Sunday Song: Beautiful Day

After sixteen hours of research yesterday, it was time to play. Good thing it was such a beautiful day today (hence the delay in posting). This is the perfect anthem for a lovely day. Also, there is some wild weathering at the beginning that looks a bit like tafoni. Some other gorgeous rocks throughout. Shame about the flowy dress thingy in the way.

I took my intrepid companion out to see the maclargehuge erratic, and he got a shot with the proper perspective for us. Yay, no more camera on the ground!

Maclargehuge erratic, moi for scale

Yep, still huge. We did some field breakage (i.e., threw one rock down on another) with some of the loose bits, and got some nice fresh surfaces, and I found a nice-sized chunk with what looks to be good crystalline structure, so I may be doing another post with samples so we can figure out if it’s definitely dunite (or gabbro) or not. Stay tuned.

Then we headed over to North Creek Park, which has changed rather dramatically since two months ago. I’ll be doing a compare-and-contrast post, but for now, some outtakes. Forget-me-nots were out in force and absolutely lovely:

Forget-me-nots growing out of the water.

I was hoping for frogs, but had to settle for a water-skipper instead.

Water-skipper. There's probably a technical name for this species, but hell if I know it.

And, last but not least, got a wonderful snap of a red-winged blackbird.

Red-Winged Blackbird

And now I’m home with the cat, who’s out on the porch in the nice sunshine, and birds are still singing, and I’ve got a fabulous UFD coming up for you. It truly is a beautiful day.

Here’s hoping yours was a little something wonderful, too, my darlings!

Sunday Song: Beautiful Day
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Saturday Song: Broken Bridge

This song has been randomly playing in my head lately, and it’s gorgeous, so here we go.

There’s one person in particular who’s shaped my musical tastes: Cameron Lee. Saying one person had all that influence may sound like the lexicon is limited, but this is a man who loves everything from Emperor to Aqua (and was not above playing those two sequentially). Put it like this: if only his music collection survived a world-wide catastrophe, you’d still have rescued a considerable chunk of humanity’s creativity. I’m not sure if there’s a single genre not represented.

So, he got me in to black metal. But he also found independent bands and artists who are incredible, some virtually unknown, deserving of far more attention than they get. He introduced me to Daughter Darling, and I shrieked in despair when, after one album, they vanished.

I adore “Broken Bridge.” And I think “Absconding” is one of the most hauntingly beautiful songs ever performed.

So you can imagine my howl of anguish when Daughter Darling was no more. Then I discovered Natalie Walker had continued on her own, and it was okay. There’s one song in particular on the Urban Angel album, “Quicksand,” that I’ve used as an anthem when times get rough.

Things aren’t particularly rough right now, but it’s still an anthem, and hopefully it will lift more than one person up who needs it. Music has got that power.

Saturday Song: Broken Bridge

Sunday Song: Memorials

It’s Memorial Day weekend here in the States. I wrote a memorial last year, and won’t add to it. We’ll just do two songs.

This is Iced Earth’s “Ghost of Freedom,” which is quintessentially American and a lovely tribute to those who fought and died for liberty.

 

Every time you think about it
It tears you up inside
You curse the day your mother
told you, your father died
Now you’re always searching
Searching for the reason why I’ve gone
But I will always be here
By your side, through the darkest night

Here I’ll stand on the firing line
Here I’ll walk through the field where I died
I will fight and let the voice ring true
I am the ghost
Standing next to you

Every night you go to sleep
You pray the Lord my soul to keep
You don’t know I’ve not gone away
You see I watch over fighting men
So they can have peace again
And maybe someday you will all be free

Here I’ll stand on the firing line
Here I’ll walk through the field where I died
I will fight and let the voice ring true
I am the ghost
Standing next to you

You speak to me
And I feel your pride
Assuring me I’ll never die
I write Mother…
“He’s here with me…”
He’s in our minds
He’s in our souls
Of sacrifice his story’s told
He holds the flame of freedom for all to see

Here we stand on the firing line
Here I’ll walk in the field where I fight
I will fight or die for liberty
With the ghost standing next to me

Don’t tread on me…live free or die!!!
To our fallen brothers
You died to keep us free
To our fallen brothers
Who gave us liberty!!!

Of course, I have hopes that one day, liberty won’t come at such an appalling cost. I would like to see a time when there are no fresh names to remember on Memorial Day, when war is just a memory from our species’s angry adolescence, and disputes aren’t solved at gunpoint. I find myself unable to do the “Rah, rah!” thing on Memorial Day. They died. Some of these soldiers died for good causes, some while serving their country in much murkier wars, and we owe them all. But they died, and I want there to come a time when people do not have to die in the line of duty.

So, “Sleepless.” This an an Anathema cover by Cradle of Filth, and it’s haunting and beautiful and a soul cry.

And I often sigh
I often wonder why
I’m still here and I still cry

And I often cry
I often spill a tear
Over those not here
But still they are so near

Please ease my burden

And I still remember
A memory and I weep
In my broken sleep
The scars they cut so deep

Please ease my burden
Please ease my pain

Surely without war there would be no loss
Hence no mourning, no grief, no pain, no misery
No sleepless nights missing the dead … Oh, no more
No more war!

Sunday Song: Memorials

Sunday Song: Blackbirds

I’ve become quite fond of Juanita Bay over the years. I lived just blocks from it the first two years I was in the Northwest, and it was the first local park we visited after arriving. It’s a lovely, peaceful place (well, aside from the motorboats further out on the lake). It’s got wetlands with boardwalks, and a long boardwalk across the end of the bay, and all sorts of wildlife. My intrepid companion and I repaired there after our adventures with rhodies last Sunday, because I was bloody well determined to get some bird photos if it killed me, and birds flock there.

The Red-winged Blackbirds were out in force. And this time, I was ready for them.

How lovely is he? He’s not just a black blob sitting on top of a cattail way off in the distance. Yes, he’s giving me the stinkeye, but that’s all right.

Continue reading “Sunday Song: Blackbirds”

Sunday Song: Blackbirds

Saturday Song: Utah Carol

One thing among many that I love about adventuring with Dr. Evelyn Mervine is this: much like the Doctor, she loves goofy fun and doing things on a whim. Even when we’re doing serious geology, we’re not doing it seriously, if you know what I mean. When we needed items for scale, we ended up with plastic dinosaurs and a knight. When we wanted to have a look at minerals, we went to a rock shop that doubled as one of those kitschy tourist traps, complete with duct-taped dinosaurs. And she encouraged me to find twu wuv.

I can’t pretend I’m serious all the time, either. So the two of us sort of caused… escalations. When you’re a ripe 37 and running about with someone who just became a doctor, that’s glorious.

So there we were, in the rock shop, and Evelyn discovered the children’s section. They had plush dinosaurs from the Natural History Museum. The dinosaurs had protofeathers on. Not as many protofeathers as they should, but still, an effort was being made. Educational and accurate! Evelyn picked up a good-sized velociraptor, and then found a wee little thing, which she thrust my way for an assessment of its relative cuteness.

Adorable tiny dinosaur plushie with protofeathers on

“It’s a Utahraptor!” she said. And I allowed it was the cutest Utahraptor ever, and she should totally get it, because then she could name it Utah Carol. I’d have to explain later why naming it Utah Carol would be so appropriate.

Continue reading “Saturday Song: Utah Carol”

Saturday Song: Utah Carol

Sunday Song: Gardens

Right now, if all has gone according to plan, I should be in a quite beautiful place with one of the most beautiful people I know. And I’ve seen and heard some beautiful things already this week. Got me thinking about gardens, actually.

I know I’ve posted a lot of Secret Garden before, but what can be more appropriate for garden photos?

Right. Get that playing, and let’s have a wander through the gardens at Brown’s Point Lighthouse, shall we?

Browns Point Heritage Garden I

So it seems “Keeper Brown also… maintained a flower garden featuring daffodils, tulips, peonies, and roses.” We’ve definitely got tulips.

Browns Point Heritage Garden II

The Dash Point Garden club planted and maintains the Heritage Garden now. Here’s a bit about it:

Oscar and Annie The two gardens in front of the house are named in honor of the first lighthouse keepers, Oscar and Annie Brown. Oscar’s log of their 30 years at the lighthouse includes descriptions of the various plants the couple cultivated. Mavis Stears, curator of the Points Northeast Historical Society, combed through the log and compiled a list of plants that Dash Point Garden Club members try to incorporate in the gardens.

Oscar’s Garden includes several types of hebe, mahonia, roses, bleeding heart, foxglove and columbine. Annie’s Garden includes peonies, lavender, hardy fuchsia and a couple of trees to represent the apple orchard she once tended.

I don’t usually go gaga for gardens – I like stuff growing wild – but these were truly beautiful. Especially the bit with the bleeding heart.

Browns

Wandering through there, I’m reminded that gardens are quite lovely. There was an English garden in front of one of the old Victorian houses in Prescott, Arizona that I always slowed down to view on the way by. Serene and lovely. I determined right then and there I’d have an English garden if I ever had a garden at all, but that was before I discovered Zen.

Browns Point Heritage Garden IV

Japanese gardens in general are my cup of green tea these days. I like how they evoke the natural world while being something more. Pure art, those. I find a serenity there I find in no other garden. But the gardens here evoked another kind of tranquility, and moreover didn’t try to regiment the plants like so many gardens seem to do. A little order, coaxed rather than imposed, and juxtapositions of form and color that draws one in.

Browns Point Heritage Garden V

When I am an old woman, I hope I shall have gardens. I like getting my hands down into the good earth. I like giving things room to grow, and watching them flourish. It’s just too bad I have a black thumb. Perhaps by the time I’m older, I shall be wiser in the ways of green growing things with brilliant blooms. If not, I’ll cultivate rocks. That I can do. And I’m apparently quite good at moss, judging from the carpets of it growing where my fuchsia plants lived their brief lives. I can’t claim much credit there. Moss round here will grow anywhere you don’t make a determined effort to kill it. I’ve even got some growing happily on the bare deck. I’ve left it alone. I find moss lovely and fascinating, and it’s soft and springy, and it was rare where I grew up. I could do a moss garden. Moss, and rocks, and patterns raked in gravel, and perhaps, if I’m very lucky, a flower or two: that will be my garden, when I grow old.

What is yours?

Sunday Song: Gardens

Sunday Song: Love Changes Everything

All right, I admit it: I’m a sucker for a good love story and a show tune. If that destroys my metal cred, so be it.

So here’s a love story I’ve been following for a few weeks. It’s made me laugh and cry and glow. It’s made me determined to ensure that my transgender fellow humans get to enjoy full and happy lives free of discrimination and prejudice. And it’s made me marvel at the beauty people are capable of. This love thing actually works sometimes.

So, of course, what else could the Sunday Song be but this?

Continue reading “Sunday Song: Love Changes Everything”

Sunday Song: Love Changes Everything

Sunday Song: Scandinavian Black

Lockwood found this simply awesome map of metal. I knew, from the instant I saw his tweet, what it was mapping.

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/lockwooddewitt/status/189451342291533826″]

The majority of my favorite metal comes from the Scandinavian countries. So, of course, all I have to see in proximity are the words “heavy metal” and “Scandinavia” and I’m happily singing in the dark.

Right. So the article says Finland leads. Let’s have some Finnish metal, then, shall we? Dear fuck, this is hard – lots of my favorites hail from Helsinki or, y’know, other Finnish cities. But I think we’ll go with Nightwish this time round, as they’ve been a favorite for years. Until Tarja left, anyway.

Continue reading “Sunday Song: Scandinavian Black”

Sunday Song: Scandinavian Black

Sunday Song: Magna Canta

Right, I don’t care if you hate this song our not. If you do, just turn the sound off and put the video on full screen anyway, because the video flies over some spectacular geology and it’s well worth seeing just for that.

Still drooling.

I quite like Magna Canta. I’m something of a sucker for that electronica/Benedictine/like Enigma only better sort o’ thing. This song hasn’t got a video with lots of delicious geology, but it’s one of their best songs, so why the hell not?

Continue reading “Sunday Song: Magna Canta”

Sunday Song: Magna Canta

Sunday Song: Anger (with a Tim Minchin Chaser)

Actually, I’m not angry at all today. I’m a happy atheist. I did have to go in to work, which was annoying, but only for two hours, and then I was free to enjoy a mild, somewhat sunny day… by arranging the storage shed and renewing my lease. I’m telling you, the excitement around here would be too much even for Evel Knievel.

But I’ve just spent the last several hours watching snippets from the Reason Rally and old school Doctor Who whilst arranging rocks. Rocks make me happy. Having the rocks out where they can be seen and enjoyed and picked up and exclaimed over makes me happier still. And I’m going to see Tommy again tomorrow. That, also, makes me happy.

So why “Anger”? Because of Greta Christina’s book, Why Are You Atheists So Angry? Which, actually, made me very happy indeed. It settled my anger at religion into a nice, constructive hum.

In the future, when I feel like I’m about to be devoured by outrage over the appalling shit people do in the name of faith, I’ll have Greta’s book to turn to. It has suggestions for what to do with that anger, ideas and resources for building a better world. Of course, I’ve also got FtB, which is also an excellent outlet.

Greta’s book has already made a difference in my life, I’ve noticed. It’s made it easier to calmly tell people that religion is, in fact, nonsense, and not quite so harmless as they think. I’ve always been open about my atheism, but sometimes shied away from difficult discussions when I just didn’t want to contend with the inevitable justifications. Maybe I was afraid they’d accuse me of being just another angry atheist. Now I’ve got a book I can refer them to rather than spending the next several hours explaining why I am, indeed, an angry atheist when religious bullshit gets heaved at me. It explains the case much more clearly and calmly than I could manage.

So no, not very angry today. A little sad, though, that I missed the Reason Rally. I hate enormous crowds, navigating said enormous crowds in large cities I’m not familiar with, and standing round for hours in the rain, not to mention there are never enough toilets. But it looks like the whole thing was a blast, and you could actually see and hear what was going on, and I’d probably have enjoyed myself.

Thankfully, modern technology and the kindness of strangers posting on YouTube means those of us who missed the event can live it vicariously. I’m going to give you Tim Minchin’s wonderful “Confessions,” because it made me laugh.

You know what, after that song, I love boobs, too. Even mine, which I have to live with and therefore get annoyed at.

All right, one more. This is fucking brilliant.

Gorgeous.

Sunday Song: Anger (with a Tim Minchin Chaser)