whoa, bokeh

I absolutely refuse to believe Christmas is less than a week away. 

NONE of THESE PHOTOs ARE MINE (unfortunately!)


Maybe these photos will make me feel more Christmassy.

mystery

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Genesis 1:1 (as if you didn't know that! I'm just OCD; had to put the reference)

What really is out there, in the deep black void which men have been studying since the beginning?

This post really doesn't even attempt to answer that question (it would be pretentious), but these marvellous photos should inspire you with a sense of awe for our almightly, perfect, and truly omnipotent Creator.

We will never know fully what strange beings are out in the millions of galaxies. But from this earth, we can observe stars which we have named after false gods with their mysterious titles---the miniscule panorama we see from Earth, a relatively small planet in  "in the gleam of a million million of suns?"  (Tennyson)

(Sorry, Northern hemisphere only...:P)

^^^Orion, my favorite constellation, close up. If you live in the N.H. it is easily recognizable by the three stars which make up the hunter's belt.

SUPERNOVA!!!!

credits

^Andromeda galaxy closeup.

Andromeda galaxy from Earth.

We live in a galaxy known collectively by the endearing moniker the Milky Way.

~~~~~~~~~~

Isn't that awesome? And I mean "awesome" in the unadulterated sense of the word.

Remember, God only gave us dominion over Earth. What is really out there?

I don't know, but I am nearly positive there isn't a goat. (BTW, you too can edit your photo to look like that at Picnik.com)

Astronomy is so cool, fascinating, and non-practical. It is one of the seven liberal arts from the Ancients. 

Music: Holst's 'The Planets' (scroll down for the download)

~~~~~~~~~~~

Hope you all had a wonderful Monday, Halloween, and if you went trick or treating I hope you don't eat too much candy and get sick.

Auf Weidersehn, 

~Diana

rive gauche gets a makeover!

After perusing this blog, and noticing the neat, spare layout, I decided to fix up my blog a bit. I haven't found a layout that I absolutely love yet, but I think this one is pretty nice. The thing is, a plain white not-too-distracting template like I have now can get boring quickly for a personal blog unless you keep adding tons of luscious photographs to keep it interesting, and I rarely find time to take pictures. But on the other hand, maybe plain and boring is better than too much busy-ness, smiley faces and cutesy fonts.  

I like the chicken in the header! I find chickens very fascinating; they have the funniest personalities, and may I remark that roosters add a lot of excitement to a flock? 

Ronald aka Big Red, a huge and beautiful Rhode Island Red

I also finally got the gumption to post a picture of myself in the profile picture. So, now, dear readers, you can see what I actually look like, rather than reveling in the sheer beauty of Sadie the lamb's face.  


"Misery, in cold truth, is a weight less upon those who undergo it than upon the minds of those who see it; for he who is cold and starving is so busy in his efforts to obtain warmth and food that he has little time for self-pity, and endures his unhappy condition better than those who take it upon themselves to suffer for him." 
— Kenneth Roberts

If you have any comments upon the new layout, please leave a lucid and intelligible comment. (Very important criterion; please observe)

i've got good news, bad news, and a book suggestion!

- BAD News first, to get it over with. Basically, the bad news was this. THIS. In concise wording, a flood of the general area around which my famiglia situated. We are on top of a high hill, so the only excess water affecting us was in our cellar, but the area down town, right on the Susquehanna river, was devastated. Literally. For those of you not familiar with rivers, think 14-foot high water under bridges, and entire river-facing streets were deluged under 8-feet expanses of dirt brown water. 


Hundreds of people in the area are still without electricity (thankfully we have it) and internet. We just got it this afternoon, obviously, as you are reading this.


- GOOD news. (Yes, I am in the right mind to write good news. Three days without internet or hot water have cleared my mind of the hubris and general depression my last blog post was written in)


Kayleigh May Beck******* was born on Wednesday, September 7th at approximately 7pm, to Gayle and William, my sister-in-law and brother. We are all extremely excited to welcome her!!!!



       

Anyway, as I was saying, very exciting news. Certainly smiley face worthy! I don't like to bandy them things around my blog like annoying tennis balls, but this event is worthy of a few more.  

Moving on, we come to the book suggestion. I finished Arundel by Kenneth Roberts---you should really read it. (Whoever happens to be reading this at this time, and providing you haven't read it already which I seriously doubt)
Arundel was historical fiction at its finest. Fast paced, meaty, and exciting. Solidly researched and well-written. I'd recommend it to anyone 12 and up. It would make a nice thick change from the usual revolting YA novels many teens read in their spare time. (If they have any in this age of homework)
As I don't feel like writing a synopsis, go check it out yourself.


Whew. Fine weather we're having today.


Carrots I planted in the spring:

 Silkie cockerels I'm trying to sell:

 A eagle-eyed EE pullet:

 And an eternal photographic theme, flowers!

Finis.