Author: lief

Loving the weather.
Loving the flowers.
Loving my family.

I was invited, by a friend from work (let’s call her SnowWhite) to a festival called ‘Holi’.
SnowWhite didn’t know *why* they “play Holi” exactly but her husband PrinceDilip did.

According to Wikipedia

The festival has many purposes. First and foremost, it celebrates the beginning of the new season, spring. It also has a religious purpose, commemorating many events that are present in Hindu mythology. Although it is the least religious holiday, it is probably one of the most exhilarating ones in existence. During this event, participants hold a bonfire, throw colored powder at each other, and celebrate wildly.

I can personally attest to the description…and this was in Newport fercryinoutloud!
Another attendee told me

This is very mild compared to back home; VERY mild!

Even on this relatively cold and rainy day devotees were dumping water on each other, dragging friends (yes friends) through the mud, slopping their faces with a colored water/mud/substance, flinging chalk at each other, rubbing it deeply into their hair and dancing wildly to traditional music.

I figured, rightly, that the girls would love to see this so I jumped at the invitation.
It’s a good thing we arrived early* (only 50 minutes after the official start of 13:00) because by 14:30 the parking was full and all attendees were walking to the festivities from about one mile away.

Amazingly, with all that perfumed chalk around, we didn’t get any in our eyes (badly) and all of the raucous adults were extremely kind to the children, sharing chalk at every opportunity, and generally enjoying their Holi festival.

Thanks to SnowWhite, PrinceDilip, and SnowWhite’s Chicago-Friend for showing us a good bit of a traditional party.

No I didn’t break any of these – in case you were wondering.

Yesterday, after a morning of heavy “spring” cleaning The Mermaids and I went to the Riparian Forest along the Black River with Monya and BopOp to see the Heron Rookery.
Long story short…no herons.

But, like any good forest worth it’s salt, there was lots of other interesting wildlife, and with my zuper-zoom camera I was able to get good enough images for some concrete identification.

I’ve looked this one up – it seems to be a cross between a Eurasian Wigeon and an American Wigeon. One of the links even said Wigeons have been recorded to hybridize in the wild with Mallards – do we have ourselves a Wiglard?

Definitely a Northern Pintail.

Here the Pintail is resting on the log while the Wigeon-like-creature is dabbling in the river. This is a time-lapse intended to get a better image of the Pintail which put some ‘motion’ in the picture that I like.

If you stand there long enough… who knows what you’ll see. BopOp heard, in this case, something on the shore nearby and moved to investigate. He didn’t see the cause but it made him start to look around and he (and LaGrande) found this beaver house!

And on the far side of the river we see evidence that this beaver must be the size of a bobcat and is looking to upgrade his humble abode. It’s hard to tell from this picture but that is perhaps as large as a four foot diameter tree.

And, I bet you are wondering…

What the heck does this post have to do with candles anyway?

Never fear, cause we’re there now.
After the Riparian Forest lunchbreak TheMermaids and I came home and promptly woke up TheMommy with an obnoxious doorbell and set right to work making some candles.
We’ve been gonna-said-we’re-gonna make some candles for about two weeks now and today (yesterday) was the day.

From left to right you can see LaGrande’s well formed teal and orange candles, made with care and patience.
At the extreme right you can see TheWeeOne’s monster candle, formed with much gusto well beyond the natural life of a fast-cooling can of dipping wax. I think hers will burn longest.
And lastly, in the foreground, is my attempt at a multi-colored candle – somewhere between well-formed and a monster. Needless to say, they want to make more. As do I.

That long one measures over 14 inches.
The lights are flickering.
Frozen rain is still coming down.
Bushes and trees are straining.

Not sure I’ve wished for thawing as much in the past.

This post is gonna be a double whammy.

Burnin’ The Floor
We have observed, over the past 6 years, that LaGrande has become increasingly serious about her dance.

Last weekend she participated in her 2012 kick-off performance for the competition season called Burnin’ The Floor.
It is put on by the parent’s association affiliated with her dance studio and ticket sales contribute to fundraising for the nationals competition this year.
It also gives the dancers some non-competition, real-world, friendly audience experience.

I frequently ask her things like

Is it still fun?

Sometimes the answer hurts my ears it is so emphatic.

Here are some snapshots I took from the videos I made of her dances – other more quality shots can be found on Facebook at Allegro Performing Arts Academy.

Boats and birds – Lyrical – Small Group

Jazz – group

Jazz group – end pose

Newsies – Musical Theater group

Newsies – Woops – lost her hat on the front roll. Next time – more pins.

Nice quick change TheMommy. 🙂

Then – that was all over and then came…

Freezin’ The Floor
If you live in the Northwest, and not in a bubble, you may realize that we’ve had snow for a couple days.
That night, while TheMommy and LaGrande were still watching other dances at Burnin’ The Floor – TheWeeOne and I motored home to find something altogether different.

Without a moment to spare – TheWeeOne and I got straight to work on our traditional snow sculpture. I wasn’t sure, you see, whether the snow would stick around long enough for another shot at it.

TheWeeOne? – she had other priorities.

We finished the cupcake, you can see in the background, just in time for TheMommy and LaGrande to come home.

The next day being MLK day – we celebrated the freedom of which he so eloquently spoke, by hitting the slopes at our local baseball diamond outfield.

It’s amazing how much fun can be had on a worn-thin hill.

Priorities being what they are – we hadn’t yet taken off LaGrande’s show make-up.

Action Mermaids!

Today I worked and then – after that left the camera at home and we all hit the slopes hard, with the neighbors, for a good old huzzah! to winter – you gotta have priorities.

In honor of this mornings lowland “snow” I present the teeny snowman, with the .38 caliber nose, which TheWeeOne and I made yesterday.

No time today for snow because LaGrande will

dance till the stars
come down with the rafters.