Ice Hair

O.K.
I woke up this morning and did
the usual thing...
took the dogs out.
As I was rousing from my grog,
I began to notice strange
hairy plants all around...
everywhere!!
I mean everywhere.
So I wrote a poem
about it (of course.)
Stand back.

ice hair here
ice hair there
ice hair
everywhere

It was awesomely beautiful and downright
hairy overall.

Click to enlarge
[So that you, too,
can get the same
(rather) hairy
effect...]

I'm sure that there is a scientific
name for all of this...hair.
The ice apparently
crystallized in long
spiky finger-like forms.
And, of course, being the kid that I really am,
I had to touch them. They are not as fragile
as you might think. They actually break off
(as spikes) and lay in your hand...until they melt.
Groovy-eh?? This should keep me busy today;
I mean...the wonder of it all.
The icy phenomenon lead me to ask,
does nature ever really
present itself
in the exact and very same fashion
each
and every
day?
Enjoy (the heck) out of these
friends
of the
Appalachians.

Lit Up

A bright sky and
rolling clouds
made this
mountain top view
just brilliant.

Wintry Travel (Pics)

Majestic Winter Trio
(click to enlarge)
:)

The Event Commences

Yes. We are snowed in. Here in the High Country,
this is a regular event during the heart of the winter.
After about 4-5 inches of the white powdery stuff
many (if not most) of our roads are built with
too steep of an incline to get traction. Last night,
in a lightening idea brainstorm (could be, cabin fever?),
we decided to try and venture out to get....
deer corn (of course-we don't want the deer
to go hungry!)
We had had about 5 inches of snow,
and we concocted (mistakenly) that our tough
all wheel drive Mercury Mountaineer
tank with big tready tires...could (easily) hack it.
We did get down off the mountain to a rather
long steep incline that goes up (to us) off of the
main highway (which might have been plowed) but
after spying a women in a minivan partly on the
road/partly in the ditch, we tried to stop the car
on the incline. We kept sliding...and sliding....
so we did surmise (mutually) :)
to turn around and head back home.
In fresh snow, we have found if we keep
the vehicle moving (on an incline even)
we can continue on our journey.
You wouldn't want to stop.

When the Big Plow (we love love love him)
comes through (which it usually does daily,
except in the case of a nasty long drawn out blizzard,)
he puts down a huge spray of sand and of salt
making the road navigable
(until the snow again covers this.)
We usually piggy-back ourselves on the plow,
going out just right after he comes through
and does his miraculous work.

They are forecasting snow largely
for all of next week.
The down side for my teenage daughter is,
the local high school will probably be closed
all week (again, largely because the mountain
roads here are too dangerous for snowy travel
due to their pitch and their incline.)
She is sad (about this) and will
have to make up all time off by adding on to the
school calender at the end of the year (summer!)
or by attending school on good weather Saturdays.
And then-there are exams to make up, which
tends to make her nervous. But we are well.
As always, I will keep you
posted.
:)

Stark

The stark
gray, black and brown
of the woods-
enhanced
by winter's light
snow
dance.
:)

Series Above 3000

JustHeaven(ontheBlueRidge)

MyStripedLove

RoyalBlue

StriatedVariations

SmokeyRidgeSky

WildRide

HeavenlyStriping

SkyRibbons

HeavenlyValley

MountainTopIllumination

WinterMorningColor

Cold Today

We had drizzle and some warmer temps that melted
almost all of the 18 inches of snow that we had.
But, it has now gotten C-O-L-D again
(under 20 degrees.) What is it,
about ducks that enable them to keep
their feet in that freezing water?
Why aren't their little webbed feet blue
(or something?) The dogs have been muddy,
so I have had them dipping their feet in a chilly pool;
which they hate! Chilly temps here,
but we are (at least) seeing some sun!
I am hoping to procure some shots of interest for you
when I get my chores done that I neglected
over the holidays!!!! I hope that your
New Year's celebration was peachy keen
as well! I was like a large polar bear
laying sprawled out the snow-
content and at home...
and certainly
not accomplishing all too much!
School is back in session tomorrow
(for my youngest.)
Vacation is
over.

Resolute Things: 2011

Things that are resolute:

The rocks of the Appalachian Trail

The mess of my son's room (thus far...)

...That the wispy streaks of cloud

will be whipped up by mountain currents

(looking just like sky cotton candy

as they travel onward...upward)

That I will spy

a new moon

to abandon myself to...

That I will walk through

the melting and the return

of all things snow...

That man will write and write and write

(again)

(There is more yet, to be said...)

That my bed feels good

That my heart will be stirred

That the calendar will soon turn (again)

and that

I am

the lazy days

of summer.

Scenes from throughout this past year

December 2010

November 2010

October 2010

September 2010

August 2010

July 2010

June 2010

May 2010

April 2010

March 2010

February 2010

January 2010

For the Crescent Moon

The silvery glow of a soft crescent moon woke me 
last night, as it laid a kiss upon my cheekbone... 

It traveled across my room's window, 
toying lovingly with me as it 
inched across the framed window, 
little by little, but, oh...so low.

O crescent moon, must you travel?

Whither thou goest? Can you not stay? 
May I put you on a string and bob you up and then down?

Or is it a game we must play? 

I track you. I trace you.

You travel (away.) I open my eyes wondering...

are you gone yet? Will you...stay? 

Yet, you tease me. Crescent, to my amazement,
you paste yourself in the inky black night sky
and soft glow 
as a sliver of an orb 
with a twin companion star 
twinkling near you.

I embrace you, this night,

and hold you as if you are Friend.

Fresh with new meaning, 
the words in Moore's wintry poem 
echo through my sleepy head.

"The moon on the breast of the new fallen snow,

gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below."

You have given me a kiss of light. 
I delight in you, Crescent Gold. 
You leave me hoping in beauty.

Bathe me in the touch...
of your milky white caresses. 

Banish me to your kingdom, Crescent.

I shall await your return, O Solemn One.
You are ever watchful,

ever faithful, 
iridescent,

incandescent

Crescent Moon.

And this I sing for you:

"Au clair de la lune

Mon ami Pierrot

Prête-moi ta plume

Pour écrire un mot."

Wintery Scenes

from the High Country!
We are held firmly in the grasp...
of winter. Here are some of winter's best colors to date,
taken Christmas weekend. The quiet solitude and intensity
of color against the darker hold of winter make for
compelling scenery.