Nature, Uncategorized

A Moment of Silence. Maybe Not

25 Comments

Today’s post comes from NorthShorer

 

What comment do I need to make about these guests beside my patio? Better than any fashion runway, huh? Oops. That was a comment.

I was going to suggest a moment of silence for the beauty lost in all the ugliness. But then that would make for a dull day on a blog.

What wonder–human or in nature–lost in ugliness, busyness, or confusion do you want to commend today?

25 thoughts on “A Moment of Silence. Maybe Not”

    1. After a lifetime of driving in deer country, I’ve still not whacked a deer. Friends who have clobbered deer tell me it can be a gut-wrenching experience. Of course, it can be expensive. My erstwife paid $100 a month for many years to repay damage on the rental car she was driving when she crunched a big whitetail doe.

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      1. I remember a Myth busters episode in which they put together an imitation moose using rubber rings, the same size as a moose. Then they drove cars into it repeatedly at different speeds to see whether it was better to speed up or slow down if you couldn’t avoid hitting it. Turns out it doesn’t really matter. It’s devastating at every speed.

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        1. I had a friend–a mighty weird friend–who held to the theory that the faster you were going when you hit a deer, the better it would be for you. He thought a slow speed collision just let the animal collapse and mess up the car whereas hitting a deer at high speed would cause it to “just bounce off.” I hope I don’t have to tell anyone here that my friend was nuts.

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        2. Sounds like the corollary to my childhood theory that if I was going fast enough on my bicycle, I didn’t need to turn the handlebars to make a turn. Took one spectacular crash to disabuse me of that notion.

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  3. Rise and Shine Baboons!

    Lou and I have been gone so much of late, we stayed home for Easter and worked in the yard and garden. While we spading and transplanting hostas, we heard a bird/squirrel ruckus and looked up. Two bald eagles were drifting on the currents at tree level right above us (our house sits on the edge of the upper banks of the Minnesota River, which is several miles away–many currents on the ridge).

    Wow.

    I will be away visiting my mom most of the weekend. Happy chatting.

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  4. The first time I ever thought about aesthetics was when I was about twelve. It occurred to me that the natural world is consistently beautiful. That seemed amazing because the colors and patterns found in nature have not been put together by an artist’s eye. (Well, we could get into some theological issues here.) I was impressed by the fact there was no artistic judgment involved to make sure things in nature would be beautiful, and yet that was what happened. Oak trees and maples look wonderful together. The patterns on a brook trout are pretty and “just right.” Most critters seem beautifully proportioned (although moose look slapped together and could be considered ugly enough they could have been designed by humans).

    I considered the remarkable case of the wood duck. The male of that species sports a wild array of colors and patterns. I thought if a human artist put so many colors and patterns on a bird, he’d screw it up and produce something painful to look at! This was an oddly thoughtful moment for a kid whose own sense of design was mighty crude at the time.

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  5. I noticed a unique cloud formation last night while driving home. A sharply curved edge of clouds trailing a patch of blue. In the center of the curve, the cloud edge seemed to be backlit by the sun, so it had a blue tinge to it. The edge was very sharp, as if a knife had been used to cut a hole in the clouds to let the blue sky appear.

    I was on the freeway at the time and I’ll bet only one in one hundred drivers noticed the sky. I was mesmerized … but not enough that I drove off the road! 😉

    Chris in Owatonna

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    1. I have about 700 photographs of clouds on an external hard drive, fortunately. I was going to paint them all one day nudge nudge wink wink.

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    2. My artist friend sees the world differently from anyone else. She is forever seeing patterns that other people fail to detect. She once spotted a cloud formation that looked like a hand. She photographed it. On a whimsy, she posted the photo on the internet with the name “God’s hand.” It went viral, and so many people got weird about it that she was sorry she had posted it.

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  6. That I was able to do this blog on an iPad was amazing,

    Last night in Culvers a young family, mom, dad,boy about 4, girl about two. All relaxed and happy together. Parents calm and attentive to kids. Not rushing them. Children behaving but bouncy and alert. The beauty of a family in public that does not make you cringe, and the rarity.
    My pharmacist, her husband and 15 and 13 year old daughters . Sharp and mature and lively. Eager to laugh. Parents enjoy the girls. A beautiful l family to watch sitting together in church.

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  7. Sandra, beautiful herself, thinks the turkeys are ugly, even in their best spring foliage. I think the forward bending legs and the slow walk of chickens and turkeys is elegant. Almost Royal.

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  8. I am really enjoying hearing the Woodpecker who is busy in the back of my yard these days. He seems more interested than the power post than the trees but I suppose he knows what he’s doing.

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  9. Hey all, does anybody need a straw bale? I ended up with one more than I really need so if it can go to a good home that would be great. Otherwise it will just be mulch around my house.

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      1. No trouble. I actually thought Catherine might want it but she’s a little busy this spring. And of course handing half of it over the fence is no big deal I have a use for the other half

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  10. I will commend the bloodroot blossoms and their curly foliage poking through the old dead leaves.

    Also the very young hosta shoots, looking like green coneheads, emerging from the plastered-down dead foliage of last year.

    And the light coming in through the leaded glass window and making rainbows on the wall of a very messy living room.

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