Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Have Yourselves a Groovy Little Solstice*

So, it was the first day of winter, although it's felt like winter for a couple of weeks now. Just as the arrival of the red winged blackbird heralds spring, I've always seen the arrival of buffleheads as a signal that winter has come (as the old song goes, Gone away is the bluebird, here to stay is a new bird). Of course, the male hooded merganser can often be mistaken for a bufflehead, though the accompanying females with rusty-red heads give the charade away. The hooded mergansers also tend to overwinter in the area, thus leading to potential confusion.

Last night, I stayed up late to watch the lunar eclipse- the nearly full moon was ringed by an icy halo, and the shadow of the earth gradually obscured Earth's celestial "daughter". While observing the dance of the heavenly bodies, I was lucky enough to see an extremely bright meteor. Even though it was freezing out, the night was enchanting. Yeah, winter may be a drag sometimes, but it surely came in on a high note.


*Title lifted from a hilarious, criminally neglected song.

4 comments:

Vonnie said...

Great post!!
Too cloudy for eclipse fun here, glad someone I know saw it!

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

Big, visit the UTuber and search for Christmas with the Ghostly Trio. Tragically no longer available, I had a tape.

Awesome scary holiday music from Milwaukee art-punk rockers who normally backed up the Femmes as The Horns of Dilemma.

Hamish Mack said...

Merry Christmas to Mr. Bastard, an excellent sort!

tuxguys said...

As the composer of the music to that "hilarious, criminally neglected song," let me thank you for those kind words.
(The flip side of the 45, "I'm Dreaming of a Noir Xmas," is pretty good, too.)
May all of your Solstices be Groovy, and all of your Xmases, Noir.