I came across this photo a few months ago, but I can’t remember where. Anyhow, I was impressed by the size of the turban and the devotion it takes to put on and wear around such a thing. Following are a couple of articles I found while researching Sikhs and turbans.
https://www.sikhnet.com/news/turbanator-worlds-largest-turban
https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/largest-turban
“There’s no way around grief and loss: you can dodge all you want, but sooner or later you just have to go into it, through it, and, hopefully, come out the other side. The world you find there will never be the same as the world you left.”
Johnny Cash
Once a month I highlight a piece of art I have created and posted on my Fine Art America site. This one is titled Mikes Sunglasses from the Scanner Still Life Collection.
After an almost complete absence over the winter months we now have birds galore again around the acreage. They have found and emptied the feeders of the leftover seeds from last fall, so I really need to get back in the habit of filling them again. So far we have seen the usual army of robins, who have been mating with each other seemingly non-stop for weeks now, and a scattering of little sparrows, a couple of red wing blackbirds (probably just passing through, we have yet to see any nest here) some crows, a blue jay, a mourning dove and some various finches.
As a kid I was sort of indifferent to the season of spring, which seemed to me to stand in the way of the very important season of summer. My mother always loved spring and when we were out and about she would point out, and name, the various flowering trees, bushes and ground flowers. I remember being impressed that she knew so many names of the spring flora, but still, I saw the season as a pause before the real deal of summer. As I have grown older I have come to enjoy the spring much more, which might have something to do with liking winter much less. Summer is still great (but it seems to be getting hotter and dryer) and autumn might be the best if it led into spring and not winter.
I checked out a book from our local library recently titled The Collected Poems of Walter de la Mare. I came across a lovely poem in it titled, simply, “Spring.”
Now the slim almond tree
Tells April soon will be
Scattering her petals where
Snow still lies cold and bare.
Birds in its leafing boughs
Echoes of spring arouse.
Piercing the drowsy earth,
Crocus her flower brings forth –
Wooing the bees. And soon
Winter’s ice-silvered moon
Shall melt, shall kindle on high
Springtime within the sky.
“Mary Delany’s stunning works are a remarkable combination of art and science. Often mistaken for watercolours, they are in fact carefully constructed paper collages, or ‘mosaicks’ as she called them.”
To read about her life and view more of her work:
https://www.britishmuseum.org/blog/late-bloomer-exquisite-craft-mary-delany
“God would not give us the same talents if what were right for men were wrong for women.”
Sarah Orne Jewett (1849-1909)
Once a month I highlight a piece of art I have created and posted on my Fine Art America site. This one is titled Rusty Shadows from the Photos Collection.
Except for a chunk of January, now being called “the two-week winter” it has been a very warm winter here in Iowa, as well as around much of the country, with late February seeing a couple of days hitting the low 70s.
Now that it is March this winter season is officially the warmest one on record for Iowa, and this abnormally warm weather continues.
Shelly spotted two opossum close to the garage while walking to the house. She was able to keep our dog Steve from them, as we have decided they must be eating the mice around the acreage, and so we want to keep them around. We still have had no mice in the house or garage this winter, which is a first since we have lived here.
Some birds are finally back; our first robins were spotted on the acreage February 25, right around the time we saw the first flies this year. Even though winter took it easy on many of us this season we are greatly anticipating the glorious sights and smells of spring.
“Boxing was re-energized in the 1980’s by the emergence of the seemingly unstoppable Tyson, who tore through the heavweight ranks with a fearsome blend of speed and power. Here, he unloads on WBC champion Berbick at the Las Vegas Hilton on Nov. 11, 1986. Tyson would end the bout with a stunning 2nd round TKO to become the youngest heavyweight champion in history.”
“I shall pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”
Stephen Grellet (1772-1855)
Off The Back Porch 