December Vintage

If the October days were a cordial like the sub-acids of fruit, 

these are a tonic like the wine of iron. 

Drink deep or be careful how you taste this December vintage. 

The first sip may chill, 

but a full draught warms and invigorates. 

 ~John Burroughs, "Winter Sunshine"

68/365

A lot of people like snow. 

 I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water.

~Carl Reiner

46/365

A cabbage patch in February?  Really??

At middle age the soul should be opening up like a rose, 

not closing up like a cabbage.

~John Andrew Holmes

45/365

Vista House,
 Columbia Gorge, Oregon

The real voyage of discovery consists of not in seeking new landscapes 

but in having new eyes."

~Marcel Proust

44/365

Multnomah Falls is a waterfall on the Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge, located east of Troutdale, between Corbett and Dodson, along the Historic Columbia River Highway. The falls drops in two major steps, split into an upper falls of 542 feet and a lower falls of 69 feet, with a gradual 9 foot drop in elevation between the two, so the total height of the waterfall is conventionally given as 620 feet. Multnomah Falls is the tallest waterfall in the State of Oregon. It is credited by a sign at the site of the falls as the second tallest year-round waterfall in the United States but that claim is debated among waterfall experts.

Underground springs from Larch Mountain are the year-round source of water for the waterfall, augmented by spring runoff from the mountain's snowpack and rainwater during the other seasons.

A foot trail leads to Benson Footbridge, a 45-foot-long footbridge that allows visitors to cross 105 feet above the lower cascade. The trail continues to a platform at the top of the upper falls where visitors get a bird's-eye view of the Columbia Gorge and also of "Little Multnomah", a small cascade slightly upstream from the "upper" falls, which is not visible from ground level. The footbridge is named for Simon Benson, who financed the bridge's construction in 1914 by Italian stonemasons.

Benson soon gave Portland land that included most of the falls as well as nearby Wahkeena Falls. The Oregon-Washington Railroad and Navigation Company gave Portland land at the base of Multnomah Falls contingent upon their agreement to build a lodge at the site. A few years later architect A.E. Doyle, who designed the Meier & Frank Building, was commissioned by the city to design the lodge, which was completed in 1925. The lodge is now on the National Register of Historic Places.

In contrast to other falls along the Gorge, the Multnomah area is also reachable via a stretch of I-84 east of Troutdale, Oregon. The rest area and tunnel under the road (as well as the Union Pacific Railroad tracks) allow Interstate travelers from either direction to stop and visit the falls.

~wiki

38/365

If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; 

if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, 

prosperity would not be so welcome.

~Anne Bradstreet

look what we came across on this grey, February day...

16/365

January rain

drapes the sky in grey

and hides away the sun...

And the pattering can be maddening,

but I'll wait until it's done.

For I can't chase the clouds away,

and I can't stop the falling rain.

It's out of my hands, it's out of my hands,

there's nothing that I can do.

And sometimes I know
that life doesn't go

the way that I want it to.

On your gentle face

there's a subtle change.

A light has left your eyes;

something's buried deep that I'll never reach,

a flame I can't ignite.

It's a sweet illusion to feel in control,

but the bitter truth is I'll never know...

when it's out of my hands, 

it's out of my hands.

There's nothing that I can do.

And sometimes I know
that life doesn't go

the way that I want it to.

And if you never want me
the way that I want you,

it's out of my hands, it's out of my hands...

there's nothing that I can do.

And sometimes I know
that life doesn't go

the way that I want it to.

And if you take your love away

 and run to someone new

...nothing I can do.

It's out of my hands,

so it doesn't matter
when or whether

we will ever be together...

When there's nothing else

that I can...

do.

Song lyrics: It's Out of My Hands

Artist: Spencer Day

Album: Vagabond

14/365

“Constant kindness can accomplish much. 

As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, 

mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.”

~Albert Schweitzer

12/365

“May you have warm words on a cold evening, 

a full moon on a dark night 

and a smooth road all the way to your door.”

~Irish Blessings

11/365

In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans.

~Kahlil Gibran

9/365

“Snow and adolescence are the only problems that disappear 

if you ignore them long enough.”

~Earl Wilson

litter

Our consciences are littered like an old attic with the junk of sheer conviction.

~Wilford O. Cross

frosty

“There are two kinds of teachers: 

the kind that fill you with so much quail shot that you can't move, 

and the kind that just gives you a little prod behind 

and you jump to the skies.”

“There's nothing I'm afraid of like scared people.”

“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life. 

It goes on.”

“It's a funny thing that when a man hasn't anything on earth to worry about, 

he goes off and gets married.”

“I would have written of me on my stone: 

I had a lover's quarrel with the world.”

“The best way out is always through.”

“Forgive me my nonsense as I also forgive the nonsense 

of those who think they talk sense.”

“Home is the place where, when you have to go there, 

they have to take you in.”

“Always fall in love with what you're asked to accept. 

Take what is given, and make it over your way. 

My aim in life has always been to hold my own with whatever's going. 

Not against: with.”

~all quotes by 

Mr. Robert Frost

winter flower

May the love hidden deep inside your heart 

find the love waiting in your dreams. 

May the laughter that you find in your tomorrow

wipe away the pain you find in your yesterdays.

flight

We can never have enough of nature. We must be refreshed by the sight of inexhaustible vigor, vast and titanic features, the sea-coast with its wrecks, the wilderness with its living and its decaying trees, the thunder-cloud, and the rain.

~Henry David Thoreau

winter sunrise

We can only appreciate the miracle of a sunrise

if we have waited in the darkness.

psalm thirteen

How long, O LORD?
Will You forget me forever?
How long will You hide Your face from me?

How long shall I take counsel in my soul,
Having sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long will my enemy be exalted over me?

Consider and answer me, O LORD my G-d;
Enlighten my eyes,
or I will sleep the sleep of death,
And my enemy will say, "I have overcome him,"
And my adversaries will rejoice
when I am shaken.

But I have trusted in Your lovingkindness;
My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation.
I will sing to the LORD,
Because He has dealt bountifully with me. 

droppeth

The quality of mercy is not strained; 

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven 

Upon the place beneath. 

It is twice blessed- 

It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes.

~William Shakespeare

sky

A cloud does not know why it moves in just such a direction and at such a speed...

It feels an impulsion...this is the place to go now. 

But the sky knows the reasons and the patterns behind all clouds, 

and you will know, too, 

when you lift yourself high enough to see beyond horizons.

~Richard Bach

snow catchers

Sometimes our fate resembles a fruit tree in winter. 

Who would think that those branches would turn green again and blossom, 

but we hope it, we know it.”

~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

He whose wisdom exceeds his works, to what may he be likened? 

To a tree whose branches are numerous but whose roots are few. 

The wind comes along and uproots it and sweeps it down.

~The Talmud

If one branch doesn't move, the many branches won't stir. 

Likewise, if someone does not lead, no one will follow.

~Chinese Proverb