Star Chart for September 30th

Windstorm

Yesterday evening a small windstorm blew an assortment of leaves and bougainvillea blossoms all over the neighborhood. We hoped it might rain at last, but the clouds passed us by.

A Talkative Mime

One of my all-time favorite photos, taken by Roni Gendler at Buda Castle, Budapest.
(from: National Geographic)

Galaxy

Another beautiful photo, courtesy of NASA:


Looking like a spider's web swirled into a spiral, the galaxy IC 342 presents its delicate pattern of dust in this image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Seen in infrared light, the faint starlight gives way to the glowing bright patterns of dust found throughout the galaxy's disk.

At a distance of about 10 million light-years, IC 342 is relatively close by galaxy standards, however our vantage point places it directly behind the disk of our own Milky Way. The intervening dust makes it difficult to see in visible light, but infrared light penetrates this veil easily. It belongs to the same group as its even more obscured galactic neighbor, Maffei 2.

IC 342 is nearly face-on to our view, giving a clear, top-down view of the structure of its disk. It has a low surface brightness compared to other spirals, indicating a lower density of stars (seen here as a blue haze). Its dust structures show up much more vividly (yellow-green). Blue dots are stars closer to us, in our own Milky Way.

New stars are forming in the disk at a healthy clip. Glowing like gems trapped in the web, regions of heavy star formation appear as yellow-red dots due to the glow of warm dust. The very center glows especially brightly in the infrared, highlighting an enormous burst of star formation occurring in this tiny region. To either side of the center, a small bar of dust and gas is helping to fuel this central star formation.

Data from Spitzer's infrared array camera (IRAC) are shown in blue (3.6 and 4.5 microns) and green (5.8 and 8.0 microns), while the multiband imaging photometer (MIPS) observation is red (24 microns).

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech

The Bell in the Fog

I was excited to find the full text of The Bell in the Fog by Gertrude Atherton here:

http://www.litgothic.com/Texts/bellfog.html

This story has haunted me for many years, with its not-quite-hidden subtext of idealization (and romanticization) of the girl and devaluation of the woman she will become. So much so the male protagonis hints that it would have been better for the girlchildren of his obsession not to have grown up.

Which led me to wonder, all those years ago - being on the edge of womanhood myself at the time - is it that girls grow up or does our childhood die instead? Does a certain value we seem to possess in the eyes of others die as well, or are they simply replaced by other things? What about the private knowledge at times that we are both? It's not surprising to me that more and more young women cling to their childhood, not yet wanting to become - or maybe it's to be seen as - that other. It's something nebulous that's difficult to speak of outright, but many female artists and writers have covered the territory. The Bell in the Fog captures that nebulous quality very well.

Anthropomorphic Trees

As much as I love the thought of anthropomorphic trees,
I would prefer not to come upon one of these in the forest...

From here: http://webecoist.com/2010/09/07/deadwood-30-scary-creepy-bizarre-trees/?ref=search and here: http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/photos/8-of-the-creepiest-trees-on-earth/anthropomorphic-tree

Passageway

One of those places you can find in every town, if you know where to
look.Somewhere within the maze of buildings, there's always a path.

The House with a Clock in its Walls

Today, my dear man brought me a most wonderful present: one of my favorite childhood books, The house with a clock in its walls. I loved it so in...fourth grade, was it? There wasn't many things I loved about fourth grade, but our little classroom library was one of them. I was always eager for a chance to grab this one at reading time. I was also intrigued by Edward Gorey's illustrations. Gorey, of course, having illustrated quite a few book in our library already.

I always imagined, should I be lucky enough to become an elderly lady, I would be Mrs. Zimmerman. Who wouldn't want to be a sharp-tongued, cookie-baking D.Mag.A. ?

Night Entrance

I've always been attracted to lights in the darkness. Perhaps I'm part moth?

Weeds

Even the weeds are parched from drought, but they continue to climb nonetheless

Pareidolia

Can you see the faces and dancing figure in the wood?

The Would-Be Nature Photographer Strikes Again.

I'm no photographer, but that doesn't stop me from trying. :)

Concrete and Brick

Looking for patterns close at hand today. This is what I found.

Sentinels In The Field.

Always, they keep watch in the field across the way.

The Last of Summer Sunlight

Pebbles in my road, on the last day of Summer

Tarot For The Week

Tarot reading for the week of September 24-30 2011

Covers - the five of swords

Crosses - the ace of swords

Beneath - The magician

Tthe influence just passing away - 9 of pentacles reversed

Crowning - The knight of swords

Before - The sun

What I'm feeling - the king of cups.

What others see - The heirophant reversed.

What I wish - The six of swords

Final outcome - The emperor reversed.

Upon first reading, the main thrust seems to be that I can fritter away my energy on petty squabbles and pointless worries, or direct the energy into positive action. There is a chance for both according to these cards, but the final card indicates that I may come up against authority and pressure to conform and so end up too weak to channel it properly. Whatever the case, we shall see next week.

Update - October1st 2011

As much as I tried to avoid the feelings of defeat indicated by the five of swords and escape the battle wounds indicated by the reversed emperor, the tension was much too much and the end of the week has been a difficult time. I do feel significant pressure to conform and do the right thing but often fail at doing just that. Alas.

Autumn Leaves

Autumn Leaves Pantone, from Wikipedia

Sheaves of Wheat

Bread baking tonight. :)

Painting: Sheaves of Wheat by Thomas Hart Benton)

Autumnal Equinox

Fall has arrived. We're looking forward to harvest time.

Paper Lanterns

(photo taken from the internet)

Night Walk

The Fantod Deck

I've long been intrigued by Edward Gorey's Fantod Deck. Where else could you receive fortunes like "creeping sickness" and "loss of wits"?

Happily (or unhappily, considering the fortunes)there's a site where you can have your fortune told by Fantod online, here: http://www.phobos%20deimos.com/Edward_Gorey/The_Fantod_Deck/Fate/The%20Fantod%20Deck%20General.htm

Today's card was the The Bottle, so melancholia and itching may be in my future, among other things. :)

Dreamscapes

It's difficult, if not impossible, to say why I dream what I dream. Why do some images set in the memory the way they do? They are half-remembered but filled with some unknown meaning. Sometimes, I come upon places that remind me.

What I found behind the church

Prowling for secrets, this is what I saw.

As I Walked Out One Evening

As I Walked Out One Evening
by W.H. Auden

As I walked out one evening,
Walking down Bristol Street,
The crowds upon the pavement
Were fields of harvest wheat.

And down by the brimming river
I heard a lover sing
Under an arch of the railway:
'Love has no ending.

'I'll love you, dear, I'll love you
Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps over the mountain
And the salmon sing in the street,

'I'll love you till the ocean
Is folded and hung up to dry
And the seven stars go squawking
Like geese about the sky.

'The years shall run like rabbits,
For in my arms I hold
The Flower of the Ages,
And the first love of the world.'

But all the clocks in the city
Began to whirr and chime:
'O let not Time deceive you,
You cannot conquer Time.

'In the burrows of the Nightmare
Where Justice naked is,
Time watches from the shadow
And coughs when you would kiss.

'In headaches and in worry
Vaguely life leaks away,
And Time will have his fancy
To-morrow or to-day.

'Into many a green valley
Drifts the appalling snow;
Time breaks the threaded dances
And the diver's brilliant bow.

'O plunge your hands in water,
Plunge them in up to the wrist;
Stare, stare in the basin
And wonder what you've missed.

'The glacier knocks in the cupboard,
The desert sighs in the bed,
And the crack in the tea-cup opens
A lane to the land of the dead.

'Where the beggars raffle the banknotes
And the Giant is enchanting to Jack,
And the Lily-white Boy is a Roarer,
And Jill goes down on her back.

'O look, look in the mirror,
O look in your distress:
Life remains a blessing
Although you cannot bless.

'O stand, stand at the window
As the tears scald and start;
You shall love your crooked neighbour
With your crooked heart.'

It was late, late in the evening,
The lovers they were gone;
The clocks had ceased their chiming,
And the deep river ran on.

The Equinox Is Nearly Upon Us

I can't wait for Fall to begin.