I’ll have to see if there is rain three days from now!
hi claudia,
it’s always so nice to escape the online noise and have a cozy visit here at MHC. lovely post and interesting comments!
happy october wishes, sweetie
xo
elyse
Same to you, Elyse!
I love when I see these in the sky. It tends to be towards sunset when I notice them. One night I was driving to my sister’s and I noticed a very vibrant one in the sky. I couldn’t wait to show her and my niece. Just as I pulled into her neighborhood it disappeared!
I recently saw a show on The Weather Channel that talked about unusual meteorologic phenomenon. Things like unusual cloud formations, dust devils, etc. On that show I learned they are called fire rainbows. There are 2 separate type of cloud phenomenon that cause this circumhorizontal arcs and iridescent clouds. I was just glad to know I wasn’t seeing things!
Fascinating! I didn’t know any of this information, so thank you, Kim!
Such a beautiful sky! We have sunshine today so I’m going out. I have some errands to run for my Mom and a stop at the library for myself.
hugs,
Linda
Yay for our libraries, Linda. Have a great day!
Congratulations on the CD!!!!
With a hopeful heart l’ve just begun reading The Age of Miracles by Marianne Williamson.
You have to wonder how ‘cookies’ wound up with such a delicious name!
And,to me,no matter how they might be explained rainbow phenomena are a beautiful miracle:)
They really are. I’ve never seen one quite like the one I saw yesterday and I was enchanted. I have The Age of Miracles. I think you’ll really like it, Grace.
Following your ‘fire rainbow’ may you enjoy the joyful abundance promised by rain<3
Thank you, Grace. As long as it’s not TOO much rain!
Haha!!! Sorry for scaring you Claudia,
I was thinking more along symbolic lines than soggy ones when I wrote that. That being said,i’m warm and dry and enjoying the rain here:)
That is a beautiful sky. We always called them sundogs too. I remember the days when we were heating with oil. It was so expensive. I’m glad that now we use natural gas and the cost is spread over the winter months when we use it. How fun for Don! I wish we had Netflicks.
Blessings,
Betsy
I grew up in a house that had natural gas and never encountered heating oil until I lived in an old farmhouse with two other women. My eyes were opened. A LOT of homes out here have heating oil, it seems to be the thing around here.
I have never seen a sun dog Claudia..I have seen a double rainbow which is also a beautiful thing..Mother Nature is a wonderful lady…Most of the time that is…lol…I wish I had Netflix…I would love to watch “The Poisoner’s Handbook” again…All of this talk about cookies is making me hungry..lol..
Me too! I would love a cookie right about now, but I’m on a diet. (Or at least I try to be!)
Thanks for posting about the cookies, Claudia. It has made me think about something weird with my computer recently. Recently I’ve been finding FAR more data in my computer trash every day, after I clear my cache and cookies. The funny part is that the data is NOT from websites I’ve visited, but seems to be from “favorites” lists on blogs I visit. In other words, if you had a list of your favorite websites on your homepage, cookies & cache data from ALL those sites would download to my computer every time I visited YOUR blog. I wouldn’t have to visit any of them myself, which is how it used to work. This is definitely weird. My trash numbers used to be anywhere from 5-8K pieces of data, now I routinely get 16-20K – sometimes much more. And I’m not a rabid web-surfer. Most days I go to my same-old regular spots online, just a few of them. So anyway, I’m wondering if somehow this new EU thing – which sounds like a good idea to me – is a factor here. I think I’m going to get on the phone to the Apple folks in Cupertino. If I find out anything I’ll report back. And thanks again. ?
As far as I know, it doesn’t work that way. But cookies are collected by ads on my page or any page. That’s why ads that show up on your browser are magically showing things that reflect your browsing history. I don’t have a favorite list of blogs on my site, so you’re getting nothing from me in that way. Cookies are everywhere, Janet. Even on the webpage for your email, for example. The EU law – which is only for those who are surfing the web in the EU – just says that people need to know that cookies are collected. You can configure your browser to not allow cookies, Janet. In Safari, it’s under Privacy. You can tick a box that says never to allow them to be collected. I’m sure Firefox and Chrome have the same option.
Thanks for replying, Claudia, and I was aware of the ad connection – it’s just as you said. The ads I saw online were often for websites I visited – or similar interests etc. Although that ended as soon as I installed AdBlock software [highly recommend]. So I must have another type of problem. I’m starting to get lengthy lists of saved caches or cookies, from websites I’ve never visited. 26 total cookies one day, the very day several 100s. The ones I recognize – and there are lots I don’t – seem to be the favorite websites of other bloggers I read, and there’s only two of them besides you. It used to take seconds to empty the trash every night – not so anymore. Hopefully it’s not sinister, just something new. But I’m still going to pick an Apple genius’ brain about it. One day there’s 5K items in the trash, the next day 15K? Better safe than sorry. Thanks again.
Claudia, I love the wee rainbow….I call those a gift from God. :):) Your picture are so nice. Hope you and Don are doing well. Gosh, I hate thinking of winter already. Ted and I did the chimney sweeping and cleaning of the fireplace. I am hoping when we get our fuel oil it’s reasonable too. Blessings, xoxo,Susie
Yes, as we all know, the price of oil will go up as the demand increases. An unfortunate reality, Susie! Take care.
Thank you for the interesting link on that very-informative article about Ulster County!
You’re very welcome, Vicki!
We saw 2 of those sun dogs this afternoon, when we were coming back from our trip. Course it was probably the same one…you know how country roads are…curving, switching back. Just thought they were beautiful! I know it’s getting cooler, but next week…70’s here! Hard for me to think about winter with such nice days! ;)
I think we’re allowed to NOT think of winter on these lovely days. We might as well enjoy them, Donnamae!
Hi Claudia, my son and I finished watching The Poisoner’s Handbook on Netflix last night. We both loved it, quite different and so interesting.
So glad you enjoyed it, Vicki. I think it was well done.
I watched The Poisoners Handbook yesterday (randomly) and leaped up and squealed when I realised it was your lovely Don on the screen!! ahem. It was a really fascinating programme and it was great to see Don ‘in real life’ if you get my drift.
Love to Scout, and you too of course.
x
So glad you liked it, Susan! He does a great job in that role, in my humble opinion.