iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dr Yechiel @elisdream.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

#ColoraDay #BlueTue #AnimalArtTuesday Garden centers are good places to look for surprises. I was surprised to see a dinosaur at Rainbow Gardens today. I was even more surprised to find a Little Free Library there. I opened the little door; plenty of big books inside. I had no idea.

A Little Free Library under a large liveoak is painted blue & decorated with yellow flowers. The library box is made of wood but trimmed in silver-colored metal. On the ground behind it is a large clay pot shaped like a smiling jack-o-lantern, a group of orange metal flowers, and a green dinosaur. The jack-o-lantern is larger than most; the dinosaur is smaller; the orange flowers could be about right. Photo taken today in San Antonio, Texas.

020

Dr Yechiel @elisdream.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

#AnimalArtTuesday My garden includes loquat trees, though none this tall. Wild creatures often visit there. Giraffes never come at all.

A statue of a giraffe is posed as if grazing on a nearby loquat tree. The giraffe is decorated in a variety of pastel colors such as green, pink, blue, and yellow. A park bench is nearby for scale. A detail I didn't notice until looking at the photograph now: a pricetag is tied around one leg. I can't imagine the price. Photo taken today in San Antonio, Texas.

000

Dr Yechiel @elisdream.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

#Alphabetchallenge #WeekNForNeon The green neon dollar sign made this tiny shop shine green late at night, long after closing, bright enough to make me cross a busy street to see why. The name of the place, "America Change", seems hopeful but you can only exchange money here, not fix real problems.

In the nighttime window of a closed shop named "America Change", a green neon $ advertises currency-exchange services. The window is decorated with Israeli flags, hung as pennants, and US flags painted on the glass. Photo from September 2013 in Hod HaSharon, Israel.

0101

Dr Yechiel @elisdream.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Raindrops on...not roses, a different thorny shrub, maybe some kind of mesquite. It volunteered in a bakingly sunny & dry spot this spring & I let it keep growing, hoping to see flowers someday. Today, the little thornbush collects rain. Saving it for a rainy day?

One silver raindrop hangs below a feathery green leaf under a grey sky.

A thorny red-brown branch under feathery green leaves holds silver raindrops.

000

Dr Yechiel @elisdream.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

#AlphabetChallenge #WeekMforMachinery Pretty sure this bench grinder, after a hard-working life, is ready to retire. Maybe it can move to a quiet little place on the beach. Very sure that I am not the one to try talking it out of enjoying its rest.

Dusty & rusty, a bench grinder sits atop an overturned plastic trash can.
Behind it, a chop saw in similar condition is partially visible.

040

Dr Yechiel @elisdream.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

#AlphabetChallenge #WeekMforMachinery Examples of farm machinery, in 3 of its common conditions: in use, moving fast because daylight's burning; used, at auction, because there's no way to keep going; for sale, shiny & new, because there's always hope. Photos from around Castroville, Texas.

A green tractor with yellow wheels drives across a field.

Large farm equipment, much of it green & yellow, is parked at an auction yard.

Tractor attachments for tilling and raking are for sale. They are yellow & black.

021

Dr Yechiel @elisdream.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

#AlphabetChallenge #WeekMforMachinery Machinery from the old Pearl Brewery, on display at the Hotel Emma in San Antonio, Texas. Photos from March 2026.

Copper? Brass? Pipes? Control valves? A large & complex metal creation; I can't identify what it did.

Metal wheels at the ends of large metal pipes, appearing to be control valves.

040

Dr Yechiel @elisdream.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

#AlphabetChallenge #WeekMforMachinery Old machines for production of olive oil, displayed at the Queen Creek Olive Mill in Arizona. Photos from April 2025.

In an old olive mill, two stone wheels turn above a stationary stone, crushing olives.

An old olive press, built to squeeze olives between multiple layers, has a plaque indicating it was built in Firenze, Italia.

070

Dr Yechiel @elisdream.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

#AlphabetChallenge #WeekLforLookingIn Book package just arrived, all the way from faraway. It might tell more about worlds I've never visited. The best worlds, where I know no one, struggle with the language, don't understand the food or the jokes; perfect adventures, and right on time.

Just the top of a paperback book is visible through an open shipping envelope. The author's name is Tom Cox.

020

Dr Yechiel @elisdream.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

#AlphabetChallenge #WeekLforLookingIn I stopped to see this nice collection of tiny droids in the window before noticing it was a radio studio. Headsets on the table here; when I passed by again later, teenagers were wearing the headsets, chatting with the DJ. Photos from June 2026 in Boerne, Texas.

Tiny models of R2-D2 and similar droids line the windowsill of a radio studio.

White text on a black sign identifies
BOERNE RADIO 103.9 FM / AM1500
RICHTER Studio

010

Dr Yechiel @elisdream.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

#aofoto Leaving the store about 30 minutes later, I thought the rainbow was gone but no, it & the clouds had moved westward, toward the setting sun. Or the Earth I'm standing on moved under a stationary sky. Or we all move together, at different speeds. I try not to think too hard about this.

Over a background of grey clouds, a section of a pale rainbow is over a sunlit cloud.

000

Dr Yechiel @elisdream.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

#aofoto In the hardware store parking lot, about 45 minutes before sunset, big wind blowing rain clouds into blue skies, little slice of a rainbow.

At the bottom, street lights have come up as sunset nears.
At the top, blue sky, white clouds, and dark grey clouds
In the center, a section of a rainbow's arc.

100

Dr Yechiel @elisdream.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

#ColoraDay #BlueTue Pomegranate trees should not be flowering now here, but they are. The city says my volunteer trees, too near the street, must be cut way back. So now street-side pomegranate flowers are in vases, wilting, while store-bought pomegranate fruit is in the refrigerator, ready to eat.

Bright orange pomegranate flowers are on a leafy green stem in a blue glass vase.

020

Dr Yechiel @elisdream.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

#ColoraDay #OrangeSun Among the treasures found while cleaning out an old greenhouse: fallen wings and rust.

On a rusty metal cart, two orange & black butterfly wings.

000

Dr Yechiel @elisdream.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

#ColoraDay #GreenSat What I'm reading now: Green Mars reappeared after a long absence, in a box that should've been unpacked years ago. I knew Green was around somewhere but I didn't wait for it, reading Red Mars and Blue Mars anyway, out of order. Finishing "The Scientist As Hero" section now.

A beat-up paperback book's cover shows scenes of Mars' red rocks with several examples of human technology. "Green Mars" is the book's title. Kim Stanley Robinson is the author. The title & author's name are printed in green. Smaller white text points out that this is the winner of the 1994 Hugo award for best novel.

A bookmark, sticking out above the top edge of the book, is red plastic with a green holographic image of a reptilian eye. The green eye, from what I've read so far, has nothing to do with the book. The bookmark came from a short visit to Cincinnati Museum Center. It was an interesting old building, formerly a train station; if Godzilla or anything else with that kind of eye was on exhibit there, I missed it.

101

Dr Yechiel @elisdream.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

#AlphabetChallenge #WeekKforKn Some of the earliest human tools were used for knapping, knocking away small pieces. I've heard both of these small hammers called knappers. I don't know their other names. Knocking off small, rough mistakes smooths welding. Knocking chips from stones frees fossils.

Two small hand tools rest on a brown woven cloth on a wooden table.
One tool is all metal, all black, with a two-pointed head and shock-absorbing spring at its base. The other tool has a wooden handle and a black metal head, pointed at one end and flat at the other end.

080

Dr Yechiel @elisdream.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

#AlphabetChallenge #WeekJforJocular From a 2012 birthday gift. I deflated this smiley balloon about 10 years later. Left in peace, it might have smiled on forever.

A mylar balloon is decorated as a shiny yellow face with black eyes and smile.

031

Dr Yechiel @elisdream.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

#AnimalArtTuesday #ColoraDay #BlueTue I don't know why this horse is painted blue. I don't know what happens to a blue horse if it eats lavender, as it seems to be considering. Lavender ice cream is nice. So is lavender lemonade. Maybe it will all be fine.

In Bandera, Texas, a mural includes a painted horse in a field of stubble, facing a group of flowering lavender plants and facing away from a group of cactus, including opuntia and ocotillo. Behind the stubblefield, large golden rolls of hay may have been harvested from that field. A wooden corral is between two small wooden buildings, perhaps a house and a barn. In the distance, rolling green and then rolling blue hills. Above them all, a bright blue sky with a few white clouds.

000

Dr Yechiel @elisdream.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

#ColoraDay #OrangeSun If these orange rosehips were tomatoes, I'd gladly pick them now & eat them all, red, in a few days. Since rosehips are not tomatoes, I don't know whether these will ever turn red. I saved them from branches trimmed away from the sidewalk. Some whiny neighbors fear thorns.

A group of rosehips sit in a small white dish. The largest are firm & orange. Smaller fruits are firm & green, or dry & orange.

010

Dr Yechiel @elisdream.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

#ColoraDay #BlueTue #AnimalArtTuesday I don't know any songs or stories about rooftop horses, but I have hidden in my own hallway during glass-smashing, roof-puncturing hailstorms and wondered whether a fast-running herd, sharp-hooved & furious, could be up there. Sometime I might write that story.

A black wire statue of a rearing horse stands on a flat rooftop of a stone building in Bandera, TX. The sky overhead is blue with white and grey clouds. Photo taken in August 2026.

020

Dr Yechiel @elisdream.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

#ColoraDay #PinkMon I saw at least 3 pink things in 1 August afternoon at the Pearl in San Antonio, Texas.

Hanging from a liveoak tree above outdoor restaurant seating at La Gloria, this is not a piñata but maybe it is a statue of an 8-sided star-shaped piñata. It could also be a statue of fireworks. Behind it, others are hanging in other trees.

The lower section of a statue of a cow is painted as a green field with some bluebonnet flowers, one tree, and several orange monarch butterflies. The upper section of the cow is painted as a colorful sky, with pink, blue, yellow, and orange streaks.

In a small pond, a pink waterlily flower rises above green lilypads.

010

Dr Yechiel @elisdream.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

#ColorADay #OrangeSun The sign says it's fine to take photos but please don't bother the horses. Photos taken last week at Amol's in San Antonio, TX. Dia de los Muertos is 2 months from now, but they're already getting ready. As usual, it was fun to explore there.

A white papier mache skeleton with blue eyes rides a white horse with brown eyes. The horse is decorated with ribbons and paper flowers in shades of orange and yellow.

At the entrance to a party-supply shop, 2 horses are surrounded by decorations for Dia de los Muertos celebrations. One horse is ridden by a skeleton. Another skeleton hangs onto the bridle of the other horse.

020

Dr Yechiel @elisdream.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

The one about the cow jumping over the moon doesn't talk about those she left behind. I guess El Toro tried to jump up there, too, and only made it as far as the roof. Now what? Try again to jump? Figure out how to get down? Photo taken under the half-moon last week in Helotes, TX, at El Chaparral.

A brown metal sculpture of a bull stands on the highest level of a tile roof. The next level down, still on the roof, cactus and yucca grow. Above, the bright blue sky shows a few white clouds and half of a white moon.

130

Dr Yechiel @elisdream.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

#ColoraDay #YellowThu This roadside duck-crossing sign is much taller than many nearby signs, maybe to be sure it isn't easily bothered. What I want to know about it is this: Is that a bloody red handprint, or what, and anyway why? In Boerne TX, River Road Park, a nice walk last Sunday evening.

A reflective yellow warning diamond sign shows silhouettes of 1 large duck followed by 3 small ducks. Behind the sign, evening is falling so a streetlight is on and trees are dark.

010

Dr Yechiel @elisdream.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

#ColoraDay #YellowThu In a construction zone today, a utility pole is supported by 4 twisted-steel cables, 1 with a yellow cover at its base (improving visibility?). The steel cables also support 1 wild sunflower, the kind we call Maximilianos around here. Summer is somehow never too hot for them.

A yellow sunflower with a brown center and green leaves leans against steel cables. Some shorter green plants also grow. Behind them, the land is dry.

020

Dr Yechiel @elisdream.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

#AlphabetChallenge #WeekFforFilms All the Pretty Horses (2000) These are photos of artificial horses, made by humans. You can tell these are art because living horses move, even when standing still: a twitching ear or tail, a stamping foot. Also, horses in art don't smell or sound like real horses.

This is "Caballo Tamaño Grande" by Fernando Botero at the Central library in San Antonio, TX. Like Botero's people, the horse is short, thick, and muscular. Photo taken July 2026.

A white horse wit a large pale red blanket. At the San Antonio Museum of Art, June 2025.

A white carousel horse, decorated with flowers. August 2014, somewhere in the Caribbean, on Allure of the Seas.

A horse's head decorates the head of a stringed instrument at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, Arizona. Photo taken April 2025.

160

Dr Yechiel @elisdream.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

#AlphabetChallenge #WeekFforFilms Children of the Corn (1984) Something seemed not quite right at the fenced edge of the cornfield. From a distance, the rest of the corn looked normal to me, but what do I know about corn? Photos from June 2026 near D'Hanis TX.

At the edge of cornfield, one plant is strangely deformed.

Photographed through a wire fence, corn is forming low to the ground on corn plants.

Photographed through a wire fence, a cornfield stretches into the distance, toward a ridge of hills. The sky above is partly bright blue, partly covered by white and grey clouds.

Corn flowers at the tops of corn plants, stretching toward a low ridge under a cloudy sky.

040

Dr Yechiel @elisdream.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

#AlphabetChallenge #WeekFforFilms #ColoraDay #RedWed DragonHeart (1996) Another big red dragon from 2024 at the San Antonio Botanical Garden. Are all dragons red? I saw 2 mostly-green dragons at the 2025 Renaissance Faire in Kerrville, TX. The small one came home with me; it has since moved on.

A large statue of a green dragon with white horns and a pale yellow belly.

A small leather dragon, painted green with a few sections painted red or blue.

080

Dr Yechiel @elisdream.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

#ColoraDay #RedWed The nightlight shines yellow/orange. Orange = yellow + red. In the dark room, my eyes don't notice the yellow light's reflection in the floor tile tends toward red. The tile is yellow/brown; brown = purple + yellow; purple = blue + red. The red light might make sense.

Entrances to two rooms are open on either side of a central wall. A nightlight shines on the wall. It's light is reflected in the nearby tile walkway.

000

Dr Yechiel @elisdream.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

#ColoraDay #BlueTue "1988" is etched on the base of this blue glass planet. I remember bringing it home from a business trip to Chicago; was that 1990? Today, I was surprised to find it in a drawer with 15 mousepads, 2 20-amp Buss fuses, & some old birthday cards. Can't guess why it was there.

Sitting on a bamboo table, a clear glass ball contains a design of blue stripes and a few sparkles of red and yellow. The ball shows a miniature reflection of a kitchen window.

050

Dr Yechiel @elisdream.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

#ColoraDay #PinkMon Desert willow (Chilopsis linearis) is just a sketch of a tree, not much to it in the way of wood and leaves; in a big wind, standing under one to look up at the storm blowing in seems probably safe. Not much of a storm, either, as it turned out. The big, cold wind blew it away.

Round pink desert willow flowers are surrounded by thin green leaves. Behind them, grey stormclouds are forming.

020

Dr Yechiel @elisdream.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

#FoodonFriday For me, edible greens grow better indoors than outdoors, maybe because I don't like being defeated by snails & caterpillars. These days I'm growing Swiss chard & Italian parsley. Not every day, but often, I pick the biggest leaves from each and add them to a sandwich. Shabbat Shalom.

Two small AeroGarden hydroponic systems, one white and one dark green, grow leafy greens under plant lights.

001

Dr Yechiel @elisdream.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

#ColoraDay #YellowThu My mind works in several directions--present observation, future imagination, past recollection--so I usually wait well, entertaining myself. Today, it was just so hot, and taking so long...then I remembered to find & photograph something yellow. Thanks, y'all. That helped.

In an asphalt parking lot, the concrete base of a light post is painted yellow. The metal post above it is painted grey. The asphalt is also grey. The sky above is bright blue, with scattered white clouds.

020

Dr Yechiel @elisdream.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

#AlphabetChallenge #WeekEforEphemeral On a burning-hot afternoon, a burst of water can't stay long. A puddle forms briefly, then some water soaks down into the sandy clay; more steams up into the air. By now, the accidental water puddle is just a memory.

Under a faucet at the side of a brown brick house, water has leaked onto yellow caliche. The area nearest the house is in shade; all else is bright sunlight. In the far background is green brush, blue sky, and white clouds.

040

Dr Yechiel @elisdream.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

#ColoraDay #RedWed Sometimes I wonder why, in a blue room, with 2 lights above it, when I look closely at a cool black cooktop surface I see 8 lights in a red surface. The kitchen contains mysteries far beyond "flip when [invisible] bottom is brown" and "season to taste, cook until done".

A ceramic cooktop reflects and multiplies the lights over it, the metal grid over it, and the tile grout behind it. I don't know where the red color comes from, but it's there, too.

In a kitchen, a black cooking surface has blue tiles behind it and a silver grid in the vent over it.

030

Dr Yechiel @elisdream.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

#AlphabetChallenge #WeekEforEphemeral This spider has had a web in the same spot for some weeks. I look for it when I pass. The web was tough to see at first today. Then she started shaking it, and I saw the zigzag. Making sure I, an inedible big animal, didn't crash through and ruin all her work?

A yellow garden spider (Argiope aurantia) sits in her web, near the thick central design that has given the spider other names (writing spider, zigzag spider, zipper spider). The web is attached to several large green Malvaviscus leaves in a shady spot.

040

Dr Yechiel @elisdream.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

#Alphabetchallenge #WeekEforEphemeral Every banana has one perfect moment. The trick is to find it.

Here are 4 bananas. 3 are yellow, slightly tinged with green. 1 is about half yellow and half brown.

080

Dr Yechiel @elisdream.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

#Alphabetchallenge #WeekEforEphemeral This morning, I thought I'd clear the dust off of this white door. Now I think I'll try again this evening.

A light brown moth rests on the edge of a door panel. The door is white, with dark brown dust collected behind the moth.

080

Dr Yechiel @elisdream.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

#AlphabetChallenge #WeekDforDark Last night, I walked into a room with no lights on. X-Files was on the TV; I stopped to watch. The Smoking Man was in this one. My life might really be a song.

In an unlit room with blue walls, a television shows a blurry scene from X-Files. (Mulder was climbing into the space under a mall escalator, pursuing a suspect.)

240

Dr Yechiel @elisdream.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

#AlphabetChallenge #WeekDforDark #ColoraDay #BlueTue #AnimalArtTuesday This long-lost good dog still works just fine, after I got all the dust off. How did I let it get so lost for so long? I remember where I was & what responsibility I was shirking when I bought it so that sales clerk would relax.

In the shape of a purple dog, a USB hub 4-port splitter rests on a dark surface decorated with stars. The dog's long tail connects to the primary port; it's 4 legs provide 4 additional USB ports; an LED on its body illuminates when it is active. The dog's head serves no observable purpose except to look like a dog's head.

060

Dr Yechiel @elisdream.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

#AlphabetChallenge #WeekDforDark #ColoraDay #BlueTue #AnimalArtTuesday When the room is dark and the bedside lamp is on, the peacock's shadow appears.

On a blue wall, a shadow repeats the design of a peacock holding small items of jewelry.

070