Posted in 13 Moons, Haiku, Holding My Breath, Nature, Practice, Seasons, Skies, Wake Up, tagged cycles, everything turns, Fourth Moon (June), moon, shadows & light, skywatching, Strawberry Moon, summer in Minnesota, Summer Solstice on June 21, 2010| 9 Comments »
June Moon, BlackBerry Shots, Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 2010, photo © 2010 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
tall, green month of June
holding Summer’s pale, blue face —
the Strawberry Moon
-posted on red Ravine, Summer Solstice, June 21st, 2010
-related to posts: Strawberry Moon, haiku 2 (one-a-day), Baby Eagles At Summer Solstice, 15 Hours, 36 Minutes Of Light, Diamonds & Light (Summer Solstice)
Posted in Animals & Critters, Family, Gratitude, Growing Older, Haiku, Holidays, Life, Nature, Photography, Place, Relationships, Seasons, Skies, Things That Fly, tagged baby eagles, eagle's nest, eagles, eaglet, Father's Day, fathers and daughters, fledgling, leaving the nest, nesting, parents, raptors, summer in Minnesota, Summer Solstice on June 21, 2009| 22 Comments »
Baby Eagle 5, fledgling eagle in nest, Minneapolis, Minnesota, photo © 2009 by SkyWire7. All rights reserved.
feathers fly above
eagles on Summer Solstice
learn to leave the nest
Post Script: It’s Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year in this part of the world. We didn’t have a formal Summer Solstice celebration this year. But on Friday, we walked a few blocks down the street from the inlet where our friends live and past Murphy the ferocious dog (Guardian at the Gate) to view this eagle’s nest. It does a heart good to see eagles thriving on such a populated lake near a booming city. Seeing a nest of this size and scale is humbling.
You can’t quite make it out, but there’s another baby eagle (a fledgling or eaglet) to the right, hiding behind a clump of leaves. We could see its ruffled feathers through the binoculars. (Did you know a group of eagles is called an aerie or convocation?) Liz got a few more great shots (link at photo above). Her Canon point-and-shoot has a closer telephoto than mine.
It’s also Father’s Day. And yesterday we walked for hours around the Stone Arch Festival of Arts on the Mississippi River across from the famous Gold Medal sign. All in all, a good weekend to kick off the beginning of Summer. Happy Father’s Day to Jim and to my brothers who are good fathers. Also to my Northern and Southern fathers — thank you for everything you have taught me. I’m thinking about you today.
Eagle’s Nest & Baby, Eagle’s Nest Wide Angle, Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 2009, photo © 2009 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
-posted on red Ravine, Father’s Day, Summer Solstice, Sunday, June 21st, 2009
-related to posts: haiku 2 (one-a-day), 15 Hours, 36 Minutes Of Light, Diamonds & Light (Summer Solstice)
Posted in 25 Things, Animals & Critters, Body, Bones, Culture, Dreams, Food, Fotoblog, Gratitude, Haiku, Holidays, Laughing, Life, Nature, Personal, Photography, Place, Practice, Seasons, Wake Up, tagged celebrating the seasons, community as witness, gratitude for community, how to make S'mores, nagas, numbers, scratch paper haiku, snakes, Stonehenge, Summer Solstice, toads, writing about frogs on June 27, 2008| 23 Comments »
scratch paper haiku, written with the shaft of a feather,
Minneapolis, Minnesota, Summer Solstice 2008, all photos © 2008
by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
ONE 1 frog + 1 toad =
2 reams of good luck
Saw two frogs last weekend. One was this size (a toad). And one looked like this (a frog). The tree frog hopped out of the pond at Summer Solstice and spent some time with us on dry land. I now know the difference between a frog and a toad.
TWO 2 insurance adjusters + 1 friendly couple + 1 smiling contractor =
1 new roof
The toad appeared right as our contractor and two insurance adjusters (a husband and wife team from Kansas) arrived on the scene to inspect the roof. I saw that as a good omen. The toad’s skin looked like the bark of a tree. I thought it was a moth and brushed it off the deck table. It jumped. That’s when I knew it wasn’t a moth. I slid the slick, 4-color binder with the roof estimate under her belly and moved her down under the garden day lilies. She had bright orange skin where the leg meets the body, the same color as the day lilies.
THREE 12 hours + 1 summer storm + 1 green tree frog =
13 moons + 100 rocks + 1 gargantuan chorus
The second frog was a single green tree frog. She strolled proudly by the Solstice fire ring near a tumbled pile of birch, calling back and forth to her friends in the pond. One frog sang out. A few thousand returned the favor. This continued long into the night.
FOUR 1 summer solstice here =
1 winter solstice there
Self-explanatory. We are one world.
FIVE 1 fireside story from 2 shaman lips =
4 Tibetan nagas
Nagas are snake spirits, cobras. They live in or near water — deities of the primal ocean and of mountain springs; also spirits of earth and the realm beneath it — dragons of lakes, ponds, and oceans. They protect the Buddha and like to come up through the feet. Buddha took his sword and cut a valley into 4 parts = 4 Great Nagas. Nagas eat frogs.
SIX 1 drumbeat in the rain =
10 drums in dry heat
It poured in the middle of Solstice. We stood under a cluster of cedars, watched sheets of rain crest over the pond, and kept drumming. The skin of a hand-stretched drum changes tone with the humidity. When the air is saturated with water, one beat can resonate deeply and hang in the air. Close to the fire again, the skin pulls hard at the wood frame. The mallet bounces off hide in short bursts of sound.
SEVEN shedding 1 old skin =
much harder than you think
EIGHT 4 marshmallows + a 2-pronged stick =
3 marshmallows splat on the ground + 1 mean S’more
Hershey’s S’mores (Indoors or Outdoors)
4 graham crackers, broken into halves
2 Hershey’s Milk Chocolate bars (1.55 oz), broken into halves
4 marshmallows
Outdoors: Place chocolate bar half on graham cracker half. Toast marshmallow over grill or campfire (supervise kids if they’re doing this); place over chocolate. Top with second graham cracker half. Gently press together. (Recipe from the cardboard on the inside of a Hershey bar)
Indoors: Place graham cracker half on paper towel; top with chocolate bar half and marshmallow. Microwave at Medium (50%) in 10 second intervals until marshmallow puffs. Immediately top with remaining graham cracker half. Gently press together. Repeat, serve immediately. Makes 4 servings.
NINE 1 alligator + 1 panther =
get along just fine 😉
TEN 25,000 humans + stones aged at 3000 years B.C. + 1 Salisbury Plain =
Summer Solstice at Stonehenge
Some people’s Solstices are way wilder than mine! Stonehenge, on the Salisbury Plain about 90 miles southwest of London, was built over three phases between 3,000 B.C. and 1,600 B.C. Cremated remains and burials continued for at least 500 years. It is estimated that at least 240 people were buried at Stonehenge. More than 750,000 people visit every year.
BONUS: Incubate magic
train whistle marshes
summer solstice grabs the light
and turns it to dark
-posted on red Ravine, Friday, June 27th, 2008
Posted in Bones, Culture, Gratitude, Great Places To Write, Nature, Photography, Place, Seasons, Skies, Wake Up, tagged celebrating the seasons, changing seasons, coffee shops, Diamonds Coffee Shoppe, making light of the dark, Minnesota, Solstice & Equinox time chart, summer, Summer Solstice, the movement of time, the practice of writing, the return of light, time travel, Wheel of Life on June 20, 2008| 25 Comments »
Diamonds At Solstice, June 2008, Minneapolis, Minnesota, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
At Diamonds they say, “Come for the caffeine, stay for the camaraderie.” Diamonds Coffee Shoppe — Your Atomic Coffee Stop — is located in the Arts District of Northeast Minneapolis. It’s a great place to write. To Dawn and Lucy, it’s not just coffee, it’s a philosophy.
Three of us were there last Wednesday evening to write and do art. It was our weekly creative project meeting, part of our dedication to our practice. Our small group of four alternate between the studio in the Casket Arts Building and Diamonds a few blocks away.
Last week the Pop-A-Lock guys were there; 8 of them formed a circle in the hall next to us (across from the vault), and had their business meeting. As fate would have it, one of them had helped me change a flat tire a month ago over in Brooklyn Park. The world gets smaller every day.
Diamonds Coffee Shoppe
1618 Central Ave NE
Minneapolis, MN 55413
(612) 789-5282
Hours:
Mon through Thurs – 6 AM to 10 PM
Fridays 6 AM to 10 PM
Saturday 7 AM to 10 PM
Sunday 8 AM to 10PM
There were three things on my mind tonight. The first was an end of week meeting with my Gemini friend ybonesy. All went well; we are right on track. The second is Diamonds. I downloaded the photos I took last Wednesday. Maybe there will be a Fotoblog to follow. The third?
Summer Solstice. Liz and I are going to a Solstice celebration tomorrow night at a friend’s house. Fire and water. In Minneapolis, the longest day of the year passed a few hours ago at 5:59pm. When is Solstice in your part of the world?
Below are some links that might help. I was looking at archived photographs of the same date last year; the peonies were well on their way. This year the ants have opened only three blooms. Spring is late in coming. I welcome the light.
Time for Summer. Have a diamonds and light Solstice.
HELPFUL TIME LINKS FOR SOLSTICES & EQUINOXES
Holoscenes – Textures of the Earth: Seasons From 1900 To 2099 (LINK)
In the Midwest, we have to subtract 6 hours from UT to get Central Standard time (and 5 for Daylight Saving time (LINK). See also Holoscenes – Textures of the Earth – Special Projects (LINK)
Earth & Sky: How Do I Translate Universal Time To My Time? (LINK)
U.S. Navy – Systems of Time (LINK)
Diamonds At Dusk, June 2008, Minneapolis, Minnesota, all photos © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
-posted on red Ravine, Friday, June 20th, Summer Solstice 2008
-related to posts: 8 Minutes, Winter Solstice – Making Light Of The Dark, Solstice Fire In Winter, 15 Hours, 36 Minutes Of Light
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