Blue Moon

The next New Year's Eve Blue Moon won't be until 2028, so this is probably the last one I'll see. It sure was pretty until the clouds took over. My neighbor is celebrating his 100th birthday today - only once in a "blue moon".

Xmas Rainbow

This is something I've never seen before and probably never see again - rainbow on xmas day. It was gone 10 seconds after I took the photo.

Happy Solstice

The first snow of the season wasn't predicted nor was it very much. I hope we get a white Solstice, White Xmas or White New Year. That would help to make the holidays more seasonal.

Brief Absence

After several tests, exams, doctors visits I think I can get back to doing more of what I enjoy. However, on top of my physical tests, my computer has had to undergo an upgrade to Windows 7. Still a couple of issues to resolve, but perhaps they will make my cyber return more interesting,

Tomatoes for the picking

These are the ripe tomatoes that I can see outside the kitchen window over the breakfast booth. You can just reach out and pick one. The view below is the outside view of the same window which is hardly visible behind the tall tomato vines. For perspective the gutter rim is about 11 and half feet from the ground which means the tallest vines are over 14 feet. The bottom of the window is about 7 feet from the ground. Also visible in the photo below are the pepper plants to the left of the tomato vines and a 24 foot ladder laying behind the vines.

Mammoths

My Mammoth sunflowers are. The red arrow is at the 9 foot mark and they are about 3 feet taller than that. My tomatoes pictured below are not too shabby either. The one is over 10 feet and about to grow into the gutter.

40 Years Ago

We were in Oshkosh, Wisc forty years ago. The time sure flies.

Five Years w/o a Camel

It's been five years today since I smoked. I have thought about it almost everyday since then. Smoking was one of the most pleasurable things I can ever remember. It seems that life is missing something without it. A nurse recently told me that it takes 10 years to get past the craving. I don't think I ever will.

Midsummer

The sun is shining, the sunflowers are blooming and the bees are busy. By all the signs, it has to be midsummer. Today the glass is at least half full.

Skunk 2009

With these longer days, I noticed that Mr Skunk was back to his early morning foraging habits. I had smelled him in the early mornings, but this is the first time I caught him digging up grubs. I don't know whether I should try to trap him or just keep throwing out moth bolls to keep him from burrowing under the garage and making a home again. I guess we will try the "live and let live" theory in the near term until he becomes a real odiferous pest.

Summer Solstice

Today is a double holiday. First, it's the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. This has been celebrated for thousands of years in places like Stonehenge (see video above) and all around the world. Secondly, it is Father's Day. I always celebrate by going back to the pond and paying homage to the blue green algae. The Star Trek video below makes the same point.

Widowmakers

This is why they call dead or broken limbs left high up in the trees "widowmakers". This limb which came down during a recent rain barely missed my hammock. Needless to say if anyone had been in it's path, they probably wouldn't be around anymore. After last winter's ice storm there are all kinds of broken limbs in tree tops just waiting to become a widowmaker.

Stump Flower Pot Update

These photos are updates of my stump flower pots that I carved out with the chain saw. It compares 24 Jan to 3 Jun. A marked improvement I would say.

Too Many People

I've stated before that the first part of most any problem you want to discuss is that there are too many people. You can then discuss all kinds of environmental, economic, social, political, etc issues but nobody wants to address the real problem of too many humans breeding too much and now living longer than ever. A recent article with David Attenborough concerns this issue and a new website by the Optimum Population Trust focuses on the issue. However, as in the past, I'm sure the religious zealots will prevent any positive steps in limiting population.

The Hare and the Tortoise

Some days you never know what you will see. Today was a day for the Fairy Tale of the Tortoise and the Hare. First we saw a rabbit in the graveyard. Not the fairy tale hare, but a very close relative and then we saw the turtle which again is not a tortoise but a look alike relative. The snapping turtle was migrating to a new pond which they do this time of year. He/she had completed the most hazardous part of the journey by successfully crossing the road. I hope they both complete the race.

Flower Moon

The full flower moon in an early morning mist. It's a great time of the year. We are past the winter frosts and before the summer heat. Everything is green and growing.

They're Back

The wild turkeys are in the backyard again, edging ever closer to the garden. I think they must still have a nest somewhere since all I have seen so far are old hens.

Phantom 550

Today the city of Bowling Green, Kentucky dedicated Phantom 550 on the 37th anniversary of it shooting down a Mig-21 over North Vietnam. The story of Dan Cherry and Hong My (who was shot down) is a very interesting one featured in Smithsonian Air and Space Magazine.

Easter Egg Cake

I used an old Swan's Down cake recipe as a guide for this Easter Egg Cake. However, as a type II diabetic I used a Pillsbury reduced sugar yellow cake mix for the cake and used sugar free chocolate pudding for the icing. It turned out pretty good.

Full Moon after Vernal Equinox

This is a photo I took of the full moon early this morning. It is the called the full "Pink", "Planter's", "Sprouting Grass", "Egg" and "Fish" moon. Also as the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox it marks the beginning of Passover and Sunday will be Easter (the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox). It also marks potato planting time according to some. It is a great time of the year and we need to enjoy every day regardless of what we call it.

Vernal Equinox

The Vernal Equinox means Spring is officially here. The days will start to get longer than the nights and it will be time for Spring clean up. One of my Vernal Equinox rituals is to burn the seed catalogs that have collected over the winter. I use to receive close to 50 catalogs (some were duplicate copies). I just throw them in a box after looking at them and comparing bargains and then burn them in the Spring. Since I have ordered from the internet the last few years, I only got 30 this year.
Also, in the middle of the fire is the Brigid Cross that I made for Imbolc. It got burned as part of the Spring cleaning.

Fires of Spring

The Vernal Equinox is early this year on the 20th of March. It's time to burn the brush piles from the dead wood of winter. We also have the old whiskey barrels including the one we made into a wishing well and my daughter's old entertainment center on the pile. We used to burn brush piles for the tobacco beds back when we raised and used tobacco. Now its just another spring clean up task.

Scary Weekend

It is shaping up as a very scary March weekend. Starting with Friday the 13th and ending on the "Ides of March". Maybe with a little "Luck of the Irish" all our teams will survive the initial "March Madness" and make it to the big NCAA dance.

Worm Moon

The March full moon is called the Worm Moon. At the time of this spring Moon, the ground begins to soften and earthworm casts reappear, inviting the return of robins. This is also known as the Sap Moon, as it marks the time when maple sap begins to flow and the annual tapping of maple trees begins.

Go Fly a Kite

March winds cue the urge to fly a kite. This is something everyone should experience at least once a year. It nurtures all your senses. The sight, sound and feel of the wind tugging against you is exhilarating.

Ash Wednesday

I don't advocate religion, but some of their rituals have much secular significance. The reminder of "dust to dust" keeps us grounded in our mortality. And the passage from Ecclesiastes, cited in the video, doesn't promise any afterlife, rather, it says we are no different from any of the other animals on the planet. We are all star stuff.

Snow Birds

These and hundreds of their friends dropped by the deck during the most recent snowfall. They make the cold, dark, inactive days of winter more bearable.

Sandhill Cranes

For the past few days flock after flock of Sandhill Cranes have been flying north. You can here them calling to each other, making you look up to locate the flock. Here are some that I caught milling around over the house. It is another sign that spring can't be far away.

Gone to the Birds

It's that time of year when the birds start to look for homes for their families. I always put out over three dozen birdhouses made out of old Folgers coffee containers as shown above. I clean them up from last years wear and tear and give them a new coat of paint. I paint them red, green, yellow and two shades of blue. Last year they all had nests except one. Most of them are bluebirds, but the sparrows claim a few and martins like the hanging ones.

Happy Birthday Abe & Charles

Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born on the same day two hundred years ago on 12 February 1809. Their contributions to society were met with much controversy which persists even today. However, its hard to deny that they were and still are giants among men. Happy 200th Birthday!

Full Snow Moon

The emerging buds on the tree help to identify this as the full "Quickening" moon. Wiccans associate the February moon with Imbolc and the wakening of the earth. The Native Americans called it the "Snow Moon" since the heaviest snows nsusually came in February. I try to get a photo of every full moon. The moon don't change but the seasons, cloud cover, moonrise times, background, etc make a different photo each time. Here is a later shot with different settings of the Snow moon.

Flamimg Dart

Forty four years ago I was in Danang when we launched the first bombing campaigns against North Vietnam with operation Flamimg Dart. General Nuyen Cao Ky (later Premier Ky)was flying one of the A1Es (old prop planes) shown in video above and was hit by some shrapnel in the shoulder. It was only a flesh wound and he went through debriefing before receiving medical treatment.
There was much confusion, testosterone and apprehension in those days which makes very vivid memories.

Ice Storm

The ice storm knocked out our power for 4 days and broke up all the trees.


It sure hasn't been a picnic.


But it has been very pretty.

Imbolc

Here is a Brigid's Cross that I made from wheat straw for Imbolc. Here are instructions on how to make the cross. I always look forward to Groundhog day, Candlemass, Oimelc, Imbolc, or whatever you want to call the cross quarter day between winter and spring and know that we are on the home stretch of the cold, dark weather. It won't be long until we see the crocuses and daffodils.

Televison Signals

You can probably tell your age by how you remember receiving television signals(or not). Today, we made a change that made me reflect on how old I am in terms of television signals. We no longer get a signal over the air rather through the telephone line. I remember not having any television signal in the '40's. Then we got our first black and white television in the early '50's. The screen was small, very snowy and had a lot of ghosts. There were only two VHF stations in our reception area. Then in the '60's we got our first UHF channel and color broadcast. Also, about this time, I read science fiction about communication satellites in geosynchronous orbits.



Not much changed until the early '80's when we got our first C Band satellite dish that received it signal from those geosynchronous satellites. The dish rotated across the "Clark Belt" from one "bird" to the next. They had names like Galaxy1, Satcom4, Anik2, etc. This was the best time of television for me. It was before signal "scrambling" when you only had to invest in the reception equipment. We received all kinds of channels and rarely had any reception issues. Then came scrambling. We went through several iterations. Then we got Ku band which ushered in smaller dishes.



This allowed a stationary dish to get programmimg from more than one nearby satellite and brought in the age of Dish network and Direct TV as competitors of the cable companies.
Now, I am watching digital High Definition Television over telephone wires. The bandwidth of Hog Wallow Switch #2 is increasing. Occasionally, I even watch TV on the internet. As TV signals have evolved, so have the costs. However, the programming hasn't improved as much as the signal that carries it.

Gong Xi Fa Cai

Jan. 26 ushers in the Chinese Lunar New Year, beginning with the new moon and ending 15 days later with the full moon. According to the 12-year animal cycle, we are entering the Year of the Ox. In Vietnam Tet celebrated the Lunar New Year with the same 12 year cycle as the Chinese and the same animal symbols. Some of the most deadly periods of the Vietnam War were during the "tet offensives".
This is year 4707 which means the Chinese have been celebrating the Lunar New Year over two and half millennium before Christ. So, "Gong Xi Fa Cai" which translates as "wishing you to be prosperous in the coming year."

Stump Flower Pot

While I was sitting around looking at seed catalogs and thinking about Spring (less than 2 months calendar time), I decided to get out and try to get a few things ready. I decided to hollow out a couple of stumps with the chain saw and use them for flower pots. I hollowed then down about 10 inches as shown. The problem when you are going below the ground line is that you might hit dirt as I did the second one (circled in red). If you have used a chain saw any at all, you know that once you get in the dirt, you will have to sharpen or change chains, since they won't cut anything after being in the dirt.
I'll update the flower pots in early summer to see what they look like. This should make the stumps rot faster and put a pretty clump of flowers in place of an unsightly stump.

Cabin Fever Diabetic Cake

When you're all cooped up in the winter, sometimes it's difficult to do the right thing. For a diabetic, baking a cake should not be on the "to do" list. However, here is my cabin fever cake. Actually it sounds worse than it is. You start with a Pillsbury Reduced Sugar Cake Mix. I like the devils food. Make it in 4 layers. Ice the layers with sugar free chocolate pudding and then ice the outside with sugar free cool whip. It is delicious, very low sugar and carbs, and helps fight cabin fever. I can have a slice while I look at the seed catalogs and dream of the vegetables to be.