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| November 11 |
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| November 27 |
On my weekly walk I see these three trees regularly. I was surprised to see today
how quicky the leaves had all removed. Only two weeks between the pictures!
A blog featuring whatever I fancy, often on the Christian faith but not exclusively
Showing posts with label Winter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Winter. Show all posts
Reading The Tree Leaves
On my weekly walk I see these three trees regularly. I was surprised to see today
Frost
Great to see these frost patterns this morning. Reminded me of seeing such patterns on the inside of the windows as a kid.
A Winter Quiz
I've just been getting the Christmas Quiz ready for our social on Saturday. I notice I have a few quizzes tucked away on file. How about this one to test you?
1. It didn't write itself
Who wrote The Winter’s Tale?
(a) William Shakespeare (b) Charles Dickens (c) Daniel Defoe
[First published in the First Folio of 1623 it is listed there as a comedy though some modern editors want to call it a romance. It includes the famous stage direction Exit, pursued by a bear.]
2. Which animal?
Alistair MacClean wrote a novel which became a film, What was it called?
(a) Ice station panda (b) Ice station lemur (c) Ice station zebra
[Published in 1963 this thriller by Scots writer McClean was the last of his classic sequence of first person narratives. In 1968 it was adapted into a film of the same name.]
3. Downhill all the way
Where were modern skis invented?
(a) Norway (b) Switzerland (c) Austria
[Around 1850 the cambered ski was invented by woodcarvers in the province of Telemark. Before this, skis had to be thick to glide without bowing downward and sinking in the snow under the skier's weight, concentrated in the middle. Camber made possible a thinner, lighter ski that did not sink at the middle. In 1868 Sondre Norheim demonstrated the Telemark ski, the first with a sidecut that narrowed the ski underfoot while the tip and tail remained wider. Norheim and friends formed a small pioneer group of early skiers who improved the ski as they developed the first dynamic turns in downhill running, from 1850-1900.]
4. Good game good game
There is a Scottish game played on ice with large flat round stones what is it called?
(a) hurley (b) hurling (c) curling
[It is a team sport played by two teams of 4 on a rectangular sheet of carefully prepared ice. Teams take turns sliding heavy, polished granite stones down the ice towards the target (house). Two sweepers with brooms accompany each rock and use timing equipment and best judgement, along with direction from their teammates, to help direct the stones home. The complex nature of stone placement and shot selection has led some to refer to curling as "chess on ice."]
5. A dangerous job
What was the communist leader Leon Trotsky killed by?
(a) a shovel (b) an ice-pick (c) a snow plough
[On August 20, 1940, Trotsky was successfully attacked in his home in Mexico City by a NKVD agent, Ramon Mercader, who drove the pick of an ice axe into Trotsky's skull. The blow was poorly delivered and failed to kill Trotsky instantly, as intended. Witnesses stated that Trotsky spat on Mercader and began struggling fiercely with him. Hearing the commotion, Trotsky's bodyguards burst into the room and nearly killed Mercader, but Trotsky stopped them, shouting, "Do not kill him! This man has a story to tell." Trotsky was taken to a hospital, operated on, and survived for more than a day, but died, aged 60, on August 21, 1940 as a result of severe brain damage.]
6. That sinking feeling
Why did the Titanic sink?
(a) It was hit by an ice-boat (b) It hit an iceberg c) It sunk under the weight of ice on its decks
[The RMS Titanic was an Olympic-class passenger liner owned by the White Star Line and built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast. On the night of 14 April 1912, during her maiden voyage, she hit an iceberg, and sank 2 hours and 40 minutes later, early on 15 April 1912. At the time she was the largest passenger steamship in the world.]
7. The hidden part
Approximately how much of an iceberg is above the surface?
(a) 1/10 (b) 5/10 (c) 7/10?
[An iceberg is a large piece of freshwater ice that has broken off from a snow-formed glacier or ice shelf and is floating in open water. Because of the lower density of pure ice as opposed to sea water, typically only one-tenth of the volume of an iceberg is above water. The shape of the remainder under the water can be difficult to surmise from looking at what is visible above the surface. Hence the expression “tip of the iceberg” generally applied to a problem or difficulty, meaning that the visible trouble is only a small manifestation of a larger problem.]
8. Blow the man down
On what scale is windforce measured?
(a) Richter (b) Beaufort (c) Windscale
[The scale was created in 1805 by Sir Francis Beaufort, a British admiral and hydrographer. The scale that carries his name had a long and complex evolution, from the previous work of others, to when Beaufort was a top administrator in the Royal Navy in the 1830s.]
9. Mr C and Mr F
When it is 0 degrees centigrade how many degrees fahrenheit is it?
(a) 23 (b) 32 (c) 51
[Fahrenheit is named after the German physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686–1736), who proposed it in 1724. Celsius (also known as centigrade in some countries) is named after the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius (1701–1744), who developed a similar temperature scale two years before his death.]
10. How many each side
How many players (at a time) in an ice hockey team?
(a) six (b) seven (c) eight
[The modern game of hockey was first played in Montreal, Canada in 1875. During normal play, there are six players, including one goaltender, per side on the ice at any time, each of whom is on ice skates.]
11. A famous speech
Which Shakespeare character says Now is the winter of our discontent made summer by this sun of York?
(a) Richard II (b) Richard III (c) Henry V
[The phrase was coined by Shakespeare and put into print in Richard III, 1594. The 'sun of York' wasn't of course a comment on Yorkshire weather but on King Richard.]
12. A delightful tale
Who wrote the fairy tale The Snow Queen?
(a) The brothers Grimm (b) Roald Dahl (c) Hans Christian Anderson
[The fairy tale The Snow Queen (Sneedronningen) was written by Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) and first published in 1845. It centres on the struggle between good and evil as experienced by a little boy and girl, Kay and Gerda.]
Ans:
ACA
CBB
ABB
CBC
December Weddings
As far as I recall I've never been to a December wedding. I am aware that they take place but somehow this year they are suddenly all the rage it seems. I know of people getting married on the 3rd, 10th and 17th and one even nearer to Christmas day. I am only going to one (my son's) but here;s wishing you all a really good day as it fast approaches. Hope it's not too cold (one is in South Africa so it's not likely to be).
10 Winter Songs
These are not really Christmas songs but winter ones.
To hear them go here.
1. River Joni Mitchell
2. Winter time Kayak
3. Winterborn lyric Jan Akkerman
4. Drive the cold winter away Horslips/Kate Rusby
5. The throat of winter Tyrannosaurus Rex
6. Midwinter night Tangerine Dream
7. Trains and winter rains Enya
8. Flight of the snow goose Camel
9. Winter time love The Doors/Bojoura
10. Hazy shade of winter Simon and Garfunkel/Bangles
That make the landscape lonelier
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| George Henry Durrie, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons |
"Beyond the orchard lay a field or two, their boundaries lost under drifts; and
above the fields, huddled against the white immensities of land and sky, one of
those lonely New England farm-houses that make the landscape lonelier." (Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome)
VSP7 Season Song
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| Derek Harper / Melting snow, Great Hill Road |
Summer dances close behind.
Autumn is a jostling crowd
but Winter creeps into your mind.
Judith Nicholls
VSP1 Winter wise
I've had a series of short poems in the past. I came across a book of Very short poems recently. See here.
I thought we could reproduce some of these here.
First, a seasonal one, a bit of traditional advice.
Walk fast in snow, in frost walk slow
And still as you go, tread on your toe.
When frost and snow are both together
Sit by the fire and spare shoe leather.Seasonal but obscure
I saw Kayak live once many years back. This came up on my i-pod this afternoon. The lyrics (which I've never really noticed before) are:
How a changing scene
Rearranging trees
Signs of things to come right now
A cold wintertime
Days become less day
A returning play
Many creatures sleep right now
A cold wintertime
It's wintertime now
Flakes whirling down down
But I'm alright so I can find
A way to see the bright side
It's wintertime now
Flakes whirling down down
Yes I'm alright so I can find
A way to see the bright side
Silence all around
Quiet is the sound
Of the distant howling hound
A cold wintertime
Everything is free
To a high degree
You will give me peace of mind
A cold wintertime
Picture this
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| All I want is a room with a view ... Picture this a day in December Picture this freezing cold weather |
CM 01 Viv
We probably don't get enough classical music on this blog. So .... starting with the nearest to pop they have - Vivaldi, here's the first movement of (appropriately) Winter from the Four Seasons. When I was a boy Vivaldi had not really been invented so even "best of" albums didn't feature him. A few years further on and it was difficult to move without getting the four seasons blasting at you from some direction or other. I think its really nice stuff.
Frost Fair
We braved the cold air to visit the Frost Fair on the South Bank around the Tate Modern and The Globe last Saturday and had a very good time. Way back Londoners used to hold markets on the iced over Thames but with various changes that hasn't happened since 1841. This river bank version is a modern equivalent promoted by Southwark Borough Council. For more see here. For the history see here. The only sad note was not to see the gospel being promoted by anyone. There must be a way in.
In the Bleak Midwinter
Beginning to preach on Christmas themes today I was trying to describe how bleak things were in Israel just before Christ came. As I was trying to conjure it up, the hymn by Christian Rossetti (1830-1894), sister of the Pre-Raphaelite Rossetti brothers, came to mind. It begins
In the bleak midwinter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone:
Snow had fallen, Snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, Long time ago.
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone:
Snow had fallen, Snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, Long time ago.
I like the hymn I must confess (I have a favourite version by Bert Jansch) but disliked the emphasis on the weather. Who knows whether it was snowing anyway? On reflection, I guess that Rossetti's point is not meteorological but metaphorical. She is using the ice and snow to picture the hardness and sin that characterised those times in Israel.
It is the same in C S Lewis's first Narnia story where the faun Mr Tumnus speaks to Lucy about the evil witch and famously says 'It's she that makes it always winter. Always winter and never Christmas; think of that!'
(Rossetti's poem was written before 1872 and published posthumously in her Poetic Works (1904). It appeared in The English Hymnal 1906. She apparently wrote these words in response to a request from the magazine Scribner’s Monthly for a Christmas poem.
Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is the second book in the series and the first to be published. It appeared in 1950. The quote is from Chapter 2).
It is the same in C S Lewis's first Narnia story where the faun Mr Tumnus speaks to Lucy about the evil witch and famously says 'It's she that makes it always winter. Always winter and never Christmas; think of that!'
(Rossetti's poem was written before 1872 and published posthumously in her Poetic Works (1904). It appeared in The English Hymnal 1906. She apparently wrote these words in response to a request from the magazine Scribner’s Monthly for a Christmas poem.
Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is the second book in the series and the first to be published. It appeared in 1950. The quote is from Chapter 2).
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