All photos are mine unless otherwise noted.
To see images full screen click on any photo.
Snow, snow, everywhere, piled so high that it is not possible with the short show shoes we have to walk without sinking at least a foot with every step. With another twenty plus inches on the way this weekend I offered to buy a ladder so we could climb on top of the snow in case of emergency. It is not really that bad, it's just what is. A local reporter asked a waitress in a downtown Bangor restaurant how she coped with the "terrible conditions outside." Her reply was classic as she said, "Look, it's Maine. We know how to deal with Winter" Sweet revenge on the weather terrorists that abound on every air wave predicting the worst as soon as Winter sends the gifts of white to cover the land once again.
The first image below shows the snow that fell in the five days after January 28th of this year. The squirrels have an easy time of getting to the feeders along with a red squirrel who burrows under the show each year. A day after this photo was taken this critter exited directly under the feeders. A wise survivor of the backyard tempests.
To date I am told we have had 97 inches of snow - proof that the Farmers Almanac was correct in its predictions for this 2014-15 season. The weather people predicted a mild winter last Fall. Tonight we will hit minus 12 degrees which is not a low mark - several years ago we hot 25 below for a stretch.
"It's Maine. We know how to deal with Winter." I for one do enjoy the weather and the wonder of the snow covering the ground everywhere, never getting the city patina of dirt and car exhaust that prevails in every metropolis where snow falls.
I will sit on the chair in three or four months ...hopefully.
A view of a country road in the town we live in.
Lee arriving home from work exiting from her car
which is fully dressed in snow tires.
A scene just a mile of two away from our place.
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- Stop –
Stop.
Look around.
This, is where you have been
heading,
this Present Moment –
Journey's end.
Welcome Home.
One needs to stop to know
arrival,
this day, this moment,
this place.
All else is ego's
constructions,
dreams of destination,
ever just out of reach.
Bill Lagerstrom, 2015
"I've
lived too long where I can be reached by the world."
Rumi
A redpoll on the backyard feeder.
This bird travels in large flocks, our visitors have around 70-80 that visit
twice or more each day. They are an irruptive species, meaning that there is not any rhythm to their migration to specific places each season. We haven't seen them for 2-3 years until this Winter.
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Three photos from the museum at Colby College in Waterville, Maine,
last weekend.
Something about the somewhat dated leisure society.
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Look at a soap bubble, the kind children blow into the air,
Colors, an image of the scene outside its fragile life appears inside.
Then, suddenly it bursts apart, leaving no trace of what was.
The air of the world was its only support, brief fleeting beauty.
The life external to our true nature has a short span,
Offering only brief encounters with the heart's senses –
Destroying itself quickly lest it is found to be fraudulent.
Yet, each meeting with the Ineffable, however transient,
Is God leading us to the place where all becomes Reality.
Bill Lagerstrom , 2015
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Some humor:
Peace until next post,
Bill Lagerstrom
