backwater

Cloudy and cold. It was great to be in Chicago for Christmas. On Christmas Eve, we went to the suburbs for a family gathering. I pointed out the planets Jupiter and Venus, and was asked what else I could see. I saw the constellation Orion rising in the east, but couldn't point out much else. The light pollution washed out all but the brightest of stars. Driving back to Vermont the other night, the sky was clear, and the winter stars were blazing out of the blackness, thousands of them. The stars in the Orion Nebula twinkled like lights on a Christmas tree, shining out of some darkened living room far far away. We definitely live in a backwater here on the other side of the creek, but there are some advantages.

the Orion Nebula from jlc walker on flickr

The Other Side of the Creek-NOT

yearning

Snow. I saw this when I was over at the Rutland recycling center a couple of weeks ago. There was something very poignant about it. I can remember as a young boy staring intently at the stars on Christmas Eve, deeply yearning for something I couldn't name. Maybe that yearning exists in all of us. Happy Holidays!

May all beings be filled with happiness and peace.
May all beings be safe and secure.
May all beings be healthy in body and mind.
May all beings live joyfully with friendliness and ease.
Lovingkindness Meditation
Vermont Zen Center

here and now

Cloudy. It's the winter solstice. The days will start to get longer now. Allyn has turned on the seat warmer in the Subaru. I don't have that kind of luxury in the Honda. It seems there's a Christmas food package arriving almost every day. We eat some then Allyn hides it.

Each drifting snowflake
falls nowhere
but here and now
Muso Soseki
Zen page a day calendar

crystalline pipe organs

Clear. Crack of chestnuts roasting on the wood stove. Boots, coats, hats, gloves, growing like mushrooms in the kitchen. Designs of ice appearing from rock ledges along roadsides. To me, they have always looked like crystalline pipe organs.

candy canes

Rain. Candy canes appearing. Santa making an appearance at the mall. Wrapping paper coming out of the closet. Helping Allyn put lights on the lilac bush.

crackle

Clear and cold. Crackle of birch bark in the wood stove. Getting mailing boxes out of the attic. At work there is a sunny side to the parking lot, and a shady side. During the summertime, the shady side is desirable. I'm now parking on the sunny side

snowflakes

 from Zweter Wind on flickr

Season of snowflakes.

12/11/09
Dark coming to work today, 19 degrees. Almost two years ago I was walking over to production in the snow. Individual flakes were drifting slowly out of the sky. I noticed that some of the flakes were spinning, like a propeller. As always it was very exciting for me to observe something new in the natural world. While I have seen snow spinning out of the sky since then, I have never seen that "propeller" effect in exactly the same way.
It is dark now when I leave work, but the parking lot is illuminated. On Monday night the snow was falling slowly out of the sky. I stopped to look for spinning snowflakes. I figured that if I was able to look at a flake high above me, and follow it all the way down, I might see it spinning.
So there I was on the walkway at work, staring up into the sky. Don't really know for how long. Suddenly I noticed a couple of co-workers walking by me on the way to their cars. They didn't say anything, but they gave off that "you're really weird, Jim" aura that Shawn does so well. I panicked, and quickly opened the door to my car except that it wasn't my car, it was the Tuttle company car, a Honda Accord. I made my way to my black Honda Civic, and opened the door except that it was actually Shirley's car (which looks exactly like mine). I finally limped across the parking lot to my car, and drove home. Never did see any "spinners." Like Joni Mitchell said, "Something's lost, but something's gained in living every day."



 

decorations

Cloudy. Christmas decorations and party at work. End of the deer hunting season, always a relief. Limbs of pine trees weighed down by snow. Sound of tires on ice and snow.

soup

Cloudy. During the winter, Allyn and I make meals on the weekend to last us through the week. Last weekend we had tortellini and potato leek soup. Christmas wreath on the front door. Christmas cards arriving at work. Handel's Messiah performed at the Grace Congregational Church in Rutland.

icicles

Icicles appearing.

12/9/10
The other day I was walking over to production, and passed by the bird feeder they have over there. I spied an icicle hanging from the bottom of the feeder. Honestly it stopped me dead in my tracks. It had been so long since I'd seen an icicle. It wasn't that many weeks ago that if you wanted to see an icicle you would either have to take a look in the back of the freezer, or take a trip a long way to the north, or go an even longer distance to the south. Yet here it was, ordinary and glorious.
I felt the same sense of wonder I feel in the spring when seeing a rhododendron, or observing a scarlet maple leaf in the fall; the miraculous shining out of the ordinary. It actually seems to happen almost every day.

cold

Clear & cold. Film of ice on puddles along Quality Lane. Raking the leaves away before the snow. Glasses steam up when coming in from the cold. Putting Allyn's car in the garage.
Cold you may be
but don't warm yourself by the fire,
Buddha of snow!
Sokan

Carolyn

For who knows where the time goes?
Who knows where the time goes?
Sandy Denny

first snow

pastel snow

The seasons in Vermont are always changing, but never so dramatically as on the day of the first snowfall. Smell of  snow in the air. Sound of the snowplow. Tracks of the snow blower on the walkway at work. Wet snow sliding off the windshield like a fried egg out of a frying pan. Happy Birthday, Pip!

Venus

Moon Venus & Jupiter 11/30/2008

from Dave Schumaker on flickr

Buddha's Enlightenment Day & snow. The other day I was over near the production building at sunset. I could see Venus starting to set over the Taconics in the west, and Jupiter rising over the Green Mountains in the east. Knowing that all the planets revolve around the sun on the same plane, I could visualize it, put it all together. I could see the path that the Earth was on in relation to the sun, and the other planets, and got a brief glimpse of the vast scale of it all. The Buddha was enlightened when he glanced upon Venus after seven days of intense meditation, and after countless lives of devotion to the welfare of all sentient beings.

When I attained complete, perfect enlightenment and unexcelled awakening, I attained nothing at all.
The Buddha
Zen page a day calendar

hum

Rainy & warm. Taping the Tree of Remembrance ceremony at hospice this evening. Christmas trees on cars, and for sale in lots all over Rutland. Calendar boutique appearing in the Mall, and calendars available from the usual vendors at work. Hum of snow tires on the road

Irene

Cloudy & warm. I noticed something when driving to work the other day. It is early December and some of the corn fields along the Otter Creek have not been harvested. I understand that when these fields were flooded during Hurrican Irene, they were made unusable by all the pollution (oil, chemicals, and the like) that were carried within the floodwaters that inundated these fields. We will be dealing with the aftereffects of the hurricane for many years to come

winter issue

from rusty one on flickr

Clear and cool. Winter issue of Vermont Life Magazine, and clementines for sale in stores. Wearing boots to work on snowy days. Tracks in the snow. The winter constellation, Orion, rising solemnly in the east in the early evening.

If it's winter, one must have a mind of winter-indeed, one must be winter-to be here. That is, not thinking of spring, not longing for summer, for something that doesn't exist now, here. This mind isn't reaching for some other place.

And if it's summer, one must have a mind of summer. There is no other place. We're forever here.

Steve Hagen

Zen page a day calendar

advent

from flagondry on flickr

Rainy & cool. This blog is essentially about the many seasons of Vermont. We are now entering the advent of the Christmas season. Sights of poinsettias and Christmas lights in the neighborhood. Taste of Hood's Golden eggnog with nutmeg (I had a cup for you, Pip).  Festive sound of the Salvation Army bell, and the smell of pine from wreaths outside of supermarkets.