Nature Diary #10

10.17.2011

Wait, It's a Squirrel?


    Yesterday I was trying to take a few pictures of a pair of cardinals that were perched in my back yard.  Then I started hearing a bird that was chirping loudly.  The same call kept responding.  I looked over to the source of the latter call and saw a big grey bird in a tree.

   When I came closer to the gray bird, I saw that it was a squirrel!

   And to my disbelief, it was imitating the other bird and making odd sounds using the back of its throat - or so that is what I believe.  He looked quite silly there, shaking slightly every time he made the noise, his fluffy tail shuddering.

   I wonder, is it really normal for squirrels to do that?

Messenger

If I were a messenger,
And you were too,
Where to go, where to play?
Where to conceal our words?

We'll find her wistful birds,
That prune their deep blue feathers
And bask in the chilling mountain wind
And spread our messages...

And if we're successful,
It will spread like a vigilant
Yet silent wildfire,
And war shall wring no more...

The Fox's sun

 The Fox's Sun

The yearning beams of sunlight peek out from beneath the hills-engraving the grass with a fine thick brush, giving the trees another life.

The little fox who sleeps late, wakes instead to find himself wrapped in a blanket of dancing gold. Yet he still feels the delicate twinkling of the previous night's crisp cold air.

Does he know what he is seeing?

The Gaze

 

THE GAZE 

A gaze can stop you
In your tracks
But sometimes a brighter one
Will push you forward

This gaze was neither
Which means it was both too
It stopped me
It pushed me

The gaze of the frightened creature
Made me lower my long-barreled
Gun from atop my stiff shoulders
And let it go unharmed

Diana's birds

The birds in the moonlight
Never cease their flight
Silver tints those feathers
From the transparent silvery shine

The birds do not cease to fly
Mooney wings widespread...
Fluttering and soaring
Within the hauntingly lovely night

Spanish Correction!

    My mom and I were riding the bus back from my violin class.  She spotted a sign that said "This Bus is Equipped with Security Cameras" It was in English and Spanish.  My mom started reading the Spanish out loud and saying how similar it was to English and Latin.  She read, translated and kept reading.

    A guy that was sitting next to us started correcting my mother's off-tune and off-beat Spanish.  My mom looked a little embarrassed but followed along.  Looking back, I guess you should learn a language before using it!

STEVEN CALLAHAN adrift at sea

    Adrift at Sea is a short book that I have recently read.  It talks about a thirty year old man named Steven Callahan who is trapped at sea on his tiny life boat.  He nearly starves, dehydrates, and gets eaten alive by sharks.  Callahan stays  alive for over two months, floating on the salty ocean.  So long that barnacles start to grow on the bottom of the raft and fish start eating the barnacles.  After he is saved, he doesn't let the terrible experience stop him from sailing.

    The book also talks a little about Callahan's life.

    It is the kind of book that is very interesting but only takes you fifteen minutes to read.

What is The Meaning of My Life? (Chinese Story)

    There once was a little monk who wanted to know what the meaning of his life was.  So he asked his master, "Master, masterer, can you tell me what the meaning of my life is?"

    He answered in a wise tone, "Go up to the mountain behind our monastery, my boy, find a boulder and bring it to the market.  If someone asks how much the boulder is, don't say anything, just put up two fingers.  If they are still interested, don't sell it, bring it back here and I will tell you the meaning of your life."

    The young monk did as his master said and brought a boulder down to the market.  A while later, an old lady approached him and inquired, "Young man, how much do you want for this boulder?"

    The monk put up two fingers.

    "Two yuan? " She asked. The little monk said nothing. "No? Twenty then. Oh, well, I need it to help me pickle some vegetables." She said.

    The little monk was amazed, "There are so many boulders on our mountain." He took the boulder back, and told his master, "Guess what?  A lady at the market wanted to buy this boulder for twenty yuan!  Now will you please tell me the meaning of my life?"

    The master replied, "Once again take the boulder, then instead, go to the museum and stand besides it.  Do the same thing and return.  Then I shall tell you the meaning of your life."

    The monk took the boulder and placed it in the museum.  He stood besides it like his master had told him to.

    A little later a bearded man came over and said, "Hey you!  Is this boulder for sale?  It seems pretty old.  How much?"

    Once again, the young monk put up two of his fingers.

    "Well, well," the bearded man said, "Now, is that two hundred yuan?  No?  How about two thousand?"

    The monk smiled and shook his head then returned to the monastery.  "Master!" he chirruped excitedly, "Today someone offered two thousand yuan for that bolder! Tell me the meaning of my life now."

    His master chuckled and said, "Now, now, bring this boulder once more, except this time bring it to an antique shop.  Come back and I shall finally tell you the meaning of your life."

    The little monk was off again.  He brought the boulder to an antique shop and set it down.  No later did someone approached him and asked, "Do you know how much this rock is worth? Eh?"

    And so, the monk put up two fingers.

    "So that's two thousand?  Or perhaps twenty thousand yuan?"

    The monk hurried excitedly back to his master.  He said, "Today some thought the boulder was worth twenty thousand!"

    The master nodded his long neck and smiled, "Oh, You see.  Your life is like this boulder, my dear student, the greater you value yourself, the greater you are truly worth."

    The monk remembered this for the rest of his life ...

House Near the Mountains

This is a wood project.  I used a Vice Versa burning tool and acrylic paint.

Nature Diary #9

8.29.2011

After The Storm

    Yesterday there was a hurricane! (Well, not really--by the time it reached MA it was just a tropical storm with hurricane gusts.)  Anyways, the media completely overreacted...but I guess overreacting is better than not reacting at all.  There was a really really tall pine in our backyard that kept swaying back and forth.  My dad got a little nervous and kept asking, "Is that our tree or theirs?  How do you know?"  Well, in the end we were just fine.  We didn't even lose power!

    Today you can barely tell that there had been a storm!
                                                 
                                                 
                                                           AFTER THE STORM

 

The sky is blue and cloudless

While the sun shines bright  

The shadows of trees don't move

There is no wind to rustle their branches.

All you can see After The Storm

Is the remains of scattered leaves and twigs

But other than that the storm seems

To have brought peace from rage.

Because her rage
Was full of sadness and when she left
Her sadness blossomed back to happiness
Because everything is fair in Nature's eyes.


      That's a poem I just came up with after I looked at the photos!  Isn't the sky so blue?