Winter Prelude
The Winter Prelude goes something like this: The weather gets a little nippy, the leaves begin to change, people bump into friends at the Blackfoot store or the Stray Bullet Cafe or Trixi's Antler Saloon... Conversation turns to next season's plans. Halloween is coming up, the Harvest Dinners, Thanksgiving and Christmasfest. It's a different season and things are shifting. There are plans to be made.
Summer is outtings on the river, fishing, hiking, receiving visitors who want to join outtings on the river, fish, or hike. And then there are the long distance outtings to visit friends and family. The kids are home with activities of their own. Summer is busy. The big events are the Fourth of July Parade, the Block Party hosted by the Challenge, and the constant flow of cyclists from all over the world. Summer is Open House for Ovando, to share its beauties and recreations.
Summer is centrifugal, spinning outward in all directions, Fall begins the centripetal movement when the community does its own local and family celebrations. The flyers begin appearing on the post office bulletin board. Here is one sent out by our Town Crier, now known as Kathy Thurmond, but reliable as ever. Those early conversations produced a brand new Halloween Event to be hosted by Trixi's!
Harvest Dinners are an annual event and an important money-raising time for the Sew & So Club, who are always ready to come to the aid of community members.
As I write this, we are about to Fall Back one hour to return to Standard Time. This is the psychological herald that the dark of Winter is officially here, even if the calendar won't agree until the December 21st Solstice.
Speaking of setting clocks, we have word that "the Earth is speeding too quickly and our clocks aren't keeping up." You can read the article here but I wouldn't lose sleep over it. Eventually, international timekeepers may need to subtract a second, but that's nothing to the hour we lose or gain.
Animals are experiencing this shift too, although luckily for them, they don't wear watches. In January, a huge elk herd was seen moving toward the higher elevations.
There was another rare event last year in Yellowstone Park: the birth of a white buffalo. For the Sioux tribes of today, this is a sacred event that was celebrated with dancing, drumming, singing and the retelling of how a mysterious woman brought a message of reassurance during hard times.
Of even greater antiquity in Montana is the recently discovered prehistoric Sage Wall. This is a world class find, right in our own backyard. It is on private property but can be visited with a pricey entrance fee. You can visit it virtually for free through this video.
Of even greater antiquity in Montana is the recently discovered prehistoric Sage Wall. This is a world class find, right in our own backyard. It is on private property but can be visited with a pricey entrance fee. You can visit it virtually for free through this video.
Serious snow people are getting out their gear, ready for the first big snowfall, which could come at any time. Down hill skiers, cross country skiers, snow boarders... I admire these people, from the warmth of my fire. I am a Hobbit by nature. It does amaze me the lengths that humans will go to find a higher mountain and a more dangerous slope. These snowboarders have gone to jaw-dropping extremes! You won't believe it. The video is called Aesthetics. I call it Madness. This one's for Gabriel.
I can recommend a more sedate activity, if your horse will cooperate. Have you ever tried making angels in the snow together? Have a look.
If you and some horses are looking for more energetic action, I guarantee you will find it at the Helmville Rodeo. This is such an important local event that the Stray Bullet closes down on Labor Day Weekend so that everyone can attend this uniquely Western event! My friend Howie Fly took remarkable photos AND participated in this event in the 1960s. At his suggestion, we took the best photos and made them into a video, which is a lot of fun! (Be glad you're watching and not riding.)
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Shifting gears and geography, Wall Street Mentalist, Oz Pearlman appears on the The Squawk Box performing a form of magic or mind-reading that really has me stumped and definitely amazed. See if you can figure it out.
Have you figured it out yet? Try this.
For the die-hards (like me) who are still stuck (like me), here is another one. Oz with the Eagles
There are people like Oz who can do exceptional things with the mind, and others who do exceptional things with their hands. Here is a rare and original art that joins with the artistry of nature. Meet Becorns. You will love it.
An under-celebrated human talent is kindness, which is something anyone can do. I always like to look behind the desperate dramas on the main stage to see what "ordinary people" are doing. Here are some that caught my attention and lifted my spirits. First are the people who came to the aid of a bookstore owner in Michigan who had to move her huge inventory to a new location.
Here is what a man on a busy UK street did to bring joy to strangers who passed him.
Or someone lifting the spirits at a Walmart.
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Time for a laugh. And count on a young Woody Allen to provide one in this memorable candid camera sketch.
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For Nature Lovers and students of nature young and old, I want to share an exceptional website. Living Earth Community is a seemingly bottomless resource of books, articles, media and more that is both beautiful and deceptively simple to access. You start digging down from the general into every category of life and preservation of life, and nature lore. So brew up a cup of tea or coffee, find a comfortable chair and be prepared to let time go by as you lose yourself in this living universe.
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The Shuffle Dance has become the rage in China and here you see that an outdoor group shuffle dance is joined by passersby who can't resist joining in. Life is good!
Okay, now let's get local and rev it up a bit. Local is the style--the line dance--not the dancers. Actually, the line dance has been around since the 50s, but the story goes that after the movie Urban Cowboy came out, over a dozen line dances were created for country songs during the 1980s. This one was danced in Rome. (When in Rome, do as the cowboys do.) It's for Bonnie.
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I can't slip away without some latest news from the skies. The next meteor showers are the South and North Taurids, peaking on November 5 and November 9, 2025, respectively. The next major shower after that is the Geminids, which will peak on December 13–14, 2025. But the really big news is the arrival of interstellar objects into our solar system for the first time. Right now we are waiting breathlessly for 3I/Axis to come out from behind the sun in November and come closest to Earth in December. This is believed to be a comet but is irregular in enough ways to keep people guessing until we have a look at it. You can count on every major telescope in the world following it. It will go on to pass Jupiter and then leave us to continue its epic voyage, which scientists gauge at billions of years! And I thought flying from Montana to New York was a long and exhausting trip!
Here is when and how to see it.
I can't slip away without some latest news from the skies. The next meteor showers are the South and North Taurids, peaking on November 5 and November 9, 2025, respectively. The next major shower after that is the Geminids, which will peak on December 13–14, 2025. But the really big news is the arrival of interstellar objects into our solar system for the first time. Right now we are waiting breathlessly for 3I/Axis to come out from behind the sun in November and come closest to Earth in December. This is believed to be a comet but is irregular in enough ways to keep people guessing until we have a look at it. You can count on every major telescope in the world following it. It will go on to pass Jupiter and then leave us to continue its epic voyage, which scientists gauge at billions of years! And I thought flying from Montana to New York was a long and exhausting trip!
Here is when and how to see it.
Closer to home, "NASA’s Supersonic Jet Finally Takes off for Its First Super Fast, Super Quiet Flight." It is supersonic yet doesn't come with a boom and it is sleek as a needle!
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Time now to come all the way home... Back to Ovando, back to the cozy fire and the Winter Prelude of changing leaves and changing Time. I end, as always on a quiet note.
Wishing you good health and a warm hearth,
Sheri Ritchlin
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