-haiga posted on redRavine, Saturday, January 24th, 2015
-Part of a yearly practice to write a short form piece of poetry in my Moleskine journal once a day for the next year. Related to post: haiku 4 (one a day) Meets renga 52
Posted in Art, Haiku, Nature, Practice, Seasons, tagged haiga, midwinter blues, nature as muse, the practice of poetry, wind, winter in Minnesota on January 24, 2015| Leave a Comment »
-haiga posted on redRavine, Saturday, January 24th, 2015
-Part of a yearly practice to write a short form piece of poetry in my Moleskine journal once a day for the next year. Related to post: haiku 4 (one a day) Meets renga 52
Posted in Laughing, Poetry, Practice, Seasons, Weather, tagged 5lines, cabin fever, Groundhog Day, haiga, icicles, micropoetry, midwinter blues, Punxsutawney Phil, winter in Minnesota on February 2, 2014| 5 Comments »
icicles. 33/365, Droid 365 Squared, Minneapolis, Minnesota, February 2014, photos © 2014 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
Groundhog, woodchuck, whistle pig—
six more weeks of winter?
The frozen tundra
in my backyard
may cause my mind to splinter.
-posted on red Ravine, Sunday, February 2nd, 2014
-related to: Vote For Punxsutawney Phil!
Posted in Art, Gratitude, Holding My Breath, Laughing, Photography, Seasons, tagged Angela Kelly, artists as muse, blowing bubbles in winter, chasing bubbles, frozen bubble photography, frozen bubbles, how to blow frozen bubbles, inspiration, Liz anne schultz, making the best of the cold, nature as muse, ordinary as extraordinary, winter, winter in Minnesota, winter photography on January 8, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Vertical Bubbles, Minneapolis, Minnesota, January 2014, photos © 2014 by Liz anne schultz. All rights reserved.
The -22°F drop in air temperature in the Twin Cities this week closed schools and businesses, persuading most of us to stay inside and curl up with a good book. But after seeing the images of photographer Angela Kelly, Liz was inspired to mix up a concoction of soap bubbles, strap her Sony NEX around her neck, and head out into the cold.
I was recruited to blow bubbles, while she chased them around the deck, hoping to grab a quick shot before they flew over the roof and collapsed into tinkling ice crystals. It was -9°F with wind gusts dropping the chill to -30°F below. Liz’s camera even froze up a few times. Yet with everything that was going on around us, she captured a sense of stillness and serenity in these photographs.
Red Dual Bubble, Minneapolis, Minnesota, January 2014, photos © 2014 by Liz anne schultz. All rights reserved.
After we were back inside, warming our bones in front of the heater, we read up on the details of blowing bubbles in freezing temperatures. Here is what we learned:
1) For the best frozen bubbles, add corn syrup to thicken the water base and increase the surface tension. It is surface tension that allows the solution to form a bubble. Use the ratio of ingredients below. Then mix and let cool.
1 part dish soap
1 part corn syrup
6 parts hot water
2) Use a bubble wand, instead of your breath.
A bubble is formed by a layer of water molecules trapped between two fine layers of soap molecules. When it is very cold, and the bubble wand is waved slowly, the water layer freezes before the bubble can burst. By contrast, if you make a bubble by blowing into the wand, the bubble takes more time to set because the air in the bubble has been warmed by your lungs. When this warm air comes into contact with cold air it contracts, and the surface of the bubble sets more slowly.
3) It’s natural for frozen bubbles to collapse into themselves.
The layers of soap freeze, making the walls of the bubble more solid. After a few seconds, the air captured inside the bubble disperses to the exterior, like a balloon deflating, and the wall of ice collapses under its own weight leaving what looks like a broken eggshell.
Green Frost Bubble, Caving Bubble, Minneapolis, Minnesota,
January 2014, photos © 2014 by Liz anne schultz.
All rights reserved.
We are counting on Minnesota to produce another round of sub-zero temperatures (and less wind) so we have a chance to practice more frozen bubble photography before spring.
-posted on red Ravine, Wednesday, January 8th, 2014, with gratitude to Angela Kelly for the inspiration
-Resources: Science Fun In The Snow – Try This Out – Frozen Bubbles, Angela Kelly’s website: Kelly Images & Photography: Acclaim for the “Frozen in a Bubble Series”
Posted in Art, Haiku, Photography, Practice, Seasons, Skies, Things That Fly, Wake Up, Weather, tagged circles, diamond dust, gogyohka, haiga, ice crystals, ice halos, parhelia, parhelic circles, plate crystals, refraction, sundogs, the 22º halo, Vädersolstavlan, What is a sundog?, winter in Minnesota on December 9, 2013| 3 Comments »
Sundog Halo, iPhone Shots, Minneapolis, Minnesota, December 2013, photo © 2013 by Liz Anne Schultz. All rights reserved.
Sundog halo
in a dark world—
her crystal face, silent, skewed.
Deviant rays of red and blue,
diamond dust takes many hues.
There were two days last week when sundogs appeared on our drive to work, adding a little magic to the sub-zero skies. Sundogs, parhelia, are formed by plate crystals high in the cirrus clouds. Though all crystals refract light from the sun’s rays, we only see those that tilt their light toward our eyes 22° or more from the sun and at the same altitude (a 22° circular halo).
When plate crystals drift down with their large hexagonal faces almost horizontal, rays that become sundogs enter a side face and leave through another, inclined 60° to the first. The refractions deviate the rays by 22° or more, depending on their angle when they enter the crystal, making them visible to us. Red is deviated least, giving the sundog a red inner edge.
Vädersolstavlan, a 17th century painting of Stockholm depicting a halo display event in 1535. Cleaned in 1998. Public Domain.
Sundogs are visible all over the world, any time of year, regardless of the ground temperature. In cold climates, the plates can reside at ground level as diamond dust. The oldest known account of a sundog is “Sun Dog Painting” (Vädersolstavlan) depicting Stockholm in 1535 when the skyscape was filled with white circles and arcs crossing the horizon. The original oil on panel painting, traditionally attributed to Urban Målare, is lost, and virtually nothing is known about it. A copy from 1636 by Jacob Heinrich Elbfas is held in Storkyrkan in Stockholm, and believed to be an accurate copy.
-posted on red Ravine, Monday, December 9th, 2013
-related to post WRITING TOPIC — CIRCLES, haiku 4 (one-a-day) Meets renga 52
Posted in 13 Moons, Art, Haiku, Life, Photography, Place, Poetry, Practice, Quotes, Relationships, Seasons, Skies, Structure, tagged BlackBerry 52, BlackBerry Moon, blue monochrome, blue skies, Bone Moon, building community through the Arts, collaborative photography, color psychology, color symbolism, February Full Moon, February Snow Moon, haiga, inspiration, the color blue, the value of practice, the value of process, The Void, winter blues, winter in Minnesota, With The Void Full Powers, Yves Klein on February 16, 2011| 6 Comments »
A Warm Game Of Texas Hold ‘Em (Haiga) – 6/52, BlackBerry 52 – WEEK 6, Golden Valley, Minnesota, February 11th 2011, photo © 2011 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved. Medium: Digital BlackBerry photograph altered in Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0, Font: Myriad Pro.
After reading the Lunar New Year postcard from Lotus (her BlackBerry52 Jump-Off for Week 6), I started to think about how we don’t know each other in person. We are vulnerable only through our poetry, writing, artwork, the years of conversation that have taken place in this quiet space. There is a long stretch of road, I-35, that connects the landscape between us. Part of her knows this place; her mother once lived in Minnesota. We stare at the same moon, sun, planets and stars.
I was scraping ice dams off the roof last week, and happened to look up behind the blade I was wielding. There between the brilliant blue branches of the oak and ash peered the Bone Moon. The Ancients sometimes called February’s moon the Snow Moon. I reached into my pocket, grabbed the BlackBerry, and snapped off a shot of the sky. It became the backdrop for a haiga, an unbroken expanse of words extending all the way to Texas.
The blue? For Valentine’s Day, Liz asked me on a date to the Walker to see the work of neo-Dada painter Yves Klein — With the Void, Full Powers. I was moved by the architecture of air, the fire paintings, his relationship to the elements, the Anthropométries (human paintbrushes), and the Ex-Voto dedicated to Rita, the Patron Saint of Lost Causes. I walked slowly through a white-walled room of blue monochromes, Klein’s Blue Period. I’ve never seen blue look so beautiful. Blue for the skies of Winter. Blue for communication and expression. Blue for the Blues.
Blue has no dimensions. It is beyond dimensions, while the other colors have some. These are the psychological spaces. Red, for example, presupposes a hearth giving off heat. All colors bring forth associations of concrete, material, and tangible ideas, while blue evokes all the more the sea and sky, which are what is most abstract in tangible and visible nature.
–Yves Klein (1928 – 1962)
Through color I feel the sentiment of complete identification with space; I am truly liberated.
–Yves Klein (1928 – 1962)
_______________
Lotus and I will continue our call and response by posting a BlackBerry photo for the 52 weeks of 2011. Feel free to join us if you wish (learn about the project’s beginnings at BlackBerry 52 Collaboration). To read more about Lotus, visit her at alotus_poetry on Twitter (where she writes poetry every day in community with other Twitter poets), at Poetry By Lotus, and on her Flickr account.
-related to posts: Best Of BlackBerry 365 — First Quarter SlideShow, BlackBerry 365 Project — White Winter Squirrel, Flying Solo — Dragonfly In Yellow Rain, Searching For Stillness, icicle tumbleweed (haiga) — 2/52, The Mirado Black Warrior, The Dying Art Of Letterwriting (Postcards From The Edge)
-posted on red Ravine, Wednesday, February 16th, 2011
Posted in 13 Moons, Animals & Critters, Body, Bones, Culture, Film / TV / Video, Holding My Breath, Home, Life, Place, Seasons, Secrets, Wake Up, tagged Bear, Bear Cam, bear hibernation, Bear Moon, bearing witness, Black Bear Den Cam, black bears, cubs, Doug Hajicek, Ely, hibernating animals, January Full Moon, January in Minnesota, Lily, Lily the Black Bear, live birth of bears, live birth of black bear cubs, living the questions, Local Color, love of animals, Lynn Rogers, Minnesota, MN Black Bear Den Cam, North American Bear Center, unanswered questions, wild bears, Wildlife Research Institute, winter habits of Bears, winter in Minnesota, Wolf Moon on January 17, 2010| 127 Comments »
Black Bear Lily On The BearCam, BlackBerry Shots, Minneapolis, Minnesota, January 2010, DenCam provided by the NABC/WRI, photo snapshot 2010 by QuoinMonkey.
If you’ve never seen a wild black bear gently lick her paws, roll over in her den, or blow puffs of winter breath in sub-zero temperatures, Lily will change your life. I used to think hibernating bears went into their dens and peacefully slept all Winter. Nothing could be further from the truth.
On Friday January 8th, documentary veteran Doug Hajicek installed an Infra Red camera system into a black bear’s den near Ely, Minnesota. And not just any black bear. Her name is Lily. Three-year-old Lily is part of the long-term study of black bear ecology and behavior being conducted by Lynn Rogers at Ely’s Wildlife Research Institute, less than 30 miles from the Canadian border. Lily is the daughter of 9-year-old June, and it is believed that Lily is pregnant. There is an above average chance she will give birth in mid January.
The Full Moon in January, which I’ve often celebrated as the Wolf Moon, is sometimes known as the Bear Moon. Last week under the New Bear Moon, I listened to Cathy Wurzer interview Doug Hajicek on MPR. Then Liz and I started following Lily on Facebook. We also watched her on the Today Show. And have been reading bear facts at the North American Bear Center and checking in to Lily’s Bear Cam ever since.
No one has ever seen a wild bear give birth to cubs. Some mornings, I can’t take my eyes off the screen. If the miracle happens, it will be the first time in history it has ever been filmed. Bearing witness. It is a powerful thing.
To view the magic for yourself, check out these links:
-posted on red Ravine under the New Bear Moon, Sunday, January 17th,
Other Local Color posts from Minnesota & New Mexico:
Posted in Art, Culture, Dreams, Food, Fotoblog, Holidays, Photography, Place, Seasons, Work, tagged alphabets, BlackBerry shots, Borscht, cell phone photography, Kramarczuk's Deli, Kramarczuk's Sausage Co., landmarks, Minneapolis at night, Minneapolis landmarks, mouthwatering restaurants, neighborhood delis, Nightshots, Nordeast, Northeast, Northeast Minneapolis, Polish Sausage, restaurants, SauerKraut Dish, shadows & light, signs, stick-to-your-ribs food, the practice of photography, Ukrainian food, Ukrainian Meatballs, Varenyky dumplings, vintage signs, winter in Minnesota, Winter Solstice on December 19, 2009| 18 Comments »
“K” Is For Kramarczuk’s, BlackBerry Shots, Minneapolis, Minnesota, December 2009, all photos © 2009 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
We stopped at Kramarczuk’s Deli last week to take a few photographs after Christmas shopping. Wasyl Kramarczuk and his wife Anna traveled from the Ukraine to the United States in the 1940’s carrying hope and a dream. In 1954, they combined Wasyl’s sausage making skills with Anna’s delicious cooking and baking to create Kramarczuk’s. Today it’s a Northeast Minneapolis landmark (read more at the Kramarczuk’s website).
Northeast Minneapolis is one area of the city that still cherishes the neighborhood deli. After moving to Minnesota in 1984, I settled in Nordeast where I quickly got to know Kramarczuk’s Deli. In fact, for 20 years I got my hair cut in the vintage East Gate Shopping Center nearby that was torn down a few years ago to make way for a grocery store and high-rise.
What’s your favorite deli food? Check out Kramarczukl’s mouthwatering menu. I’ve had the Polish Sausage, the SauerKraut Dish, and the Ukrainian Meatballs. I love the Varenyky dumplings and the Borscht. It is hearty, stick-to-your-ribs food, perfect for the -0 degree December weather we’ve been having in the Twin Cities. Liz and I were drawn to photograph the mural on the side of the building at night. The letters in the side-by-side alphabets reminded me of our recent post on Runes, Oracles, & Alphabets.
And the Runes remind me of the Holidays and Solstice. Today we’ll be putting up our tree. On Sunday, we’ll be celebrating Winter Solstice at the home of our friends. I’m excited because they recently created a labyrinth in their front yard. Walking from Winter darkness to the green of Spring. What do you want to let go of? What would you like to carry into the light.
Kramarczuk’s – Since 1954, Kramarczuk’s Sausage Co. Inc., Kramarczuk’s Walldog Mural, Northeast – Making History Again, East European Deli – Old Kramarczuk’s Sign, Writing On The Wall, Kramarczuk’s At Christmas, BlackBerry Shots, Minneapolis, Minnesota, December 2009, all photos © 2009 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
-posted on red Ravine, Saturday, December 19th, 2009
Posted in Animals & Critters, Body, Bones, Family, Gratitude, Growing Older, Life, Love, Personal, Photography, Relationships, Seasons, tagged 10 Cat Care Tips, administering subcutaneous fluids, caring for aging cats, caring for chronically ill pets, cats, Chaco, Creature Comforts, January in Minnesota, love of animals, Sub-Q Fluids, winter in Minnesota, winter sports on January 26, 2009| 67 Comments »
Chaco Bell, Minneapolis, Minnesota, December
2008, photo © 2008-2009 by QuoinMonkey. All
rights reserved.
It’s still the dead of Winter in Minnesota, and we’ve got the temperatures to prove it. How do you know it’s January in Minnesota?
Meantime, life inside home and hearth goes on. The week before Winter Solstice, our middle-aged cat Chaco (named after the canyon in New Mexico, elevation: 6200 feet) became seriously ill; we got him into the vet on December 18th. By the weekend, he needed to go to emergency care for IV fluids, medication, and monitoring, then back to our clinic on Monday. So began the last 6 weeks of caring for a chronically ill cat.
On our last visit to Dr. Heidi, she checked his blood again, and after treating a massive infection with three prescriptions of antibiotics, it seems his numbers are up on the kidneys, yet his anemia remains below the norm. He tires easily, but is eating, drinking, sometimes playing. He’s gained 1.2 lbs. of the 2 lbs. he lost. But there’s that nagging anemia.
The problem with anemia in cats is that it’s hard to diagnose the origin; it can be anything, including chronic kidney disease. We’ve elected home treatment for another month to see if we can get his anemia under control. This means continuing antibiotics, vitamin paste, subcutaneous fluids every 2 or 3 days, prescription foods tailored for kidneys (rich in lean meat, low in fats and additives), and monitoring his habits and schedule.
Chaco — “Room To Heal”, Minneapolis,
Minnesota, December 2008, photo ©
2008-2009 by QuoinMonkey. All rights
reserved.
Those of you who have cared for ill animals know the drill. It’s good to call on friends who’ve been through a “cat crisis” when you need to make hard financial and emotional decisions involving care for ill pets. It’s truly a miracle that Chaco is alive. Right before Christmas, our vet told us the staff was begging her to put him down. But she saw a few signs of hope in his numbers; otherwise, I would be doing a very different kind of post.
The bottom line with seriously ill pets, is that it’s a very personal decision you must make about how much money to spend (prepare to dip into your savings), what kind of long-term care you are willing to sustain, and if the animal’s quality of life can be maintained without pain and hardship on either side. Tough choices.
Liz and I take it a day at a time. And are happy for the time we have left with Chaco, whatever that may be. On March 22nd, he’ll be 13 years old. With Liz caring for him most of his life, he’s lived like a prince!
We’ve learned quite a bit about cat care over the last month. Perhaps others can benefit from what we’ve been through.
Creature Comforts – 10 Cat Care Tips
Below is a short list of Creature Comforts that have made our lives easier over the last 6 weeks of caring for a chronically ill cat. Some can be found around the house. Others take a little cash up front, but we found it helpful to stock up on items that make long-term medical care more bearable for both cats and humans.
We created a home base (see photo above) tucked away in the bedroom where we could monitor Chaco, and followed his movements closely during the first few weeks. Creating a space where he felt safe was important. We also set aside a centralized place in the kitchen for his food, meds, syringes, vitamins, and a high place to hang the Sub-Q bag. Below are other ideas and product brands, but experiment and find what works best for you.
Products and items we’ve found to be helpful during the critical first week:
Products and items we’ve found to be helpful over the long haul:
I know there are many who have done long-term care for aging or sick pets. If you’ve got any other cat or pet care tips, we’d love to hear them. Please feel free to add them to this post. And remember, cat care is stressful, so take advantage of all the winter sports the Great White North has to offer and get some exercise!
Miracle Cat, Minneapolis, Minnesota,
December 2008, photo © 2008-2009 by
QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
Helpful Links:
-posted on red Ravine, Monday, January 26th, 2009
Posted in 13 Moons, Haiku, Holding My Breath, Nature, Photography, Place, Practice, Seasons, Skies, Weather, tagged 1st Moon, celestial ménage à trois, howling at the moon, January in Minnesota, moonwriting, winter in Minnesota, Wolf Moon on January 13, 2009| 25 Comments »
one rises, one sets
Moon cradled in snow branches
Sun births a new day
Cradled In Ash, Minneapolis, Minnesota, January 2009, photo © 2009 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
click! snaps the shutter
fingers frozen to the bone
nose running away
Wolf Moon howls at me
survival of the warmest
she wins every time
Note: Woke up to -18 degree temperatures in our zip code (-32 wind chills) and saw this through the window at sunrise. What a magnificent sight. I had to step out in my soft new PJ’s (thanks Mom!) and take a few shots. Right after that, I donned all my winter mummy-wear and spent 1 1/2 hours shoveling the two feet of snow blocking our long, hilly driveway. We are in the January deep freeze, traditionally the coldest weeks of the year.
I love winter in Minnesota. It makes me feel alive. And the Wolf Moon is the brightest I’ve seen in months. You can read more about why in the Comment links from our readers in this post about a celestial ménage à trois . (Thanks diddy and R3. I knew I’d fit that phrase in somewhere!)
-posted on red Ravine, Tuesday, January 13th, 2008
-related to posts: winter haiku trilogy, PRACTICE – Wolf Moon – 10min, haiku (one-a-day)
Posted in Architecture, Art, Culture, Family, Fotoblog, Laughing, Nature, Personal, Photography, Place, Seasons, Skies, Structure, Vision, Weather, tagged Art Shanty Projects, David Pittman, Medicine Lake, Peter Haakon Thompson, The Art Of Ice, winter in Minnesota on April 6, 2008| 28 Comments »
The Face Of Winter, Medicine Lake, Minnesota, February 2008, photo
© 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
When photographer Peter Haakon Thompson came up with the Art Shanty Projects in 2003, he never meant for it to become a huge event. The original plan was to take a break from work, build his own ice shack, and hang out with a couple of friends. When Liz and I attended the event last February, during some of the coldest winter days on record, it was obvious his idea had caught fire in Minnesota.
Midwesterners are known for creative ways to weather the dark winter seasons. If we stayed inside through the long months of winter (we had an end of March blizzard just last weekend), we’d surely go insane. To break the lethargy of cabin fever, we are prone to brave the elements and get our butts outside. What better way than a venture into the Arts.
In a 2005 MPR article on The Art Shanty Projects, Peter explains how he got started: “I just really liked the idea of small spaces that you can fit everything into,” says Thompson. “I’m a sailor and I really like sailboats and how everything fits into that small space.”
Once Thompson’s friend David Pittman heard about the project, he immediately saw potential. The Art Shanty Project, co-curated by Pittman and Thompson, was born.
Artists dove deep into their right-brain imaginations to reinvent the ice fishing house. What’s limnology? What about a portrait in the Snap Shot Shanty? Or a visit to the Shanty of Misfit Toys. This year, Old Man Winter would have been chuckling under frigid, billowing puffs of breath. Because on the coldest day of Winter 2008, Minnesota families of all ages showed up at East Medicine Lake Beach to do the bunny hop.
“Part of the idea I think for us is that this is not an intimidating gallery environment,” says Thompson. “So I think people are more willing to come and look at stuff if it just doesn’t have that quiet gallery atmosphere. It’s outside and there’s kids and dogs running around and snowmobiles.”
The Art Shanty Project is over for the season. But the memories linger. The Karaoke Shanty, Postal Shanty, Cubicle Shanty (created by a group that designs parking structures), Foreclosure Shanty, and Black Box Theater are closed for the year. The Freeze Pop pullover has been retired. The track for the bicycle ice races, melted into lake. But the Art of Ice lives on in these photographs.
Angles, Medicine Lake, Minnesota, February 2008, all photos © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
To view more photographs and press of the Art Shanty Projects, check out these links:
-posted on red Ravine, Sunday, April 6th, 2008
Posted in Haiku, Holding My Breath, Nature, Photography, Place, Poetry, Practice, Seasons, Silence, Skies, tagged holding space, the practice of haiku, the sun, winter in Minnesota on March 26, 2008| 3 Comments »
Holding Space, Minneapolis, Minnesota, February 2008, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
lake frozen in place
yellow sun sinking behind
holding silent space
-posted on red Ravine, Wednesday, March 26th, 2008
-related to post: haiku (one-a-day)
Posted in Bones, Haiku, Nature, Photography, Place, Poetry, Practice, Seasons, Writers, tagged ice, leaves, Nature's secrets, the practice of haiku, tracks, unearthing old bones, winter in Minnesota on March 6, 2008| 13 Comments »
Tracks, Minneapolis, Minnesota, February 2008, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
March winds rock the house
the writer sits at her desk
unearthing old bones
-posted on red Ravine, Thursday, March 6th, 2008
-related to posts: haiku (one-a-day) and snow flying on ice (sound haiku)
Posted in 13 Moons, Body, Bones, Culture, Life, Nature, Personal, Practice, Seasons, Secrets, Skies, Writing Practices, tagged Bone Moon, cabin fever, February Full Moon, Lunar Eclipse, Nature's secrets, Raccoon Moon, Snow Moon, winter in Minnesota on February 25, 2008| 21 Comments »
The Full Snow Moon was bright, then blood red, the last Total Lunar Eclipse until 2012. There are many names for February’s Moon: Sleet Moon, Goose Moon, Coyote Moon. I even found a reference from the Sioux, Raccoon Moon. I thought of our resident raccoon. I bundled wool over exposed skin, stood outside in no wind, -6 degrees of chilled air, watched the shadow of Earth fall between us and the Moon.
We could only stand to be outside for 5 or 10 minutes. Then we would quickly roll inside, warm up frost-fried fingers, fumble with camera buttons to see if we got a good shot. Blurred, no tripod. Back outside again. Even near a large city, it was silent, clear, you could see a spattering of stars through crimped branches of oak and elm.
The Eastern Cherokee call February the Bone Moon. Food grows thin, sometimes runs out. The Ancients gnawed on bones, made soup in steaming black pots over wooden tripods on fire. The white Bone moon disappeared, slowly eaten by Earth’s shadowy darkness. And in its place, indirect sunlight that still managed to bounce off the moon, turned into red, blues filtered, sucked out by the Earth’s atmosphere. The red moon is warm. We stood staring, not wanting to talk.
February is a lean month. I am restless, can’t stand to be in the house. I have moved to a coffee shop close by. I’m staring out at what is left of Winter’s dress – dirty brown snow. Cars fly past on their way to Rainbow Foods. There are only three of us left inside. I slow-drink a latte (skim), set Natalie’s book out on the table next to my headphones, cell phone, a black caribou jumping through a turquoise hoop. Is it a Snow Moon caribou? Or have we crossed a line into March.
I fattened up over Winter. I can feel a lumbering, I like the word lumbering, in my Soul. And my body aches to run, screaming through the wilderness. I guess that’s what I loved about freezing my butt off, staring up at the Snow Moon. The wildness of it all. I heard the dogs bark down the street. I wanted to scream. I don’t think I said anything to Liz, but they were barking through the whole 3 hours of the eclipse.
I wonder what the Ancients thought, standing around, coyotes circling, staring at the moon disappear behind invisible shadows. How did they make sense of it? A god, a goddess, another force to be reckoned with.
I have not seen the raccoon paws again. But water was dripping off the shingles when I left the house. Puddles splash across the sidewalk, rubber treads throw themselves into muddy thaw. I passed a stone office building located in the middle of a bog. There it is, all alone, in the middle of a swamp. It was empty for a long time, finally bought by a company with a wave logo and hydraulics in the name.
I told Liz I wish that was my studio, a building floating in the middle of a cattail bog, floating on a swamp. But why do people build in Nature’s drainage system, the places she uses to purify her water? I swear, if there were not zoning laws, state and national parks, every single square inch of space would be covered in concrete, tar, brick and mortar. There would be no Snow Moon to stare up at on a February winter night. Yeah, we tried to take over the Moon, too. But there was no air, no water, no food.
Man, so limited in his ability to adapt to physical hardship, fights the elements, refuses to honor the past. I’ve gone off on a tangent now. I guess there is something to be said for a good rant once in a while. I could tell by my writing practice this morning that I was edgy and unforgiving. Mostly of myself. I come here to stare out the window, guilt-free, to work on my projects without flinching or running over to add water to the cat dish.
I remember Natalie saying, “You’ve got to get out of the house. It’s too distracting.” I guess if a home was big enough, you could create enough space, your own wing, off from the rest of the family. But I am so used to sharing space that isn’t really there. It appears and reappears, Poof!, out of thin air.
Like the eclipsed, disappearing Moon. Only to surface hours later, no worse for wear, revealing a few more of her secrets, in coded shades of red. Nature’s secrets, they keep the dark mysteries alive. And in the morning, more Sun.
-posted on red Ravine, Monday, February 25th, 2008
-related to posts, winter haiku trilogy and PRACTICE – Wolf Moon – 10min
Posted in Art, Haiku, Holding My Breath, Nature, Photography, Place, Poetry, Practice, Seasons, Secrets, Things That Fly, Wake Up, tagged Audio Art, Nature's secrets, recording nature, sound technology, the practice of haiku, the sound of snow and ice, winter in Minnesota on February 24, 2008| 10 Comments »
Snow Flying On Ice, Minneapolis, Minnesota, February 2008, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
thick lumbering lake
bristles at the crackling sound
snow flying on ice
Lake Ice Booming – 1min
Recorded by Audio Producer/Editor/Mixer, Curt Olson at Track Seventeen
More sounds of Winter at: The Sound of Snow and Ice – Various Artists at Gruenrekorder
-posted on red Ravine, Sunday, February 24th, 2008
-related to post, haiku (one-a-day)