Magic Fountains of Thistle

Oh magic fountains of thistle
unleash your source of charm
conjure forth magnetic allure
your powers do oft disarm

With abracadabra and alacazam
magically invoke your benevolent craft
pour bewitching extraordinary zeal
and uncanny imagery soon to be quaffed

Spectral light and ambient tones
revolve around mysterious prophecy
with gushing charismatic fascination
our eyes perceive thee grandly



Taken at the field where we play Ultimate Frisbee.

I was really thrilled to receive this particularly nice comment. That this image is "especially thrilling -- Something so common and unwanted looking so magical!"

"Sind sie aus Deutschland?"

Ich bin vom USA, aber drei oder vier Generationen vor meinen Vorfahren sind von Deutschland und anderen europäischen Nationen ausgewandert.

Mehr wichtig, versuche ich, gesprächige deutsche Sprache zu lernen. Es ist meine Suche, ist es meine Reise, die Sprache von meinen Vorfahren zu lernen. Und die schöne Sprache, die solche Genies angespornt hat, als Beethoven, Mozart, Einstein, und die Liste weitergeht.

More importantly, I am trying to learn conversational German language.
It is my quest, it is my journey, to learn the language of my forefathers.
And the beautiful language that spurred such geniuses as Beethoven, Mozart, Einstein, and the list goes on.


Abba - take a chance on me

I'm rich

I feel rich, or enriched, with this bounty of chestnuts!

Every year we collect chestnuts from trees at Northmoreland park. My daughter just loves to do this with me. We each get a bag, and try to fill them up. It's a fun contest to see who can gain the most. And of course there is sometimes a little cheating, one of us will steal a few nuts from the other's bag. Money can't buy this kind of fun :)
I truly am blessed and enriched :-))

These are chestnuts from Chinese Chestnut trees, which are smaller than American Chestnut trees in height and breadth. The American Chestnut tree has suffered a huge decline because of a blight brought in 100 years ago with the introduction of the later. Hardly any really big American species are left, although there still are quite a few small saplings that can try to resist the blight.

The American Chestnut Foundation, Working To Restore The King of The Forest
http://www.acf.org

O awful Loveliness

"Hymn to Intellectual Beauty" (excerpt)
I vowed that I would dedicate my powers
To thee and thine - have I not kept the vow?
With beating heart and streaming eyes, even now
I call the phantoms of a thousand hours
Each from his voiceless grave: they have in visioned bowers
Of studious zeal or love's delight
Outwatched with me the envious night -
They know that never joy illumed my brow
Unlinked with hope that thou wouldst free
This world from its dark slavery,
That thou - O awful Loveliness,
Wouldst give whate'er these words cannot express.
-- Percy Bysshe Shelley

O, that I could write like that!