Ariel shots of campus in fall

We hired a photographer and a helicopter to take new shots of the campus I work on. The beach seems just a distant memory right now. Not because it is covered in snow but I just haven't had time to get down there. I bet it is beautiful in the snow.

Dmitry Orlov

Today I heard about Dmitry Orlov - a Russian who now lives here in the US who has experience of the collapse of the Soviet Union and has made interesting comparisons to the potential, impending, US collapse. The current economy issues are just the beginning.

Two articles I read this evening are definitely worth checking out:

Post-Soviet Lessons for a Post-American Century

and

Closing the 'Collapse Gap':the USSR was better prepared for collapse than the US

His writing makes sense to me and gives interesting insight into the challenges that we now face.

Snowshoeing out in the woods

Today I decided to go further with my snow shoes and took the advice from a new friend to use poles too. It was cold and windy but beautiful so I started to head out to the river through the woods.

Headed down the track on the edge of my land. Hills are much easier with poles.

Here is the brook - it hasn't frozen over yet and is still pretty clear.

The bridge was totally submerged in water and I couldn't cross it.

An ice cream scoop in the middle of the brook!!

My new snowshoes in about a foot of snow. Deeper in the woods it was two and three feet.

The submerged bridge again. I hope the snowmobile club fix it or I am going to have to work out some other way across.

The other side of the brook.

Easier going back since I already have the snowshoe prints to follow.

Back home and time to start shovelling!

Happy Winter Solstice

Just back from snow shoeing in the woods and ready for a warm candle lit bath with a glass of wine!

I have to say that my new snow shoes are probably the best investment I ever made. I can get around the woods in three feet of snow with no problem. I just realized how unfit I am though!

Here are a few images from the snow storm on this beautiful solstice evening.

Peak Everything

Just re read Peak Everything and since I read most of it by candlelight with no heat during the ice storm it was even more relevant this time around. Having no power for three days, no heat, water or way of cooking really brings home our energy crisis. If you haven't read it yet, I highly recommend it.

The Crystal Forest

I have to admit I stole the title of this entry from someone else who emailed me the day the ice storm arrived. It is so appropriate though. We were without power for three days in total and the house got as low as 38 degrees F. I am so grateful to the wonderful CMP crews and contractors that worked 24/7 to get everyone's power back.

Here are some images I shot on Friday morning, you can click on each image for a larger version:







Nature is beautiful and destructive at the same time. I have many trees down or damaged.

A perfect birthday portrait

It might not be every one's ideal birthday night but this was mine. Clover and I 'twittering', enjoying a glass of cider (she had water) and a great book. Clover is definitely a social networking kinda cat! In fact she is thinking of starting a 'Ning' network for other isolated Maine cats who are not comfortable communicating in real life since there are scary things (neighbor's dogs for example) out there in the woods!


It doesn't get any better than this - especially since outside there is a perfect crescent moon with Jupiter and Venus perfectly aligned horizontally below. Just got back in from staring at the sky for a while. Such beauty for my birthday courtesy of the Universe!

Thanks to everyone for your birthday wishes - I am lucky to have great family and friends. I love you all...

I am in love with a new poet

The Old World
by Jason Kirkey

There are stone walls here,
older than I.
They creep like the edge
of memory
though the places the paths
will not go.
They are low and do not fence
out the world,
marking a place that is here,
or not here,
but are of the world, and like a
circle of belonging
are songlines to the heart
of silence.

I am a pilgrim amongst
these trees
with no ambition
for arrival;
I will settle for a sinking in,
a coming home,
a shedding of old skin
for a body
made rightly out of clay,
or a new sapling
pushing through the earth.

I am a pilgrim toward
simplicity,
and I will cast my lot
in with
the wild geese on the water,
the sound
of the invisible wind
becoming
seen through its purpose
in the leaves.

I have found perfection –
so abandon the search
and I will put down my pen
for the poem has been carved
in the face of water and stone –
and the stone walls
are older than I,
and the perfect world
there across the pond
or traced through the
elegant lines of the leaf;
that world

that world
is older than the walls.

Amazing. To read more of Jason's poetry check out his web site at jasonkirkey.com