a few words from Chief Seattle

 

THIS WE KNOW: THE EARTH DOESNOT BELONG TO MAN, MAN BELONGS TO THE EARTH.   ALL THINGS ARE CONNECTED LIKE THE BLOOD THAT UNITES US ALL.  MAN DID NOT WEAVE THE WEB OF LIFE, HE IS MERELY A STRAND IN IT.  WHATEVER HE DOES TO THE WEB, HE DOES TO HIM.

~CHIEF SEATTLE

the eggs of the equinox

The spring equinox!!!  On Which one can balance an egg on end. Eggs are a symbol of  new life , and because they hold the wonders of new life, they are mysterious and miraculous.  Eggs carried in a woman's bonnet will yield fine brooder hens, while those carried in a mans hat will become roosters.  Supposedly a young girl would dream about her true love bringing her water to quench her thrust if she were to, at bedtime  eat a hard boiled egg from which the yolk have been removed and replaced with salt.

But I like balancing eggs, some people insist that it must be done at noon. or at the precise time of the Equinox.  However my rebel soul says anytime is good.  No recommendations for what shape or sort of eggs work best, I have balance eggs on everything from plexiglass to the top of a can of pineapple, to wet rocks.  It really isn't as easy as it looks, and there is no telling what surface will work best, today I Tried flagstone, and failure!  Even though I had balacned eggs on it previous years.

Brick, it worked,it was more difficult than I thought, and  ended up needing to get another egg.  Important to note eggs should be raw, but in my experience hard boiled eggs are more difficult to balance.  

Then I tried some rusty corrugated metal, that I was sure would be easy, failure again.       Finally I tried this old pine stump, rotting and spongy I was sure it would be easy to the point of cheating, it made me think again, though it was possible to balance the egg it took many tries.

Egg salad on whole wheat, that sounds like lunch to me!

A farewell to the snow????

I took these first two pictures a few few days ago when we got a surprise dusting of snow just before sunset.   I have been trying to savor every moment of this must unusual winter.

There have been few winters like this one, and I would count myself lucky to see another one.   I have truly enjoyed this  non-winter.  Not something I can truthfully say about any other winter.

It is too easy to think of how beautiful another snowfall might be, because snow can be beautiful until you need to go out side and navigate it.   Snow flurries , and especially individual snowflakes are beautiful, it is when they get into a big heap that they can get pretty much ugly and depressing.

While I was  working on the many and varied things that need doing every morning, I was watching out the window as the crocus and mini-daffodils slowly unfurled in the bright sun.

As the day went on I noticed that the buds were also unfurling on the lilacs, there were tiny leaves, appearing on the day after St Patrick's Day, a time of year when more often than not there is still dirty grungy snow  on the ground, and the flowering quince which is the first to bloom is still dormant.

With my favorite coffee cup by my side, I found a  comfortable spot where I could watch the sun go down.  The woods where  filled with the sound of birds,  courting robins dancing and calling to one another.  The sun sunk lower and as the chorus of birdsong grew softer, the chorus of peepers grew louder.

dancin

Somedays, ya just gotta burst into dance!!!!  May-be you think you can't dance, I know I can't but that doesn't stop me,  I just burst into dance.  I don't even need to hear music, because the music of life is always there.


This is one of my favorite songs.

 

LONG TALL GLASSES (I CAN DANCE)

LEO SAYER



(1975 )



I WAS TRAVELLIN?DOWN THE ROAD

FEELIN?HUNGRY AND COLD

I SAW A SIGN DOWN THE ROAD SAYINME

THEN IM SURE YOU WILL UNDERSTAND



NOW WAIT A MINUTE



OF COURSE I CAN DANCE

OF COURSE I CAN DANCE

IM SURE I CAN DANCE

IM SURE I CAN DANCE

I CAN DANCE

I REALLY HIT THE FLOOR

AH IT FEELS GOOD

LOOK AT ME DANCING



I DID A TWO-STEP QUICK-STEP AND A BOSSANOVA

A LITTLE VICTOR SYLVESTER AND A RUDY VALENTINO

YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN ME MOVING

RIGHT ACROSS THE FLOOR

HAND ME DOWN MY TUXEDO

NEXT WEEK IM COMING BACK FOR MORE



I CAN DANCE

OH YES I CAN DANCE

LOOK AT ME DANCE ON THE FLOOR MOVING

I FEEL GOOD

I CAN DANCE

I CAN DANCE

I CAN DANCE

I CAN DANCE

I CAN DANCE

I CAN DANCE



Transcribed by bmw851

I awoke at my usual time today, but it was still dark, in the days leading up to 'Daylight savings Time, there would have been a faint glow of dawn. I bumbled my way to the kitchen where the coffee is kept. and were the recycling that was rinsed and ready to be added to the bins, and for some unknown reason, I reckoned  a good activity to keep me from watching the coffee perk, would be to take it out to the bins in the unheated mudroom.  Oh Yeah! I was wide awake now.  Through the window I could see drifting above the treetops was the most glowing crescent moon.  I watched it for awhile, trying hard to forget how cold my feet were getting, how cold I was getting. Until first  deep pinks of dawn were begging to show I stood there.
 

There is something different about today.
A special angle to the light, and waft of soil and moisture, more birds that I have seen, or heard in along time.
I still don't dare to say what I am thinking, wouldn't want to anger the Northwind , who could send the winds of a cold snowy change my way.
But I did buy some potting soil and a couple of plastic planter boxes for my experiment in growing grape tomatoes, however, I forgot to buy the seeds. I will take that as being something Freudian, about not wanting to appear too eager.   On the drive home I noticed  that maples are being tapped, and lawn are turning green.

 And for me,  a day of quiet contemplation, as I pick up the ankle rolling Norway spruce cones that litter the yard. there is a red squirrel scolding me for taking my share of his pinecones.  I guess I should thank him for cutting them down so i can use them for tinder...well may-be not.  Raking up the twigs and other litter will wait for a dryer day.

And then there are the rewards that are less tangible.   The beauty and determination of snowdrops.
Watching birds in flight and,and the lilt of their love songs.  The feel of the earth under my feet.
The joy of seeing a 61st Spring, each one different from the last.

A haiku shared with me by a good friend.

with intricate stitches

loops of birdsong

knit the morning

Unknown

Sleeping late moon

It used to start "30 days has November"

No, I'm not talking about the calendar . I am talking about the poem about the calendar. The poem, considered by some to be a Nursery Rhyme, and others, like me, to be a necessity, the poem that I repeat every now and then  and sometimes just because  I like the way it sounds,  but mostlybecause I can never remember how many days are in a month.

Thirty days hath September,
April, June and November;
February has twenty-eight alone;
all the rest have thirty-one.
Excepting leap-year - that's the time
when February's days are twenty-nine.

A while back i came upon this information about Welch author Roger Bryan, who believes he has traced the poem back to 1425. explains, “It was in a tiny red leather bound codex written on parchment and is part of the Harley Collection, which comprises more than 7,000 manuscripts and 14,000 charters. These were collected by Robert Harley, later to become the first earl of Oxford, in the early 18th century, which was sold to the British Museum in 1753."
“The beautifully inscribed, four-line entry is at the bottom of a page of saints’ days for the second half of February in a section of religious calendars, and is a rare entry in English – almost everything else is in Latin,” he said.
“It’s one of those rhymes we all seem to know and use regularly. It actually started out as Thirty Days Have November. When or why November and September changed places in the rhyme is not known"

“Groucho Marx was a great fan of the rhyme. He is quoted as saying ‘My favourite poem is the one that starts ‘Thirty days hath September’ because it actually tells you something."

Groucho was right!