Snow Moon

     

Child Moon by Carl Sundborg

The child's wonder

At the old moon

Comes back nightly.

She points her finger

To the far silent yellow thing

Shining through the branches

Filtering on the leaves a golden sand,

Crying with her little tongue, "See the moon!"

And in her bed fading to sleep

With babblings of the moon on her little mouth.

Yellow warbler, UAF Botanical Garden

 

Sometimes the seemingly small things in life can brighten the entire world.

"Hope is the thing with feathers
that perches in the soul,
and sings the tune--without the words,
and never stops at all.
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me."
~Emily Dickinson

Wordless Wednesday -- What's abuzz in your world?

Yes, I know it's still winter which is precisely why I decided we needed a splash of color today.

On the road again.....

The Road of Life doesn't come with a map but isn't unlike the road on which you drive your car.

The Road of Life has
     blind curves ~~ you never know what's next
          caution signs ~~ not always visible or noticed in time
               speed limits ~~ for some it's pedal to the metal
                    school zones ~~ slow down and take notice
                         detours ~~  a challenge to find your way back
                    scenic viewpoints ~~ enjoy them at length
               rest areas ~~ catch your breath and regroup
          barriers for safety ~~ there but not unbreakable
     EXIT RAMP  ~~ no thanks!

Don't know the words? Just hummmmmm

Well, these little buggers are hard to track into a photo opp!  I sporadically,  or spastically if you were an onlooker, attempted for an afternoon to photograph these tiny hummingbirds in Mancos, Colorado two years ago.  I'd never tried tracking tiny birds with a lens but it was so much fun!!!  Love a good challenge!

They're quite noisy.  Chittering, whirring and trilling at each other.  The thrum of their wings is amazingly loud as they zip past no further than two feet from your head.  You can't help but wonder if they could impale you with those crazy beaks.  I mean a bird could have poor depth perception, right?  I digress.  My relatives who fill the feeders said there are two different kinds of hummers partaking of the red nectar.  What I heard next kind of surprised me.  It's nature, I know, but apparently they're very aggressive between species.  I was told the green and brown ones pictured here refuse to share the feeder if it's "their turn" and will attack and sometimes kill the smaller hummers who are unlucky or brave enough to fly up for a snack at the wrong time. This is one restaurant you don't want to arrive at without a reservation!  Glad I never got to see the fracas with my own eyes.

Tranquility

"Tranquility" carved by USA/Thailand, World Ice Art Championship, Fairbanks, Alaska in 2009

According to Merriam-Webster, tranquility is-- 1. a) free from agitation of mind or spirit, b) free from disturbance or turmoil;  2) unvarying in aspect.   According to a team of ice sculptors from USA/Thailand, tranquility looks like this sculpture.

Amidst all that swirls around in my head, heart and soul and the world around me I manage at times to find tranquility.  Now and again it floats above my conscious thoughts like a feather on a summer breeze, drifting just out of reach.  More often than not, however, it's nowhere to be seen.  Lost in the daily routine of work, errands, chores and the general hubbub of life.  I tell myself tranquility is out there.  Peacefully, quietly calling me.  I have to or else lose my sanity to the chaos of my thoughts.

I center back toward what is known to calm and comfort me.  During an Alaska winter, it's gazing at the stars with the occasional benefit of Northern Lights dancing amongst them like a velvet curtain swirling on a silent stage.  It's listening to the quiet breeze rustling through the tree tops, feeling the cold air brush against my face and taking in breaths of crisp clean air.  It's in these moments I can allow myself to relax.  Focus inward to touch what's ailing my spirit and coax it out into the open.  Where I can see without doubts.  I can feel without fear.  I can hold true what my soul tells me.  A couple days ago I wrote about passion.  Passion tells me spirits connect in this world for reasons known to no one and those reasons are rooted in goodness.   Tonight, tranquility whispers softly that these spirits are destined in some way to connect again and I'm at peace once more.

Passion

“Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you've got to say, and say it hot.” -D.H. Lawrence

A friend of mine had the above quote on her site, thought I'd share it here as well.

I believe genuine heartfelt passion is rare, special and priceless.  It comes in all forms.

Never keep a damper on it; never regret expressing it.

Taken @ San Diego Wild Animal Park -- PJ 

Taken @ San Diego Wild Animal Park -- PJ

Sails and whales

Took a drive out to Ho'okipa Beach, Maui today to see what the surf was like.  The wind was blowing and the surf was up.  A local resident said typically conditions are either right for surfers OR windsurfers but not both at the same time.  Rounding the corner on the highway approaching the beach, it became quickly apparent that conditions were right for windsurfers and even a couple kite-surfers, too.  I figured I'd try my hand at photographing the brightly colored butterfly wings whisking across the surf.

If you look in the background of the photos above, you'll see two Pacific humpback whales breaching!  I noticed a splash as the last picture was taken but thought nothing of it, packed up and went back to the car.  I had no idea the whales were in the pictures till everything was downloaded to my computer.  They aren't perfect pictures by any means but what are the chances of getting such a back drop?  Something seemingly minor like being in the right place at the right time and coming away with unexpected pictures like these has certainly made me smile all day.


(Thank you to my friend Robin for the perfect title for these pictures "Sails and Whales".)

Maui sunsets

Maui scenery

Rainbow eucalyptus trees, Hana Hwy, Maui                   Iao Needle in Iao Valley, Maui

High Moon

On the morning of the Wolf Moon, I was sound asleep at 6am until a text message buzzed in from a friend.  The message?  It said "get down to the beach NOW with your camera, full moon setting".  The majority of my brain was still in a fog but the section labeled "photo opp" jolted awake.  I grabbed my camera bag and five minutes later trudged down to the beach in shorts, t-shirt and flip flops with morning hair all askew.  I got there in time to see a big, bright slightly orange-tinged moon setting into the calm ocean amid a thin smudge of low clouds.  In less than ten minutes the moon had gone from high and bright to good-bye and gone.  Sorry to say, no decent pictures were taken.  I went back to the condo, put away my camera and took a nap.  I'd try again another day.

Being somewhat intelligent I figured that if the moon was full the night before and it set the night before then it'd still look full and would set again 24 hours later, right?  I optimistically set my alarm for 5:45am.  Did I forget to mention it was very cloudy and rainy when I went to sleep?  It was very cloudy and rainy when the alarm went off, too.  No moon in sight.  And so.....I went back to sleep.

Apply the aforementioned train of thought once again except with a 48 hour delay from Day One.  When I awoke before the crack of dawn on this particular morning the sky was crystal clear and the moon shone intensely bright.  Score!  Woohoo, I was finally going to photograph the moon-set! 

Maybe not.  The photo you see above is the result of two things.  #1--Me not paying attention in science class or astronomy class to comprehend the moon's irrational pattern night to night.  This became highly evident when the moon showed no sign of giving up it's position in the sky as I thought it should when the sun was rising.  #2--It was 6am.  I was on vacation and awake when I'd rather be sleeping and by golly I was going to take pictures of that moon, regardless of the results.

The picture turned out okay.  The light down the middle of the ocean and on the wave in the forefront was the moonlight reflecting off the water.   The rising sun was lighting up the clouds to the left of the moon.  After being on the beach for over a half hour the moon only moved from the 1 o'clock position to where it's seen in the picture.  Wolf Moon, brightest moon of 2010 and beautiful even though I was two days late!  Stubborn moon.  Just doesn't know when to quit.  Apparently neither do I.