A fire-breather?

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

!! !!! ! !!! ! !!! ! !!! ! !!! ! !!! ! !!! ! !!!! ! !!! !!! !!

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

A green bough

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

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.

^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^ ^^^ ^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^^^^ ^^
A wise falcon hides his talons.
-Proverb

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

The river flows on...

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

~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~

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

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...

== == == == == == == == == == == == == == ==

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

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

An un resist able windmill...

Even in the wind, hope sparkles…

~~~ ~~ ~ ~~ ~~ ~~~ ~ ~~~ ~ ~ ~~~ ~

[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

A little warped...

Shades of the infamous snowmen of Calvin & Hobbes…

* *** * ** * *** * ** * *** * ** * *** *

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…

** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** *
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

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.

Sledding

Fun in the snow in Camel’s Back Park…

* * * * * * * * * * * *

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

The design is in the cards

One of C’s newest creations using House of Cards, designed by Charles and Ray Eames.

Many cards; many choices, many designs, many possibilities…

http://www.eamesgallery.com/

^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^

All we are given are possibilities – to make ourselves one thing or another.
~ Jose Ortega y Gasset

Predictions

Snow and more snow. A series of storms sweeping through. They are predicting up to 5 inches tonight. And it’s snowing again now. Unusual weather pattern for Boise; the "banana belt" folks aren't used to it. We’ll see how many places open late tomorrow -- or are closed...

** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **

The trouble with weather forecasting is that it's right too often for us to ignore it and wrong too often for us to rely on it.
~Patrick Young

There's one good thing about snow, it makes your lawn look as nice as your neighbor's.
~Clyde Moore

Alley art

On the side of a neighborhood garage…

!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!

The artist does not see things as they are, but as he is.
~Alfred Tonnelle

The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.
~Francis Bacon

Of the sacred

While listening to "Sacred Cloud Music" on "Silk Road Journeys: Beyond the Horizon," by the Silk Road Ensemble, the sky gradually became shades of rose and violet...

== == == == == == == == == == == == == ==

We live in a world of increasing awareness and interdependence, and I believe that music can act as a magnet to draw people together. Music is an expressive art that can reach to the very core of one's identity. …as we interact with unfamiliar musical traditions we encounter voices that are not exclusive to one community. We discover transnational voices that belong to one world.
~ Yo Yo Ma ** Artistic Director of the Silk Road Project

http://www.silkroadproject.org/index.html

R-a-g-g-m-o-p-p

Perhaps the weather affects people in odd ways…

@#@# @#@# @#@# @#@# @#@# @#@#

M
I say M-O
M-O-P
M-O-P-P
Mop
M-O-P-P
Mop Mop Mop Mop

R
I say R-A
R-A-G
R-A-G-G
Rag
R-A-G-G M-O-P-P
Rag Mop

Doo-doo-doo-DAH-dee-ah-dah
Rag Mop
Doo-doo-doo-DAH-dee-ah-dah
Rag Mop
Doo-doo-doo-DAH-dee-ah-dah
Rag Mop
Doo-doo-doo-DAH-dee-ah-dah
Rag Mop
Doo-doo-doo-DAH-dee-ah-dah
R-A-G-G M-O-P-P
Rag Mop!
(D. Anderson / J.L. Wills)

I got in a fight one time with a really big guy, and he said, "I'm going to mop the floor with your face." I said, "You'll be sorry." He said, "Oh, yeah? Why?" I said, "Well, you won't be able to get into the corners very well."
-Emo Phillips

A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water.
-Carl Reiner

Wind, chime, and time

Music on a windy day...

!! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !!

We have heard the chimes at midnight.
~William Shakespeare

Wisdom sails with wind and time
~John Florio

If you reveal your secrets to the wind you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.
~Khalil Gibran

Absence diminishes little passions and increases great ones, as wind extinguishes candles and fans a fire.
~ Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Lighter side of snow

One of the results of yesterday’s snowfall…

** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
Snowmen fall from Heaven unassembled.
~ Unknown

It snowed last year too: I made a snowman and my brother knocked it down and I knocked my brother down and then we had tea.
~ Dylan Thomas

Where did Frosty the Snowman meet his wife?
At the snowball.

Fire tree

Taken at sunset the other night...

* * * * * * * * * * *

Love is the Fire of Life; it either consumes or purifies.
~ Unknown

More thoughts about truth and love

Continuing to think over the truth about love. And have been asking others about their ideas. B (who massages out the muscle spasms in my back with great care) said she’d have to think it over, because it was so complex. And "Sandy", a commenter on my 1-17-08 entry, said: "the truth about love is there is no one universal way to describe it".

To add to the mix, here are a few thoughts about love from others :

Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction.

~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

There is no love apart from the deeds of love; no potentiality of love but that which is manifested in loving.
~Jean-Paul Sartre

Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.
~Eric Fromm

Love must be as much a light, as it is a flame.
~Henry David Thoreau

Sometimes it's a form of love just to talk to somebody that you have nothing in common with and still be fascinated by their presence.
~David Byrne

What "love" is I don't know if it's not the response of our deepest natures to one another.
~William Carlos Williams