The Man in Red 2014

Toot and I would like to wish everyone around the world a happy and peaceful time over the Christmas holiday.

Some hay in a manger.

Silent Night ????

School of Seasonal Medicine

Camel down in Judae

 Toot and I have just returned from a whirlwind national tour of 'Nativities' in which our amazingly talented and lovely grand children have starred!  Although we very much enjoy this wonderful part of Christmas, it does not go without its attendant risks.

I have to thank one of my sons - Dr Chrissy H Roberts - for the following seasonal libretto which sums it all up.

The Twelve Malaise of Christmas

On the first day of Christmas my grand children gave to me a bad case of enteric dysentery.

On the second day of Christmas my grand children gave to me two bouts of puking and a bad case of enteric dysentery.

On the third day of Christmas my grand children gave to me three explosive turds, two bouts of puking and a bad case of enteric dysentery.

On the fourth day of Christmas my grand children gave to me four stinky farts, three explosive turds, two bouts of puking and a bad case of enteric dysentery.

On the fifth day of Christmas my grand children gave to me - five ringworm rings- four stinky farts, three explosive turds, two bouts of puking and a bad case of enteric dysentery.

On the sixth day of Christmas my grand children gave to me six runny noses - five ringworm rings - four stinky farts, three explosive turds, two bouts of puking and a bad case of enteric dysentery.

On the seventh day of Christmas my grand children gave to me seven shits a squirting, six runny noses - five ringworm rings - four stinky farts, three explosive turds, two bouts of puking and a bad case of enteric dysentery.

On the eighth day of Christmas my grand children gave to me eight unexplained fevers, seven shits a squirting, six runny noses - five ringworm rings - four stinky farts, three explosive turds, two bouts of puking and a bad case of enteric dysentery.

On the ninth day of Christmas my grand children gave to me nine norovirus, eight unexplained fevers, seven shits a squirting, six runny noses - five ringworm rings - four stinky farts, three explosive turds, two bouts of puking and a bad case of enteric dysentery.

On the tenth day of Christmas my grand children gave to me ten non blanching rashes, nine norovirus, eight unexplained fevers, seven shits a squirting, six runny noses - five ringworm rings - four stinky farts, three explosive turds, two bouts of puking and a bad case of enteric dysentery.

On the eleventh day of Christmas my grand children gave to me eleven worms a wiggling,
ten non blanching rashes, nine norovirus, eight unexplained fevers, seven shits a squirting, six runny noses - five ringworm rings - four stinky farts, three explosive turds, two bouts of puking and a bad case of enteric dysentery.

On the twelfth day of Christmas my grand children gave to me twelve nits a nipping,
eleven worms a wiggling, ten non blanching rashes, nine norovirus, eight unexplained fevers, seven shits a squirting, six runny noses - five ringworm rings - four stinky farts, three explosive turds, two bouts of puking and a bad case of enteric dysentery.

Steve Dongle's top 100 trees.- No 3 The Nordmann Fir

The Nordmann Fir (Abies nordmanniana)  nude portrait taken from 'On the Trail of the Lonesome Pine' by O.Hardy and S. Laurel - Acorn Press 1910.
 (with kind permission of the Ted Trellis Foundation)

Nordmann fir or Caucasian fir is a fir native to the mountains west and east of the Black Sea, in Turkey, Georgia, Russian Caucasus and northern parts of Armenia. It occurs at altitudes of 900–2,200 m on mountains with a rainfall of over 1,000 mm.
Current distribution of the Nordmann fir is associated with the forest refugia that existed during the Ice Age at the eastern and southern Black Sea coast. The species is not found in currently suitable areas of the Eastern Greater Caucasus, which are separated from the Black Sea Coast by more than 400–500 km, in spite of currently suitable climate.
It is a large evergreen coniferous tree growing to 60 m tall and with a trunk diameter of up to 2 m. In the Western Caucasus Reserve, some specimens have been reported to be 78 m and even 85 m tall, the tallest trees in Europe.

 " O Christmas tree, O Christmas how beauteous are your branches?"

"Every one of us in our daily lives affect our fragile ecosystems. Every choice you make, every tree you shake, every mince pie you bake - I'll be watching you!" Steve Dongle; Eco-warrior, environmental activist and compiler of the Waveney Gazette's Top 100 Trees.

 Traditional Christmas Carol

O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Thy leaves are so unchanging;
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Thy leaves are so unchanging;
Not only green when summer's here,
But also when 'tis cold and drear.
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Thy leaves are so unchanging!

O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Much pleasure thou can'st give me;
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Much pleasure thou can'st give me;
How often has the Christmas tree
Afforded me the greatest glee!
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Much pleasure thou can'st give me.

O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Thy candles shine so brightly!
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Thy candles shine so brightly!
From base to summit, gay and bright,
There's only splendor for the sight.
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Thy candles shine so brightly!

O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
How richly God has decked thee!
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
How richly God has decked thee!
Thou bidst us true and faithful be,
And trust in God unchangingly.
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
How richly God has decked thee! !"

Nordmann Fir fully decked  or dressed for Christmas

Credits: Wikipedia and the Ted Trellis Foundation

Winter Sun at Christmas

Scarcliffe Church Derbyshire on a winter afternoon. (George Roberts 2014 - Digital media)

The Church 

by George Roberts

   Set in winter sun and cerulean sky

Old weathered stone

Cold to the hand

Warm to the eye

The church is anchored by geology and geneaology

Limestone blocks resting on limestone rocks

Marriage on baptism

Burial on marriage

An idea and artifact founded in a community's past, present and future

A social and spiritual metronome 

Each muted beat counts the passage of time and souls departed

An incessant but silent pulse, repeated endlessly since Pagan times

         

The Christmas Goose x 2

Flying South for Christmas ( George Roberts 2014 - Digital media)

Over the last couple of weeks and whilst Toot and I have been traveling around the country watching our grandchildren perform in their school Nativity plays, things have been a bit quiet on my blog. I shall try to redress this recent dearth in posts! This afternoon we shall dress the Christmas tree. "Its getting to feel a lot like Christmas!"

Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on 20 November 2014

The Nucleus of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on 20 November 2014

• Title Comet on 20 November – NavCam
• Released 26/11/2014 6:00 pm
• Copyright ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0
• Description This mosaic comprises four individual NAVCAM images taken from 30.8 km from the centre of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on 20 November 2014. The image resolution is 2.6 m/pixel and thus each original 1024 x 1024 pixel frame measured 2.7 km across. The mosaic has been slightly rescaled, rotated, and cropped, and measures roughly 4.2 x 5.0 km.
  The four individual images making up the mosaic are available via the blog: Cometwatch - 20 November
  

This week I will be sixty-five years old.  I was eight years old when I first took an interest in astronomy. In those far off days the idea of sending a robotic surveyor millions of miles and years traveling through the solar system, of placing it in orbit around the nucleus of a comet and landing a probe on the surface would have at best been considered science fiction and at worst been ridiculed as preposterous.  How lucky am I to have lived through a time of accelerating scientific development.  How proud am I of the European Space Agency in achieving this amazing scientific feat!  How pleased am I to have, in some small way and through the payment of taxes, sponsored this intellectual voyage of discovery!  How proud am I to be European! How determined am I to live long enough to witness the demise of all ignorant, xenophobic, extreme and inward looking political associations which act to destroy the unity of humanity and turn Europe into a mosaic of nationalistic enclaves!  Toot and I do not wish to return to 1950, by comparison with 2014, this decade   was crap! Toot and I know because we lived through it. We were economically poorer, public health was lower, Television was in black and white and life was generally grey and monotonous.  Joining Europe and welcoming immigrants to our islands have increased our nation's cultural diversity, our prosperity and our quality of life.  Investing our common and collective wealth in scientific and technological exploration has been both spiritually  and economically life enhancing.  So Nigel and all others like you,  if you want something different you are going to have to achieve it without Toot and me because we like it as is not as was!   AND........ ESA and NASA keep looking for evidence of intelligent life out in space because its getting harder to find it down here on earth!

Thank you ESA and Rosetta for this photograph.  A tremendous scientific feat  and a wonderful gift for my birthday.

Plato

Two versions of the same Lunar photograph that I captured from our backyard through my 127mm refractor using the video format on my Canon 600D DSLR. The version on the right has an enhanced colour saturation which highlights the changes in the reflection of sunlight from a range of minerals in the different rocks that makeup the Lunar surface.

Image of the Crater Plato taken from Lunar Orbiter 4.

My image shows the crater Plato, center left, and the 'Alpine valley', the broad stripe slightly above and to its right.

Plato is the lava filled impact crater on the Moon, located on the north eastern shore of the Mare Imbrium  and at the western end of the Montes Alpes mountain chain. To the south is a smaller chain of mountains named Montes Teneriffe  and to the north lies the wide sweep of Mare Frigoris.  Plato was created approximately 3.84 billion years ago and only just post-dates the absolutely massive impact which created Mare Imbrium.  Of course this Mare or 'sea' is a waterless desert of solidified lava which is either hot or very cold depending upon whether it is being bathed in sunlight or cloaked in shadow.  Inside Plato's 2 kilometre high jagged walls the crater floor has been flooded with a particularly dark lava (having a low albedo)  which makes it an obvious lunar feature when viewed from the earth with low power binoculars. There is no visible central peak but there are a number of later and small impact craterlets which can be seen in the image from Lunar Orbiter 4. Plato is basically circular but from earth and  in my image, it appears oval because of perspective foreshortening.  Over the years the crater has been the location for a number of 'transient lunar phenomena' or TLPs although these are generally considered visual affects related to changes in seeing and the angle of illumination by the sun. The crater is large and has an approximate diameter of 109 kilometres or 67.7 miles.

Although the moon has been observed and extensively studied for many years, we are still discovering new facts about it.  Recent data recorded by a number of satellites in orbit around the moon, have led astronomers and geologists to revise their views on the moon's geological activity. It is now believed that there has been volcanic activity on the moon as relatively recent as two million years and that the moons core is hotter than was originally considered.  It is believed that tidal affects caused by the earth, as the moon and the earth rotate about their common point of axis, acts to stress the moon's core and mantle and thus heat it. This is similar to the more extreme heating and volcanic activity experienced by the moon Io as the result of tidal affects created by the massive planet Jupiter.

Credits: NASA, Wikipedia and James Stuby

The Calabrian Volcanic Arc Part 2: Stromboli

Smokin' Stromboli as seen from our Easyjet

As we flew home to London Gatwick Toot took this photograph through the aeroplane window .   Stromboli is everyone's image of what a volcano should be: a smoking cone with white hot rocks and red hot lava rolling down its slopes.  Add to this its fantastic location: rising from a mineral blue sea and surrounded by sparkling black beaches of volcanic ash and water worn lava pebbles, and you have your best ever geological experience.

We arrived by boat and spent some time collecting rock samples from the beach beside the landing jetty.  Toot had a swim in the sea and was amazed at how buoyant she was.  We guessed that the sea water around Stromboli was supersaturated by volcanic minerals.

It was very easy to assess the position of high tide as it was picked out by a line white pumice stones. Pumice has such a low density it floats upon the sea water.  We both remembered a time, thirty years ago, swimming with our children and good friends Trevor and Christine in Oslo Fjord, when we first discovered that pumice floats in the sea.

Whilst I waited for Toot to emerge, like 'Botticelli's Venus', from the waves, I took some photos of the sun setting behind the smoking calderas and penned a poem in celebration of Toot's assistance in enabling my access to Etna a few days before.

 Beautiful Toot braves the 'Briny'

Rock samples from Stromboli

The teacher and her triskelion man 

The sun too bright to resolve or cursorily scan

Climbs sleepy from its nocturnal seabed

And waking too, the teacher and her triskelion man

Begin their ascent in search of yellow sulphur and chimera red

Traveling first on Babel's bus and then by suspended wire

The partners in adventure, life, love and time

Mark falling barometric pressure and summer's last breath

In pursuit of internal and external seismic fire

Side by side they enter a basalt new made land

A moonscape of twisted lava and calderas

They look into ash cone's fiery eye and back in time

As Orpheus once did for Eurydice

George Roberts

White hot rocks and lava skitter and slide down Stromboli's slopes to the sea

Sunset over the Stromboli's smoking Calderas

Stromboli at dusk as photographed from the boat,  
dusk suddenly renders the red hot lava visible.

As it gets darker the brightness of the 
lava streams becomes more pronounced

The river Phlegethon

A fiery cascade from overflowing caldera

The Calabrian Volcanic Arc Part 1: Etna

Geological memories of our recent October 2014 holiday in Sicily. Did the earth move for you Toot?
Without my redoubtable partner to hold my hand  and help me climb, I would not have made it to the top, thanks Toot!

Toot took this fantastic photograph of Etna through the window of the Easyjet plane, just after we left from Catania airport in Sicily, on our return journey to London Gatwick.

Etna is Europe's highest volcano and is one of the most active stratovolcanoes on the planet earth. For more information follow the link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Etna

Etna - looking down from the rim of a cinder cone into an active fumarole. The main crater cones can be seen in the distance and at increased elevation.   Ash and gas clouds are visible over the main active summit craters and the upper slopes are tinged yellow with sulphur. When the wind direction changed, sulphurous gas was blown our way and burned acid in our throats.

Maps of Etna at various scales showing the location (yellow circle) in which the preceding photograph was taken and the lava samples were collected

This rock was taken from the crater rim, just about where the people can be seen in the above photograph (the group on the right). Toot found it in a hollow which was actively gassing out. The yellow, presumably sulphur and the red presumably iron were probably the result of the gas depositing the minerals upon the cinder. The rock itself is of medium density, lighter than the sample we collected from a nearby lava flow but heavier than the pumice we subsequently collected from the beach on Stromboli. Close inspection with a magnifying eyepiece reveals small gas vesicles and a glassy crystalline crust of yellow, red and white minerals.




This predominantly red sample was collected close to the active fumarole you can see smoking in the photograph. Our guide told us that in August this vent had suddenly become active  and consequently he had had to lead an emergency evacuation from the Volcano! So this rock is probably no more than 8 weeks old! It is about the same density as the other sample but much redder and with larger gas vesicles. Inspection with an eyepiece reveals one or two very small glassy mineral crystals.

Close up of the active fumarole. I felt quite nervous taking this photograph (Toot was a lot braver than me!) The sound affects are quite scary with rocks and ash constantly sliding away to oblivion, rattling and tinkling as they roll down the unstable ash slopes to be lost in the smoke and fire forever.

For an excellent downloadable presentation, relating to Volcanoes and volcanic rocks generally and Etna and its lava particularly, follow the link:

http://web.pdx.edu/~jjackson/Etna.pdf

This image, looking towards the main summit craters, shows the lava field behind the active fumarole. We sat and ate our sandwiches here and watched as puffs of smoke issued sporadically from voids in and between the piled up and twisted lava boulders. Our lunch was taken at approximately 3000 metres above sea-level. The distant crater rims are about 300 metres higher and change with each successive major eruption or quake.

We laughed when we noticed that the low air pressure had caused our packets of  crisps to inflate like balloons!

This sample of lava was taken from the lava field shown in the above photograph. In colour the lava is dark grey with a blue-green highlight. It has been contorted into a bewildering number of random shapes which have fused together to create an alien landscape. The lava is sharp and both dangerous and impossible to walk upon in safety.

The rock is much denser and has smaller and less frequent gas vesicles. Close inspection with an eyepiece reveals a number of small glassy white quartz like crystals.

Our view of the Summit Craters wreathed in smoke at 10.30 am. on the13th October 2014

Smoke from the fumarole blocks the sunlight as tourists march along the crater rim.

Etna: major eruption (2001?) as seen from the International Space Station credit Reid Wiseman/NASA

 Credits: Wikipedia, NASA, The Earth Institute Columbia University, Portland University and Easyjet

Messier 15 - globular star cluster in the constellation Pegasus

The Globular star cluster Messier 15 taken from our backyard using my 127mm refracting telescope and a Canon 600D DSLR at approx f=900mm

The globular star cluster M15 was discovered in 1746 by Jean-Dominique Maraldi. You can view the cluster from a dark site using standard 10x50mm binoculars. In binoculars it appears as a small fuzzy disc of light against the dark night sky close to the star Enif in the constellation Pegasus.

Location Map for M15.  North is up and South down, East is left and West right. The yellow square denotes the location of Messier 15

The cluster is approximately 33,600 light years distant from Earth, has a diameter of 175 light years and contains over one hundred thousand stars. If our planet circled a star in such a cluster, the night sky would be awash with starlight and night as we know it would not exist. Globular star clusters are located in galactic halos (ie. they are gravitationally bound to galaxies and buzz around them like bees to the hive.) The Milky Way galaxy in which we abide has over 150 globular star clusters in its halo.

Messier 15 is one of the most densely packed globulars known in the Milky Way galaxy. Its core has undergone a contraction known as 'core collapse' and it has a central density cusp with an enormous number of stars surrounding what may be a central black hole. 
 
The cluster is notable for containing a large number of variable stars (112) and pulsars (8), including one double neutron star system, M15 C.  M15 also contains Pease 1, the first planetary nebula discovered within a globular cluster in 1928. Just three others have been found in globular clusters since then.

An enlargement of my image to show the dense core of M15

Just think there could be a black hole lurking at the centre of this dense ball of stars. How good is that?

Credits: Wikipedia and StarMap Pro 9.

The Ice Giants

Uranus and two of its moons, Oberon and Titania as imaged from our backyard using a Canon 600D DSLR attached to my Meade 127mmm refracting telescope.

 Uranus will reach opposition (its nearest point to earth in the year) on the 7th October. Neptune is just past  opposition. As the early hours of the 25th of September were clear and transparent, I turned my telescope and camera towards the ice giant planets, Uranus and Neptune. Both shine by reflected sunlight and both are a very long way away.
 

The planet Uranus in a wide-field starry background

An infrared composite image of the two hemispheres of Uranus obtained with Keck Telescope adaptive optics. The component colors of blue, green, and red were obtained from images made at near infrared wavelengths of 1.26, 1.62, and 2.1 microns respectively. The images were obtained on July 11 and 12, 2004. The North pole is at 4 o'clock. Credit for image:
Lawrence Sromovsky, University of Wisconsin-Madison/ W.W. Keck Observatory

 Uranus is named after the progenitor of the Titans and father of Saturn. Uranus is an unusual planet in that it has a retrograde orbit around the Sun, it barrels along with its equatorial plane inclined at 98 degrees to its orbital plane. It is a world in deep freeze and has a blackbody temperature of only 59 degrees Kelvin above absolute zero.  Like Saturn, Uranus has rings but much much fainter and so they remained undiscovered until the Voyager spacecraft passed by in January 1986.  Uranus has 27 known moons, the largest Oberon and Titania were discovered by William Herschel in 1787.

For more facts about Uranus follow the link
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/uranusfact.html 

Neptune and its largest moon Triton (possibly) as imaged from our backyard using a Canon 600D DSLR attached to my Meade 127mmm refracting telescope.

Neptune is the last of the Jovian planets and the eighth planet from the sun. Unlike Uranus it has an internal heat source but as the heat it absorbs from sunlight is so reduced by its extreme distance from the sun, its temperature is only about 59 degrees Kelvin. The  Voyager spacecraft and the Hubble Space Telescope have both imaged a Great Dark Spot in Neptune's clouds.

The planet Neptune in a wide-field starry background

Neptune as imaged by the Voyager space craft in 1989 from a distance of 5000km

Neptune has fourteen known moons. Triton, the largest moon has a retrograde motion.  Neptune and Uranus are both gas giants with similar densities and masses. Their cold atmospheres contain water ice and ammonia ice mixed with gaseous methane, hydrogen and helium.

For more facts about Neptune follow the link:
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/neptunefact.html

Credits: Wikipedia and NASA

Transient Lunar Phenomena

A transient event in the Crater Anaxagoras near the Lunar Limb captured last night from our backyard at 10.00pm BST

Last night was not clear enough for gainful astro-imaging, so instead I busied myself with calibrating the focusing of my planetary camera at a number of F values. The moon presented about half phase and was an ideal object to focus upon. Sadly, the gum trees at the bottom of our garden and some hazy high level cloud prevented me from capturing any really sharp images.

As I watched the moon sailing serenely across the sky my mind turned to the observation of 'Transient Lunar Phenomena (TLPs)'

"A transient lunar phenomenon (TLP), or lunar transient phenomenon (LTP), is a short-lived light, color, or change in appearance on the surface of the moon.
Claims of short-lived lunar phenomena go back at least 1,000 years, with some having been observed independently by multiple witnesses or reputable scientists. Nevertheless, the majority of transient lunar phenomenon reports are irreproducible and do not possess adequate control experiments that could be used to distinguish among alternative hypotheses to explain their origins. Thus, few reports concerning these phenomena are ever published in peer reviewed scientific journals, and the lunar scientific community rarely discusses these observations.
Most lunar scientists will acknowledge that transient events such as out-gassing and impact cratering do occur over geologic time: the controversy lies in the frequency of such events.
The term was created by Patrick Moore during his co-authoring of NASA Technical Report R-277 Chronological Catalog of Reported Lunar Events, published in 1968." Credit Wikipedia

For more information on Transient Lunar Phenomena follow the link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transient_lunar_phenomenon

The Local Group

 

Messier 31 imaged using a Canon 400D DSLR with a EOS Telephoto lens at f=215mm mounted on a driven EQ6 Pro mount. 15x30sec lights at ISO 1600, 4xDarks and 1x Flat stacked using DeepSkyStacker and finishd with APS

The Andromeda Galaxy M31 with satellite galaxies M32 (centre left) and M110 (bottom right of centre) images taken with a Canon 600D DSLR on my 127mm Meade Apo-refractor. Images stacked using DeepSkyStacker and finished with APS.

 The local group of galaxies number at least 54 and is part of the Virgo super cluster. The three largest galaxies in the local group are M31, M33 and our galaxy the Milky Way.

The Triangulum Galaxy M33 imaged with a equatorial mounted and driven Canon 400D DSLR with telephoto lens at f=215mm. Images stacked using DeepSkyStacker and finished with APS

The Triangulum Galaxy M33 taken with a Canon 600D DSLR on my 127mm Meade Apo-refractor. Images stacked using DeepSkyStacker and finished with APS.

M33 is approximately 3 million light years distant from our solar system, a little further away than M31.  M33 is thought to be the only unbarred spiral galaxy in the local group.

The Milky Way photographed with a tripod mounted DSLR

 Because we live within the Milky Way spiral galaxy we cannot see its structure as we can M31 and M33. What we do see, when we look up into a dark sky, is a milky band of diffuse starlight which runs from horizon to horizon. This band is created by light from the millions of stars that reside within the thickness of the galactic disc (known as the galactic plane). The dark areas within the Milky Way are not without stars but rather denote places where light from them is obscured by intergalactic dust.

Diagram of the Local Group (Credit: Wikipedia)

More than the sum of the parts

Very pleased that we started and ended the week citizens of a 'United Kingdom'.

We were delighted that the people of Scotland  exercised their constitutional right and voted to stay an integral part of a United Kingdom.  In the end its not about flag waving. Its about valuing and celebrating the cultures and contributions made by all the many peoples that share our islands and agree to work together for a common good.

Steve Dongle's top 100 trees.- No 2 The Giant Redwood

The Giant Redwood (Sequoiadendron giganteum)

 photo taken from 'On the Trail of the Lonesome Pine' by O.Hardy and S. Laurel - Acorn Press 1910.
 (with kind permission of the Ted Trellis Foundation)

Oh gentle giant and brittle wood.  Friend of the longhorn beetle and Douglas Squirrel. Noble king of the forest with species exemplars named after Presidents: Lincoln, Grant and Sherman. How ashamed should we be that mankind once squandered your noble timber upon the manufacture of 'matches'.

"Every one of us in our daily lives affect our fragile ecosystems. Every choice you make, every cake you bake, every journey you take - I'll be watching you!" Steve Dongle; Eco-warrior, environmental activist and compiler of the Waveney Gazette's Top 100 Trees.
 

The Redwoods

Joseph B. Strauss

Here, sown by the Creator's hand.
In serried ranks, the Redwoods stand:
No other clime is honored so,
No other lands their glory know.

The greatest of Earth's living forms,
Tall conquerors that laugh at storms;
Their challenge still unanswered rings,
Through fifty centuries of kings.

The nations that with them were young,
Rich empires, with their forts far-flung,
Lie buried now-their splendor gone:
But these proud monarchs still live on.

So shall they live, when ends our days,
When our crude citadels decay;
For brief the years allotted man,
But infinite perennials' span.

This is their temple, vaulted high,
And here, we pause with reverent eye,
With silent tongue and awestruck soul;
For here we sense life's proper goal:

To be like these, straight, true and fine,
to make our world like theirs, a shrine;
Sink down, Oh, traveler, on your knees,
God stands before you in these trees.

Credits: Wikipedia and Humboldt County California's Redwood Coast

The spice melange

My 'spice melange' recipe is a favourite of mine (Toot is not a fan). In my opinion its a bit like crack cocaine - a tad morish.

For lunch this Sunday, I treated myself to roasted 'hot smoked' salmon, drizzled with stilton cheese mustard and white wine sauce, sitting on a bed of the 'spice melange'. Absolutely delicious!

 The Spice Melange, commonly referred to simply as 'the spice', was a naturally produced awareness spectrum narcotic that formed a fundamental block of commerce and technological development in the known universe for millennia. It also played an important role in travel and cultural development.
Since its discovery several thousand years prior to the ascent of House Atreides it was produced exclusively on the planet Arrakis. This was because the conditions on Arrakis by which melange was created were unique to that planet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_%28novel%29

Ingredients for the 'spice melange':

One peeled shallot or red onion

Two peeled carrots

One medium sized peeled and diced sweet potato

Half a peeled and diced butternut squash

Two sticks of celery

Two field mushrooms

Four pieces of peeled garlic

Dessert spoon of chilli flakes

Two sprigs of fresh rosemary

One sprig of basil 

Half a teaspoon of smoked paprika 

Chunk of butter

Drizzle of olive oil

Black pepper and salt to taste

Method:

Put all  the veggies with the exception of the mushrooms, plus the herbs and spices in a small roasting tin. Drizzle with the olive oil. Cook for 40 minutes in a fan oven at 180 degrees C. From time to time baste the vegetables in the hot olive oil. Add the mushrooms to the roasting tin, put the butter on top of them and return to the oven for a further 15 minutes. Serve hot with roast meats or fish.

Spidey

A spider looked into my window today, so I looked back.

"Will you walk into my parlor?" said a Spider to a Fly," 

It is the prettiest parlor that ever you did spy, 

You've only got to pop your head just inside of the door, 

You'll see so many curious things you never saw before, 

Will you, will you, will you walk in, pretty Fly?…"