Snow and home again.

"No wiser now 
Than the spellbound child
who first beheld beguiled, 
Long seventy years ago
Enchanted snow."

                                               Enchanted Snow 
                                          Melville Cane

After mentioning that there was little snow, it snowed on Jan. 5th, the day before we were heading back to Calgary.

Then winter arrived with a vengeance. I sent this email to my family on Jan. 12th.

"We are okay. We had to go out for a minor medical errand this afternoon. The temp registered outside the cab, we made no attempt to start the car, was -35. That was not the wind chill. I did do a bit on the walk this morning and I said to Helen it was about as cold as I could ever remember. Nina and Whateley are only out for a minute or so but sometimes Nina limps in and has to be carried up the steps from the landing."


But it is supposed to warm up on the weekend.

Polar Vortex - looks like it will be cold all week.

 

"snow
the day shut down like Napoleon
at Moscow
a day for art
the marvel of flight and of stillness
commotion and silence"

War and Peace
D. G. Jones

So we filled up the car, got some dog treats and snacks and prepared to hunker down.

We weren't the only ones getting ready. This squirrel is planning on getting into macrame in a big way. Helen is painting her miniature. Mine are still in the mail. And we can start patching the drywall in the big room in the basement this week.

Flicker at Suet Feeder

-24C/-11F W 34C-/-29  7:30 at  a.m. in Calgary today.

"Those in the vegetable rain retain 
an area behind their sprouting eyes 
held soft and rounded with the dream of snow 
precious and reminiscent as those globes – 

souvenir of some never nether land – 
which hold their snowstorms circular, complete, 
high in a tall and teakwood cabinet."

from Stories of Snow 

by P.K. Page

Despite the cold this flicker showed up Sunday morning for suet.

Flickers used to migrate further south in winter, but apparently the

introduction of suet feeders encourages them to over winter. My 

friends in south Calgary have no luck with suet feeders as they are 

stripped immediately by magpies. Fingers crossed.

"Now the long freight of autumn goes smoking out of the land.

My possibles are all packed up, but still I do not leave.

I am happy enough here, where Dakota drifts wild in the universe,

Where the prairie is starting to shake in the surf of the winter dark."

                         from Beyond the Red River

                                      Thomas McGrath

We have had a cold week,  for much of the time the 

temperature was in the high minus 20 Celsius range 

with a wind chill some 10 degrees colder. As bit warmer 

today, but for most of the week the view out the window

showed puffed up birds and frost wrapped trees. I did put

up some Christmas lights today. The show must go on.

 "Thus having prepared their buds

against a sure winter

the wise trees

stand sleeping in the cold."

                  from Winter Trees

                              William Carlos Williams

Today it remains stupid cold -24 C at present

which is actually a slightly warmer temperature compared

to the last couple of days. So I decided to see what I could

find among the photos from the trip to DC we took in

Oct. My wife had a symposium to attend on this morning

so I went out to take some pictures. There was a gentle

rain off and on but nothing too bad.

I was fascinated by this collection of bottles which

made me think of the H.P. Lovecraft story

The Terrible Old Man.

"These folk say that on a table in a bare room on the ground floor

are many peculiar bottles, in each a small piece of lead suspended

pendulum-wise from a string. And they say that the Terrible

Old Man talks to these bottles, addressing them by such names

as Jack, Scar-Face, Long Tom, Spanish Joe, Peters, and Mate Ellis,

and that whenever he speaks to a bottle the little lead

pendulum within makes certain definite vibrations as if in answer.

Those who have watched the tall, lean, Terrible Old Man in these

peculiar conversations, do not watch him again."

I may do this at the cabin.

A bit further on I encountered a beautiful set
of stone steps that lead from one street to another.

There was a lovely fountain at the top.

At the top of the stairs I found a number of

building which I think were embassies. There was

also a lovely park were a number of birds were

flocking.

I saw a number of Northern Cardinals 

busy despite the rain.

And of course roses.

And to brighten a dreary day who better that the man

 my grade 13 English text  (which I still have of course)

described as probably the most romantic figure

in English Literature.

 

"Thus richer than untempted kings are we,

   That, asking nothing, nothing need:

Though lords of all what seas embrace, yet he

   That wants himself is poor indeed."

 

                                  The Grasshopper, Ode.

        To My Noble Friend, Mr Charles Cotton

 

                            Richard Lovelace (Cavalier Poet)

Still -21 C but they are promising warmer weather tomorrow
and we have blue sky with makes a big difference.

"And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter

Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,"

                               The Snow Man

                                      Wallace Stevens

I was in Edmonton for part of last week, they had even more snow than Calgary  but the temperate was about the same between -20-25 degrees C with a wind chill.  I have not managed much time outside but I tried for some photos this morning. 

                          For this one my motto is if you can't be in focus be mysterious..,

                                    
                                                    "The city. A winter sky.
                                                    Darkness. The portal yawns."
                                          
                                                                       Bacchanalia
                                                                            Boris Pasternak

                                           

      "A chaos of clear horns rings in the snow dawn

            of a place I visit in dream,

            I don't know where."

                                                                    Record of Dream, Sent to Shi Bohun,
                                                           to the Tune of " Night Roaming in the Palace"
                                                                                                             Lu You