FEBRUARY’S ODD SQUARES
We didn’t expect snow. Well, maybe we knew there was a possibility (small possibility) of snow, but no one predicted it. The first I heard was an alert — at 7 this morning — from Alexa that we were in the middle of a snow alert with snow expected to continue throughout the day and all night. What?
Sure enough. Got up, opened the shade and it was snowing. Pretty hard. Not a blizzard, but not a dusting, either. We already had a couple of inches and it wasn’t even 8 in the morning yet. I slept for another hour and when I got up, not a big surprise I guess, but there was more snow — and it is still snowing.
It has been snowing steadily and with determination. It’s not sticking everywhere yet. It’s still above freezing, but the temperature is supposed to drop tonight. It will freeze solid before morning.
One of the more interesting side effects of climate change is the even greater inaccuracy of weather reports. The winds are no longer blowing the way they used to nor are the ocean currents flowing the same. On a more positive note, this is winter. Real winter. Cold, snowy, winter We needed it. If it never gets truly cold, the bugs won’t die and if the bugs don’t die in the winter, we are inundated with hordes of insects in the spring and summer. So let’s hear it for a cold winter, inconvenient though it is.
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Categories: #animals, #Photography, #Squirrel, Anecdote, snow, square, Winter
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
I have always found it strange to have scenes in a movie and passages in books where people are bashed, murdered, shot from unlimited bullet guns, or decapitated, whereas the most natural event of making love is taboo.
If it not for this act none of us would be here. I draw the line between rape and bestiality.
In my last book Bernado’s Circus I have graphic passages describing when Bernado comes to age when he joins the circus with his trained performing dog act.
The girls in the circus take turns to teach the well-endowed young eighteen-year-old Gypsy lad the finer points of making love. This is done with some mirth and pleasure joined.
The same would not be the times he was raped in the orphanage by Father Mark the sadistic priest. I could never understand how such men could attack young children and be a christian. priest.
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There are a lot of things I don’t understand. I don’t understand how people elected to protect us don’t, how people of the cloth abuse children and don’t seem to find anything wrong with it. I don’t understand how come we are destroying our planet when it’s the only one we have. I often don’t think i understand much of anything.
We are very prudish in this country. A lot of the things forbidden on American TV and many movies are standard in European productions. We live in the shadow of the Puritans who came here for religious freedom and stayed ot persecute everyone who wasn’t just like them. I don’t understand that, either.
Over all? The older I get, the less I understand. I’m sure by the end of my life, I will understand absolutely nothing.
Your book sounds interesting!
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What a contented little fellow. I noticed his fluffed out tail. And thought: That looks like my hair in the dryness of winter. Electric shock!
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These little red squirrels (I know he doesn’t look red, but he is — and you can tell by that curly tail) have something close to a double curl. They are much smaller than their gray cousins — and a lot tougher than they look 😀
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I’m sure he was going “snap, crackle, and pop” out there in the weather 😀
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lol
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Interestingly, our weather is mid-summery, and the ocean currents are very different than usual (much, much warmer. We are actually seeing an entirely different ecosystem in the ocean than is normal for this time of year, with different dolphins, whales, and fishes! I wonder if the axis is shifting ~ ~ ~
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Same here. We have an inundation of fur seals and white sharks because the water is so warm. The problem is fish. This area is supposed to have cold water and the fish who have lived here need that cold water. Now, with the change in currents, our usual fish 🐟 have gone missing. Of course they had to close George’s Banks — the place where the fish used to breed before they fished it out — and now they have to use small nets and there are a lot of laws about freeing fish from the nets. Whether or not they really do that, I have no idea. But it is VERY different — and remember Jaws? Well, it really IS like that now. Every beach along our shore is full of huge white sharks. They aren’t coming for people. It’s the seals they are after, but they eat a few people if they get in the way.
I’m pretty sure it’s the warming climate and melting glaciers and the general rise in worldwide temperatures. I’m not sure what it means long term except that places like Switzerland where all the water came from melting glaciers are going to be in serious trouble. And we don’t have much fish to eat.
How are your fires???
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I forgot about the influx of sharks that we are having! But my herons have left in search of food, most likely going where ever the fish have gone. Migration patterns are really crazy now, and unusual sightings are increasing.
The fires are gone with the wind! We had one 24-hour period of major winds, during which the Emerald Fire occurred, and after which it has been relatively quiet. We’ve had continued warmth (90, down to 85), and it’s supposed to cool off in another day or two, down to the 60’s. Hopefully, there will be a little rain next week, but I’m not holding my breath for that! They haven’t determined the cause of the Emerald Fire, but there has been an arrest in the Whittier Fire — a man found in the canyon with non-life-threatening burns.
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We watched the National Geographic special — it’s a series, so we didn’t finish it, but I think we’ve seen most of it — about whales. It must be very hard to be optimistic considering the work they do. The world may be shifting — but human trash and gigantic ships are doing an awful lot of damage. I think if we were gone, earth would do just fine. WE are the problem. Not you and me personally, but people.
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I absolutely agree. I am fortunate to live in an area where that has been recognized to some extent — the islands 26 miles off-shore make an excellent shipping channel — right down the channel used by whales for their migrations. The shippers have actually agreed to using a part of the channel that the whales don’t use (I think it’s the side closest to the islands, but ‘m not sure), so as to minimize the damage to the whales.
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yay for a winter scene 🙂 and what a fortunate squirrel to have your feeders available when unexpected snow falls.
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It makes me happy to give them food. I figure it’s hard for the feathered and furry to find food when everything is covered in snow. This little guy has a really dense coat. Everyone said because the squirrels had such heavy coats, it would mean a cold winter. I never believe that stuff — but, sure enough. Cold, snowy winter. I’m kind of enjoying it, mostly because I don’t have to go out and shovel!
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my kind of snow when all I need do is look at it!
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I remember being a kid with FROZEN feet — loving the snow and hating the cold. I think watching it snow is WAY better in every possible way 😀
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exactly!
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