Welcome to Saturday ...
Who is the happy Warrior? Who is he
That every man in arms should wish to be?
—It is the generous Spirit, who, when brought
Among the tasks of real life, hath wrought
Upon the plan that pleased his boyish thought:
Whose high endeavours are an inward light
That makes the path before him always bright;
Who, with a natural instinct to discern
What knowledge can perform, is diligent to learn;
Abides by this resolve, and stops not there,
But makes his moral being his prime care;
Who, doomed to go in company with Pain,
And Fear, and Bloodshed, miserable train!
Turns his necessity to glorious gain;
In face of these doth exercise a power
Which is our human nature's highest dower:
Controls them and subdues, transmutes, bereaves
Of their bad influence, and their good receives:
By objects, which might force the soul to abate
Her feeling, rendered more compassionate;
Is placable—because occasions rise
So often that demand such sacrifice;
More skilful in self-knowledge, even more pure,
As tempted more; more able to endure,
As more exposed to suffering and distress;
Thence, also, more alive to tenderness.
—'Tis he whose law is reason; who depends
Upon that law as on the best of friends;
Whence, in a state where men are tempted still
To evil for a guard against worse ill,
And what in quality or act is best
Doth seldom on a right foundation rest,
He labours good on good to fix, and owes
To virtue every triumph that he knows:
—Who, if he rise to station of command,
Rises by open means; and there will stand
On honourable terms, or else retire,
And in himself possess his own desire;
Who comprehends his trust, and to the same
Keeps faithful with a singleness of aim;
And therefore does not stoop, nor lie in wait
For wealth, or honours, or for worldly state;
Whom they must follow; on whose head must fall,
Like showers of manna, if they come at all:
Whose powers shed round him in the common strife,
Or mild concerns of ordinary life,
A constant influence, a peculiar grace;
But who, if he be called upon to face
Some awful moment to which Heaven has joined
Great issues, good or bad for human kind,
Is happy as a Lover; and attired
With sudden brightness, like a Man inspired;
And, through the heat of conflict, keeps the law
In calmness made, and sees what he foresaw;
Or if an unexpected call succeed,
Come when it will, is equal to the need:
—He who, though thus endued as with a sense
And faculty for storm and turbulence,
Is yet a Soul whose master-bias leans
To homefelt pleasures and to gentle scenes;
Sweet images! which, wheresoe'er he be,
Are at his heart; and such fidelity
It is his darling passion to approve;
More brave for this, that he hath much to love:—
'Tis, finally, the Man, who, lifted high,
Conspicuous object in a Nation's eye,
Or left unthought-of in obscurity,—
Who, with a toward or untoward lot,
Prosperous or adverse, to his wish or not—
Plays, in the many games of life, that one
Where what he most doth value must be won:
Whom neither shape or danger can dismay,
Nor thought of tender happiness betray;
Who, not content that former worth stand fast,
Looks forward, persevering to the last,
From well to better, daily self-surpast:
Who, whether praise of him must walk the earth
For ever, and to noble deeds give birth,
Or he must fall, to sleep without his fame,
And leave a dead unprofitable name—
Finds comfort in himself and in his cause;
And, while the mortal mist is gathering, draws
His breath in confidence of Heaven's applause:
This is the happy Warrior; this is he
That every man in arms should wish to be.
Character of the Happy Warrior ~ William Wordsworth
Comments
Ice palace mountiantops greet this morning,
snow and twenty-six degrees, stalling spring a little more, endangering precious blossoms out and ready; whims of nature at play beyond coffee's pay of understanding. No matter, nowhere to go, outside, dangerous, anyway.
The feature photo: our beautiful BlueRidge from USDI.
I'll see your Blue Ridge and raise you
two of the Sleeping Inca, Cerro Mandango, west of Vilcabamba, Ecuador in February. The photos were taken minutes apart.
I'll add one from the shelter at ~10,100' in the cloud forest of Parque Nacional Podacarpus, about a dozen km south of Loja, Ecuador. This looks south towards Vilcabamba, ~5300' elevation, about 25 km south. There were no clouds in the cloud forest that gorgeous day. They were beginning to spill over the crests of the tall mountains to the east as we started up the 4.5 km loop trail. Then they fizzled out in the sun. The first trip we made up there in February 2017 was very different - rain and dense fog with less than 30 meters visibility. We never saw a big maintenance building in the parking lot at the trailhead until we returned three years later.
"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."
Beautiful photos, vtcc73,
similar elevations, i see, would feel at home there. Never been to Ecuador, on bucket list; read wonderful things about the people and nature.
Thank you for sharing the Sleeping Inca and for being here,
Be safe and be well.
You're welcome smiley.
I spent a lot of time in the Blue Ridge. 50 years ago I was finishing my Rat Year at VPI in Blacksburg. We spent many weekends outdoors in the mountains during those four years. A classmate's parents had a cabin in the mountains around Staunton, I had a girlfriend from Winchester, and my now ex grew up in the little wide spot in the road north of Roanoke, Montevale. I had split my earlier life between northwestern PA near Erie and Northern Virginia where my mother's family used to have a farm on the Potomac in Arlington. I'd been in the big woods but never real mountains like southwest VA.
The contrast was shocking this past October during my month in the US when I drove from Nashville to Richmond, VA, to see my sister. My photos of "mountains" were a big hit with Cuancano friends. The small foothills to the Cajas where I live on the edge of Cuenca start at about 2700 m (8850') where our street intersects the highway. Our house is at 9100' about a quarter mile from the highway. The grade is 22% in front of the house. The hills get big fast rising to 3800 m (12,470') in roughly 7 km. No worries. Both places are incredible in their own right. I enjoy myself in either.
Thanks for the thread.
"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."
Please, tell us more ... :)
Good chilly morning
This is the coolest spring I remember. Maters ain't happy. Peppers and eggplant need to be planted out or up potted next week. On the flip side, lettuce, greens, cabbage, and peas are lovin' it.
Thoughtless Thoughts’ Farming Lust
by Bazi alis Subrata Ray
The anchored minds led to lift,
So many struggles coveted gifts,
Dismay happens to the shift.
So what! So what! in the empty bust,
Thoughtless Thoughts’ farming lust!
Have a good day everyone. Thanks for the poem and OT smiley.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
My pleasure, Lookout,
thank you for being here and Bazi.
Cold indeed, Worried for the apples and me who loves the apples and the deer who love them too, of course.
A frosty view on Sugar, now: https://www.skisugar.com/cams/
Happy plants on windowsill, happy farming til, the wind brings taste of thrill.
Today is different
similar in another time and place
not here, not now
trying to figure out this
today
cheers!
As all days sound for the listening,
sometimes finding the tune.
Greetings and cheers.
sounds like listening
tuning in to melodies
triple entrande
Distant tunes compete in backs of mind
for memory, displacing time, being free in moments of destiny, with no control.
I’ll see your print music notes, & raise you the same in Braille
Good morning smiley, et. al. Yet another day here surrounded
by tasks and time, an interesting perceptual-conceptual experiment with experience. My familiar office space, my desk, supplies, notes, keyboard, mouse, pens, paper and pseudo-randomized clutter is a hyper thin gel of "solids", photons, energy, and time; time as if little photons of temporal distance to anything and everything in it. When one moves one leaves a wake in both the spatial "ether" and the temporal one, like tracks in a cloud chamber, each track some sort of "was", a thing as real as the event that occurred there, totally analogous the more I work at it to the tracks in such a chamber. Because universes scale, the potentiality is as vast as the whole world outside. Can the vision itself scale? How much effort will it take to maintain it.
So I interrupt this narrative to quick refill my coffee and divert to go out and fill the platform feeder with a brief digression to pull weeds out of the elevated planter box in which the bay tree grows. There is a fork there, divert to weed and consume temporal distance in one spot, limiting the total spatial distance I will be able to travel during this excursion or no? I diverted because why not, I have no need to maintain an average velocity or speed.
Something something something about a life unexamined, but all the same this is bizarre, though strangely interesting and entertaining. Ah well, other forks lie ahead, as near as my reach, and even more beyond my office door and the corvid chorus outside is in full croak, so I think I will again divert.
be well and have a good one.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Good morning, el,
In reading your work, the mind darted to the recent news of a newly found black hole and unseen vortexes.
Be safe if you go to market and be well.
Went to the Farmers' market very safely, each vendor's
station has delineated waiting line areas with marked out circles 6 feet apart for those waiting to stand in, one at a time service unless their area is long enough for two or more customers at six foot intervals, masks required and all that good stuff. Got Salmon, Rock Cod, beets, shrooms, romaine, broccoli, red spuds and gold spuds.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
jeezum crow!
the mesmerizing image is a photo? i'd thought it was a painting. hard to want to look away from it; thank you.
the snow here in the la plata mountains was uncharacteristically deep in this 'new normal' time, but is melting so fast, with most of it being absorbed by the parched ground, specially above timberline. meaning: little of it will make it to the rivers, nor to the damned conservancy district lake that provides water to this end of the county. sigh. we're small water owners (some say we're 'renters' as all the water belongs to the state.
the BoR water commissioner's job is to decide who gets what amount, as well a which entities: rivers or the lake, which at this rate won't be able to store much at all. we were hoping to water at least a bit of our place before...we can't, as the harsh winds are drying it out fast.
but the fun news is that a parade of turkeys came up the hill this a.m. along the fence line just south of us...perhaps 9 big lunkers, one especially one huge Tom.
a good saturday and VE day to all. do ya reckon trump (like obomba before him) will forget to add thanks to the hundreds of thousands of russians who died to fight the nazis? 'the war to end all wars'?
Good morning, Wendy,
Yes, as if anyone owns the land, although TBTB claim to in posters of no trespassing. May the heavens bring you folks more rain.
Glad you enjoyed our BlueRidge, she wraps us in eye candy often.
A favorite in past was when watching a flock dancing. Turkeys are abundant here as well.
Good to see you, be safe and be well.
blue ridge beauty.
ah, well, we're just livin' the dream, here! (i jacked it from a woman who stocks the dfreezer dept. at a grocery store 20 mi. west of here.) when mr. wd told her i'd appropriated w/ a hat/tip to her) it for the epic irony, she loved it.
and may you and yours stay safe and well. guess at my age i don't worry much about it, though.
the corvid chorus outside is in full croak
have noticed the frogs of late have not bespoken
during their chorus uttering about some silly flu
humans could listen too
morning smiley
Thanks for the art. Here is a link to my drawing partners website. Some of her prints are very much like the mountain scene you picked.
http://www.belagallery.com/gallery/twilight/attachment/tropical-landscap...
Busy here with the garden. Weather is weird but what else is new.
Take good care and have a good one.
Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation
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Wow, great artist, magi, thank
your for sharing, got lost absorbing her gallery. Enjoy her colors and technique. The works capture us.
Lazy day, napping and munching.
Happy gardening.
Incredible photo,
what a sight. Thanks for that and the OT. Sorry your spring has stalled, hope it is coming just around the bend. We had a welcome reprieve from the heat with very beautiful cool sunny days for the last several days.
I watched the pollinators work on the thistle today. I was glad to see them. There were a variety of butterflies, bees, and birds, on display. The Lesser Goldfinch really goes after the thistle seed, it's fun to watch. Sometimes the birds are heavier than the stalk can bear and they cause it to dangle down as they swing back and forth hanging on to the stalk, sometimes close to upside down...it's a bit comical.
Hoping your spring arrives asap.
Best to you this coming week.
Good day, randtntx,
A local thistle story, the Scottish mother of the family who owned Grandfather Mountain spread thistle far and wide on the mountain to remind her of her Scotland. She also used her wealth to create a stone building community with chapel name Invershiel which has survived and is a local hub of activity, a crossroads.
Enjoy the week and be safe and well.
beautiful Blue Ridge!
Wow, what a beautiful photo of the Blue Ridge S7! Been there a couple times but never got to see it very blue. Beautiful country. Had a great migrant warbler fallout there one morning in September which I will never forget. Generally insectivore birds push that freeze line and work the bloom zone as spring moves altitudinally up the mountain. So spring snows can really wreak havoc with them. Kill all the bugs for a few days and you start losing those migrant songbirds that eat insects real fast. Usually they will drop back down the mountain to lower altitude for a while. Play it safe. Thanks!
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
Good day, dystopian,
Green had a couple of thousand feet to climb before spring arrives on high. Songbirds? Across the street and up the hill about fifty yards, i enjoy going to just before the sun breaks the horizon--found this place when walking our dog, Jackson, years ago--a natural amphitheatre, a place where an orchestra and chorus of bird songs please the ear, the volume amazes.
Fell in love with these old mountains as a child when visiting.
Happy birding and be safe out there.
Hi Smiley,
I will continue to enjoy the Wordsworth poem for a long time. There’s so much there to consider and shape, thank you.
Different territory, but similar light and colour, upside down …
Good day, janis
You are great with a camera. Love all the shades of magenta.
Thank you for sharing and being here, be safe down there.
Master Wordsworth--always wordy.
I love that painting (aka photograph). Rec'd!!
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.
Good day, orlbucfan,
Glad you enjoyed. Be safe and well.