A Quotation

"When it is over, I want to say: All my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument. 

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world."

From the poem "When Death Comes" by Mary Oliver

Wordless Wednesday - Dancing

A Bit of Snow

Just about three or four inches, not much at all.  It started snowing again after I took this but not for long.  I really miss the days when we measured our snow falls in feet, not paltry inches.  Those times were not so long ago; as late as 2008 it was normal to get a storm that would dump a couple of feet of snow, followed a few weeks later by another storm dumping another couple of feet of snow, and so on. 

It's been a bit on the chilly side.  Right now the temperature (Fahrenheit) is 14 degrees, which I believe is 10 Celsius.  Our low tonight is supposed to be 0 but it's very windy, so to the trees and plants (and exposed human skin and anything that isn't covered by fur on animals) it will feel like -27 (-32.77 in Celsius).  Without a deep snow cover I'll probably lose some of my perennial plants.  It's becoming more and more difficult to garden up here, due to climate change bringing such huge temperature swings.  It's always gotten this cold up here, but in the past the plants were insulated by snow.  And the summer temperatures now climb into unheard of heights: It's not uncommon nowadays for it to hit 100 degrees Fahrenheit.  Ten years ago our highs never got above 80 degrees, and they only reached that for a few days in August.

All that, combined with much, much lower rainfall than in the past, is taking a terrible toll on the forest I live in.  I thought things would get better now that the Pine Bark Beetle invasion, which killed over one million huge, ancient pines, is over, but it doesn't seem to be happening that way. 

I'm not giving up hope, though.  Maybe another Little  Ice Age, like the one which started in the late 1300's and lasted into the19th century, will come along in time to save the planet and reverse global warming.  Of course, that was caused by massive eruptions of tropical volcanos, so that's not really something to hope for. 

Maybe a real miracle will happen and world governments will get together, and work together, to implement actions that would really reverse global warming. 

Sure. 

And maybe the Snow Queen will get in a snit, and return winters to what they should be.   

Sunday Sunlight - Light and Shadows

Sunlight, shadows and water drops...endlessly fascinating to me.

We've been having several days of a very light rain here, more of a heavy mist really.  I'm hoping we'll get the heavy rains and snowfall that we need so desperately here before the rainy season ends in March. 

Strange times we live in now, strange times. . .

Turnings

"Sometimes our fate resembles a fruit tree in winter.
Who would think that these branches would turn green and blossom,
but we hope it,
we know it." 

J.W. von Goethe  1749-1832

Wordless Wednesday - Blessings

Truth

"There are many ways to be free.  One of them is to transcend reality by imagination."  Anais Nin 

(Photo taken in April of 2012 in Oregon by my friend's daughter-in-law, Cindy).

Between

Last night sleep only came to me in bits and pieces.  In that place half-way between waking and sleeping, pieces of thoughts, scraps of numbers, fragments of words flew across the surface of my mind. 

As I tossed and turned I remembered a photo I had taken a couple of weeks ago, of reflections of colored lights from the Christmas tree refracted through the round, clear ball of a snow globe onto a book.  I think if I could have taken a photo of my thoughts last night, they might have looked similar to this.

Sunday Sunlight - Sparkles

Taken down at Lake Gregory in Crestline in the spring of 2010.

No Bad Angle

This little guy is a House Finch, but he seems to know he's special.  Usually, where their feathers are red they're just red.  This little guy has some yellow on him, too.  He was very co-operative, turning this way and that way so I could take his photo.  I think he wanted me to know he's handsome from every angle!

Faeries Friday

I found this beautiful painting on Pinterest.  It's by an artist named Jody Bergsma.

Then and Now

Oh, he was so cute...and tiny!  What a difference six and a half months makes... 

He likes to be near me a lot and would sleep on the computer if I let him, but he has to settle for sleeping on all the stuff I keep beside it, with only a little part of himself actually on it. 

He's still such a cutie...

but pretty grumpy when the camera finally wakes him up.  And would you look at how much of the computer he covers! 

"Okay, Mom, I'm going back to sleep now.  No more pictures!" 
I agreed, but you know that's a promise I can't keep!

Abstract Ice

I can't seem to get over my endless fascination with the colors and textures that are hidden in ice, glass and other reflective things.  It would take me about three days to do this in oils, more if I did it in watercolor.  Of course, if I did take the time for watercolors, it would be much sharper with crisper edges and more definition...but playing with the computer is fun, too.  Left click to enlarge.

A Quotation for Monday

"Yuck, these peanuts are frozen."  Jonathan Livingcold Blue Jay

Really, he said this.  I heard him clearly.  Well, it was a little garbled because he was speaking with his beak full, but I still heard him.

Sunday Sunsets, Frozen Pipes and...

This is a sunset at San Clemente Beach here in Southern California.  It's been so horribly cold up here in the mountains I needed something that reminded me of warmer weather to look at here. Our  high temperatures for the past few days have been in the low to medium single digits, Fahrenheit. 

My poor husband has been outside all day in the sub-freezing temperature battling frozen pipes.  The raccoons had pulled off a little piece of pipe insulation from a tiny bit of pipe that exits the water heater closet and goes right back into the house.  Just that little exposed bit was enough to cause havoc. And, while he was doing this, he discovered hairline cracks in several pipes so he had to replace those pipes lest they burst.  Thank goodness he's done now: He's been at it since 4 this morning and it's now 5 p.m. 

Tonight our low will be well below zero (Fahrenheit) and there will be strong winds of up to 60 mph. I can't even begin to imagine what the low temperature will be once the wind chill is factored in.  My feral colony of cats have warm shelters to sleep in, but I'm very worried about all the other stray cats and dogs in the rest of these mountains.  I hope they can all find warm, safe, comfortable places to shelter.

Oh yes, I almost forgot...we also had a little earthquake today!  It was only a 3.7 on the Richter Scale, a teeny tiny one by California standards.  We didn't feel it, I heard about it on the news.  May the future ones all be that small...

Chickadee Gratitude

"Oooh...what's that I see?  Is it delicious, tasty peanuts?" 

"It is!   I'll just...what's that lady doing?"

"Taking my picture!  Of all the nerve!  If I didn't have my beak full, I'd tell her a thing or two!"

"I'm outta here...."  

Well, he's a cute little Chickadee, even if he is a bit rude.  Who does he think puts out all those "delicious, tasty peanuts" anyway?

Wordless Wednesday - Frozen Fantasy

Becalmed

The winter doldrums have me so thoroughly surrounded I feel like I'm wearing a cement coat.  Brain stagnating, body sluggish, it's all I can do to get the food out for the forest wildings and feral cats, which I'm sure the little male House Finch, above, is grateful for.  If you look closely, you can see he has a black oil sunflower seed in his beak.  I wonder why it is that on days when it rains or snows I am energized, alert, almost hyper-aware.  But on days like this one, cold but sunny, a perfectly nice day, I can barely function.  It's not just me, either, all the cats are snoozing, lazy, furry lumps.  Maybe something to do with the barometric pressure? 

Yawwwnnn.

A Quotation for Monday

 (Painting titled 'Fire Fancies' by Arthur Hacker, 1858-1919)

"Imagination is more important than knowledge.  For while knowledge defines all we know and currently understand, imagination points to all we might yet discover and create."  Albert Einstein

Sunday Sunsets

We're Not Going Anywhere!

The last day of Christmas is tomorrow (if you celebrate the 12 days of Christmas) but Mouseford Falls and it's inhabitants will be around until February.  It's set up in the kitchen greenhouse window and it's such a cheerful sight...sometimes they even stay through March, if March is a particularly blustery and grey month.  It was snowing when I took this photo and I hope we get lots more of the white stuff.

Now I'd better get outside and put out more peanuts and water for the birds and scatter seeds and peanut bits for the real mice that live in the real Mouseford Falls by the creek and in the woods around my cottage.  They're all very hungry this time of year!

Silly Me

I bought a new little table that rolls around, foolishly thinking I would use it for my laptop.  Before I could even set the laptop down on it the kittens discovered it and claimed it for their own.  (That's Malcolm and Merlin above).

Malcolm's having a fine time...

So is Max... 

while Sophia thinks it's a great place for a nap. 

And this look from Max pretty much says it all..."Back off, Mom, it's OURS!" 

Silly me.  You'd think, after all these years of being a cat parent, I would know by now that everything belongs to them!