A Mood Pick-Me-Up

While trying to figure out a way to access a Webinar I registered for on humane education (the company doesn’t support Apple products, and Apple doesn’t support the workarounds), I came across this photo. Jack Moskovita waited more than four hours to get this shot of a Golden Rufous’s brief stay in Washington. My frustration with technology quickly dissipated.

The First Snow

“To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind
than to be hopelessly in love with spring.”
—George Santayana

Thanksgiving Day brought near 70-degree temperatures to us in the Horse Capital of the World, then rain. All day…rain.

But last night, the rain turned white: snow. There’s something about a first snow that sticks in my mind and heart and tickles the old joie de vivre.

Wilson Bentley delighted in the white stuff as well. He was the first (in 1885) to microphotograph snowflakes—more than 5,000 over the course of his life (1865–1931) and no two alike. “Under the microscope,” he said, “I found that snowflakes were miracles of beauty; and it seemed a shame that this beauty should not be seen and appreciated by others. Every crystal was a masterpiece of design and no one design was ever repeated. When a snowflake melted, that design was forever lost. Just that much beauty was gone, without leaving any record behind.”

[Pic by KyScarlett.]

Still Stumped for a Father’s Day Gift?

Do you constantly see letters, shapes, and patterns emerging from natural and manmade environments?

I do. And so do the folks at Undercover Alphabet. I discovered them in a small consignment boutique that specializes in equestrian wear. (I may start wearing this stuff—fabulous fabrics, patent leather boots, mm-mmm…)

They create photographic words from the random and accidental shapes they recognize around them. They even take commissions—which means you’re assured of getting a unique gift for someone, whatever the occasion. Check out their Web site or Facebook page.