Happy Valentine's Day

Tree

Desert Places

Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast
In a field I looked into going past,
And the ground almost covered smooth in snow,
But a few weeds and stubble showing last.

The woods around it have it—it is theirs.
All animals are smothered in their lairs.
I am too absent-spirited to count;
The loneliness includes me unawares.

And lonely as it is, that loneliness
Will be more lonely ere it will be less—
A blanker whiteness of benighted snow
With no expression, nothing to express.

They cannot scare me with their empty spaces
Between stars—on stars where no human race is.
I have it in me so much nearer home
To scare myself with my own desert places.

Robert Frost

February

Tree

Half a Century

I am rapidly approaching the half a century mark.

I have done a lot of soul searching and deep thinking about the past 50 years/.

I thought about sharing dates and landmarks in history, but do you really care where I was when Lennon was shot, or what telephones used to be like?

I decided to write a few thoughts on the improvements that should have been made in the last 50 years, given the advancements in technology.

First off, especially because it has so much impact on Earth, transportation.  A few improvements have been made, the subway in Washington DC is one example.

But automobile engines??? Still using gasoline, still getting mostly the same mileage?? And the cost of those vehicles? More or less affordable?

My futuristic vision for public transportation is really sci-fi.  Pods that travel through tubes. The pods would have a shell made of genetically engineered ...(algae) that could absorb nutrients from the tube and convert it into propulsion energy. The nutrients in the tube could be obtained through sewage.

One could merely "call up a pod" which would then pick you up and deliver you to your destination, or, in a nod to capitalism, one could purchase their own designer pods equipped with couches and televisions.

And what about advances in architecture over the last 50years? A few changes in building codes for mandatory insulation?
Double paned windows?

My sci fi vision for human habitation is based on this observation of what has happened in the last 50 years: Loss of life. BUILD BUILD BUILD, more buildings above the ground, more roads, parking lots, power corridors.  If we are to save the Earth, this HAS to be drastically changed.  We need to INCREASE growing space, not annihilate every square inch of the planet.

I have a couple of proposals for that. First, every roof needs to be a growing space. Whether buildings are placed below ground or designed to withstand substantial roof loads. The effect will be twofold: Less energy consumption due to the higher insulating value , and cleaner cooler air. There could also be crop benefit, ie strawberries or grain.

Embracing the vision, one can see exterior walls being utilized as growing spaces, trellised in flowers or herbs or vegetables or just grasses.

And the bugs and birds and amphibians that delight in those green spaces should be embraced and not vilified.

Worried about water? The whole system could be designed to utilize waste water, and purify it in the process.

Plants absorb CO2, the primary "greenhouse gas" and release oxygen. The process "fixes" the carbon into the plant life.

Earth buildings would generate less CO2 by requiring less energy for heating and cooling, in fact, help remove CO2 from the atmosphere by absorption of CO2. Earth buildings would also be better protected from severe weather.

The Firebird and I had additional discussion about water insulated habitats-my idea but discarded due to instability of currents and waves, also the conductive value of water would require a building to have more insulation. But-they would be cool in hot weather. :) Anti-gravity buildings (the Firebird's suggestion) would require technology we are not aware of, and would also shade the ground unless designed to drift.

Safe alternatives need to be found for dangerous polluting chemicals and the mass production of dangerous substances needs to be controlled unless the risk is worth the gain. For public health not private industry.

Health care improvements are another blog. A good place to start- is to stop

polluting the planet with toxic waste.

The House of Clouds

 I would build a cloudy House
For my thoughts to live in;
When for earth too fancy-loose
And too low for Heaven!
Hush! I talk my dream aloud---
I build it bright to see,---
I build it on the moonlit cloud,
To which I looked with thee.

Cloud-walls of the morning's grey,
Faced with amber column,---
Crowned with crimson cupola
From a sunset solemn!
May mists, for the casements, fetch,
Pale and glimmering;
With a sunbeam hid in each,
And a smell of spring.

Build the entrance high and proud,
Darkening and then brightening,---
If a riven thunder-cloud,
Veined by the lightning.
Use one with an iris-stain,
For the door within;
Turning to a sound like rain,
As I enter in.

Build a spacious hall thereby:
Boldly, never fearing.
Use the blue place of the sky,
Which the wind is clearing;
Branched with corridors sublime,
Flecked with winding stairs---
Such as children wish to climb,
Following their own prayers.

In the mutest of the house,
I will have my chamber:
Silence at the door shall use
Evening's light of amber,
Solemnising every mood,
Softemng in degree,---
Turning sadness into good,
As I turn the key.

Be my chamber tapestried
With the showers of summer,
Close, but soundless,---glorified
When the sunbeams come here;
Wandering harpers, harping on
Waters stringed for such,---
Drawing colours, for a tune,
With a vibrant touch.

Bring a shadow green and still
From the chestnut forest,
Bring a purple from the hill,
When the heat is sorest;
Spread them out from wall to wall,
Carpet-wove around,---
Whereupon the foot shall fall
In light instead of sound.

Bring the fantasque cloudlets home
From the noontide zenith
Ranged, for sculptures, round the room,---
Named as Fancy weeneth:
Some be Junos, without eyes;
Naiads, without sources
Some be birds of paradise,---
Some, Olympian horses.

Bring the dews the birds shake off,
Waking in the hedges,---
Those too, perfumed for a proof,
From the lilies' edges:
From our England's field and moor,
Bring them calm and white in;
Whence to form a mirror pure,
For Love's self-delighting.

Bring a grey cloud from the east,
Where the lark is singing;
Something of the song at least,
Unlost in the bringing:
That shall be a morning chair,
Poet-dream may sit in,
When it leans out on the air,
Unrhymed and unwritten.

Bring the red cloud from the sun
While he sinketh, catch it.
That shall be a couch,---with one
Sidelong star to watch it,---
Fit for poet's finest Thought,
At the curfew-sounding,--- ;
Things unseen being nearer brought
Than the seen, around him.

Poet's thought,----not poet's sigh!
'Las, they come together!
Cloudy walls divide and fly,
As in April weather!
Cupola and column proud,
Structure bright to see---
Gone---except that moonlit cloud,
To which I looked with thee!

Let them! Wipe such visionings
From the Fancy's cartel---
Love secures some fairer things
Dowered with his immortal.
The sun may darken,---heaven be bowed---
But still, unchanged shall be,---
Here in my soul,---that moonlit cloud,
To which I looked with THEE!


 Elizabeth Barrett Browning



Six Significant Landscapes


I
An old man sits
In the shadow of a pine tree
In China.
He sees larkspur,
Blue and white,
At the edge of the shadow,
Move in the wind.
His beard moves in the wind.
The pine tree moves in the wind.
Thus water flows
Over weeds.

II
The night is of the colour
Of a woman's arm:
Night, the female,
Obscure,
Fragrant and supple,
Conceals herself.
A pool shines,
Like a bracelet
Shaken in a dance.

III
I measure myself
Against a tall tree.
I find that I am much taller,
For I reach right up to the sun,
With my eye;
And I reach to the shore of the sea
With my ear.
Nevertheless, I dislike
The way ants crawl
In and out of my shadow.

IV
When my dream was near the moon,
The white folds of its gown
Filled with yellow light.
The soles of its feet
Grew red.
Its hair filled
With certain blue crystallizations
From stars,
Not far off.

V
Not all the knives of the lamp-posts,
Nor the chisels of the long streets,
Nor the mallets of the domes
And high towers,
Can carve
What one star can carve,
Shining through the grape-leaves.

VI
Rationalists, wearing square hats,
Think, in square rooms,
Looking at the floor,
Looking at the ceiling.
They confine themselves
To right-angled triangles.
If they tried rhomboids,
Cones, waving lines, ellipses --
As, for example, the ellipse of the half-moon --
Rationalists would wear sombreros.

 Wallace Stevens 

The Real Work

 It may be that when we no longer know what to do
we have come our real work,

and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have come to our real journey.

The mind that is not baffled is not employed.

The impeded stream is the one that sings.

Wendell Barry

The End is near..or is it just beginnning?

I thought blogger was through with me, but I found a way in with Firefox and patience. Maybe I shouldn't have blocked google update, either- that could be throwing a wrench in the blogger land.

Tree

 
Less than one week until 12-21-2012.

What's so special about an arbitrary number, anyhow? Letters and numbers are just something someone made up at some point, so why should anything special to attributed to a random date?

Why not 03 03 2003?

_insert side thought_ our eyes and brains are constantly trying to detect patterns, patterns mean predictability.





 According to scholars who translate Mayans hieroglyphs, the winter solstice of 2012 marks the end of a phase in how the Mayan calculated time. Another Mayan tablet heralds the arrival of Bolon Yokte, Mayan God of War, who was also associated with creation.

"He will descend from the sky"

Anything can happen, right?

Maybe that was the man they found in the suburban British neighborhood with Angolan money a couple of months ago.

So, IS something going to happen 12-21-2012?

I don't know. I think if anyone knew, that information would be redacted.

We've all felt the message. Be prepared. That is directed to everyone. Of course anywhere can have an emergency situation, so we are all forewarned to be prepared to evacuate or hunker down.

We've watched what happened to those in Katrina's line of fire. The earthquake in Haiti. New York and 911, and just recently,Hurricane Sandy.

The whole East coast had a week of forewarning before Sandy.

So, here's the scenario:
The end of the world may be approaching, according to the Mayans.

We don't know how, but most typical end-of-the-world scenarios for modern society includes loss of power for weeks or potentially months.

How will you spend the next week? Now that you know you may have a week's notice?

But, it all may be a bunch of malarkey and you will still have bills to pay and not a whit changes but another page on OUR Julian calendar.

Do you go on life as usual, or do you do as advised, and prepare for an emergency?

What does that mean to you?

In the big Sandy buildup, I relinquished and finally bought the batteries which we were desperately needing anyhow. I replaced the ones in the headlamp, much handier than a flashlight of any kind. Some D's for the flashlights that usually only last an hour or two when actually put to use.

I haven't been able to find replacement globes for the lamps, and balked at paying $5+ for lamp oil at Wally world today.

What I have on hand should last at least a week of nights..do I need more than that? If I do, that $5 bottle isn't going to make that much difference.

That's how a financially challenged person has to think.

Now that I think of it, if times get tough that could be a pretty good deal for $5 now.

We have a week of snow and rain predicted here beginning tomorrow night.

That really puts a crimp in my Holiday errands and my "what if the world ends in a week?" preparations.

Do I dash to the bank to cash a check or spend the morning home with my kids?

If I have only a week left, I would spend it with my kids.  But if the turd hits the wind tunnel and my children and myself are at the other end, I am going to want that cash and not useless electronic finances.

Maybe that's why the price of gold is so strong.

Would they tell us? If it was known a global event was imminent, but provisions for safety was limited to a select few, would everyone else get a warning?

And what if you didn't know what to warn or weren't even really sure what might happen- would you warn?

Shouldn't we always be prepared anyhow? live every moment like it will be our last, appreciate every breath, sparkling bit of light, stubbed toe, hangnail, thunderstorm, headache,    full belly, bee sting...

Personally I will spend this week in reverence. And indulgence.  Going to see the Hobbit is definitely on my bucket list. If the world ends in a week I am going to be sure we have seen the Hobbit first!

120-173 hours on the Mayan long count countdown...should three go to the first Hobbit movie?  I would be spending that time with my children...so I think, weather and travel permitting, a definite "Yes"

Beloved

T

Hairytailed Mole Parascalops breweri

I was walking through the old goat pen mid-morning yesterday, and right at my feet I spied this little fella, on the surface, rapidly scouting the ground.
Suddenly it began to squeak, high pitched, eek-ee-ee! and dig furiously.
A large earthworm appeared out of the ground ahead of the burrowing mole, intent on escape.
I fed the worm to the mole. The mole must have no vision, because it took several attempts of relocating the worm in front of it for the mole to grab ahold of the worm, first at the front tip, then quickly to the heart girdle, munch munch, eek-ee-ee!
I had to show the Willow. She quickly became enamored with the charming little thing, and took several photos including these.
The busy worm-hunting (or maybe it was looking for grubs) mole wasn't even aware as we lightly touched it soft fur .
There were several small abrasions on the claws, and one on the nose, which are not visible in the photos. The Hairy-tailed mole has typical mole digging feet and a long snout, tapered to a small pink nose. No tentacles on the nose like the star nosed moles in the wet garden.
No bare tail like the Eastern Mole, but a cute little hairy-tailed mole.

Life is full of Bugs

 

Bald-Faced Hornet mating flight on Jewelweed, Spotted Touch-Me-Not.
Tree

Ant colony swarming
Tree