Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Have Yourselves a Groovy Little Solstice*

So, it was the first day of winter, although it's felt like winter for a couple of weeks now. Just as the arrival of the red winged blackbird heralds spring, I've always seen the arrival of buffleheads as a signal that winter has come (as the old song goes, Gone away is the bluebird, here to stay is a new bird). Of course, the male hooded merganser can often be mistaken for a bufflehead, though the accompanying females with rusty-red heads give the charade away. The hooded mergansers also tend to overwinter in the area, thus leading to potential confusion.

Last night, I stayed up late to watch the lunar eclipse- the nearly full moon was ringed by an icy halo, and the shadow of the earth gradually obscured Earth's celestial "daughter". While observing the dance of the heavenly bodies, I was lucky enough to see an extremely bright meteor. Even though it was freezing out, the night was enchanting. Yeah, winter may be a drag sometimes, but it surely came in on a high note.


*Title lifted from a hilarious, criminally neglected song.

4 comments:

  1. Great post!!
    Too cloudy for eclipse fun here, glad someone I know saw it!

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  2. Big, visit the UTuber and search for Christmas with the Ghostly Trio. Tragically no longer available, I had a tape.

    Awesome scary holiday music from Milwaukee art-punk rockers who normally backed up the Femmes as The Horns of Dilemma.

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  3. Merry Christmas to Mr. Bastard, an excellent sort!

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  4. As the composer of the music to that "hilarious, criminally neglected song," let me thank you for those kind words.
    (The flip side of the 45, "I'm Dreaming of a Noir Xmas," is pretty good, too.)
    May all of your Solstices be Groovy, and all of your Xmases, Noir.

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