"Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die."

Carrie Fisher

Happy Holidays

"Now who art thou, that on the bench wouldst sit

In judgment at a thousand miles away,

With the short vision of a single span?"

Dante Alighieri, Paradiso

Canto XIX, lines 79–81 (tr. Longfellow).

S.Michele in Isola, Venice. 

dedicated to Saint Michael, 

the holder of the scales on 

Judgement Day.

Venetian Boats

“Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing 

- absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply 

messing about in boats.” 

Ratty

Still cold here.

Fog in Venice

"it is bitter earnestness
That makes beauty; the mind
Knows, grown adult.
A sudden fog-drift muffled the ocean,
A throbbing of engines moved in it,
At length, a stone's throw out, between the rocks and the vapor,
One by one moved shadows
Out of the mystery, shadows, fishing-boats"

from Boats in a Fog

by Robinson Jeffers

" The Yachts

contend in a sea which the land partly encloses

shielding them from the two-heavy blows

of an ungoverned ocean"

from The Yachts

by William Carlos Williams

"The army all saluted

As they marched along the road.

Was it the King? Or Kitchener?

No. It was Mr. Toad."

This morning on a visit to the blog "Beyond The Fields We Know", 

I was taken with the photo for the Yule season. I decided to arrange

a bit of seasonal cheer myself and brought out the Nutcrackers. 

All I can say is the collection started innocently enough with one.

http://www.beyondthefieldsweknow.org/2016/12/calling-sun-home.html

Dolomites Part 2

"Where’s the trail to Cold Mountain?
Cold Mountain? There’s no clear way.
Ice, in summer, is still frozen.
Bright sun shines through thick fog.
You won’t get there following me.
Your heart and mine are not the same.
If your heart was like mine,
You’d have made it, and be there!"

from Words from Cold Mountain
by Han-shan


The Dolomites seem much more developed
than the Rockies with electric power
extending high into the mountains. We asked
our driver who has taken tourists into the
mountains for 7 years, what animals he
had seen, he had only seen deer twice again
a real contrast to the amount of wildlife we would
we would normally see in the Rockies.

These paved paths extend around the entire 

mountain a walk of 2 or 3 hours.

In the photo below you can see two transmission towers 

bringing power right up the mountain.

“Mountains, according to the angle of view, the season, 

the time of day, the beholder's frame of mind, or any one 

thing, can effectively change their appearance. Thus, it is 

essential to recognize that we can never know more than 

one side, one small aspect of a mountain.”

from A Wild Sheep Chase

by Haruki Murakami

Pieve di Cadore birthplace of Titian

On our way to the Dolomite mountains we stopped at a charming alpine town.

Pieve di Cadore was the birthplace of Titian a leading artist of the Italian Renaissance.

The Church, Chiesa di Santa Maria Nascente was lovely.

Lagoon Part Two

Here we are visiting the Island of Torcello for lunch.

both quotes below are from Wikipedia

"Torcello is a sparsely populated[ island at the 

northern end of the Venetian Lagoon, in north-eastern Italy.

It is the oldest continuously populated region of Venice,

and once held the largest population of the Republic of

Venice."

One of the most popular site is,

"The Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta (Cattedrale di 

Santa Maria Assunta) is a basilica church. It is a notable 

example of Venetian-Byzantine architecture, one of the most 

ancient religious edifices in the Venetto, and containing the 

earliest mosaics in the area of Venice."

We were blown away by how lovely the island was and 

the mosaic's in the church were amazing. We hoped to go 

back for a second visit but ran out of time.

                               

We did climb the church tower, but most of my photos

were not great, it was still a bit foggy. Someone has found

a way to shorten the commute.

The boat driver took us to a family fish farm. This farm was not stocked 

with a single species like ours are, they open metal gates so the fry can 

enter and then close them and feed whatever enters.

Helen loved this small building that was built on an

old barge that was then floated in and sunk.

Hunters were busy building duck blinds.

"On the far shore

a white bird is standing

like a white candle —"

from At Great Pond

by Mary Oliver

The lagoon was very quiet and peaceful, we saw egrets, herons, 

cormorants, gulls, terns, a Kingfisher, swallows, and shorebirds,

but none of the sparrows and blackbirds we expected.