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A Hole in the Sky
© 2012 Loren Zemlicka
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I’m looking through a hole in the sky
I’m seeing nowhere through the eyes of a lie
I’m getting closer to the end of the line
I’m living easy where the sun doesn’t shine
I’m living in a room without any view
I’m living free because the rent’s never due
The synonyms of all the things that I’ve said
Are just the riddles that are built in my head
Hole in the sky, take me to heaven
Window in time, through it I fly
- From “Hole in the Sky” by Black Sabbath
Sacred Charm
© 2012 Loren Zemlicka
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The dear old farm has a sacred charm
That extends to farthest bound,
Every rock and tree is dear to me,
And hallowed seems the ground.
Its beautiful stream whose waters gleam
As they dance on to the sea,
Sings sweeter song, as it moves along,
Than other waters to me.
No leaves are so green, as those that screen
The revered old farm-house doors,
From the burning sun of torrid June
When his fiercest rays he pours.
Each grove and field doth a mem’ry yield
Of dear childhood’s blissful hours,
And in accents clear, voices I hear
That have now augmented powers.
My father’s care and my mother’s prayer
Are now ended here on earth,
But as time rolls on, since they have gone,
I shall understand their worth.
There’s a sacred charm in the dear old farm,
For loved ones have trod its soil,
And much I now see, appears to me
As fruit of their faithful toil.
- “Old Farm” by Jared Barhite
Badfish Goodnight
Canon EOS 5D
Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM
The Badfish Creek in southern Wisconsin was originally named Waucoma by the original Native American inhabitants.
This account of how the Badfish mistakingly got its name comes from the Cooksville Blog:
“The name, “Bad Fish,” appears to have been applied, perhaps mistakenly, in late 1833, when the U.S. government land surveyors were moving through the Wisconsin part of the Michigan Territory from the east and the Rock River to the west past the Yahara (Catfish) River and on further west in Rock County (then part of Brown County), through a “Rolling Prairie,” as their sketch map called it. When the surveyors came upon a large creek in the northwest corner of what is now Rock County, they apparently thought they had reached a part of the Bad Fish River (later the Sugar River) system.
The Bad Fish River was the name of the upper branch of the Sugar River at that time. The land surveyors presumed, mistakenly, that the little creek flowing from that direction was a small tributary of the Bad Fish River. Thus, they named it the Bad Fish Creek.
For whatever reason, the name “Bad Fish Creek” was recorded in the early 1830s survey.”
The Badfish Creek is now a favorite paddling destination in the Madison – Oregon area.
Vines and Wires
Canon EOS 5D
Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM
“The wide world is all about you; you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot forever fence it out.”
- J.R.R. Tolkien
On a Different Road
Canon EOS 5D
Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM
“People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they’re not on your road doesn’t mean they’ve gotten lost.”
- H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
Meddle Not
Canon EOS 5D
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM
“Meddle not in the affairs of the dragon; for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.”
- Anonymous
I Go On Forever
Canon EOS 5D
Sigma 50mm f/1.4 EX DG HSM
I chatter, chatter, as I flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may comeand men may go,
But I go on forever.
I wind about, and in and out,
with here a blossom sailing,
And here and there a lusty trout,
And here and there a grayling,
And here and there a foamy flake
Upon me, as I travel
With many a silver water-break
Above the golden gravel,
And draw them all along, and flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on forever.
I steal by lawns and grassy plots,
I slide by hazel covers;
I move the sweet forget-me-nots
That grow for happy lovers.
I slip, I slide, I gloom, I glance,
Among my skimming swallows;
I make the netted sunbeam dance
Against my sandy shallows.
I murmur under moon and stars
In brambly wildernesses;
I linger by my shingly bars;
I loiter round my cresses;
And out again I curve and flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on forever.
- Exerpt from “The Brook” by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Lost in the Trees
Canon EOS 5D
Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM
“Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.”
- Henry David Thoreau
Without Impunity
Canon EOS 5D
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM
Nemo me impune lacessit is Latin for “No one provokes me with impunity”. It is the motto of the Order of the Thistle – a Scottish order of chivalry.
Scotish legend states that long ago, an invading Viking hoard almost caught a sleeping Scottish army by surprise. However, an advancing Viking warrior stepped on a thistle with his bare feet, crying out in pain and waking the Scots, who then soundly defeated the Vikings.
In gratitude, the plant was named the Guardian Thistle and was adopted as the symbol of Scotland.
The thistle also played a role in the Scottish-Independence movie Braveheart. A gift of a thistle clip
“A Gift of a Thistle” composed by Jon Horner for the film can be heard here
