Open Thread WE 22 DEC 21 ~ Winter
Old man winter came back the other day. Looks as though he is here to stay.
Hope all you northern birds have a way to stay warm this season.
Seem to have a brain freeze going, the story telling machine won't crank up.
So here are a couple winter poems...
Weird-Bird by Shel Silverstein
Birds are flyin' south for winter.
Here's the Weird-Bird headin' north,
Wings a-flappin', beak a-chatterin',
Cold head bobbin' back 'n' forth.
Winter-Time by RL Stevenson
Late lies the wintry sun a-bed,
A frosty, fiery sleepy-head;
Blinks but an hour or two; and then,
A blood-red orange, sets again.
...
https://poets.org/poem/winter-time
Credits ~
Beth Moon Hydra
As night falls over the Makgadikgadi Pans, giant trees stand starkly against the horizon. Leafless branches reach for the light. On the opposite side of the sky, Earth’s shadow is rising. True wildness manifests itself in the form of curling black branches in November, silhouetted against an indigo sky. Photo © Beth Moon https://bethmoon.com/
Open Thread, so pack up your snow cannon and blast away.
See The Dose for plague related content.
Comments
Good morning...
A frosty start and lovely sunrise this morning in my corner.
I love this time of year in the forest. You can see the lie of the land among the bare trees. Great time to hike without worry of snakes and insects.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F84yWm1ZjCg]
Watching two young does working their way past the garden browsing as they go. The 10' fence we built a couple of years ago has finally solved our deer problem in the garden.
Well y'all have a good one. Thanks for the OT.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Great tune LO
Hope your solstice fire brought back the light!
question everything
Good morning all
On this day in history ...
2010 Don't ask don't tell was repealed
President Obama signed the repeal of the don't ask, don't tell policy that governed the recruitment and service of LGBTQ members in the United States military. The policy was put in place by the Clinton Administration in 1994.
.
1894
The Dreyfus affair begins in France, when Alfred Dreyfus is wrongly convicted of treason.
.
1978 The pivotal Third Plenum of the 11th National Congress of the Communist Party of China is held in Beijing, with Deng Xiaoping reversing Mao-era policies to pursue a program for Chinese economic reform.
1989
The Communist President was ousted after widespread demonstrations in the country. Ceaușescu and his wife Elena tried to flee the country, but were captured, tried and executed by a firing squad. The Romanian Revolution was the only violent overthrow of a communist government in the 1980s.
.
1856
Frank B. Kellogg, U.S. secretary of state from 1925 to 1929 who negotiated the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928—a multilateral agreement designed to prohibit war as an instrument of national policy—and won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1929, was born.
In no particular order ..
question everything
Of the Battle Creek Kellog's ? n/t
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Although his family did move from Pottsdam, NY
to Minnesota to become wheat farmers,
the Battle Creek Kelloggs were a different clan.
question everything
Thanks! n/t
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Good morning QMS. Fabulous looking tree, the whole
image, in fact.
It is winter, everything slows down. The mascot of my alma mater is the Caifornia Golden Bear, (Ursus arctos californicus), a now extinct subspecies of brother grizzly. Brother griz has the ability and/or option of simply finding a nice warm cave and sleeping thru this mizzable time of year. Would that I could too, at least for decent periods and stretches of time.
Yet, there are those who enjoy and or relish this season:
~~ basho
a chacun son gout, as they say, but caving intermittently to the power of Boreas is no failing nor weakness, only the mighty kahunas of the beaches of my youth can completely withstand it.
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 --
our Saint Bernard loved the cold
the Great Dane would just shiver
question everything
I wonder if your St. Bernard
, would like Vivaldi's snow storm. I like to think he would.
I love winter snow storms but only if I don't have to drive in them.
Ahh, Vivaldi .. strings and things
not sure what went thru the St. Bernards mind after she totaled a VW
but she could have very well have been running this tune thru her cavity
as she was smiling and tongue lollying in the snow drifts ..
only time I saw her really happy was when she was covered with snow.
Her name was amypieduckypoo, but we just called her BD
for brain damaged. Dad would get mixed up and call her DB
for dumb blonde, but she didn't care either way.
Fit right in with the rest of us.
Thanks for the evocative music!
Let it snow
question everything
Now I have
, the impression that St. Bernard was driving said VW in the snow storm, but suspect I have watched too many cartoons and she actually bumbled into the way. Either way, it sounds like one of those family stories that bring back a host of memories.
There's nothing like big fluffy (inevitably slobbery) dogs, you just have to love them.
Another winter poem
Beyond the Red River
by Thomas McGrath
I love that poem
am about as far from the prairie as mars, but it does speak of similarities
witnesses afield in bygone gusts
thanks Rand!
question everything
I know, it's good isn't it?
Some nice word-smithing in that poem. It fits here very well to boot.
Thanks, as always for a series of imaginative and thought provoking ot's.
Winter. As if...
Just last night, I harvested the last of our fresh parsley and chives from the garden. The *outdoor* garden. I've stopped watering long since, but they are still growing. In mid-December. In Denver.
We've set the all-time record for latest meaningful snowfall (a thrilling 2"), and we've been weirdly warm and absolutely bone dry. Except for the fact that it occasionally gets below freezing at night, I'd swear that it was still early October. According to Wunderground, we won't see anything close to season-normal temps until 12/27. And there's no precip in the forecast, right through the first of the year...
I've still been wearing shorts, most days, for cryin' out loud. When (and/or if) it does finally become winter, out in probably February, it'll be interesting to see what happens. But I have a feeling that the upcoming year is going to be devastatingly dry, even in our March and April snowy season. The level of chaos in our weather patterns is increasing dramatically, and it is undoubtedly going to be a bumpy ride.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Great tree picture, QMS!
I have pine trees all around my area. When it snows, it is particularly lovely after collecting on those pine needles.
When I had a horse to ride, I would get on and take off for a long ride in the woods. Snow is not rare here, but very uncommon. I was always fascinated by it, and how beautiful it made the trees.
It was such a great life spent having those rare days, riding alone in the woods.
I hope you and everyone has plans to do something entertaining over the holidays. For me, it will be an 8 day vacation, some in Texas, some of it in Oklahoma. The entire vacation is dedicated to soaking up the scenery. I hope to have some pictures to post upon my return.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981