Signs of Spring
Typical Spring
Source: Arlo and Janis dot com
~Quoted by Lewis Grizzard
Spring is coming...eventually
by Tom Hennen
At the soft place in the snowbank
Warmed to dripping by the sun
There is the smell of water.
On the western wind the hint of glacier.
A cottonwood tree warmed by the same sun
On the same day,
My back against its rough bark
Same west wind mild in my face.
A piece of spring
Pierced me with love for this empty place
Where a prairie creek runs
Under its cover of clear ice
And the sound it makes,
Mysterious as a heartbeat,
New as a lamb.
Winter Sunset
Bid farewell to rainbow leaves
Welcome wool sweaters.
~B. Cybrill
'Tis the first day of Winter
BY Christina Rossetti
In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, long ago.
Axial Tilt is the Reason for the Season
Happy solstice! ... Today’s date is meaningless when it comes to doomsdays ... but it does have astronomical significance, and for Northern Hemisphereans it’s a happy one: Today, at 11:12 UTC (06:12 Eastern time) it was officially the winter solstice. That means the nights are getting shorter, the days longer, and that half of winter is behind us. There are a lot of different ways to describe this...
Bad Astronomy: Happy Winter Solstice!
this and every crisping day,
though the sun be swinging east,
and the ponds be cold and black,
and the sweets of the year be doomed.
excerpt from "Lines Written in the Days of Growing Darkness" by Mary Oliver
We got a "sneak" dusting of snow overnight...
Quietly pirouetting in on silvery-toed slippers of snow,
And we, we were children once again.
~Bill Morgan, Jr.
- ~Andrew Wyeth, artist
Time Lapse
--William Cullen Bryant
by David Budbill
Everybody's gone away.
They think there's nothing left to see.
The garish colors' flashy show is over.
Now those of us who stay
hunker down in sweet silence,
blessed emptiness ...
all of it under gray skies,
chill air, all of us waiting
in the somber dank and rain,
waiting here in quiet, chill
November,
waiting for the snow.
by Thelma Ireland
Cornflake leaves
Beneath the trees–
Are they a breakfast
for the breeze?
-- John Donne
--from "Out Here" by Joe Paddock
Autumn Scenes
--F. Scott Fitzgerald
Autumnal Equinox
It is the fall's first chill: they meet.
--Sarah Morgan Bryan Piatt
Saw my first skein of Canada Geese yesterday
by Ted Kooser
The porch swing hangs fixed in a morning sun
that bleaches its gray slats, its flowered cushion
whose flowers have faded, like those of summer,
and a small brown spider has hung out her web
on a line between porch post and chain
so that no one may swing without breaking it.
She is saying it's time that the swinging were done with,
time that the creaking and pinging and popping
that sang through the ceiling were past,
time now for the soft vibrations of moths,
the wasp tapping each board for an entrance,
the cool dewdrops to brush from her work
every morning, one world at a time.
First Day of Summer
Ironically, we have been having record-breaking, summer-like temperatures for weeks, but today is cool and almost chilly.
by Samuel Longfellow
The sweet June days are come again, once more the glad earth yields
its golden wealth of rip'ning grain, and breath of clover fields,
and deep'ning shade of summer woods, and glow of summer air,
and winging thoughts and happy moods of love and joy and prayer.
The sweet June days are come again, the birds are on the wing;
bright anthems, in their merry strain, unconsciously they sing.
Oh, how our cup o'er brims with good these happy summer days,
for all the joys of field and wood we lift our song of praise.
All over the meadow and the hill!
Buds're bustin' outa bushes
And the rompin' river pushes
Ev'ry little wheel that wheels beside the mill!
June is bustin' out all over
The feelin' is gettin' so intense,
That the young Virginia creepers
Hev been huggin' the bejeepers
Outa all the mornin' glories on the fence!
Because it's June...
June, June, June
Just because it's June, June, June!
from Carousel by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein
by Linda Pastan
A whole new freshman class
of leaves has arrived
on the dark twisted branches
we call our woods, turning
green now—color of
anticipation...
The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another. The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month.
- ~Henry Van Dyke
Tonight’s the equinox! Yay! The timing of this is a bit funny. It’s actually March 20 at 05:14 UTC, so it’s 01:14 for eastern US folks, but actually on March 19 at 11:14 p.m. for us Mountain Timers ... Outside of astronomy, the equinox isn’t that big of a deal. There are lots of ways of looking at it, but perhaps the easiest is to say that it’s when the Sun rises due east and sets due west. It also means day and night are the same length, but that gets complicated ... One thing the equinox does not not NOT NOT mean is that you can balance ungainly objects on their ends on this day! [The trick] has nothing to do with the equinox .... it’s actually a simply matter of center of mass [and can be done any day of the year]
Bad Astronomy: Sweeping away equinox silliness
Not present on the year
At any other period--
When March is scarcely here.
-----Emily Dickinson
Simply by bringing us along—to see
A calendar with every day uncrossed,
A field of snow without a single footprint.
---excerpt from the poem "New Year's" by Dana Gioia
It's -3 degrees outside right now
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter
Long ago.
--Christina Rossetti
by Linda Pastan
How separate we are
under our black umbrellas—dark
planets in our own small orbits,
hiding from this wet assault
of weather as if water
would violate the skin,
as if these raised silk canopies
could protect us
from whatever is coming next—
December with its white
enamel surfaces; the numbing
silences of winter.
From above we must look
like a family of bats—
ribbed wings spread
against the rain,
swooping towards any
makeshift shelter.
- ~George Santayana
- ~Elizabeth Lawrence
This is only the first verse of a much longer poem...
BY JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock,
And you hear the kyouck and gobble of the struttin’ turkey-cock,
And the clackin’ of the guineys, and the cluckin’ of the hens,
And the rooster’s hallylooyer as he tiptoes on the fence;
O, it’s then’s the times a feller is a-feelin’ at his best,
With the risin’ sun to greet him from a night of peaceful rest,
As he leaves the house, bareheaded, and goes out to feed the stock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock.
The leaves by hundreds came -
The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples,
And leaves of every name.
The Sunshine spread a carpet,
And everything was grand,
Miss Weather led the dancing,
Professor Wind the band.
~George Cooper, "October's Party"
- ~Albert Camus
One of the most frequently misunderstood concepts in science is the reason for Earth’s seasons. As we experience the September equinox today ... we thought we’d offer a space-based view of what’s going on.
NASA: Seeing Equinoxes and Solstices from Space
The Ordinary Weather of Summer
by Linda Pastan
In the ordinary weather of summer
with storms rumbling from west to east
like so many freight trains hauling
their cargo of heat and rain,
the dogs sprawl on the back steps, panting,
insects assemble at every window...
July
by Louis Jenkins
Temperature in the upper seventies, a bit of a breeze. Great
cumulus clouds pass slowly through the summer sky like
parade floats. And the slender grasses gather round you,
pressing forward, with exaggerated deference, whispering,
eager to catch a glimpse. It's your party after all. And it couldn't
be more perfect. Yet there's a nagging thought: you don't really
deserve all this attention, and that come October, there will be
a price to pay.
Summer's ardent rustling
Is like a festival outside my window.
--from a poem by Russian poet Anna Akhmatova
Today is the first day of Summer (Summer Solstice)
What's the difference between the Equinox and the Solstice?
The Equinox occurs when the hours of light and dark are equal in a day.
The Solstice refers to the day of the year with the longest or shortest period of sunlight.
What is one to say about June, the time of perfect young summer, the fulfillment of the promise of the earlier months, and with as yet no sign to remind one that its fresh young beauty will ever fade.
- ~Gertrude Jekyll
The Vernal Equinox
It's Spring!
(Actually it "officially" starts late afternoon today.)
"It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want--oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!"
Mark Twain
A Bill before the State Legislature
Permanent Daylight Savings Time for Colorado?
Colorado is an outdoors state and people want more light in the evening instead of in the morning.Conversations between Legislators regarding this Bill.
The Broncos will have an extra hour of playing time in the daylight,
Will they actually win?
I can't guarantee that,
January 1, 2011
It's the year of the Rabbit. according to the Chinese zodiac.
A placid year, very much welcome and needed after the ferocious year of the Tiger.
A winter poem
Voyage
by Tony Hoagland
I feel as if we opened a book about great ocean voyages
and found ourselves on a great ocean voyage:
sailing through December, around the horn of Christmas
and into the January Sea, and sailing on and on.
"New Government Time"?
Fall Back
Lines Written in the Days of Growing Darkness
Every year we have been
witness to it: how the
world descends
into a rich mash, in order that
it may resume.
And therefore
who would cry out
to the petals on the ground
to stay,
knowing, as we must,
how the vivacity of what was is married
to the vitality of what will be?
I don’t say
it’s easy, but
what else will do
if the love one claims to have for the world
be true?
So let us go on
though the sun be swinging east,
and the ponds be cold and black,
and the sweets of the year be doomed.
— MARY OLIVER, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and author, most recently, of "Swan: Poems and Prose Poems"
The woods are full of fairies,
The sea is full of fish,
The trees are full of golden leaves,
Let's make an autumn wish.
---Anonymous
High Country Color Change
Rio Grande National Forest Fall Color Report
Shoshone National Forest Fall Color Report
Estimated percentage of fall color: 70 - 100% depending on elevation. Check the pictures on the report pages. Just stunning.
First full day of Fall
"I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house."
--Nathaniel Hawthorne
Finally Fall
O Autumn, laden with fruit, and stain’d
With the blood of the grape, pass not, but sit
Beneath my shady roof; there thou may’st rest,
And tune thy jolly voice to my fresh pipe,
And all the daughters of the year shall dance!
Sing now the lusty song of fruits and flowers.
The narrow bud opens her beauties to
The sun, and love runs in her thrilling veins;
Blossoms hang round the brows of Morning, and
Flourish down the bright cheek of modest Eve,
Till clust’ring Summer breaks forth into singing,
And feather’d clouds strew flowers round her head.
The spirits of the air live in the smells
Of fruit; and Joy, with pinions light, roves round
The gardens, or sits singing in the trees.
Thus sang the jolly Autumn as he sat,
Then rose, girded himself, and o’er the bleak
Hills fled from our sight; but left his golden load.
~William Blake
Sweet Summer Days
by Dennis Caraher
The summer sun is nearly done
Frost will follow soon
Asters and chrysanthemums
Light up the afternoon
The dew is on long after dawn
Mornings are a haze
One swallow's song is holding on
In these fading sweet summer days.
An early Fall?
I don't know what it means, but I heard my first skein of Canada Geese honking overhead this morning. Are they heading south already?
June 24th
Temps in the 90's and maybe close to 100 degrees tomorrow.
Does it help any to think that it is 6 months until Christmas Eve?
Sing along!
It's Summertime
Summertime
Sum-sum-summertime
Summmmmm-um-er-time!
You get eight seconds more daylight today than yesterday. Make the most of it.
Monday is the winter solstice and the first day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere. It's all due to Earth's tilt, which ensures that the shortest day of every year falls around December 21. But it's not all about astronomy.
Winter Solstice Monday: Facts on First Day of Winter
Today is the first day of Winter
In the northern hemisphere, today is the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year and the longest night. It's officially the first day of winter and one of the oldest known holidays in human history. Anthropologists believe that solstice celebrations go back at least 30,000 years, before humans even began farming on a large scale. Many of the most ancient stone structures made by human beings were designed to pinpoint the precise date of the solstice. The stone circles of Stonehenge were arranged to receive the first rays of midwinter sun.
from "The Writer's Almanac" by Garrison Keillor
If winter comes, can spring be far behind?
Percy Shelley
Sign of the Season
Flashing warning sign on Highway 287 approaching Rock Creek Farms:
Expect busy traffic
Near Pumpkin Patch
haiku by john tiong chunghoo
depth of autumn
a few leaves on the tree
dancing
autumn
from the gnarled trees
fluttering birds
It's Fall! (even though it's not official till the 22nd). The leaves are turning in the high country, there's a nip in the morning air, and...candy corn is back in the stores!
June is bustin' out all over!
Well, Summer has arrived not only on the calendar but in local temperatures. After some very unsettled weather with heavy rain and hail (plus numerous tornadoes) Colorado is forecast to have temps in the 90's all week.
Additionaly, on Sunday, the summer solstice, I noticed that it was still light outside at 9:15 PM. The longest day of the year indeed.
It's spring fever...And when you've got it, you want--oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!
Mark Twain
Signs of Spring courtesy of The Big Picture.
First Day of Spring!
Here is Google's take on the day, courtesy of children's book author/illustrator Eric Carle.
It's snowing today
If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.
----Anne Bradstreet
Did you remember to re-set your clocks?
It's the first day of Autumn - let the pumpkin pies commence!
First day of Fall
Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.
~George Eliot
Signs of Fall
*Halloween costumes are in the stores
*I bought my first bag of candy corn today.
*And a bit of bad news:
There may be a pumpkin shortage in Colorado in October! This is due to a summer hailstorm that damaged young pumpkins, causing them to rot as they grew.
From the Channel 9 News weather page:
Believe it or not, on Sept. 4, 1961, Denver got 4 inches of snow. The recent cooler weather this week, 47 years later, has some wondering how far off winter really is.
On my morning dog-walk I noticed that a number of the maple trees in my neighborhood are already turning red. In fact one tree was completely scarlet. It seems to be setting up for an early fall.
Fall just ahead?
With all the HOT weather we've had this summer it's hard to believe, but I saw my first skein of Canada Geese flying over this morning. Maybe it's been colder up north already, and their "head south" signals are kicking in early.
It's been a fast year
I was in Hobby Lobby this past week and they were having a close-out sale on 4th of July items, which makes sense. But directly behind that were four aisles of "Welcome to Fall" items! Talk about rushing the season!
Vernal Equinox
Here is Google's logo on the first day of Spring.
Signs of the season:
more birds singing
green along the lawn's edges
crocus and tulips starting to peek out
able to wear lighter coats (MOST days!)
the return of the Eagle Cam pictures
a different smell in the air
a heavy, wet snowfall (a sign in Colorado,at least)
Bet you can list many more!
Winter Solstice
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?
Percy Bysshe Shelley
No matter what you call it, it's here!
The Fall Equinox is also known as: Alban Elfed, Autumn Equinox, Autumnal Equinox, Cornucopia, Feast of Avilon, Festival of Dionysus, Harvest Home, Harvest Tide, Mabon, Night of the Hunter, Second Harvest Festival, Wine Harvest, Witch's Thanksgiving, and the first day of autumn.
A last blast of Summer
The past two days have been gorgeous - temperatures in the upper 80s and low 90s, blue skies, fair breezed. But! Autumn is just around the corner - the mornings have been crisp, the leaves are turning, and geese are flying in V formations. The Autumnal Equinox is this weekend, when we have equal amounts of daylight and night-time. After that it's a gradual slide into the long nights of winter.
Other signs that Fall is here:
- Starbucks, Peets, and other coffee shops are selling Pumpkin Spice Lattes
- Grocery stores have aisles and aisles of bagged candy
- Pumpkins are popping up
- Some people are talking about football
Signs of Fall
You may recall a posting under Signs of Summer where I mentioned that I had to fill my bird feeder twice a day to keep up with the birds' appetites. Well, here is a Sign of Fall--yeterday my bird feeder still had 2 inches of seeds left in the tube at t
Early Winter Ahead?
I just saw my first V of Canada Geese flying over this morning.
Rushing the season
I went to Hobby Lobby yesterday and the store had all their autumn flowers, scarecrows and stuffed pumpkins, etc. out on display. Even more startling, they were clearing out a huge section of the store and beginning to display Christmas stuff. Now I k
Summer Solstice
It's the first day of summer and, appropriately, HOT!
LATER NOTE: We broke another record today. It was 99 degrees!
First day of Spring
THE MIRACLE OF SPRING
We glibly talk
of nature's laws
but do things have
a natural cause?
Black earth turned into
yellow crocus
is undiluted
hocus-pocus.
Piet Hein, Danish poet, scient