here we go again

the rising sun, through the window, through the screen, through the trees. i've been around this thing so many times now it's a bit staggering.

waxing & waning

as a kid a long, long time ago, i remember a fascination with the moon. how did it change shape. why was it not consistently orange or yellow, large or small. and how could it follow us at night on rides home from my grandparents.

the fascination continues still. on full moon nights, i stand in the window, mesmerized, reluctant to give up the luminosity and go to bed. i check the moon phases on calendars and in almanacs. i sometimes watch and wait for moonrise.

but with all this attention to the moon, i still get confused with the terminology. i know that gibbous is the opposite phase of crescent - but when is the moon waning? when is it waxing? this part i just can't seem to keep straight, no matter how hard i try. but recently i found this little rhyme written by blogger susan branch:

when the moon is a sliver...

horns to the east, soon to be increased

horns to the west, soon to rest

so using this saying as a guide, i'm going to start paying more attention to the names of the phases the moon goes through each month. i really want to understand and get it right. now all i have to do is remember which way is east and which way's west. 

snow art

more spring snow this morning, heavy wet stuff that clung to everything, including piling up on the top of the monkey bars outside my window at work. when snow quickly changed to rain, as it does in spring here, accumulated snow started to slide off spots in big soggy messes. but look what it did here. from a scientific standpoint, i can't even figure out how this could happen. but it ran the entire length of both parallel bars - and surely was interesting to look at during lunch at the window!

coffee break rituals

sad to say, i'm pretty compulsive about a lot of things, and coffee preparation is one of them. pictured here is the cup i always use at work. after i pour my coffee, i add creamers, one by one, tapping the bottoms to get the last drips of cream from each. when the first one is empty, i stuff its foil top back into the tiny container, put it down, then start on the second creamer. i do this four times, packing each fluted container into the previous empty one, making a stack, as shown. next comes two yellow packages of sweetener, with the empty sleeves crumpled, then packed into the topmost creamer of the stack. a swish with a spoon and i am done. the lid snaps on just so, with the sip hole lined up at a ninety degree angle to the cup's handle when i hold it in my right hand.

now if people would only make available a pint container of cream for my coffee, i wouldn't have to go through this compulsive ritual. well, the plastic part of it, anyway.

egg tree

over the weekend, i broke down and strung some plastic eggs with the little girl for an egg tree. as we sat on the couch affixing strings to plastic, she handed me eggs one at a time but by color - first the two purple ones, then the two yellow, then the two pink - and so on. once outside, she removed them from the basket and hung them on the crabapple in the same order - first the two purples, then the yellows, then the pinks...

to some, this easter display may look tacky out in the yard. but not to the little girl who thinks it's lovely. and certainly not to her enamored, awe-struck grandmother who thinks she's just amazing.

march into march

here comes march, the much hoped for end to winter in new england. not everyone feels this way - skiiers and snowmobilers pray for one more big snowstorm in march and they sometimes get it. but march is the best of both winter and spring worlds since the snow often is light and fluffy and melts easily with warmer temperatures. mud makes an appearance in march, so much of it that some call this month mud season. sap buckets appear as maples stir from winter dormancy. now is when i start hoping for pussy willows by the side of the road - and snow fleas in the melting snowbanks.

a whole new perspective

what is this flower? a mammoth sunflower? a daisy? nay, it's chamomile, the most diminutive little flower ever, no bigger in diameter than the nail on my pinkie. here's another shot of it in a wee little windowsill vase. this tiny flower appears ginormous and detailed because i took the shot with my brand new new macro lens! if you click on the photo to make it bigger, which i hope you always do anyway, you will see the intricate sunflower-like pattern in the center of the flower. you may also notice two inchworms dancing on the flower's head. amazing!

i'm going to need a lot of practice and experience - but oh, the things you and i are going to see through this lens...!

summer solstice

as we slept, the earth momentarily stood still, hanging to the farthest edge of its orbit around the sun before undertaking its slow journey back to the opposite side.

so summer came. now, where is it?

violet blues

violets peppering the front yard, a sign that it's time for the first mowing. as the mower starts i gather as many flowers as i can, but i soon give up. these are the tiny variety, the sort that, when cut, don't last very long in water anyway. i sit on the step and watch as they are cut down, the heady smell of newly mown grass filling the air. in a few moment's time, this year's violets, along with the grass clippings, have become the start of next year's compost.

balloon 09

yes, the easter balloon was delivered last night, this time in a trash bag tied to the back of my car with not carrots, but kale weighing it down. a lovely gesture that touches me still. thanks, easter bunny!!

square root day

see? the number of day of the month (3) and the number of the month (3) are the square root of the last two digits of the year (09). so today was square root day! there's more here if you want to find out all about it. i was really going to let the day pass, not do a post on it. but the next square root day will be 4-4-2016. who knows if i'll even still be blogging by then. 

but then, pi day is fast approaching...