the case for cold

post #527

First, more snow, more fun, more tracks, more vaccines (but still not enough), and more self-examination about what does it all mean!

Well, I can't tell you that, but I can start with some current photos, some by me and some by R and J.

familiar view, with the most recent similar snowfall, Kentucky style

same pond as before, but with the new snow and I'm closer to it

Meanwhile, home schooling: teacher, with virtual students, and student, with virtual teacher... photo by JW (thanks for the good laugh)

 

 

 

recent morning walk  --  celebrating the sun

me and ?

This is my version of a mmail box flag. I've shown it before. The mail carrier told me that if red were showing, she'd know I was mailing something.

tracks

Today, I heard the family -- and even the cats -- couldn't resist the least bit of snow:

closer-up photo of the adventurous cat companions (photos by RW)

    I will try to insert a video, soon, right here, but I'm over-thinking it at the moment, so I'll wait awhile..  If I didn't do a post almost every week, I might forget how even simpler things are done.  

    I won't forget my second vaccine on Friday!  Am thrilled! I am grateful Kentucky has been giving K-12 teachers the vaccine. 

    We need to support those folks not yet able to get a shot by continuing to wear a mask until science says we no longer need to.  How would we know at this stage if other people are not wearing one because they refuse to do so or because they are being a good citizen and taking one for the team. Pandemics are serious stuff. I remember the extreme fear of polio before there was a vaccine for it.  Be safe, keep distancing, and please be hilarious whenever truly possible.

the reality is - it's still winter

post #232
      I was NOT going to post any snow photos. Ever again. However, then I began to think about all the places in the world where there is no snow, and I have relented. It can be beautiful stuff. Maybe a few images would not be too painful to share. So, once again, in a narrative form, which I seem love, what follows are parts of my snow story. The first image is one my daughter shared, from Massachusetts, where she and her family live.

The area has received foot after foot of snow.  She took this great image of their dog. As my daughter says, he must be hoping against hope that once again he'll get to go outside to run, undeterred by the constant deep, deep snow.

    Now, what we do in Kentucky when it snows is the same thing.  We persevere -- that is, when we are not busy watching all the bird visitors we encourage.  Here are some images from various snowy moments over the past few weeks:

after his feast, surveying all who fear him

three cardinals and two goldfinches -- and part of a woodpecker

a puffed up female cardinal

These hens are birds, too, but they have a much cushier life.

Our last storm was BIG, up to a foot of snow, with drooping limbs to prove it.

This was the view that I faced the day I needed to use our driveway.  ICE! SNOW! VERY LOW TEMPERATURE!  I wasn't sure I would make it out, but I did!!!

    I am always fascinated by shapes, shadows and patterns.  So here are some:

tracks

under the mud, when it finally appears

  I would be honored to show some snow photos by my readers, so if you have one you think would work on this blog, please give me your email address in the comment form below and we'll talk.  You can sign in on the anonymous setting, but I don't get your email information unless you give it to me in the message.  Thanks!!

keeping tracks and speaking up

post #177
       First, Appalachian residents we need and appreciate -- even if we are not sure what all they do and which tracks are whose:
      

Can you find three tracks??  Was the squirrel jumping up or jumping down??!!!

A vole-like creature? 

someone please please please tell me what makes this lovely design!

a deer on the move

     It is still snowing almost every night around here!  I find it hard not to notice, which is why I mention it at all.  Luckily the relatively warmest day of this past week was Wednesday, when I was able to be one of many taking part in the annual I Love Mountains Day in Frankfort, our state capitol.   Kentucky is by necessity having to reexamine its energy dependence on cheap coal, both because there is less available coal and because there is more awareness of the environmental devastation of such practices as mountaintop removal mining.  Coal has not been kind to the health of communities it affects, where the true cost of coal has been carried by the residents of the region, many who live in poverty with impaired health issues.
      Anyway, here is a photo I took from an airplane ten years ago.  This still happens.

                                                     a "gone mountaintop"


      Here are some photos from Wednesday's march and rally at the Capitol:

I love the generations in this photo.

yes!

    It might be obvious that I see a connection between the richness of the wild life in our area and the urgent necessity to speak up to keep the natural world from being destroyed.  The diversity of our amazing forest and our clean water sources ("We all live downstream.") is not a guarantee. This means speaking up and being involved in preserving our Appalachian heritage by envisioning brave new solutions to the energy we also depend on.  It feels in these times as if greed has a stronger say than common sense!  So thank you, voles, and thank you, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth and other groups with vision.