Don's Blog: Grassy Ridge Creek

The creek runs from Rieth Terrace west and then south along Ballas Road to below the Frank Lloyd House. 

It gets its water from runoff and a spring down the hill from our northern slope. Most of the time there is a small stream

and standing water in shallow pools.

When the rains come it turns quickly into a cleansing flow.

The Art of Jan Sessions 3-22-21

Living with an artist is always exciting. You never know what will show up next. This work is in the spa at the Lake House.

If you want to play doubles and only have three paddles - not so much.

Flower for the Day Crocus II 3-22-21

The interesting yellow crocuses have given way to truly beautiful purple crocuses. They have been flourishing

throughout the beginning weeks of the daffodils.

They are extraordinary if evanescent.

Photo by Jan sessions.

Crocus (Haiku)

Purple crocus smiles
Its greeting gives me hope
Spring will soon be here

  Carol Shelton

Don's Blog Amchitka 3-15-21

I have been placing individual works from the multimedia artist Jan Sessions on my Facebook page

to show off her exceptional skills. I came upon this image from the past. 

When we lived in Anchorage in the late nineteen sixties we became aware that the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was going to test a nuclear bomb  on Amichitka Island,  one of the furthest islands in the Aleutian chain.  Despite the fact that it had been named an official wildlife refuge by President William Howard Taft in 1913, this tectonically unstable volcanic island was the site of the detonation of an 80 Kiloton  hydrogen bomb in 1965.The bomb was set off at a depth of 4,000 feet and had dire consequences to the wildlife population especially the sea otters. This was project Long Short. 

While we were there in 1969, despite increasing protests the AEC set off a 1 Megaton hydrogen bomb (Project Milrow). We were on active duty (UASAF) and we fully  disagreed with this impending action to no avail. Despite being even deeper in the volcanic rock below the island the damage was more severe.  Alaskans felt extremely powerless in the face of the AEC.

To show our concern before the detonation Jan created the work "Amchitka" as shown. It is a tissue paper collage on canvas.

After we had left Alaska, Project Cannikan was finalized despite concerted legal objections. In 1971, within hours after the courts approval a bomb which was said to be 385 times the power of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima was detonated at a depth of one mile below Amchitka Island. It produced an earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale. White Alice Creek actually disappeared having been sucked into the depths below the island. This created a radioactive aquifer expected to last hundreds of years.  The population of the Aleutians (Aleut Indians as well as the construction workers) have never been acknowledged let alone compensated for their health issues, echoing how the people of the Marshall Islands were treated after their nuclear detonations.

Our government did acknowledge that being in a Cold War with the Soviet Union was complex. You can bet that setting off these bombs so close to Russia was no accident.

In Shakespeare's Sonnet 65 he wrote:

    "How with this rage can beauty hold a plea?"

Jan's bomb collage was what she came up with at the time.

Flower for the Day Daffodil 3-14-21

All it takes is a little bit of warmth and some rain and Wallah - the 

daffodils appear.

Very comforting.

                                            Daffodil Haiku

head bowed
the daffodil
reminds me to be humble

                                                                                           Samantha Wrenn

Flower for the Day Snowdrops -Addendum

Today the flower for the day was snowdrops.

I am not familiar with snowdrops and in fact had never heard of them before.

I am in a class reading the poetry of Seamus Heaney, Nobel Prize winner 1995.

This afternoon I read an poem called Mid Term Break which Heaney wrote in 1969.

It was about the death of his younger brother Christopher. Toward the end of the poem 

Heaney goes upstairs to see the body for the first time.

           Next morning I went up into the room. Snowdrops

And candles soothed the bedside; I saw him

For the first time in six weeks. Paler now, 

Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple,  

He lay in the four foot box as in his cot.  

No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear. 

A four foot box, a foot for every year.

• snowdrops: white flowers that bloom in winter

It was the day for snowdrops to turn up.

Flower for the Day - Snowdrop 3-7-21

These common snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis) showed up at the Lake House. They grow from bulbs and are

the earliest flower to bloom in eastern Missouri. They are in the amaryllis family and  spread by self seeding.

Thanks to the Frankes for the image.

Don's Blog Robins - Addendum

It is always humbling to find out that you didn't know something you thought you knew. The American Robin (Turdus migratorius)
is a most common bird. Wherever I have lived they have lived year round. Given that their name is migrators it is not a stretch to think that they might migrate. So my group of robins could just have been part of a migration. The apparently can fly in groups of fifty to thousands. Because I have not seen it does not preclude this.

They usually separate in the daytime to forage for food and congregate together at night in the trees.

Now as to their group name - all that sent in a suggested name are correct. There is no official ornithological name for a group of
American robins. In Britain the Royal Ornithology Trust has named robins in a group a 'round' of robins. And there it gets interesting.
American robins were named after the shape and color of British robins but the birds are not the same. The American robin is a thrush
while the British robin is an Old World flycatcher.

Each spring at mating time one of my robins starts flying into my widows. Crash!!!! Crash!!!! If I do anything to have it stop then it just moves to another side of the house and Crash!!!! No window has been broken and after 3-4 weeks it stops. I have not seen this written up but my
opinion is that during the mating season the robin sees its reflection as another male competitor and he attacks it.

Its fun to keep on learning.

First Flower for the Day - Crocus 2-27-21

Ready or not here they come. The first flower of the year has warmed my heart. 

The crocus is in the iris family. There will be plenty more to come. 

      Winter Awakening 

     Cave dweller peeks out

  Dawn calls behind sheltered clouds

    Hibernate no more

  Beth Murphy, haiku and tanka poet

 

WINTER AWAKENING

Cave dweller peeks out
Dawn calls behind sheltered clouds
Hibernate no more

Read more at: https://www.icreatedaily.com/spring-haiku-poems/
Copyright © iCreate Daily

WINTER AWAKENING

Cave dweller peeks out
Dawn calls behind sheltered clouds
Hibernate no more
Haiku by Beth Murphy, haiku & tanka poet

Read more at: https://www.icreatedaily.com/spring-haiku-poems/
Copyright © iCreate Daily

WINTER AWAKENING

Cave dweller peeks out
Dawn calls behind sheltered clouds
Hibernate no more
Haiku by Beth Murphy, haiku & tanka poet

Read more at: https://www.icreatedaily.com/spring-haiku-poems/
Copyright © iCreate Daily

Don's Blog - A Field of Robins 2-25-21

After numbing temperatures and heavy snow last week we are all melted and starting to green up

this week. While walking in the field behind our house I came upon this strange gathering of a dozen

robins. I have only ever seen them in ones and twos. I wonder whites going on here. 

I don't know the term for a group of robins but this was definitely a flock or covey, congregation, clutch, crowd, horde, mob, 

mass, multitude, host, army, pack, swarm, sea, gaggle, collection, gathering, assembly, throng, cluster, troop, number, or 

band of robins. What's your choice?