Happy Chanukah
To all my Jewish Friends!
Picture from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chanukia.jpg
Categories
Category: Nature Writing
Yawning, I glanced out the window. Ice crystals had formed on the outside of the window, my breath steamed up the inside of the glass.
This morning the sun was shining brightly, and diamonds glittered off the pristine white snow. I stood there for a moment, shivered, as I admired the designs in the snow. It looked as though someone had dropped pebbles in water and the white ripples froze in place. They seemed to appear randomly throughout the yard. I knew the patterns were formed by very cold ground winds as they jumped from one high patch to the next.
Outside temperature was 0 degrees…
Inside the house I heard the winds howling as they moved under the eves and around the chimney, and then tried to push in through the gaps in the old windows. I heard the sound of the deck popping from the cold. The boards were freezing.
I grabbed an old purple sweatshirt, pulled it on over my head and shuffled to the kitchen. Before I do anything I need my morning coffee, at least a sip.
A short time later I was standing out at the end of the driveway in three feet of snow. Not too bad, considering yesterdays snow fall. This was soft; at least the snow blower might be able to plow through this. It will be slow going. All that snow I couldn’t remove yesterday was frozen solid and lined the driveway in slippery uneven miniature icebergs.
I lowered my scarf from my face and allowed the blast of cold to hit me straight on. It felt like my eyes froze. Ouch!
I made sure no cars were coming and stepped out of the drive looking down the road to the north. The street was a slick, sheet of ice. Then to the south where it was patchy, strips of ice and blacktop.
The winds raced across the road at ground level. It looked as though someone had put dry ice in the ditch for miles in both directions. A snowy mist poured over the ditch onto the road, and raced along the ground to the other side.
It did look a bit eerie.
I started laughing, my imagination was running wild, “Keep to the road, don’t walk in the moors, the werewolves will get you!” Oh! That would look great! Trying to out run anything in this cold would have to happen in slow motion- by both parties.
The cold had to be freezing my brain! There was no other explanation…
The tips of my fingers were hurting; I curled my hands up in my gloves.
Uriah paced in the snow, lifting one paw then the other. His head was covered in snow. He had been rolling in a snow drift.
“Come on, Uriah! Let’s go back in where it’s warmer.”
Picture From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Loup-garou.jpg
Categories
Music For A Cold Winter Day~
The vibrations from the snowblower moved up my arms into my neck. Then crawled down my back and settled in my feet, Pushing the sound and movement back into the ground so it could make its rounds again. Sputtering and choking the machine moved slowly, with me at the helm, though the slush and snow towards the front of the driveway.
I stopped and looked around for my dog; he was off near the pond his head buried in a snowbank as he tried to flush out a rabbit.
“Hey stupid,” I pulled off my right glove and placed it in my left hand. Then I tried to straighten my knit hat, which sat crooked on my head and covered my eyes and not my ears.
Uriah looked up.
“Go kill a rat!” I ordered, and pointed to the left, towards his kennel.
Instead he grinned, a wide doggie grin and started madly digging.
I put back on my glove and held onto the right handgrip, which rotated the auger. My left hand controlled the self-propulsion controls.
Once more, I started the snowblower on its slow tedious path towards the road. The auger pulled in chunks of slush and ice, then pushed it though the impeller up and out of the discharge chute. It should have been thrown out wide onto the side of the driveway. Instead it sort of ‘crapped’ it out, which is what will happen to the blower if I overtax the motor.
My hat slipped back over my eyes, and my feet slid on the icy slush, still I followed what I thought was the line of the drive. But, when I looked up, then back. I saw my path was a drunken line.
At least it was warmer outside than I thought, just on the other side of thirty degrees. A heat wave!
Uriah came up next to me and sat his butt on the cleared section of blacktop. I stopped walking.
“What?” I smiled at him, “Oh! I see you came by to take over for me, right?”
He wiggled and barked at me, then looked directly at my pocket.
I took off my right glove and put my hand in my pocket. I pulled out the small square-ish stone I had placed in there yesterday.
“You don’t want this.” I held out the rock so Uriah could sniff it.
He sneezed and looked disappointed.
I slipped the rock back in my pocket and pulled out a milk bone, he jumped up and barked. I tossed the biscuit towards the pond. Slipped back on my glove, and started the slow, walk with, Chopin’s Funeral March Sonata, stuck in my head. I didn’t turn around to see if Uriah found the biscuit.
I was forty feet from the road when the winds hit. A blast of cold air pushed me slightly backwards. I steadied the blower and moved forward.
The farm field across the road looked white and grey. Winds whipped up the fallen and falling snow and threw it at me.
Dark brown tree branches were coated white with the frozen snow. As the winds moved around the trees, they sounded like a thick glass full of marbles being shaken.
I pulled my scarf around my face and over my nose.
Patiently, I waited until the cars on the road had passed by. Then I stepped out onto the edge of the driveway. I tried to clear the mound of packed snow that the snow plow had dumped on the end of the drive. I glanced at my black mail box it was covered half way in ice, and slush. It was standing! It was a good day!
Every time I spotted a car, I pulled back and waited. The drivers in this area seem to think bad weather means drive faster and pass everyone, even in the no passing zone.
That’s the reason my mailbox ended up in the ditch -multiple times last winter!
I took off my right glove again, and straightened my hat, yet again. I watched as the winds pick up more force and shove the snow into drifts on and across the road.
I live on a stretch of road called, tornado alley. I can literally watch the winds as they gust across the road. Right now, that heavy wind was near the northern section of that road. It moved like a horizontal tornado.
I could see the line of winds pushing across the fields; Old Man Winter with his cheeks puffed out, a twinkle in his eye laughed like a madman.
The cars passed. I started my slow walk back down the drive, as my face froze, and the winds played tag with the blowing snow…
Picture from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Morozko.gif
Writt
en on December 7th, 2009~
Earlier this morning when I took my dog out for a walk, the air was a mist of grey fog. The sun was a haze in the early morning sky. When I first glanced up, I thought the Sun was the Moon, defused in the grey mist and entangle in the dense cloud cover. My breath and the fog were inseparable.
It had snowed during the night. Everything was covered in white. Each branch was coated, in a perfect holiday photo shoot. The ground was frozen so even the driveway was paved white.
I stayed near the house, and planned on walking out back later in the day.
It was nearly four o’clock in the afternoon by the time I decided to take a walk. The snow was no longer coating the trees. Only lines of snow zigzagged across the lawn
Uriah took off in the trees, angrily barking. He reappeared in front of me, only to follow the tracks of a grey squirrel. Whose residence is in the trees at the beginning of the path.
The air was cold yet tolerable. I had forgotten my gloves back by the house and my fingers weren’t freezing, so I was happy. I started walking to the right, where the ground moves upward on a slight incline. Directly in the center of the path a small, three inch evergreen had taken root. I never saw it before. I made a mental note to remember and check on it in spring. If it really was growing on the path I’ll need to transplant it.
I continued on my way. When I reached the far back and started to circle home, I stopped to admire the old farm house and its red barn, equally sized white Silos and smaller buildings all built up together like a castle, the surrounding grass and turned over fields, patterned shades of brown, yellow, green, and beige. The sections were the last rain fell washed the dirt to a dark black. White snow striped the empty corn fields.
I could see for miles…
Faded green grass still stood out in the farmer’s air field. Along the air field, past forty acres of plowed fields, I watched Black Angus cows. They moved slowly into a fenced in field.
Off to the northeast, I could see helicopter hovering in the direction of the express way.
Uriah started to bark, as I walked back, I kept calling his name, and he kept answering by barking- not by appearing.
I reached the part of the path, that was directly across from where I saw the little evergreen, at the beginning of my walk. I stopped and poked the dirt with my ski pole, it gave way. I called to Uriah each call I stabbed the pole at the dirt, I hit a rock!
Curiosity got the better of me. I stood there digging out this little rock, which lay just under the dirt and field grass. It was a slight tipsy square flat rock, to my eye it was nearly perfect. With the thought of crafting something, maybe checkers. I slipped it into my pocket as Uriah barked again.
At that point I looked down, and found another little evergreen growing on the path.
The grass all around me had given up trying to reach for the sky and laid level with the ground, sleeping until spring. I walked back a few feet searching for more of the little saplings. I found six more going in the center of the path.
Uriah’s barking became more agitated; I started walking back towards home. Every few feet I called him and he answered back, I felt like I was playing ‘Marco Polo’ with him.
Picture from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Blackangus.jpg
Yesterday morning, I was up with the sun. I opened the window blinds next to the computer, the window that faces east and I watched the sunrise. A blanket of Altostratus clouds covered half the sky, rippling from the sunset towards the west.
Along the horizon a narrow strip of pinkish, reddish, sunrise slipped through the break in the clouds and spread upwards, weaving under and over the clouds. Then peeked out to outline the ripple of clouds in a yellow, white, and pink tinge, all the while the clouds raced, from west to east, along the southern skyline.
Kenshin, my half Siamese male, jumped effortlessly onto the windowsill. He settled his hind legs, with a wiggle, positioning himself on the ledge. The tip of his tail flipped as he stared outside.
Kenshin’s sister, Tomoe, jumped up next to him in perfect pantomime. With a flip of her tail she sat beside him. Her shining black fur rolled in irritation. They both turned, two set of eyes followed my every move, his light blue and her bright gold eyes.
Loosing interest in me, they turned back to the window and watched a rat hopping around the outside kennel. Their mouths quivered. An odd sound came from both of them. He made a high pitch growling meowing sound. She kept opening and closing her mouth with a smacking sound. They both stared out the window, then back at me, willing me to open the window so they could do what cats do best… Hunt!
“No, Kenshin! No, Tomoe, I have to trap those rats myself.”
I don’t know if they understood what I said, or just got tired of wishing after a rat, when I added, “No outside!” They both jumped down, and Kenshin gave me downward frown. Tomoe just glared, as she flashed those golden eyes. They both ran out of the room giving me a backward, scowl. A teenage girl couldn’t have done that look any better.
One rat, was an irritation, I counted six! They aren’t big. About the size of my hand, but they have to go! Just figuring out how is the problem.
I Googled, “How to kill a rat humanely.”
One site said, use poison. Nope not an option! I don’t want to kill the Hawks and Owls that hunt around here. Beside the obvious, poison can kill my cat or dog if they eat the dieing rat.
If a poisoned rat gets caught in the walls, Well, that smell will be horrible. I wondered what would happen if it died, lying on the dirt of my garden and I didn’t see it until spring. Wouldn’t that poison leach into the soil? Big, emphatic, “Yes” answers that question.
I found, ‘Rat Zappers.’ on Amazon. Electrocute the rat starting at forty dollars and up. I checked my purse, no money, on to the next idea.
I found a site, that had the stomp and squish method- it says it all.
There is the bee bee gun method. I looked at the windows and the chain link fence and saw how that could go wrong.
The best, economical rat trap is a cat. If the rat stays outside, and my cats stay only indoors, they won’t come in direct contact with each other. But if they ever come inside, they will be used as a squeaky toy. The proximity factor just knocked Kenshin and Tomoe out of the equation.
I have a live catch trap in the barn. I decided that would be the best first try, for now. Besides I won’t need to pay for the supplies.
I headed for the barn, and dug out the trap and placed it in Uriah’s kennel. I put some of his food on the inside platform, which in theory is suppose to close the door when the rat steps on it. That’s the plan.
“The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men Go often askew,” ~ Robert Burns’s poem, ‘To a Mouse.’
I had three rats in the cage; they were walking all over that platform. And it never triggered the cage door…
I went back outside and tried to loosen the piece of metal. Then I placed a board across the platform, with food perched on top.
I went back into the house and watched. Not one of those rats came near the cage. I will leave the trap outside all night.
I just hope I don’t catch a skunk…
I got my 1,000 hit on my site today..Thank you guys! Comment and ask me to add you to my BlogRoll:-)
Jones & Son, The rat trap people http://www.rattraps.org.uk/Rat-Traps/about.aspx Rat Zapper http://www.amazon.com/s?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=rat+zapper+ultra Robert Burns World Federation http://www.worldburnsclub.com/poems/translations/554.htm
Categories
Seduced By The Silver Moon~
After midnight on December 6, 2009, I couldn’t help myself. I had the lights out in the kitchen and I stared out onto the dark moonlit lawn. I felt a need to stand outside, in the dark, in the cold, alone.
The deck held that silvery glow that lit up the yard, and ironically darkened the shadows even more. Ice glittered, scattered around the deck, haphazardly, always with one of the floor boards frosted with snow, seemly standing guard over the shimmering silver. The railings on the north side were frosted white, while the east balustrade bathed in light as the wood showed through.
Wrapping my robe tighter around my waist I slipped outside. I should go in and grab my coat, but I had the feeling if I did I would miss out. The moon would disappear behind a cloud and I wouldn’t be able to enjoy this second.
So I stayed. Shivering I walked to the edge of the deck. I looked upward, at the waning gibbous moon sitting in that hypnotic sky glowing white. The sky around it was a dark, dark blue grey. Farther east, the skyline glowed into a whitish, grayish, and peach, with streaks of grey cloud rising above the horizon everything was standing still. The sky was dotted with stars, only the brightest competed with the moon light.
The constellation Cassiopeia, was sitting brightly in the west earlier tonight. Somewhere around seven PM, I had been standing out in the driveway, staring at the sky, as I waited for my dog. At that time, I couldn’t even see the moon, it rose late. Now, I’m facing east and the stars and the moon are above me, bathing everything in silver light.
I heard a large animal moving around inside the trees. The wood of the Bog Willows snapped, as it moved none too gently though them. I told myself it was a deer, and continued to stand on the deck.
The white snow glowed on the lower deck, in the grass, the burn pile, and painted patches skimmed in and out of the shadows throughout the yard. Slipping under the trees and crossing the fence line into the plowed fields.
The trees were black marks in the shadows. Beyond them I could see the glow of farm houses, crossing acres of farm fields. The closest farm to the northeast had a blinking red light, a warning beacon for the farmer, for when he flew his Cessna in the dark. The further away the farms were, the less bright the lights. Most only had on their outside night lights to keep away the wild animals.
The faint smell of manure and hay, wafted around the cold, still air. Night air has a different scent, at least for me, so completely different than the daylight hours. The night holds excitement, adventure! A need to explore! Possibilities move in-between the shadows. My wander lust kicks in…
I shivered. I didn’t want to step back in the house; this was too beautiful to turn away from. I told myself, just a few more minutes. I looked back up into the sky, I got lost, as the ground disappeared and the stars pulled me upward…
Categories
Music Without An IPod~
I walked outside to a world powdered over with white, white snow, and a pale blue cloudless sky.
The day was bight and quiet or so I thought. I didn’t slip or slide when I reached the path, which was no longer muddy, but covered in a thin layer of white. The mud underneath was frozen it gave slightly as I walked; foot prints from yesterday were set in place. The beige grass waved in a greeting.
Uriah kept whining at my side until I reached in my pocket and gave him one of his biscuits. Then he heard a sound and took off in the trees.
I walked quickly around the path, alone; my thoughts of a warm cup of coffee waiting for me in the kitchen stopped me from enjoying this moment.
I dragged my feet around trees and under the bushes. I hurried past the dip in the ground, used as a runoff from flood waters; today it was empty, except for dried foliage strewn around. Rocks and dirt spilled out of the muskrats burrows, frozen and covered in snow.
I stepped into a pile of snow covered leaves. Sounds changed at that point. I heard the squeak of packed snow as I walked and the crisp sound of the leaves hidden under that snow.
I stopped took off my knit hat and looked up into the sky, and listened.
A breeze, soft, and easy drifted around my legs and into the tall grass. Then it rustled along the ground, picking up speed, until the air moved in a sweeping fashion, and shifted upwards.
My eyes were drawn to the tops of four trees; they still had a few dried leaves clinging to the top most branches. They glistened with ice and rustled, the sound rose, then drifted to silence as the wind moved on across the fields.
I closed my eyes and waited. Listening patiently for…?
I heard the wind moving towards me in a billowing roll. It was if the Maestro had walked up to the podium, raised both hands for silence towards the Orchestra.
Everything stopped! Not a sound! Not a bird! Not a bit of grass moved. Until his hand moved in the downward beat and the Orchestra started playing.
Winds rolled over the fields. Sound amplified and increased in pitch. It was if the wind was given instruction to play, and enticed the birds to join in. They fluttered in the trees, waiting their turn. I imagined fairies and gnomes dancing on that wind.
Trees limbs slipped against each other making sweet, higher pitch sounds of a flute. The sounds whispered, and then stopped. After a few seconds, a melody was taken up by a small bird. His solo ended and the wind gently rustled the dry grass, applauding.
I heard the heavy muffled roll, as a new gust of wind traveled above my head bringing everyone into play.
Then silence… I whispered to the wind, “Bravo.”
I heard Uriah fussing about in the trees, I called for him. “Uriah, you’re that one person in the audience that won’t be quiet”
He ran out at me, and promptly sat at my feet.
“To late the concert is over.”
I headed back to the house, no longer in a hurry…
Picture from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vzevolozhsky%27s_costume_sketch_for_Nutcracker.jpg
A snap shot:
Eleven AM; I was sitting at my computer when Uriah starts to bark. He was outside in the kennel, which is outside the window next to my computer.
There are two windows in the room where I do my writing. One faces south. When I look through that window I can see a lattice wooden fence, my neighbor’s barn, an odd amount of leafless trees, a Blue Spruce, Mulberry tree, one small Lilac bush. Add in an expanse of grass in-between me, and all those things I just described. Also, outside that southern facing window, to the left, is an old rosebush.
The second window faces east.
I am in a room on the lower level of the house. So when I look out any of the windows, I look straight ahead, nearly ground level.
That east facing window has a space of about three feet between the window and Uriah’s outdoor kennel. Which is constructed with sections of, four or six foot wide chain link fencing. I believe the dimensions are twelve by eight feet.
The kennel gate is on the north side. A piece of wooden fencing is also connected to that section, on the outside, next to the gate.
The Southern section, across from the gate, also has wooden fencing covering about three fourths of the chain link. Above the kennel is the deck. The extra wood blocks some of the wind, rain and snow.
Uriah has a dog igloo made of heavy plastic, or PVC- I am guessing at what it’s made of. The ground is paved with light colored bricks.
When I look out the east window, I can see right into Uriah’s kennel, and he can see me at the computer.
Because of the chain link fencing, I can look directly through his kennel, straight onto the vegetable garden, which is about forty feet long; to be exact I would have to measure. Not today..
Beyond the garden is the lawn. The lawn stretches out to the old apple trees, then onto the old evergreens. Behind those sixty foot trees, starts the walking path.
Uriah started barking; I stood up and looked out the window. The snow was coming down heavy, big puffy white flakes. Uriah was wagging his tail and looking east, out over the garden. For a second, I thought he was barking at the rat that steals his food.
I saw the rat, standing in the garden on his hind legs, eating one of Uriah’s milk bone biscuits…
I blinked, trying to focus on the rat. Instead, what I saw was a coyote standing at the edge of the garden.
This all seemed surreal to me. I was watching Uriah and the coyote. The coyote was watching the rat, The rat was watching me. Uriah was still barking at the coyote.
All I needed at that point was for one of my cats to wake up, and jump up on the windowsill.
This would make a great children’s’ book…Unless someone got hurt.
Picture from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Seuss_sculpture.jpg
December 2nd, 2009. I have had this Blog up one month, today. And I enjoyed writing every post. There aren’t any free downloads to commemorate the occasion, just this new Blog post. Enjoy! I love to hear your comments, or just say, ‘Hi,’ as you pass through.
Be careful don’t step in a muskrat hole!
Today may be overcast and slightly cooler than yesterday, with the temperatures in the forties. For some reason it just doesn’t feel cold to me.
As I walked around the back path, I stopped and listened to the small, black and grey, birds they fluttered and chirped angrily at me in the trees. These little guys jump around so fast and keep inside the tree branches it is hard to see specific markings. I will keep guess and searching for their names. Chickadee, maybe, they are in the order of Passeriformes.
Uriah kept his nose to the ground pointing out each new muskrat hole and scat droppings. I called to him and he sat at my side.
I closed my eyes and listened to the wind. That’s when I realized the breeze was moving in low from the Northwest, but along the ground. My coat fluttered and I felt the gentle breeze on my chin, and that’s where it stopped. The low grass rustled, but not the taller, dried beige tops of the Goldenrod. This wind was skimming the ground, sneaking around the base of the trees, chasing pieces of corn husks, and an odd leaf or two.
Sounds were muffled; I opened my eyes and looked up at the grey overcast sky. Today’s cloud cover pulled in a heavy, thick silence, that precedes a storm, rain or snow.
I heard a motorized buzzing, I looked up and around. From the east, a small helicopter flew towards me, high above the plowed fields. I watched as it approached, and passed overhead quickly.
When I looked down Uriah was gone. Little bugger! I couldn’t hear him nosing around anywhere and I wasn’t in the mood to start calling for him. I decided to continue on with my walk, he will find me this time.
I took my time walking back and as I hoped, Uriah was nervously waiting for me at the edge of the path. He wiggled into my leg to have his head patted, and nuzzled my coat pocket for a treat.
“Silly dog! Why should I give you a treat when you run off?”
My half hearted attempt at scolding him didn’t work; he just stared at me smiling. I gave him a Liver Snap biscuit.
Uriah tried to get me to look inside a large animals burrow by digging around it and crying. Stupidly I approached, the subtle smell of a skunk wafted around me, I stopped, then slowly backed away and whistled for him to follow.
I walked along the tree line, as we headed back to the house. I saw the old pair of jeans that had been in Uriah’s kennel. I mentioned them here: http://gerardinebaugh.wordpress.com/?s=Magical+Gnomes.
They were bunched up against the base of a tree, nearly fifty feet inside the tree line. I wondered, if it was the coyotes who moved them around.
Entering the backyard, we were greeted with the excited clicking of the Northern Cardinal; I saw four males, bright red, hopping from branch to branch in the old apple tree. More answered from deeper in the trees. Only one Sparrow showed his feathered features. I only saw him because I tried to look around the base of the apple tree for the female Cardinals.
The air was getting heavier, and the cloud cover thickened almost instantly. Rain is coming…
Categories
I Howled At The Moon
I howled at the moon, laughed and howled again. Uriah tilted his head at me and sat down. He looked like he was enjoying my song. Maybe… Or not. I couldn’t get him to howl. I told him he was no fun. He thumped his tail against the ground.
The moon may be full, but I have seen it larger. It was glowing white, like a flashlight shining through a window; it had a ring around it, bright white with an orange halo.
The winds have shifted. This afternoon they were blowing gently at me from the north-west. Right now, at seven o’clock, they were coming straight out of the west, strong enough to blow away the remaining leaves on the front lawn. And it was cold.
The clouds were very high up, possibly Cirrocumulus clouds. I could see them in the moonlight, racing across the sky.
I shivered my way back to the house, telling myself to hang a sweater next to my coat, so I won’t forget it when I go out tomorrow. Tonight I will hide under the covers.