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Tag Archives: Equinox

Tempus Fugit

Today, we are “springing forward” in time. The transitions back and forth between Standard Time and Daylight Savings Time are always jolting. I think it’s harder than one hour jet lag because the environmental clues of sunshine and shadows don’t change. We are close to the Equinox, when daylight and nighttime hours are approximately equal. This change is subtle but real. It reflects the wheeling of the earth, sun and stars. The measurement of time is a human construct, to give us a path to capturing the vast reality of our journey through the universe. The ancients built pyramids and Stonehenge to chart this course.

We are finally, I hope, making the transition from Winter to False (or Almost) Spring. A few days ago, we woke up to zero degrees, again. For the last two or three days, daytime temperatures have been above freezing–even as high as a balmy 40 degrees! We are moving from snow everywhere to snow most everywhere, interspersed with mud. We have lots of little lambs on the ground at Powder Flat. Most of the ewes are still in the Big Horn Basin, but we are seeing the light at the end of the snow tunnel and hope to bring them home soon. Most of the cows are in Nebraska and Laramie, but we are waiting for the day when conditions improve so they can come home too. The young bulls are hanging out at Powder Flat with the early lambers. Roma poet Virgil: “fugit inreparabile tempus”, which means “it escapes, irretrievable time”.

Home ranch on March 6th

Driveway

 

new lamb at Powder Flat

Young bulls looking forward to green grass

What–we’re losing an hour of sleep!

 
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Posted by on March 7, 2020 in Animals, Cattle, Musings, Sheep

 

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Image

Equinox sunset

Squaw Mt. sunset equinox

 
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Posted by on March 20, 2016 in Nature and Wildlife

 

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Summer Solstice Sunrise

sunrise over Reed Draw

sunrise over Reed Draw

Summer solstice sunrise
shine on, shine on.
These long, lingering days
bring blessings.
The growing season rises up
hot and green and
full of promise.
Hard to believe
all that turns
on this day
as we begin the slow march
toward equinox,
toward winter’s nights,
cold and dark.
But for now
grasses grow, and
portend prosperity,
protection against that time
when winter threatens hunger.
Hope flows from this
summer solstice promise
of plenty.

 
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Posted by on June 21, 2015 in Nature and Wildlife, Poetry

 

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Seasons of the Sun–a Villanelle

sunrise over Sheep Mountain

Sunrise over Sheep Mountain

Winter solstice sunrise glows and finds the arc
of season’s seeking arrow, its final icy end,
Stonehenge mountains, where light strikes its ancient mark.

This solstice sunrise lends end to winter’s dark,
This beam that glows before next season’s march begins.
Winter solstice sunrise glows and finds the arc

when the sun creeps north, and gleams a glowing spark.
Early shine ascending ‘til equinox transcends
Stonehenge mountains, where light strikes its ancient mark.

Three Forks and Sheep Mountain flank sunbeams’s stark
ascendance, springtime’s even days, recalling when
Winter solstice sunrise glows and finds the arc

that leads northward, as time and stars embark.
Summer solstice on Reed Draw, northern boundary’s end.
Stonehenge mountains, where light strikes its ancient mark.

Rocky Mountain monoliths measure light from dark.
Mountain henges mark the march, mark when time portends
winter solstice sunrise glows and finds the arc
Stonehenge mountains, where light strikes its ancient mark.

 
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Posted by on January 26, 2015 in Nature and Wildlife, Poetry

 

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