Open Thread – Fun with Frost!
I went for a walk this morning to enjoy the unexpected photographic gift of a hard frost. It’s definitely a timing issue when you want to get these shots. As soon as the sun hits your target, the clock starts ticking. So, I had fun finding places that were still frosty and hadn’t succumbed to the still warm sun of October.
It really was quite spectacular. The whole world looked like it was coated in sugar. Every leaf, every blade of grass, every twig, seed pod, and berry was glistening. I was almost going to tell you that the frost made everything it touched look beautiful, but that is not the case. I will leave it to you to decide which picture below proves that fact.
As I walked along, I noticed noises suddenly coming from all around me. It sounded almost like small forest critters hopping in the leaves. I did hear a squirrel or two, but this was coming from everywhere. Then, I thought it was dripping water from the frost as it melted. But as I looked around, I realized what it was. Masses of still-green leaves on the alders and willows that grow thick like shrubbery, were falling all at once. They’d frosted through, and now with the sun warming them, their little frozen bodies fell to the ground in droves, hitting the piles of their crispy dead brethren beneath, and making quite a racket!
These are the shots I took on the outward leg of my walk. The other half will wait for another time later in the week.
I hope you enjoy.
That’s right folks…Sarah Palin doesn’t need a title to create problems as she just did in South Korea:
http://politico-junkie.blogspot.com/2011/10/south-korea-palins-remarks-create.html
Thank you….they’re all beautiful…
Good Shots! I like the seed cluster best!
“It really was quite spectacular. The whole world looked like it was coated in sugar. Every leaf, every blade of grass, every twig, seed pod, and berry was glistening.”
You’ve got wonderful photos there. For me, nature is the best subject in almost any type of photography. Even a single leaf can take my breath away. I guess, it helps if the person behind the camera is good at taking pictures. Maybe, the type of camera being used helps as well.
Liza Farro
I’m feeling particularly naughty tonight as I play hooky from choir rehearsal, courtesy of my slow recovery from Small Kid Germs (the Very Worst Kind). I still have no voice and feel exhausted no matter how much sleep I get, so I decided that sitting several rows behind everyone else in the back of a church (so as not to contaminate anyone) and listening to other people sing for 2 1/4 hours was not the best use of my time tonight.
I have somewhat assuaged my guilt (hey, I AM half Irish, after all) by doing 2 loads of laundry and working on a special project for one of the teachers, so I’m not being a complete slugabed.
Off to read a few more chapters in my mystery…
Thirty two people were arrested this weekend for occupying the state capital grounds after closing time. This happened in Des Moines,Iowa-the hotbed of social activism since activism crossed the mighty Mississippi River this weekend. It was called Occupy Iowa and was to show The folks on Wall Street that mid-America stands in solidarity with them. One protestor was 14.
Keep us posted, Mike!
*Ahem* I would like to announce the arrival of our newest mudpup, Miss Hannah Marie, first grandbaby of *moi* weighing in at 6lbs 11 ounces and 19 & 3/4 inches long. Yes I said 3/4 for all you Harry Potter fans. Mother is doing fun and dad, my son, is still awestruck and gobsmacked.
congratulations dear granny. saw your baby on my Facebook wall. what a delight! 19 & 3/4 inches long means she is magical! so very happy for you. and to Hannah Marie (what a lovely name) i send many virtual hugs and smooches.
Felicitations and congratulations to the entire merrycricket clan, and most especially a warm muddy welcome to Miss Hannah Marie Mudpup. Glad mother is doing “fun.” That’s heartening.
Lol I was in such a hurry I couldn’t proof read. Still works tho….
{{{{{grandmother merrycricket}}}}}
Congrats to the whole cricket family and many happy years of spoiling ahead for you!
And what a pretty name…it’s always been one of my favorites!
Congratulations and if you don’t want her,I’ll take her sight unseen.I could use some company about now. We need new Cricket blood around the farm.
yay!
safe and sound all around,- babe and mom and probably dad 🙂
Congratulations merrygrancricket and welcome mudpupmite Hannah Marie !!
Congrats! She joins my 3 month old grandson. Aren’t they the most wonderful and precious little beings on the earth!
Welcome to Hannah Marie! And congrats, grandma! My grandson turns 1 on Sunday. Yay for grandkids!
Hannah Marie is a beautiful name. It’s also the name of a very cute character in the Scary Godmother stories by Jill Thompson – the stories originally appeared as picture books and are now collected in a hardcover from Dark Horse Comics. They’re wonderful stories, lots of fun, and you might want to take a look at them.
Congratulations….
Beautiful pictures, AKM! Leave it to you to find priceless art in the most mundane subject. Are your pix protected or can I forward a couple to my son in the FL panhandle (not too far from Crow Woman!)
He’s feeling a little homesick for AK now.
Crow Woman aborted her rant, so I’ll take another one up! It’s regarding the Scott Brown/Elizabeth Warren kerfuffle. Now, remember, she really started this, when she replied to a question on how she paid for her college by saying something to the effect that “I kept my clothes on” or “I didn’t take my clothes off” This, is course referring to Scott Brown’s nekkid pix in Cosmo at least 20 years ago, which he said he did to help pay his way through law school.
Then, in a phone interview, Scott was asked about this, and I honestly can’t remember how the question was phrased, but the gist was did he think she ever did and he answered “No” then he chuckled and said “Thank God”. Warren then said she could survive his jabs. Now Nancy Pelosi has jumped in saying Scott is “clueless” What a bunch of tripe!
Although I highy respect Warren and hope she wins the MA Senate seat she is seeking, I wish she were running against one of the more obnoxious Repubs. Scott Brown seems to be a rarity these days, a moderate Republican, and usually sides along with the two lady Senators from Maine, whom I also admire. It’s getting so that you can’t say ANYTHING that someone doesn’t take offense at.
Yes, he probably should have answered “No comment” or “I’m not touching that with a ten foot pole”, but he didn’t. With all the other subjects that need to be brought up, I find it absurd to make such a fuss about this. After, all he could have answered a lot worse!!! And I truly don’t think his response was any worse than her bringing up the subject. Rant ended!!!
Absolutely. Please feel free to forward. This morning is a repeat performance, with a blanket of frost and a chilly 24 degrees at Mudflats Central!
@Crow – Your “sweater weater” is what we here in the Last Frontier call “shorts weather!” 🙂
I’ve turned into my Norwegian Grandmother, of blessed memory,
who claimed her Viking blood was thinned by Florida’s heat.
“Put on your sweater. I’m chilly!”
🙂
Warren didn’t bring it up. She was asked the question of how she financed her college education. The questioner started the question by referencing Scott Brown’s method of financing by posing in the all-together and then asked her how she financed hers. I thought her answer was witty and appropriate for the question. His answer, well, didn’t offend me that much. And honestly it sounded a whole lot better than his comments about his daughters being available. The man really seems to be full of himself but that doesn’t make him awful.
It’s the media people, pimping them..provoking them into saying something unkind, or unseemly!
My point, exactly!
it got chillly for a couple of days, with rain, but now it’s gonna be warm again for the coming week….figures after atacking wood and spliting kindling. buried at end the last Open thread… Alaska trip write up and pics on the forum, “mudpups visiting Alaska”..
Moments of zen.
Ahhhh.
It’s sweater weather in the forest, near 60 overnight, highs near 80. Happy and I use nature’s air-conditioning, but most of Florida buys it from the power companies.
I’ve learned to dress in layers.for work. When the chillers go out (about every time we have a thunderstorm), we swelter. When the chillers work, the library gets super-chilly. That little “thermostat” box on the library wall is just for show. We can adjust it all day long, but nothing happens until the Director of Thermo-Regulation makes adjustments from the district offices. The switch from AC to heat has not yet been decreed. pfft!
Meanwhile, I keep extra socks in my desk and extra jackets and sweaters and even blankets in my office to deal with the Big Chill. It’s awfully hard for students to concentrate on their computer-based testing
(when is a library not a library? when it is a test site…rant aborted…),
when they have popsicle toes and goosebumps!
Yes, the library is closed for testing this week. And so it goes.
*shaking head*
I will proctor.
I will be in the hallway outside the library door during class changes to talk to students passing by, and to collect/renew library books. I will take my “bookmobile” (just a small cart of books and a laptop computer) to the cafeteria during lunch so students can check books in and out, renew books, and make requests for books that I can deliver to them later in the day. When they can’t get to our library, I take our library to them. Ha!
I will make it a beautiful day in the library. Ha! Ha!
(overheard and taken to heart at the state school library conference)
“Never doubt the powers of a librarian.”
hahahahaha caw Caw CAW! CAW! CAW!
thatcrowwoman
That just disgusts me no end! I can not stand that these children are denied that space. Grrrraaaiiinnnsss to the Eejuts who forget the meaning of education.
Your comments about testing in the cold reminded me of my senior year in high school. I was trying to get a specific scholarship from the college I would be attending and needed to increase my SAT score by 10 points, which I had been told a repeat of the test would almost automatically do.
The Saturday of the test, I arrived at the school to discover that someone had forgotten to arrange for the heat to be turned on. I took the test in the large, open, many-windowed cafeteria of a Long Island high school in FEBRUARY – with no heat. We all sat, wearing our coats, hats, gloves and scarves, and shivered our way through what seemed like the longest test in history. My score on one part went up 10 points while the other went down 10 points, leaving me with exactly the SAME score as I’d had the first time! :[
Fortunately, the college took the highest of each part from the two tests, which turned out to be exactly the score I needed for the scholarship. Which was good because I sure didn’t want to take the test for a THIRD time!
* * * * * * *
Today, I will be enjoying the third day of my long holiday weekend by doing exactly what I’ve been doing for the past 2 days…sleeping and reading in the sun on my patio. I’ve been recovering from a triple whammy of laryngitis, bronchitis and strep throat (love my little germ factories!) and that’s about all I can handle without gasping for air. Thankfully, the weather has been sunny and warm and I only feel a LITTLE bit guilty for not attacking my garden to-do list!
Take thee to the garden child,you are as a fish out of water,gasping for life saving breath. The garden will nurture your airways as an iron-lung and bring delightful peace to you by the day’s end. If not,don’t blame me.
Thank you….! That was lovely…
Crow i am amazed! you certainly are an absolute Librarian. i love and honor the librarians. of my youth. they opened a universe of delight for me. you get those books to your children come what may. bless you lady.
My junior high liberrian was also a Sunday school teacher at the First Baptist Church,coincidentally the first building East of Wilson Jr High in Cherokee,Iowa. The church is where mike from iowa gained so much valuable insight into my budding baseball career that I never wanted to go back there. Anyway,her name was Helen Quirk and she was the Gestapo in the liberry for ITED tests. She always wore high heels,her glasses always perched on the end of her nose and she constantly walked back and forth,clicking her heels and when she stopped,one foot was always with the point of her shoe sticking skyward-looking for redemption or something. That was what always freaked me out. She never smiled either.And she did the same thing in church,when I was there.
“Director of Thermo-Regulation” this is (of course) really really small government, right?
Don’t you have electrical outlets? Plug in a fan heater from home, all day, full blast, take it home with you at night.
Passive (agressive) resistance.
Anyone up for a conspiracy theory for Monday? I didn’t think so,so here we go. Pictures five and seven are the smoking guns the energy industry is looking for to push their drill,mine rape and plunder agenda through. They(the bad guys) will see vegetation that is in the pristine waters of pic five as the necessary pre-cursor to making coal and/or peat. Just add some more carbon,lots of pressure,heat and centuries and you have renewable resources to plunder. Picture seven will be proof positive that their original theory was correct as you have steel belted radials,made from petroleum products in the ground,popping out of the ground, How else could they get there? In Iowa I can guarantee you there are enough goofy folks to fill a jury and vote in favor of big oil’s policies. The Earth is flat I tell you.
Aaaahhhh. Lovely.
What a lovely presentation.
“Masses of still-green leaves on the alders and willows that grow thick like shrubbery, were falling all at once. They’d frosted through, and now with the sun warming them, their little frozen bodies fell to the ground in droves, hitting the piles of their crispy dead brethren beneath, and making quite a racket!”
I look forward to your return trip !!