Friday, February 29, 2008

Ahoy, matey!


A curious window decoration - perhaps they are celebrating several holidays at once.

Or maybe they are pirates…

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If you can't get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you'd best teach it to dance.
-George Bernard Shaw

Now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates.
-Mark Twain

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Tangles


A week of tangles it has been, finally winding its way around to Friday.

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The human mind is so complex and things are so tangled up with each other that, to explain a blade of straw, one would have to take to pieces an entire universe. A definition is a sack of flour compressed into a thimble.
~ Remy de Gourmont

I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions.
~ James A Michener

So many tangles in life are ultimately hopeless that we have no appropriate sword other than laughter.
~ Gordon Allport

Monday, February 25, 2008

Surreal Monday


Between a screaming refrigerator, odd tech problems, and bizarre phone calls at work, it was a surreal Monday…

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Sometimes it pays to stay in bed in Monday, rather than spending the rest of the week debugging Monday's code.
-Dan Salomon

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Shadowing pine


A view during a saffron sunset…

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I remember a hundred lovely lakes, and recall the fragrant breath of pine and fir and cedar and poplar trees. The trail has strung upon it, as upon a thread of silk, opalescent dawns and saffron sunsets.
~ Hamlin Garland

You can live for years next door to a big pine tree, honored to have so venerable a neighbor, even when it sheds needles all over your flowers or wakes you, dropping big cones onto your deck at still of night.
~ Denise Levertov

Thursday, February 21, 2008

True West


Last night’s lunar adventure reminded me of a photo I took during a different phase of the moon, as seen over Camel’s Back. This photo is sooo West; I half expect a cowboy to ride over the crest of the hill.

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Talk low, talk slow, and don't say too much.
~ An acting tip from John Wayne to fellow actor Michael Caine

Well, art is art, isn't it? Still, on the other hand, water is water! And east is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does. Now you tell me what you know.
~ Groucho Marx

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Eclipse


Out on the sidewalk after dinner, gazing into the eastern sky. The moon looked as though the lower left corner had crumbled. Dark, shadowy, hazy. Walked the sidewalk to keep warm while keeping an eye on the moon. Gradually more and more of it disappeared until it was only a sliver and a faint circular glow within shadow.

And that phased into total eclipse, and the moon became a dimly lit globe set in the sky, like a pearl tinged pale orange. As it became totally obscured, nearby stars and planets shone brightly.

Some neighbors stopped briefly during their evening errands to glance up before going inside. Others walked to the corner, looked upward, pointed it out to their children. A couple walking their dogs cracked jokes about "lun-a-cy".

Now, a sliver of silver has appeared on the right, continuing its journey across the sky, glowing brighter and brighter as each minute passes.

Tried to take photos, but too much city light, wrong location, and not the right camera equipment. This will have to be remembered in mind’s eye, and through the photos of others (one of which I borrowed from the website below, taken by Andy Steere).

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Nations, like stars, are entitled to eclipse. All is well, provided the light returns and the eclipse does not become endless night. Dawn and resurrection are synonymous. The reappearance of the light is the same as the survival of the soul.
~ Victor Hugo

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

A colorful view


It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window.
-Raymond Chandler


I don’t know if a bishop damaged this window, but we found it hanging on the side of a porch of a house in the neighborhood. And the light glowing through it was truly beautiful.


People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.
-Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Monday, February 18, 2008

Three


To brighten a brown winter’s day…

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There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.
-Leonardo da Vinci

They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.
-Tom Bodett

Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; and the third is to be kind.
-Henry James

A fire-breather?


Look closely; do you see what's lurking in the shadows?

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O to be a dragon, a symbol of the power of Heaven - of silkworm size or immense; at times invisible.
- Marianne Moore, "O To Be A Dragon"

Challenge is a dragon with a gift in its mouth... Tame the dragon and the gift is yours.
- Noela Evans

Sunday, February 17, 2008

A green bough


If I keep a green bough in my heart, then the singing bird will come.
-Chinese proverb

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

A wise falcon


A kestrel (small falcon) at the MK Nature Center. Because his wing was injured and permanently damaged, he’s not able to survive in the wild. So, he lives in a large, roomy home at the Center. He responds to gentle conversation, sometimes nods his head as you talk. A wise bird, indeed.

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A wise falcon hides his talons.
-Proverb

Monday, February 11, 2008

Ripples on a pond


Like the ripples on a pond, the work of one person can spread out and touch the lives of many.
~ Author Unknown

Sunday, February 10, 2008

The river flows on...


And now a scene that could be on a postcard…the Boise River, that runs through the city.

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How could drops of water know themselves to be a river? Yet the river flows on.
-Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it.
-Norman Maclean

Saturday, February 09, 2008

Swimming with a "porpoise"


Reminds me of Aquarium from The Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns.

Saint-Saëns originally composed Carnival for private performance only. Because many of the movements are "musical jokes", jabbing at critics, he felt he wouldn’t be taken seriously as a composer if it was made public. So, it was performed once during his life for a small group of friends. But he made provisions for Carnival to be published and performed publicly after his death. And now, it’s his most popular work...

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No good fish goes anywhere without a porpoise.
- Lewis Carroll

One man's fish is another man's "poisson".
-Anon-French

Friday, February 08, 2008

An un resist able windmill...


Even in the wind, hope sparkles…

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[When] building my dome in my chapel, I had a vision - I've worked on perpetual motion and I haven't never give it up yet. I still think it could be done, perpetual motion. I had a vision of a un resist able windmill.
~ Howard Finster

Thursday, February 07, 2008

A little warped...


Shades of the infamous snowmen of Calvin & Hobbes…

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Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Almost snowbound


More snow this morning for the "banana belt" of Idaho…

According to local news, from 1971 through 2000 the Boise area received an average of five inches of snow in January. But in January 2008, the National Weather Service recorded 13.6 inches of snowfall -- 272 % above average.

And there is light snow possible for tonight. Maybe soon we’ll have to ski to work…

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There is nothing in the world more beautiful than the forest clothed to its very hollows in snow. It is the still ecstasy of nature, wherein every spray, every blade of grass, every spire of reed, every intricacy of twig, is clad with radiance.
~ Fiona MacLeod

Monday, February 04, 2008

Legends of the falls


Multnomah Falls in winter – photo taken by our friend, PQ.

According to one Native American legend, the falls were created by Coyote to win the hand of a chief’s daughter. The chief demanded that Coyote give his daughter the gift that would make her the most happy. She asked for a pool where she might bathe in private. So Coyote built the pool and the waterfalls and she consented to become his wife.

In another legend, there was a terrible disease killing the people. So the daughter of the chief climbed to the top of a cliff and prayed to Great Spirit to stop the epidemic. Great Spirit demanded she sacrifice herself by leaping from the cliff. To save her people, she did so. The next day, her father found her body at the bottom of the cliff. He wept bitterly and cried out to Great Spirit that her death not be in vain. At that moment, water began to fall from the top of the cliff, forming Multnomah Falls. And under the right conditions, you can see the daughter’s face in the waterfall.

Saturday, February 02, 2008

Sledding


Fun in the snow in Camel’s Back Park…

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Winter wonders
Sweet delights
Snowy days
And frost-filled nights;

Memories are
Made of this
Childhood times
Of snowy bliss.
~ From "Sledding," by Joanna M. Phillips