Poetry

Poems, Prayers and Promises

Leave a comment

The poetry of John Denver was mentioned to me recently, so here it is…

I’ve been lately thinking
About my life time
All the things Ive done
And how its been
And I can’t help believing
In my own mind
I know I’m gonna hate to see it end

Seen a lot of sunshine
Slept out in the rain
Spent a night or two all on my own
I’ve known my lady’s pleasures
Had myself some friends
Spent a night or two in my own home

I have to say it now
It’s been a good life all in all
It’s really fine
To have a chance to hang around
And lie there by the fire
And watch the evening tire
While all my friends and my old lady
Sit and pass the pipe around

Talk of poems and prayers and promises
And things that we believe in
How sweet it is to love someone
How right it is to care
How long its been since yesterday
What about tomorrow
What about our dreams
And all the memories we share

The days they pass so quickly now
Nights are seldom long
Time around me whispers when its cold
The changes somehow frighten me
Still I have to smile
It turns me on to think of growing old
For though my life’s been good to me
There’s still so much to do
So many things my mind has never known
I’d like to raise a family
I’d like to sail away
And dance across the mountains on the moon

I have to say it now
It’s been a good life all in all
It’s really fine
To have the chance to hang around
And lie there by the fire
And watch the evening tire
While all my friends and my old lady
Sit and pass the pipe around

Talk of poems and prayers and promises
And things that we believe in
How sweet it is to love someone
How right it is to care
How long its been since yesterday
What about tomorrow
What about our dreams
And all the memories we share

Poetry

Lost

Leave a comment

by David Wagoner

Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.

Energy, Security

Planes on vegetable oil

Leave a comment

BBC News reports that Air New Zealand has followed Virgin Atlantic in biofuel tests:

A passenger plane has successfully completed a two-hour test flight partly powered by vegetable oil.

Interesting to note that the test used fuel derived from jatropha fruit, whereas Virgin used oil from babassu nuts and coconuts. Jatropha is considered a superior oil, with zero impact on food-grade products:

…jatropha can be grown in soil that is not suitable for most food crops.

“Even under harsh drought conditions with minimal amount of water or moisture, it will survive,”…

Food, Security

The Silver Minnow

Leave a comment

Fly fishers have long known that the “Incredible Silver Minnow” is a favorite food among important species.

They wax on about the way its appearance would coax even the smartest salmon out of hiding, and they call it things like a “deadly” lure.

Here is a recipe, apparently from 1965:

Incredible Silver Minnow

Hook: No. 6, 2XL

Tail: A small bunch of gray stripped mallard herl or grizzly hackle.

Body: Wound tightly with lead wire. The wire body is covered and tapered with silk floss of any color. This is covered completely by a double overlay of embossed flat silver tinsel.

Throat: A small bunch of long crimson rooster hackle, the longest ones extending to the point of the hook.

Wing: A very small bunch of white bucktail, over which a very small bunch of blue (dyed) impala hair. Over this is a gray mallard flank feather tied on flat on top of the hair so it surrounds all of the hair. The elements of the wing extand half again as long as the hook.

Head: Built up to minnow-shape with 00 nylon thread, painted silver. Small painted black eyes, with yellow dot in center.

One might think that this would have generated a great deal of concern over the fate of the real Silver Minnow in the past 30 years. Alas, the opposite has happened and minnow populations have been decimated by development and water use. Today the minnow lives in just 5% of its former habitat on the Rio Grande, for example, and conservationists have been trying to reintroduce the Silvery Minnow. Only a few days ago a half million were released. Best of luck to these little ones.

Photo by Aimee Michelle Roberson