Tag: the natures
When Your Interests Converge …
… and the little knitted cave creatures just look so good sitting next to the cacti, in the snowy winter dawn.
“Misty Mountains” Poncho
This was a complete coincidence.
We bought yarn in the colors the little girl liked. I had wanted to try a zigzag pattern on the next poncho I made. Turns out, when you do a modified zigzag using colors with an ombre-type fade, it looks like mountains receding into the distance! Who knew?
The picture above is one half of the poncho. I made the other half identical, sewed them together corner to corner, and added a brown tassel:
I like this mountain-y look so much, I am tempted to make one for myself some day. But that’s off in (you might say) the misty future, as I have a few other projects to get to plus a nerve injury in one arm to baby.
Happy New Year! We are not going to die in a flood.
On New Year’s morning, my son and I looked out our window to the East, and this is what we saw …
In just a few minutes, the sun dog had stretched or sprung upward …
… forming what was obviously one foot of a very large rainbow, the other foot of which was visible out our window to the South:
If you’ll notice, they are bending not inward but outward, which means that the bulk of the circle is above the earth.
Now technically, technically, the proximate cause of these rainbows was that there were a lot of ice crystals in the air on New Year’s morning. Someone sent me this picture, taken apparently before dawn, about an hour north of us:
So, yes, ice crystals.
But given that God is in control of all proximate causes, including atmospheric conditions, and given that atmospheric conditions do not always form a rainbow on New Year’s Day, I take this as a hopeful sign. From our house, the rainbow appeared to be stretching from the Shoshone-Bannock reservation north of Pocatello; over Pocatello; over the Snake River reservoir and several other small communities in our region. The rainbow was originally given as a promise to withhold a certain particular kind of judgement.
And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations (!): I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is set in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”
Genesis 9:12 – 16
Repetitive? You bet. God repeats important things.
So, thank you, Lord, for once again sending this sign. You know that our whole region desperately needs Your mercy, as does every region on the earth. I pray that You will continue to extend your mercy to Southeast Idaho in 2022, and in fact that You would pour it out more than ever before.
Excerpt from a Rabbit Myth
(Frith = the sun, whom the rabbits identify as the creator
El-ahrairah = the father of all rabbits)
So Frith said, “Then come out of that hole and I will bless you.”
“No, I cannot,” said El-ahrairah, “I am busy. The fox and the weasel are coming. If you want to bless me you can bless my bottom, for it is sticking out of the hole.”
Then Frith felt himself in friendship with El-ahrairah, who would not give up even when he thought the fox and the weasel were coming. And he said, “Very well, I will bless your bottom as it sticks out of the hole. Bottom, be strength and warning and speed forever and save the life of your master. Be it so!”
And as he spoke, El-ahrairah’s tail grew shining white and flashed like a star: and his back legs grew long and powerful and he thumped the hillside until the very beetles fell off the grass stems. He came out of the hole and tore across the hill faster than any creature in the world. And Frith called after him,
“El-ahrairah, your people cannot rule the world, for I will not have it so. All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed.”
Watership Down, by Richard Adams, pp. 36 – 37
Falkland Islands Inhabited 1,000 Years Ago
The people were apparently called the Yaghan, and they “kept foxes as companions.” More precisely, it was the warrah, a.k.a. the Falkland Islands wolf.
Somebody write this novel.
Highly Autumnal Quote of the Week
The moon is coming up behind the aspens. It is as big as a pumpkin and as orange. The winds are cool, the stars are like electric light bulbs. I am just inside the doorway, with my turtle-shell lamp burning so that I can see to write this.
Something is moving beyond the second hemlock. [My hawk] Frightful is very alert, as if there are things moving all around us. Halloween was over at midnight last night, but for us it is just beginning. That’s how I feel, anyhow …
My Side of the Mountain, by Jean Craighead George, p. 97
Out of Babel Books 