Orion

Orion is one of the easiest constellations to find and, luckily for me, appears in the southwest sky which is the direction my windows face.

I was never able to capture the whole constellation in the frame but I could get the major stars and "objects" such as Orion's belt and sword.

You will need to click on the images to enlarge them.  Hopefully you have a touch screen or other way to further enlarge the first photo.  The four outer stars from upper left clockwise to lower left are:  Betelgeuse, Bellatrix, Rigel, and Saiph.  The inner stars can be seen better in the second and third photos.

Orion 

 

Orion's belt (first without names and then with names)

Orion's sword (first without names and then with names)

Ice Patterns

I've discovered that the best place to look for interesting ice patterns in the neighbourhood is in parking lots.  I even know which parking lots provide the best patterns along with which particular areas within those lots.  Retirement and the pandemic have given me the time and the motivation to make these discoveries!

Note: A few of the photos have been converted to grayscale to remove the brownish color of tiny patches of mud.

Note 2: You can click on one (to enlarge it) and then scroll through the photos to see them in a larger format.

The following pictures have a blue tint that is naturally produced by the shade.

Snowflakes and Frost

With little to photograph while I stay within my neighbourhood limits, I have turned to closely examining ice and snow.  This post will show some snowflakes and frost and a future post will show ice patterns.

The best place to find snowflakes with a dark background (for contrast) is on pavement.  I find that usually the flakes melt quickly but if there is "black" ice, the temperature is lower than the asphalt and that helps to keep the flakes intact long enough for a photograph.  Sadly, many of the flakes break apart either on the way down or when they hit the ground.  I managed to see a couple of these flakes shown below as they fell and landed near me.  I find that more interesting than just coming upon them already on the ground.  Some how I feel a connection to these tiny snowflakes.

These are pictures of frost that appeared one morning on my living room window.

Saturn and Jupiter conjunction

Tonight is the night!!  Alas, the clouds are spoiling the fun of seeing the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter so I am consoling myself by doing this post with photos that I took last week on December 17th.

Captions are below each photo.  Please click on the photo to enlarge it.

Here is the lovely crescent Moon showing "earth shine", which illuminates the darkened area, and on the far right near the bottom of the image you can see Saturn above and Jupiter below.  

Here you see a close up of the two planets and even two of Jupiter's moons.  You can also notice that Jupiter shows as a circle (sphere) whereas Saturn's shape is elongated indicating the rings around the planet. 

Bent Arrow Studio

Quite some time ago I wrote a poem about a message brought by a crow and I posted it in this blog.  

A few people have mentioned how it touched them in some way and recently I was contacted by a woman who lives in Scotland and designs and makes the most beautiful, soul-filled jewelry - many with a crow (or corvid) theme.

I am so impressed by her beautiful work and her beautiful words that I wanted to share them here.  Her website can be found at: Bent Arrow Studio

I'm sure you will enjoy perusing her site.  Here are a couple of snippets (please click to enlarge them).

Donny Trump Walk

 

Sung to the tune of Jingle Bell Rock

Donny Trump Walk

Donny Trump, Donny Trump, Donny Trump walk

Walk out the door, we won't take anymore

Yelling and telling your bushels of lies

Now the transition has begun.

Donny Trump, Donny Trump, Donny Trump walk

Jingle bells chime, it's now quitting time

Dancing or prancing, just leave for elsewhere

In the frosty air.

What a bright time, it's the right time

To walk, yes walk away

Jingle bell time is a swell time

To go to hell 'cause you need to pay.

Giddy-up Donny Trump, pick up your feet

Look at the time on the clock

The election's over, Biden has you beat

No matter how much you balk.

Donny Trump, Donny Trump, Donny Trump walk

Jingle bells chime, it's now quitting time

Dancing or prancing, just leave for elsewhere

In the frosty air.

What a bright time, it's the right time

To walk, yes walk away

Jingle bell time is a swell time

To go to hell 'cause you need to pay.

Giddy-up Donny Trump, pick up your feet

Look at the time on the clock

Mix and a-mingle but beat a retreat

Go on Donny Trump

Go on Donny Trump

Go on Donny Trump - walk!

I've Published a Book of Poetry

 

"Discoveries in the Dark

Each one of us is born from the dark and returns to the dark.  

I would suggest as well that we live our lives in the dark.  By this I mean that we, as strangers in this world, spend our time trying to understand what to make of everything.  Our life-spans are not very long for us to explore what life is and how to navigate it. 

Throughout my life I have tried to get by as best as I could while sometimes negotiating deep, dark periods.  In the whole process I have made discoveries that have been small illuminations and have been significant enough to prompt me to express my thoughts and feelings in poetry.  

This book is a collection of some of those discoveries."

I recently self-published "Discoveries In The Dark" which is a book of sixty-five poems that I have written over the years.  It was a labour of love and a way for me to reveal feelings that have remained unexpressed for a long time.  Some of the poems are very personal whereas others are observations of the wonders of nature.  Here is an example of the latter.

I'll Know No Better Moment

Alone in nature's quiet woods

I sit in melancholy thought

and feel a soft wind blowing.

 

I turn and see there stands a fox -

his amber eyes are fixed on mine.

 

I’ll know no better moment.

And with a thrill, I see

through amber eyes as well.

 

And feel a change of gravity

and share his light-footed trot.

2019

© Doris Potter

Check this out!  I was #51 on Amazon's best seller list for Canadian Poetry, thereby beating out Leonard Cohen's book at #53!

(You can click on the image to increase its size.)

Ok, I have no idea why that happened and now I am at #535 but, wow, those 15 minutes of fame were delightful!! :-)

Sold on Amazon.com here