Overthetrail

Beautiful and unusual formation of "Frazil" ice in Yosemite.

Nocturnal (Star fall), 2010







Watching the Clock on New Year's Eve

Let's only call this a night,
Eve, if the mood strikes.

Give the hours a hand to go
straight to twelve with a bubbly-pop,

the minutes a push to make it a second past
with the glass raised for the emptying. From old

to new, from then to now's a matter of counting
down: ten to nine to eight, your lips puckered

in place. From seven to six, your sleep-allied eyes
aligning. Between five and four, ready

to take three to two finally unto one, at last, alone,
the television picture going to snow.

© 2010 Maureen E. Doallas

11. You and I - will be OK. Sometimes we'll be up and sometimes we'll be down. We'll have bad days and good days. We won't get everything we want but we'll get some of it. Some of the time we'll be happy and some of the time we won't. The things we worry about most probably won't happen but things we don't expect will crop up and we'll deal with them just fine :)

My favorite of Ellie's 2011 clairvoyant predictions. :)

Into The Twilight

Out-worn heart, in a time out-worn,
Come clear of the nets of wrong and right;
Laugh, heart, again in the gray twilight;
Sigh, heart, again in the dew of the morn.
Thy mother Eire is always young,
Dew ever shining and twilight gray,
Though hope fall from thee or love decay
Burning in fires of a slanderous tongue.
Come, heart, where hill is heaped upon hill,
For there the mystical brotherhood
Of hollow wood and the hilly wood
And the changing moon work out their will.
And God stands winding his lonely horn;
And Time and World are ever in flight,
And love is less kind than the gray twilight,
And hope is less dear than the dew of the morn.


~Yeats

Lloyd Kahn claims that shelter is more than a roof over your head. As the author and publisher of over a dozen books on home construction, Lloyd has been grappling with the concept of home, physically and psychically, for over five decades. Situated in the financial and housing crisis, this film profiles Lloyd's ideas on do-it-yourself construction and sustainability.

"I think that craftsmanship is on the wane.  It's not as necessary now as it was 100 years ago to be able to do things for yourself.  I mean, you can't be self sufficient.  When you start raising food you find out "Well, I can't raise wheat, if I'm going to have butter it's going to be...", so the idea is to do as much of that stuff for yourself as you could because the quality of your life would be better."



Many thanks to Margir for sharing this wonderful video about creativity, craftsmanship, living simply, and doing what you can to provide a warm, thriving home and life for yourself and your family.

A winter scene by Timur D'Vatz.





Thank you, snezanabr

The Christmas Ship Parade started in 1954 with one lone sailboat from Portland Yacht Club. Bows of green with some ribbon where tied along the rails and it paraded on the rivers. The next year the parade started to grow. Today, The Christmas Ship Fleet averages about 55 to 60 boats between the Columbia and Willamette River fleets. Things have changed from the first lone ship. Now the displays are brightly lit and can be seen from bank to bank on each river.

The Portland tradition packs restaurants along the two rivers. Many reservations are made a year in advance. Many hotel rooms are booked by mid-summer. Corporation Christmas parties are scheduled around the Christmas Ship Parade schedule. By the thousands every night regardless of the weather Portland-Vancouver residents line the banks of both rivers to watch the parade. To show their appreciation for the all volunteer effort and the performance they give, many homes and cars along the way flash their porch and headlights as the fleet passes.


For many of the boat owners, this is a family Christmas tradition, offering the Portland area thrilling Christmas time parades. Many of the operators also have small private parties for friends and families aboard their vessels during the parade. All costs are borne by the owners.



We go out to my mom and dad's house on the dike,
walk out to the end of a little logging road to an old log boom
and watch in silence as they pass by on the way to their
next stop, where they'll twirl and show off for the audience.

You can hear them coming, standing out there in the dark,
as one of the boats will have Christmas music playing.
This is one of our favorite Christmas traditions.