Tag: Winter
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Seasons
“To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die” Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 Nature’s seasons mirror life’s course: Spring – Birth Summer – Youth Fall – Adult Winter – Death I’m in my AM season of life – Advanced Maturity…
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Frozen Wonder
It’s been a tad ‘chilly’ here in the Smokies lately. Folks here aren’t accustomed to lotsa’ snowflakes and ‘black ice’, or even regular ice other than ice cubes when the thermometer bounces around zero . . . it’s definitely not Alaska Virginia 😊 The magnificent winter wonderland surrounding our home up here in the mountains…
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Water’s Frozen Physics
Physics 101 teaches that heat causes expansion, cold contraction. Thus, hot air is less dense than cold air and rises, while cold air sinks. Not water . . . this indispensable renegade of physics possesses the unique property of being denser in liquid form than in solid, so ice floats . . . Good thing!…
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Nature’s Beauty Pageant
Seasons transitions are Nature’s Beauty Pageants. Forest floors carpeted in gold . . . mountains engraved with a 3,000 ft. white line . . . the Last Frontier’s spectacular Fall surrendering to Winter transition. Here’s a few displays that set my soul singing How Great Thou Art this afternoon . . . gazing in awesome…
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Retired Routine
Time . . . free and unscheduled from family and career demands . . . is one of retirement’s supreme joys. However, it still requires a modicum of Demanding Responsible Routine (DRR). My ‘challenging’ morning DRR involves a 5-step procedure I’ve thankfully, somehow, managed to quickly master: 1. Awake to daybreak’s soothing ‘alarms’ of birdsong and…
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Creation’s Omnipotent Silence
This morning, locked in winter’s frozen grip, Creation unhurriedly thrives, silently displaying God’s omnipotence. “Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth, find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts”. – Rachel Carson Keep Looking Up . . . His best is yet to come!
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“The Manuscripts of God”
A ½” of virgin, unmarked snow . . . a cool, gentle breeze . . . a pinking hour sunset brushed across distant snowcaps – the wilderness wonder postcard God created for me to glide through before hanging up my skis and heading off to rejoin my life partner in the Great Smoky Mountains tomorrow.…
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Frigid Fun
The thermometer registered an ‘invigorating’ minus 15 when sun peeked above the horizon at 9:30 AM today, but by 11 AM has risen to a ‘balmy’ minus 5 😊 Noting the impending heat wave, Grant and I layered-up headed out to romp through the wilderness around Girdwood, AK, where lotsa’ white stuff has fallen. We…
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Midnight Sun
The Land of the Midnight Sun is rapidly entering its Midnight Moon season, as seen in this 4 PM/4-degree wilderness wander picture. Watching the sun begin to silently slip below the distant Chugach Range conjured a somewhat ambivalent thought of peaceful melancholy . . . this scene is somewhat analogous to my life . .…
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Lunar Eclipse
Last night, for the first time since I hired on as a water boy in the construction of Machu Picchu, the longest partial lunar eclipse in 580 years occurred. Yep, I snoozed through it. However, the adage, “You snooze, you lose” is totally valid . . . miss the moon, shoot for the s😊n .…