Waiting out the cold - for - The promise of Spring...
25/02/11 13:18
It seems the winter is
finally starting to ebb away... Even though the days
still seem to hold that familiar – winter
rawness… And I’m still somewhat content
with winter’s hybernation time… and to
work at my kitchen table where the snow, that was
piled up against the windows… is gone FINALLY!
But I’m starting to get the itch to get out cycling and riding in the woods with my horse. The days are visibly getting longer… the horse & the dog are just starting to shed their winter coats… the sun is shifting and I long for the sun to move just a bit closer to bring more warmth to this frozen region…
I long achingly now - to cast aside my heavy sweaters and jeans and feel that warm sun on my body… but I know I must wait… for the snow is still high in places from where the plows made our roads passable… in the winter’s storms. But... I can now finally get my old barn truck - "Jake" out from Winter’s heavy, white blankets...
The bravest of wee birds – are just now - starting to chitter in and amongst the branches… looking I’m sure… for companionship - to feather a nest with… And just this morning.. I heard a lone, Morning Dove… tentatively trying out it’s spring voice, sounding almost a little craigy in the effort - after the long winter of unuse I’m sure… for what bird would sing out - in a snow storm? I’m sure, he’s hoping he won’t be solo for too much longer… though it seems there’s always just one lonesome dove… sitting on the wire by my house… and I always wonder why…
A long hike into the woods… reveals the briars that lay in acres of wild tangle along the path in the deepest part of the wood – and they are pinking with that raspberry color they always get… right before the tiny green leaves spring from their thorny branches, heralding Spring’s return…
But everything out there still seems cold, hard & wet and I can’t wait to be greeted with that mossy – rich, earthy smell – which to me… is the gift – of... The promise of Spring…
Read More...
But I’m starting to get the itch to get out cycling and riding in the woods with my horse. The days are visibly getting longer… the horse & the dog are just starting to shed their winter coats… the sun is shifting and I long for the sun to move just a bit closer to bring more warmth to this frozen region…
I long achingly now - to cast aside my heavy sweaters and jeans and feel that warm sun on my body… but I know I must wait… for the snow is still high in places from where the plows made our roads passable… in the winter’s storms. But... I can now finally get my old barn truck - "Jake" out from Winter’s heavy, white blankets...
The bravest of wee birds – are just now - starting to chitter in and amongst the branches… looking I’m sure… for companionship - to feather a nest with… And just this morning.. I heard a lone, Morning Dove… tentatively trying out it’s spring voice, sounding almost a little craigy in the effort - after the long winter of unuse I’m sure… for what bird would sing out - in a snow storm? I’m sure, he’s hoping he won’t be solo for too much longer… though it seems there’s always just one lonesome dove… sitting on the wire by my house… and I always wonder why…
A long hike into the woods… reveals the briars that lay in acres of wild tangle along the path in the deepest part of the wood – and they are pinking with that raspberry color they always get… right before the tiny green leaves spring from their thorny branches, heralding Spring’s return…
But everything out there still seems cold, hard & wet and I can’t wait to be greeted with that mossy – rich, earthy smell – which to me… is the gift – of... The promise of Spring…
Read More...
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Get Your Irish Up! Ceili dance & dinner!
19/02/11 15:18
February 19th - 2011... Come on out to the Middletown
VFW - at 1 Veterns Lane - Route 36 - Port Monmouth,
NJ... For more info call 732 - 233 - 9805 for tickets
and info... this is sponsored by - The Pipes &
Drums of the Atlantic Watch! Second annual! Last year
it was a BLAST!!!! come on out and learn some great
Irish Dances - taught by River Dance dancer - Sinead
Curran!
Read
More...
Read
More...
A Mid-winter's waltz...
09/02/11 15:38
Mid
winter – brings on the duldrums…
that’s for sure. And it made me start thinking
as I listened to everyone bemoaning the cold, snow
and ice that encases the world. And yes… I am
not real fond of the slippery ice, or the crunchy
snow - especially when I’ve got to go outside
searching for scraps of kindling… or running
out to the log pile for more wood. Do I like to feel
the sharp teeth of the savage winter winds - biting
at my heels, or whipping my hair into my eyes –
or feel it’s sting against my face as I try to
shield myself from the harsh lashing? Heck no! But I
will say – despite it all… I still DO
love the winter….
I love the look of the sky… when it’s dirty, ghost grey – and it’s brimming with a storm – keeping it’s quantities of imminent snow… to then finally release a white flurry… in a slur… swirling down upon us – until it lay in a thick white blanket… so beautiful in it’s delivery… and leaving the world, clean… white… and silent… and there is nothing more beautiful or more full of music to me… than the silence in the wake of a deep snow fall… when the world is shut down.
As Marcell Marceau once said: “Music and silence combine strongly because music is done with silence, and silence is full of music”
Oh, and I love the beautiful, familiar face of Mother Moon – especially in the bleak, coldness of the January nights as she brings upon us, in all her glory… her Full Wolf Moon… so stunningly brilliant in the frozen, night sky… and I will admit… I left the warmth of the fire… to go out into the cold night – spur of the moment… and uncloaked… and gaze at her beauty…. Standing silent & still, looking up at her… until I couldn’t stand the biting cold anymore and I was chilled to the bones… So I retreated hastily inside… to warm up… cold, yes, but thrilled at being enriched by such a vision of natural beauty…
(Photo above - taken by Al Petteway)
Then there are those wild winter winds… and how they make me SO thankful to be warm, safe & quiet inside… especially as they howl , inhospitable and merciless through the bare branches of the trees... whistling, moaning and lashing the branches against the side of the house, scratching at the windows… like icy, clawed fingers… tapping & scraping at the glass – as if Old Man winter, or Mother Nature herself - were out there saying… ohhhh…. Let me in…
This winter… there is a resident, Great horned owl… who seems to have found a favorite perch - somewhere just outside my bedroom window each night. This amazing and lovely creature wakes me on more nights than not, and I can’t help but marvel at the enormous resonance he holds within his great, wide, deep chest… and with what tremendous projection, he calls out. I’ve convinced myself… he calls for his true mate he knows is out there… somewhere in the darkness… He calls every night... never giving up hope… for he’ll never give up his search. And as I hear him beckoning each night - I strain my ears in the darkness of my room… to listen for a far away - remote reply… I lay, hoping… barely daring to breathe – for fear I might miss it if it comes… But he keeps calling, believing that answer - will come for him.
So in all this winter “down time” when the ice and snow lay thick… prohibiting even any remote idea of my beloved (yes, and somewhat addictive) cycling routines, or playing fiddle out on the porch… or taking my horse out into the deep woods… I’ve instead - set out to learn lovely new waltzes with my fiddle & dulcimer. With February toted as being the ‘romantic’ month… as it holds Valentine’s day… and recalling the many couples who come into the pub on Tuesday nights - and who waltz to the music - as my band plays... my mind just wandered off… So here we go… get onboard… hang on tight!
Dancing is a beautiful form of personal art and expression… and when it is done with the deepest, true passion and love with another – it is a magnificent thing to behold… Whether it’s the waltz of newlywed lovers… or the plaintive yet hopeful call of a night bird in the darkness, filled with eternal hope for an answer, or it’s old lovers who’ve danced their way through a lifetime together of good, bad, happy sad, high and low, most likely stepping on each other’s toes, somewhere along the line… but still crazy in love with each other - through it all… Maybe it’s musicians who ring out clearly - with the sweetest gelling of melody & harmony… or maybe any famous pair… Baskin & Robins… Lancelot and Guenivere… or corned beef & cabbage… It is just the beautiful simplicity of what should be two… that truly belong, and blend together… and the way they move in a dance that is all their own… together - through life…
So in this mid-winter, deep freeze… I’ve searched within myself – looking for the beauty and harmony that I know, and I believe – exists… Yet through my hopeful, prismatic eyes… I keep trying to see… I gaze out beyond these dark, winter days, beyond the ice & snow, and beyond the realities of this every day life - to what I can really hope for… and I look even beyond that… I look for what I can dream about… And for what I have found… of which I can not even begin to explain… but I do know, that I can pour out from this deep well of feelings and insight I’ve uncovered - that churn and eddy so passionately within me – I can pour that into my music… And hope it gives even one set of lovers, friends or romantics – a medium to move to… that maybe my music will lift even just one weary heart… or maybe make someone smile, tap their fingers or toes, or move someone to dance. I hold hope it will give old lovers – something to rejoice in together - with their one special kindred… and if even just one person… finds my music happy or rejuvenating - and feels even briefly restored… I would consider this… a good thing I’ve done - in these bleak, mid-winter days.
I love the look of the sky… when it’s dirty, ghost grey – and it’s brimming with a storm – keeping it’s quantities of imminent snow… to then finally release a white flurry… in a slur… swirling down upon us – until it lay in a thick white blanket… so beautiful in it’s delivery… and leaving the world, clean… white… and silent… and there is nothing more beautiful or more full of music to me… than the silence in the wake of a deep snow fall… when the world is shut down.
As Marcell Marceau once said: “Music and silence combine strongly because music is done with silence, and silence is full of music”
Oh, and I love the beautiful, familiar face of Mother Moon – especially in the bleak, coldness of the January nights as she brings upon us, in all her glory… her Full Wolf Moon… so stunningly brilliant in the frozen, night sky… and I will admit… I left the warmth of the fire… to go out into the cold night – spur of the moment… and uncloaked… and gaze at her beauty…. Standing silent & still, looking up at her… until I couldn’t stand the biting cold anymore and I was chilled to the bones… So I retreated hastily inside… to warm up… cold, yes, but thrilled at being enriched by such a vision of natural beauty…
(Photo above - taken by Al Petteway)
Then there are those wild winter winds… and how they make me SO thankful to be warm, safe & quiet inside… especially as they howl , inhospitable and merciless through the bare branches of the trees... whistling, moaning and lashing the branches against the side of the house, scratching at the windows… like icy, clawed fingers… tapping & scraping at the glass – as if Old Man winter, or Mother Nature herself - were out there saying… ohhhh…. Let me in…
This winter… there is a resident, Great horned owl… who seems to have found a favorite perch - somewhere just outside my bedroom window each night. This amazing and lovely creature wakes me on more nights than not, and I can’t help but marvel at the enormous resonance he holds within his great, wide, deep chest… and with what tremendous projection, he calls out. I’ve convinced myself… he calls for his true mate he knows is out there… somewhere in the darkness… He calls every night... never giving up hope… for he’ll never give up his search. And as I hear him beckoning each night - I strain my ears in the darkness of my room… to listen for a far away - remote reply… I lay, hoping… barely daring to breathe – for fear I might miss it if it comes… But he keeps calling, believing that answer - will come for him.
So in all this winter “down time” when the ice and snow lay thick… prohibiting even any remote idea of my beloved (yes, and somewhat addictive) cycling routines, or playing fiddle out on the porch… or taking my horse out into the deep woods… I’ve instead - set out to learn lovely new waltzes with my fiddle & dulcimer. With February toted as being the ‘romantic’ month… as it holds Valentine’s day… and recalling the many couples who come into the pub on Tuesday nights - and who waltz to the music - as my band plays... my mind just wandered off… So here we go… get onboard… hang on tight!
Dancing is a beautiful form of personal art and expression… and when it is done with the deepest, true passion and love with another – it is a magnificent thing to behold… Whether it’s the waltz of newlywed lovers… or the plaintive yet hopeful call of a night bird in the darkness, filled with eternal hope for an answer, or it’s old lovers who’ve danced their way through a lifetime together of good, bad, happy sad, high and low, most likely stepping on each other’s toes, somewhere along the line… but still crazy in love with each other - through it all… Maybe it’s musicians who ring out clearly - with the sweetest gelling of melody & harmony… or maybe any famous pair… Baskin & Robins… Lancelot and Guenivere… or corned beef & cabbage… It is just the beautiful simplicity of what should be two… that truly belong, and blend together… and the way they move in a dance that is all their own… together - through life…
So in this mid-winter, deep freeze… I’ve searched within myself – looking for the beauty and harmony that I know, and I believe – exists… Yet through my hopeful, prismatic eyes… I keep trying to see… I gaze out beyond these dark, winter days, beyond the ice & snow, and beyond the realities of this every day life - to what I can really hope for… and I look even beyond that… I look for what I can dream about… And for what I have found… of which I can not even begin to explain… but I do know, that I can pour out from this deep well of feelings and insight I’ve uncovered - that churn and eddy so passionately within me – I can pour that into my music… And hope it gives even one set of lovers, friends or romantics – a medium to move to… that maybe my music will lift even just one weary heart… or maybe make someone smile, tap their fingers or toes, or move someone to dance. I hold hope it will give old lovers – something to rejoice in together - with their one special kindred… and if even just one person… finds my music happy or rejuvenating - and feels even briefly restored… I would consider this… a good thing I’ve done - in these bleak, mid-winter days.