Earth Hour

As Earth Hour sweeps across 24 time zones, here is the Earth Hour 2015 official video and a website link: https://www.earthhour.org/

California's Sea Lion crisis

Hundreds of sick and starving sea lion pups are washing up on California beaches, and scientists say they don’t know when it will end.

http://www.aol.com/article/2015/03/17/things-to-know-about-californias-sea-lion-crisis/21154585/?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00001348

Appalachian Spring -- Aaron Copland

Today being the first day of Spring, it seems appropriate to play this lovely piece by Aaron Copland - to me, as a relatively new citizen of the U.S., he is a "pure American" composer...and "Appalachian Spring” captures the essence of an ideal America: one of open fields and endless possibilities that many immigrants dream of when they come here. Part of the score is a melody based on a traditional Shaker song, “Simple Gifts.”

A very small Junco on a very big rock...

Photo: Marge Ishmael

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junco

I was just about to zoom in when the Junco flew off.  Luckily my friend Jane got a closer shot (below):

Photo: Jane Masterson

St. Patrick's Day Parade

It felt very springlike at today's St. Patrick's Day Parade in downtown Chicago.

Photo: Marge Ishmael

Photo: Marge Ishmael

And, yes, they do dye the Chicago River green, with an eco friendly vegetable dye (I'm told):

Photo: Dani Fasone

UK woodland being sold off

Privatisation of UK woodlands is happening by the back door. Plans to build luxury holiday cabins, majority-owned by venture capitalists, in public forests put protected wildlife and their habitats at risk:  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/blog/2015/feb/17/privatisation-uk-woodlands-happening-by-backdoor

There was a similar article in the Telegraph back in 2011. Between 1997 and 2010 the Forestry Commission sold almost 12,000 hectares of forest: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/environment/8964197/Swathes-of-British-woodland-sold-off.html

Geese at 63rd Street

A warm day at 63rd Street Beach (around 55 degrees Fahrenheit) and the geese are enjoying it as much as the humans!

Photo: Marge Ishmael

And there were some white-winged scoters:

Photo: Jane Masterson

Opossum sighting

Today's warmer weather brought out an opossum that was hibernating in our wood pile. You can just about see his tiny fangs in the second photo. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opossum

Photo: Marge Ishmael

Photo: Mark Oreglia

Mini Moon - Worm Moon - Sap Moon

Photos: Marge Ishmael

This evening we saw the Full Moon rise -- this is the Mini Moon.  Native Americans called this March full moon the Worm Moon (when worms were appearing in the soil) or Sap Moon (it being the time of Maple tapping). http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/tonights-full-moon-will-be-an-oddly-shrunken-micromoon/ar-BBig5jZ?srcref=rss

Human headed winged bull

It's a cold and snowy Sunday so I decided to spend it at The University of Chicago's Oriental Institute: http://oi.uchicago.edu/

The colossal bull's head (below) is from the ancient Persian capital of Persepolis - present day Iran. Carved from dark grey limestone and highly polished, the head measures over two metres high and a metre and a half wide and weighs an estimated ten tons. The head was attached to the body of a bull that still stands as one of a pair flanking the northern portico of the so-called Hundred-Columns Palace (also called the Throne Hall). 

Entrances to important buildings were frequently ‘protected’ by pairs of colossal animals (some of which were mythological guardian creatures) in the ancient Near East. Sometime in the past, perhaps when the city was ransacked, both heads became detached from their bodies. They were found not far from the bodies during excavations in 1932/3 by archaeologists from the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute. Unfortunately, the ears and horns, which were not carved from the same block of stone but added separately, were not recovered.

Photo: Marge Ishmael

  
This is an old photo of the bull's head being restored once it got to Chicago:

And below is a human-headed winged bull from what is now Iraq. It reminded me that similar artifacts have been destroyed by ISIS militants in northern Iraq this week: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/02/150227-islamic-militants-destroy-statues-mosul-iraq-video-archaeology/

"This colossal sculpture was one of a pair that guarded the entrance to the throne room of King Sargon II. A protective spirit known as a "lamassu", it is shown as a composite being with the head of a human, the body and ears of a bull, and the wings of a bird. Viewed from the side, the creature appears to be walking; but when viewed from the front, it appears to be standing still. Thus it is actually represented with five, rather than four, legs."

Photo: Marge Ishmael