Red Clouds Red sky at night, sailor's delight Red sky in morning, sailor's warning. anon.
Boer Billy Goat
. . . "Who's that tramping over my bridge?" roared the troll.
"It's I! The big Billy Goat Gruff ," said the billy goat, who had an ugly hoarse voice of his own.
"Now I 'm coming to gobble you up," roared the troll.
Well, come along! I've got two spears,And I'll poke your eyeballs out at your ears;I've got besides two curling-stones,And I'll crush you to bits, body and bones.
That was what the big billy goat said. And then he flew at the troll, and poked his eyes out with his horns, and crushed him to bits, body and bones, and tossed him out into the cascade, and after that he went up to the hillside. There the billy goats got so fat they were scarcely able to walk home again. And if the fat hasn't fallen off them, why, they're still fat; and so,
Snip, snap, snout.
This tale's told out.
Norwegian Folktale
The 3 Billy Goats Gruff Beauty Berry (Callicarpa bodnieri (Profusion)) Thine head upon thee is like Carmel, and the hair of thine head like purple; the king is held in the galleries. How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights! Song of Solomon7:5,6
 Measure thy life by loss instead of gain;
Not by the wine drunk, but the wine poured forth;
For love’s strength standeth in love’s sacrifice;
And whoso suffers most, hath most to give.
Union and Communion
Hudson Taylor
Garden Spider (Argiope aurantia)
"First," said Charlotte, "I dive at him." She plunged headfirst toward the fly. As she dropped, a tiny silken thread unwound from her rear end. "Next, I wrap him up." She grabbed the fly, threw a few jets of silk around it, and rolled it over and over, wrapping it so that it couldn't move. Wilber watched in horror He could hardly believe what he was seeing, and although he detested flies, he was sorry for this one.
"There!" said Charlotte, "Now I knock him out, so he'll be more comfortable." She bit the fly. "He can't feel a thing now," she remarked. "He'll make a perfect breakfast for me."
"You mean you eat flies?" gasped Wilber.
"Certainly... I have to live, don't I?"
Charlotte's Web
by E.B. White
Mushroom
 In a minute or two the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth and yawned once or twice, and shook itself. Then it got down off the mushroom, and crawled away in the grass, merely remarking as it went, `One side will make you grow taller, and the other side will make you grow shorter.'
`One side of WHAT? The other side of WHAT?' thought Alice to herself.
`Of the mushroom,' said the Caterpillar, just as if she had asked it aloud; and in another moment it was out of sight.
Alice remained looking thoughtfully at the mushroom for a minute, trying to make out which were the two sides of it; and as it was perfectly round, she found this a very difficult question. However, at last she stretched her arms round it as far as they would go, and broke off a bit of the edge with each hand.
`And now which is which?' she said to herself, and nibbled a little of the right-hand bit to try the effect: the next moment she felt a violent blow underneath her chin: it had struck her foot!
She was a good deal frightened by this very sudden change, but she felt that there was no time to be lost, as she was shrinking rapidly; so she set to work at once to eat some of the other bit. Her chin was pressed so closely against her foot, that there was hardly room to open her mouth; but she did it at last, and managed to swallow a morsel of the lefthand bit.
Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll
Naked Ladies, Magic Lilies (Lycoris squamigera) Heart Exposed
 Batter my heart, three-person'd God, for you As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend; That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new. I, like an usurp'd town to'another due, Labor to'admit you, but oh, to no end; Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend, But is captiv'd, and proves weak or untrue. Yet dearly'I love you, and would be lov'd fain, But am betroth'd unto your enemy; Divorce me,'untie or break that knot again, Take me to you, imprison me, for I, Except you'enthrall me, never shall be free, Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me. Nature Study Idea: Make a hummingbird feederBecause hummers are attracted to red flowers, it is a good idea to have some red near your feeder. Here is a link showing you how to make a feeder out of a plastic bottle.
You can easily make your own food by combining one part sugar to four parts water, and boiling it for two minutes, then cooling and storing in the fridge. Never use honey, which can ferment, or red dye, which can be harmful to the birds.
The feeders will need cleaning every week to prevent the occurrence of mold. Wash in mild dish detergent, with no more than 10% bleach, and rinse several times. Nature Trivia: HummingbirdsHummingbirds do not suck nectar. They feed through a long, tube-like tongue that darts into the flower's corolla for nectar.The tongue, shaped like a "W", uses capillary action to absorb the nectar much like a paper towel absorbs water. The tongue's brushy tip also traps insects on their own quest for nectar.
Hummingbird eggs are the size of a pea. Three of them will sit on a penny.
Hummers may visit 1,000 flowers per day.
Hummingbirds do not have a sense of smell.They locate their food by eyesight.
More trivia here. Baby Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) Should you ask me, whence these stories? Whence these legends and traditions, With the odors of the forest With the dew and damp of meadows, With the curling smoke of wigwams, With the rushing of great rivers, With their frequent repetitions, And their wild reverberations As of thunder in the mountains?
I should answer, I should tell you,
"From the forests and the prairies, From the great lakes of the Northland, From the land of the Ojibways, From the land of the Dacotahs, From the mountains, moors, and fen-lands Where the heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah, Feeds among the reeds and rushes. I repeat them as I heard them From the lips of Nawadaha, The musician, the sweet singer." Should you ask where Nawadaha Found these songs so wild and wayward, Found these legends and traditions,
I should answer, I should tell you,
"In the bird's-nests of the forest, In the lodges of the beaver, In the hoof-prints of the bison, In the eyry of the eagle! "
All the wild-fowl sang them to him,
In the moorlands and the fen-lands, In the melancholy marshes; Chetowaik, the plover, sang them, Mahng, the loon, the wild-goose,Wawa, The blue heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah, And the grouse, the Mushkodasa!" The Song of Hiawatha, by Longfellow
Black-chinned Hummingbird (Archilochus alexandri) There are joys which long to be ours. God sends ten thousands truths, which come about us like birds seeking inlet; but we are shut up to them, and so they bring us nothing, but sit and sing awhile upon the roof, and then fly away. ~Henry Ward Beecher
Yellow Grasshopper (Melanoplus differentialis) IN a field one summer’s day a Grasshopper was hopping about, chirping and singing to its heart’s content. An Ant passed by, bearing along with great toil an ear of corn he was taking to the nest. “Why not come and chat with me,” said the Grasshopper, “instead of toiling and moiling in that way?” “I am helping to lay up food for the winter,” said the Ant, “and recommend you to do the same.”
“Why bother about winter?” said the Grasshopper; “we have got plenty of food at present.” But the Ant went on its way and continued its toil. When the winter came the Grasshopper had no food, and found itself dying of hunger, while it saw the ants distributing every day corn and grain from the stores they had collected in the summer. Then the Grasshopper knew:
“IT IS BEST TO PREPARE FOR THE DAYS OF NECESSITY.”
Aesop Laughing Gull (Larus atricilla) The seagull sees farthest who flies highest. a proverb Red-Bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus)
His bill an auger is,
His head, a cap and frill.
He laboreth at every tree,
A worm his utmost goal.
Emily Dickinson Skink (Eumeces) He thought for a second that yet another dragon was staring up at him out of the pool. But in an instant he realized the truth. The dragon face in the pool was his own reflection. There was no doubt of it. It moved as he moved: it opened and shut its mouth as he opened and shut his. He had turned into a dragon while he was asleep. Sleeping on a dragon's hoard with greedy, dragonish thoughts in his heart, he had become a dragon himself. Voyage of the Dawn Treader, by C.S. Lewis Nature Trivia: How to Make an Acorn WhistleYou only use the cap of the acorn to whistle with--not the whole acorn. You will have to remove a cap from the rest of an acorn. Although acorn whistling is simple once you have done it, you will have to experiment at it a bit to learn it. Larger caps are easier to learn on, while smaller ones seem to be slightly louder. Read more.... Acorns from A European Turkey Oak (Quercus cerris) Little by little," the acorn said, As it slowly sank in its mossy bed, "I am improving every day, Hidden deep in the earth away." Little by little each day it grew; Little by little it sipped the dew; Downward it sent out a threadlike root; Up in the air sprung a tiny shoot, Day after day, and year after year, Little by little the leaves appear; And the slender branches spread far and wide, Till the mighty oak is the forest's pride... Anonymous Lizard (possibly a Green Anole)
 There he lay, a vast red-golden dragon, fast asleep; a thrumming came from his jaws and nostrils, and wisps of smoke, but his fires were low in slumber. Beneath him under all his limbs and his huge coiled tail, and about him on all sides stretching away across the unseen floors, lay countless piles of precious things, gold wrought and unwrought, gems and jewels, and silver red-stained in the ruddy light. The Hobbit J.R.R. Tolkien
Winter Sea
For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities —his eternal power and divine nature —have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. ~ Romans 1:20 Nature Trivia: The House CentipedeThe house centipede is an eerie-looking animal, with 15 pairs of extremely long legs that give the impression of a feather moving across the floor or wall. It normally occurs outdoors, hiding under materials on the soil in the daytime, but commonly will enter structures, spending most of its time in damp areas around sinks, basements, crawl spaces, or other areas of higher moisture. Like other centipedes it is a predator on insects such as flies, roaches, and spiders, and may even be found around lights, capturing the insects that are attracted to them. The house centipede does have venom, but its stinging apparatus behind the jaws is too weak to be able to penetrate most human skin, and it is generally considered harmless, but highly beneficial.
courtesy: bugtech.com House Centipede (Scutigera coleoptrata) A Centipede was very quiet Until a toad in fun Said, "Pray which leg comes after which ?" This raised her doubts to such a pitch, She fell exhausted in the ditch, Not knowing how to run.
Ray Lankester, 1898
House Sparrow (Passer domesticus)  SLIPPING AWAY
Slipping away---slipping away!
Out of our brief year slips the May;
And Winter lingers, and Summer flies;
And Sorrow abideth, and Pleasure dies;
And the days are short, and the nights are long;
And little is right, and much is wrong.
Slipping away is the Summer-time;
It has lost its rhythm and lilting rhyme---
For the grace goes out of the day so soon,
And the tired head aches in the glare of noon,
And the way seems long to the hills that lie
Under the calm of the western sky.
Slipping away are the friends whose worth
Lent a glow to the sad old earth:
One by one they slip from our sight;
One by one their graves gleam white;
Or we count them lost by the crueler death
Of a trust betrayed, or a murdered faith.
Slipping away are the hopes that made
Bliss out of sorrow, and sun out of shade;
Slipping away is our hold on life;
And out of the struggle and wearing strife,
From joys that diminish, and woes that increase,
We are slipping away to the shores of Peace.
-Ella Wheeler Wilcox Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus melliodora)  Then taking two leaves, he laid them on his hands and breathed on them, and then he crushed them;, and straightway a living freshness filled the room, as if the air itself awoke and tingled, sparkling with joy. And then he cast the leaves into the bowls of steaming water that were brought to him, and at once all hearts were lightened. For the fragrance that came to each was like a memory of dewy mornings of unshadowed sun in some land of which the fair world in Spring is itself but a fleeting memory... The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien Taking a break...We're taking a blogging break for the month of December. Merry Christmas!
For the Glory of the Maker ... Jimsonweed seed pod (Datura stramonium)
O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory?
I Corinthians 15:55
Thanksgiving Snowstorm
Over the river and thru the wood,
To grandfather's house we go;
The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh,
Thru the white and drifted snow, oh!
Over the river and thru the wood,
Oh, how the wind does blow!
It stings the toes and bites the nose,
As over the ground we go.
Over the river and thru the wood,
To have a first-rate play;
Oh, hear the bell ring, "Ting-a-ling-ling!"
Hurrah for Thanksgiving Day-ay!
Over the river and thru the wood,
Trot fast my dapple gray!
Spring over the ground,
Like a hunting hound!
For this is Thanksgiving Day.
Over the river and through the wood,
And straight through the barnyard gate.
We seem to go extremely slow
It is so hard to wait!
Over the river and through the wood --
Now Grandmother's cap I spy!
Hurrah for fun! Is the pudding done?
Hurrah for the pumpkin pie!
Lydia Maria Child
|
