Symphonic Days, Tympanic Nights
Trees have fully blossomed
the clouds are fluffy white
a glory day
Trees were starkly bare
the beginning of the same week
the night pregnant with frog
Verticalia
Naked trees reach
upwards toward the sky
in pursuit of our Creator
Trees dressed in flowers
turn our eyes skyward
to gaze at cottony clouds
Church towers
carry our sight
to the bright blue heavens
as we stand
gazing
in unparalleled awe.
PETA – STOP THE SEAL SLAUGHTER!
Please sign the petition and do whatever you can to stop this horrific cruelty. It is a crime of against God’s creatures and a heinous act on the part of men who call themselves human.
Stop the Seal Slaughter! Urge Canada to End Shameful Killing
For centuries, pregnant harp seals have migrated from Greenland down the coast of Canada, stopping each spring to give birth on the ice floes off Newfoundland. And every year, the Canadian government funds a trade in which the baby seals are massacred by club-wielding sealers from the local fishing community while their pelts remain soft enough to sell on the international fur market. The commercial seal slaughter is not a subsistence activity for native peoples but an off-season fishing industry cash grab, and it accounts for less than 1 per cent of Newfoundland’s economy.
Over the last few years, all major markets have banned seal-pelt imports, including the US, the European Union, Mexico, Taiwan and even Russia, which had been importing 95 per cent of Canadian sealskins. The only reason the Canadian government continues to defend this dead industry is…
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heavenly charisma
Just wanted to share one of Marlyn’s beautiful posts on her blog, Klintal— they are all great but this one is so special.
Beepocalypse
A bee performing the miracle that keeps the whole world running~
Picture credit: Bob Peterson/ Jacopo Werther
If like us, Spring at your house means working in your garden and/or your yard, here are some things that you may wish to consider before you begin.
In my email this morning was a new round of pleading from one of my favorite sources for keeping our Planet safe, the Cornucopia Institute.
They are once again, repeating a request for us all to stop using a certain type of insecticides in our yards because of the mortal effects they are having on our bees in America.
Bees and all pollinators are dying by the millions and it is having a ripple effect all across our Planet.
On the Weather Channel this week, a sad example was demonstrated live on the set, bees are being born with crumpled wings and only living a day or two, because they cannot fly, the source or cause of this deformity is mites.
Two more…
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The Panoply of Spring
Muskrat swimming
Spring Peepers peeping
Red-winged Blackbird joining the Peeper Chorus
International Court victory for whales
Pic: Paul Hilton/Greenpeace
Japanese whaling in the Antarctic Ocean was ruled illegal by the International Court of Justice this afternoon. This is a landmark ruling which will stop hundreds of whales being killed each year in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica in the name of “research”.
Australia had asked the Court to stop Japan’s annual whaling hunting expedition, claiming their programme is not scientific but commercial, because of its large scale. Japan catches about 1,000 whales each year for what it calls scientific research.
In a statement, the court said: “The special permits granted by Japan for the killing, taking and treating of whales in connection with JARPA II are not ‘for purposes of scientific research’ pursuant to [the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling].”
The court’s decision is considered legally binding and Japan has said in the past that it would abide by the court’s ruling. But this isn’t the end…
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Save Britain’s Barn Owls
A petition has been launched to save Britain’s Barn Owls, which are dying off in their thousands. The changing climate and a loss in their natural habitat is part of the picture, but these iconic birds are also being killed by powerful rat poisons used on farms across the country.
In 2013 across Britain, the number of Barn Owl nests varied between 45 and 95% lower than normal. Changing climate and habitat loss is part of the picture but Barn Owls are also being killed by powerful rat poisons used on farms across the country. Indeed, the latest scientific research shows that 84% of Britain’s Barn Owls feed on poisoned prey. Some die as a direct result.
The Barn Owl Trust has launched a petition which calls on the Government Minister responsible for the review, Mike Penning, and the Health and Safety Executive to impose stricter controls on these powerful poisons, restricting…
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Child Days in Vermont
Long ago, when I was very young, we used to go visit my great grandfather in Vermont. “Pop,” we called him, was a minister. He was a minister at Riverside Church in New York City, just two blocks from where my husband and I have lived for the past 25 years. Pop and Nana, my great grandmother, spent summers in Greensboro, Vermont, right on a lake, facing the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The lake was pristine. So clean you could drink the water. So cold even in summer, you had to wait until afternoon to swim. So cold fires burned in the fireplace in the mornings. I was scared of fire back then and remember crying and Pop took me back to his little office in the woods where he often had a fire going, to give me a lecture about fear. He told me if you were careful and knew what you were doing and had respect for it, fire was safe in the fireplace and I should not be afraid.
Early in the mornings my Dad and Pop and a neighbor would go fishing for perch for breakfast. They would come home with many fish and then would clean the scales into a bucket off the kitchen. Nana would cook them and serve the fish with fluffy eggs, and soft, buttered toast. And there was sweet, home-made marmalade with bits of peel to relish. We would eat out on the sun porch at a long table in the warm, but not hot, bright yellow sun.
Usually I went to Greensboro with my parents but sometimes Pop would drive me up at nighttime. Twelve hours on old back roads, passing through dark, sleeping towns. There were no highways then. I loved Vermont, and Nana and Pop’s house on the lake. I loved walking along the brook that flowed through their backyard. I loved looking at the blood-red poppies in their garden. But I didn’t like the swarms of gnats that hung in the fresh, warm air. Nor the snakes. Neither did Nana. I remember Nana using a garden tool to cut a garter snake in half. This seemed horrific and puzzling at the time, and seems even more grizzly today. I didn’t understand why we had to kill the snakes.
Nana was very strict, an old New England schoolmarm. My pajamas had to be neatly folded under my bed pillow or else they wound up in the “pound”, a big wooden chest, filled with other untidy things. A child had to pay money to get things out of the pound. I had almost no money then so this was a very effective form of punishment. It is true I was given a modest sum of money when we went to the general store in town. With it I would buy colorful fake wax miniature soda bottles. You would bite off the waxy top and drink the sweet liquid inside the pretend soda bottle. I learned a valuable lesson. The liquid was gone in a second– there was a flash of intense pleasure– and then you were left broke, with an unpleasant wad of wax in your mouth.
Town was miles away. The mail boxes were far away but you could walk to them along the driveway. And the nearest neighbors were far away, too. You had to walk along the lake, through the woods, to get to their house. Upon arrival, the grown-ups would have drinks and play cards and talk about this disease you got in the winter when the snow would cover the front door. It was called “cabin fever.” My mother tried to explain to me what kind of sickness it was but I never understood.
The neighbors had a young teenage boy named Andy and I had a crush on him, declaring him my boyfriend. He barely spoke to me but nevertheless when Nana gave me chocolates, I saved them and brought the bag of chocolates through the woods to the neighbors’ house for Andy. The gift went unacknowledged. Even in those days of relative innocence, I had found my first of many love obsessions. It would be several failed relationships and 30 long years spent in pursuit of love before I would find someone I loved. Someone who has loved me back, mental illness and all, in a marriage of almost 25 years. Not that long in the scheme of things.
Pop dying was the first loss I experienced. I remember not understanding death at all, sitting on Nana’s lap and asking where he had gone. She could not answer me. Nana and I corresponded by letter after that until she died many years later.
It was in those days of cool summers that I fell in love with nature and the countryside, although as a city girl, I was scared of the pitch black nights. It would take me 50 years before I would escape the city when my husband and I got a little barn in rural upstate New York.
As I sit recuperating from a recent illness, I ponder the turns my life has taken and wonder what lies ahead, not without fear, but with growing equanimity.
For memoir continuing the above click on:
‘Grateful Dead’, Mickey Hart and Drumming Therapy
‘Grateful Dead’ drummer Mickey Hart studies rhythm as therapeutic tool | Voxxi.
Dolphins & Snuggling whales
Maybe it’s just me and my love for the ocean but wow, this is amazing!
How lucky are we to share this planet with such amazing beings? And to have something as great as the ocean? 🙂
~ Patricia
Peep Post
A favorite photograph by a really interesting photographer and e-friend, Ashley Lily Scarlett, in the link to her blog below…
Tom Attwater Is Dying. His Daughter Might Die, Too. The Letter He Left For Her Is Unforgettable.
To see a video of Tom reading this letter, click on:
Tom Attwater, Dying of Cancer, Reads the Letter he Wrote to His Daughter Kelli
Despicable Deeds
Image: Public Domain
As an impressive list of Global Heads of State assemble in London to discuss the horror inflicted on wildlife worldwide, our own country has just announced its own set of new rules to play by in dealing with this, or our National Strategy for Combating Wildlife Trafficking.
What is remarkable is that it is being staged in London where just days ago, the trio of England’s youngest Royals had just returned from a delightful hunting adventure.
Are the rest of us expected to say , “Oh, it’s ok, they are just carrying on an Ancient Royal Ritual?”
I think not.
These three quite privileged young people knew that what they were doing would offend many in the world and would most likely become front page news right before this important gathering in London.
They most certainly had to be aware of the controversy that they would be unleashing.
Doesn’t this all smack of…
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Withering Whales
Heartbreaking!! And we are responsible.
A Long-finned pilot whale spyhopping
Picture credit: Barney Moss
An update to this story
The news is worse yet today, even more Whales have been found dead and again their stomachs were empty, but the thing that is most disturbing is the fact that these whales normally live in very deep waters and that they are probably coming into shallower waters now because something is terribly wrong where they live in the Gulf. Once again my suspicions are toxins from either the BP oil spill or the chemicals used to clean it up. These family oriented mammals will all follow even one sick member to their own deaths. It is tragic. Regardless of what is the cause this time, we are killing our sea life and poisoning the sea. God help us all.
About 25 pilot whales found dead in southwest Florida
Each day as I watch our local news, I keep hoping that this will all end…
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Save the Bees!
Bees don’t just make honey, they are vital to life on earth, every year pollinating 90% of plants and crops and without immediate action, many of our favourite fruits, vegetables, and nuts could vanish from our shelves.
Recent years have seen a massive decline in bee populations around the world and some bee species are already extinct! A key EU agency is saying that toxic pesticides called neonicotinoids could be responsible for the bee deaths. The EU has banned three of these bee-killers, but giant chemical producers like Bayer and Syngenta continue to export their poison across the world.
Let’s get people power to counter the powerful pesticide lobby and save bees from extinction. Please sign the urgent petition to leaders around the world, and then share it as wide as you can.
Thank you 😉
Beings of Light
In this month of darkness, in this the darkest month, the light of the human spirit shines forth in so many– in so many ways. As the days grow shorter, houses and trees are decorated, and snow falls. In the hushed silence of the nights, lights shine in windows, and whisper in the darkness. For this season of giving brings the festivals of lights: Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and in the Fall, Diwali. Each tradition incorporates light in its ceremonies and decorations.
A neighbor-friend of mine who lives down the road, a donkey in his stable, reminds me of the story of another manger two thousand years ago. And seeing him snug in his stable with snow on the ground gives the illusion that all is right in the world. But all is not well. Far, far too many know no peace in any season. Far, far too many live in poverty. Far, far too many suffer the effects of the new mammoth storms.
We who live closer to the land are so blessed to share our lives with animals. These creatures are constant reminders of humility and simplicity in this rapid, complex, multi-tasking world. We drive around on a December night and see houses covered in lights with illuminated trees, houses warmed by fires, and imagine them filled with laughter and conversation and love. We are blessed to have so much, when so many have so little. Blessed to be able to celebrate our religious beliefs as we wish, when others cannot. Yet even in the worst of conditions the strength of the human spirit is indomitable.
In December’s darkness we light lights. In truth, we are beings of light. A light glows within each one of us. And, at the most basic level, we are beings of light for we are made of stardust. Perhaps that is why the stars hold such majesty for us—stars compose our bodies within, and, without, our skies sing with stars the hymns of the Heavens.
Einstein said: “A human being is part of the whole, called by us the ‘Universe”– a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts, and feelings, as something separated from the rest– a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” We are all cut from the same cloth and our inner light is one.
And in this holiday season we behold the night sky as shepherds did two thousand years ago on the birth of the holy infant, in a stable. That night a star lit the whole sky to guide the shepherds. And, in 165 BCE, the Holy Temple in Jerusalem was re-dedicated and with the miracle of the ritual oil, the light burned for eight nights.
On these deep, long, silent nights as we light our houses, our candles, our Menorahs, our trees, let us look inside ourselves and find the glow that unites us and will guide us to the Everlasting Light.
Caught on Video: Elephant Sunder Beaten
Warning video is very upsetting!! You don’t have to watch it but please sign the petition for Sunder to be taken out of his current torture chamber where he is being so cruelly treated and moved to safety!
Zirafa
Willow, a one day old baby Giraffe with its mother.
Picture credit: Ralph Daily
I had no intention of writing today, but coming upon this story and the petition that accompanied it, changed that in a heartbeat.
For as long as I can remember, the Giraffe has been the object of my affection and admiration.
There is something so regal, so fragile, so graceful, so endearing about them, how could you not love them.
In my lifetime, I have, with little shame, amassed a collection of Giraffes in every form, all manner of clothing, toys for my children and my dogs of course, stationary, Christmas cards, birthday cakes, Giraffes made of paper, wood, copper, bisque, brass, you name it, if it is a Giraffe anything, I have it.
In my defense, many of the above were gifts, as my love of this animal was well-known.
But apparently, not everyone loves or cherishes…
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MOONSIDE 
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