Garden Visitors

Six young does visited our garden yesterday, in search of scarce winter greenery. They didn't find much, but it was plenty for these hungry girls. They are mule deer yearlings. 

Our Christmas Fireside

I like this photo of our living room fireplace, minus a fire, at Christmastime. 

Heartbeat of Home

Down between the polished wood floorboards
in the dank sweetness of moist ageless earth
My heart beats the rhythm of my chosen home.

I stood one August on the grassy slope by the apple tree
stared at the staccato mountain peaks looming over the roof
and claimed this piece of the world to be mine for awhile

Mine, shared with the teeming life under and above the grass that grew wild
My home, among dandelions, squirrels, skunks, junipers, apples, plums and birds
I staked my claim and began to build my world
Here.

At first we felt like outsiders
Arranging, exploring, planning
Working, returning tired to unfamiliarity
Waiting for "home" to arrive

Seven years of breathing have changed the air in the house
Breathing my breath onto the woodwork, garden paths and paint on the walls
Breathing in the breath of trees, cat, dog, bunnies, husband, grandsons
Breathing out my dreams and desires
Breathing in their gradual fulfillment

Dented, worn dining table remembers family feasts of thanks-giving
Quiet meals of mourning
Candles spilling wax in glowing darkness
Art projects dripping glue, and that little gouge mark
Gatherings of bright-eyed friends birthing plans onto paper
Annual drying of a dismayed cat after her bath
And always newspaper mornings with tea

I light a fire, straighten my favorite painting, sweep the walk again
I no longer notice the click-hum of the furnace
Backyard graves of furry beloveds nourish the new spring growth
Fox and deer know my routines as I know theirs

The earth knows my heartbeat, here in my chosen home.

Snow Bunnies

What do rabbits do in the snow? Not this zero-degree ice, mind you, but the lovely fluffy snow we had a week or two ago. What do bunnies do in the snow? They romp, scamper, dig, lick, leap, twirl and invent mid-air acrobatic moves to express their delight. With their fur coats and thick fur slippers, cold only stimulates their systems in a happy way. For evidence, check out these photos of Ziggy (white with black-brown-gray) and Sandy (sandy) enjoying every second of their snow day.

Arctic Rest

High in a cottonwood tree’s spindliest branches, a redtail hawk brazenly rests. A raucous circle of glossy crows surrounds him. They battle for winter survival. The sub-zero air sparkles with frozen crystals – seeds that will become snow if the sun warms things up some.

Our back yard looks like a field of Bushes A La Mode – dollops of vanilla snow pile up on every surface. Fox footprints embed themselves in a deep white trail from northern clothesline to southern fence. The footprints are far apart and single file. This fox was in a hurry to hunt some mice and get back to her warm den. She should check our garage, where they’re hunkered down in a nest of packing peanuts under the cold cement steps.

Life is lived at a quieter, more desperate pace when an arctic blast arrives. Our rabbits stay in their room most of the day, fluffed in a two-part ball of sleep. When mealtime arrives, they gorge. We humans nap by the woodstove, softly snoring the cedar-warmed air.

I dream only of winter rest.

2006 in Review

Here in Wandering Willow land, I plan to celebrate the changing of the year by re-posting my favorite writings from each month in 2006. This is especially important since my computer crashed and forced me to develop this new blog and abandon my old one.

For today, here is my look at 2006 and its various features.

WHAT I DISLIKED MOST ABOUT 2006

G. Bush and cohorts in our White House

Problem-ridden electronic voting machines still being used

All TV sitcoms and dramas depicting the popular culture of lying, deception and cruelty

PBS booting Bill Moyers out of "Now"

The politics behind the war in Iraq and media coverage thereof

The movie version of “The DaVinci Code”

The latest movie version of “The Pink Panther”

The little white jets that fly overhead leaving crosshatches of white trails that spread out and turns our blue skies gray. (Contrails don’t do that.)

Dealing with a limiting injury for an entire year

Crutches!!

Not having medical or dental insurance

The sudden death of my constant companion and coworker, Gypsy the Dog

Slowly saying goodbye to my 20-year best friend, Puff the Cat

WHAT I LIKED MOST ABOUT 2006

The rain returning to Colorado!

The song “All Will Be Well” by Gabe Dixon

My new CD of Vladimir Horowitz playing Rachmaninof

The book “The DaVinci Code”

The movie “The Secret”

The movies “Pirates of the Carribbean” “Walk the Line” and “Ray”

Internet radio version of San Francisco’s radio station KFOG

The alternative news service www.nhne.org , where I get my news from

PBS and its wonderful programs, despite its new executives

Everything ever written by Ken Wilber

Ken Wilber’s radio interview show “Integral Naked”

Finding a genuine perspective in which life on earth is completely wonderful

Visiting my family and playing with my grandbaby

Eating fresh food right from the garden

Trees, rocks, blue skies, sand, wind, water, fire in the woodstove

Healing from my injury, and starting to hike again

Writing my book at last

The discovery that using diluted peroxide as a mouthwash whitens my teeth

Realizing how many people considered my amazing and beautiful dog Gypsy to be a real personal friend of theirs, and how many people truly appreciated her

Spending Puff’s last weeks in a camaraderie celebrating our decades together

Meteorite!

On December 11, my women's circle was disbanding. We stood around the driveway and porch, chatting, enjoying the cold night air.

As we talked, time suddenly stood still for me. I watched a fluorescent green glowing ball arc across the sky over the trees. There was a yellowish-green tail arching behind it. The center of the green ball was glowing yellow. Although I only saw it for a moment, I noticed intricate details of the bizarre sight. I was impressed by the fact that there was no defined border to this thing; it had an indistinct exterior. I seemed to be moving too.

It felt like an hour that I stood with my mouth open, staring. Only one other woman saw something bright out of the corner of her eye. I'd been knocked out of my own life for an eternity, staring at this strange apparition, then dropped back onto my porch.

When I was in art school, I stood talking with a fellow student one evening. I saw a similar sight - a glowing green ball sweeping through the sky. Later I learned that it was a meteorite entering the atmosphere and landing. A piece of the galaxy, falling to earth.

My second meteorite sighting! That must be significant.

I called the meteorologist at the local weather channel. He told me that the Geminid Meteor Shower was due to start the next evening, and said that I must have seen one of the very first meteors. When I told him it was huge and glowing green with a tail, he was quite surprised. Apparently meteorites of that size were not what he expected.

A piece of a comet hurtled through the dark space between planets for untold numbers of years, then tore through our atmosphere and landed near my house. I stood on my porch on a cold night at 10:00 pm and saw it fly past.

What might it mean, to see a piece of blazing interplanetary debris landing in my neighborhood? What might it mean that I saw one in Maryland 20 years ago and one in Colorado now? Maybe it signifies big changes. Shortly after seeing that first meteorite, my marriage ended. Presumably it would be a different type of change this time.

I wonder what had happened on that comet before it broke into pieces called meteors... Did any creatures live there? How do we know? Maybe there were creatures that our instruments can't detect. What was the surface like? If a piece of the meteorite sits in someone's back yard in my neighborhood, there might be pieces of that comet's history remaining.

I wish I could find it. I'm grateful to have seen something so surprising and otherworldly, but I do wish I could find the meteorite. I'd like to hold it and dream of where it's been.

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From the Hubble Observatory's website www.hubblesite.org:

What is the difference between a meteor, a meteoroid and a meteorite?

Most of us probably have seen meteors or shooting stars. A meteor is the flash of light that we see in the night sky when a small chunk of interplanetary debris burns up as it passes through our atmosphere. "Meteor" refers to the flash of light caused by the debris, not the debris itself.

The debris is called a meteoroid. A meteoroid is a piece of interplanetary matter that is smaller than a kilometer and frequently only millimeters in size. Most meteoroids that enter the Earth's atmosphere are so small that they vaporize completely and never reach the planet's surface.

If any part of a meteoroid survives the fall through the atmosphere and lands on Earth, it is called a meteorite. Although the vast majority of meteorites are very small, their size can range from about a fraction of a gram (the size of a pebble) to 100 kilograms (220 lbs) or more (the size of a huge, life-destroying boulder).

From Wikipedia, regarding the Geminid Meteor Shower:

The Geminids are a meteor shower caused by an object named 3200 Phaethon, which is thought to be an extinct comet. The meteors from this shower can be seen in mid-December and usually peak around 12-14 of the month. The Geminid shower is thought to be intensifying every year and recent showers have seen 120-160 meteors per hour under optimal conditions. The Geminids were first observed only 150 years ago, much more recently than other showers such as the Perseids and Leonids.

The meteors in this shower appear to come from a radiant in the constellation Gemini (hence the shower's name). However, they can appear almost anywhere in the night sky, and often appear yellowish in hue. The meteors travel at medium speed in relation to other showers, at about 22 miles per second, making them fairly easy to spot. The Geminids are now considered by many to be the most consistent and active annual shower. In 2005, viewing of the shower was restricted due to a full moon washing out the fainter meteors. The 2006 shower will have a less full moon.