Mary Beth Writes

Quarantine Diary #682 Did YOU ever save something from social media?

1/25/2025 

 I have a lot of pictures; most are photographs Len or I took, but I also have an incredibly random collection of internet stuff saved over many years.

I’m feeling random today, so I’m sharing a few of them. There will be no rhyme or reason to this. Some days one just deals with what comes along.

This first photo - above - is dedicated to the Lab Workers everywhere. 

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Andrea Kowch is a brilliant painter. I saved this image because it’s what it feels like to take care of your life while your life is burning down around you. I hope you don’t know what I mean but I bet you do. Her bio for more info is here. 

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If you have an hour or you have kids – watch this awesome PBS Nature documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGYII1XbE4U

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Sweeny Todd Teddy Bear makes me laugh every time I scroll past. I have no idea where I found this or why it exists.

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I’ve only read Pride and Prejudice twice. I’ve watched the 2005 film (with Judi Dench as Lady Catherine) so many times I can play the movie in my mind.

Here is a truly fun fact. You know that scene where Darcy strides through the field at dawn? Lizzie is also up and walking (I love a heroine who walks a lot) because Lady Catherine riled and insulted her the evening before. Matthew MacFadyen’s facial expression is unbelievably romantic; he's so in love with Lizzie he can hardly breathe, his whole yearning soul is written on his face.

I recently heard an interview with Macfadyn. He said they were shooting the scene so early he was barely awake. He didn’t have his contacts in yet so he couldn’t see very well and was trying to not trip. He was worried about his wife who was going to have their baby any day.

Love that movie.

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When a map is worth a dozen history books:

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The last time we visited to South Dakota’s Black Hills, Len and I asked a park ranger questions about bison. She explained that in blizzards, cattle huddle in a circle. Because the outside cows are cold they push inwards towards the middle which often crushes and kills animals in the middle of the herd.

Bison in blizzards gather in a herd but they don’t form a circle They stand facing the direction from which the wind is blowing. Their heads and shoulders are cloaked in those tough warm coats. Smaller bison can stand behind ones with bigger shoulders. They close their eyes and their noses are designed to warm their breath before it gets all the way into their lungs. Bison can stand for several days through a blizzard.

Which means if you get stuck outside today in our minus zero temps, find yourself a bison and stand behind it. Hope it didn’t have beans for dinner last night.

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If a picture is worth a thousand words ... we just discussed thankfulness, misery, cleverness, dark humor, unacknowledged racism, and "How cold is it where you are?" 

 

 

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Comments

Submitted by Lorna George on January 25, 2022 - 12:57pm
I see how cold it is in SE WI and remember it well, although it has been several years since I have experienced it. Living in AZ has changed my idea of cold. When I walk the dog it has been 34, but sunny. Snowbirds here are in shorts. FT residents sometimes wear down and earmuffs! No bison in the desert.
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Submitted by Mary Beth on January 25, 2022 - 1:05pm
It's bitter cold here today, I think about 1 degree. But our front porch is all windows - installed decades ago, not designed to be passive solar anything - and right now it is warmer on our porch than in the house. A sunny day in January and it's 80 on the porch.

Submitted by Gary Cozette on January 25, 2022 - 1:12pm
Love your photos of the labs (all the different colors!) and the Andrea Kowch painting (so much going on)! I have way to many photos, but I find it hard to delete them, except for the many duplicates and triplicates on my new laptop bought last April. It was somewhat perilous, but I transferred all of my decades of accumulated files - including photos - from my dying Window's based PC laptop to a new Apple Air laptop. Why the Apple imported most of my photos with duplicate and triplicate, which takes enormous amounts of space on the drive (and in iCloud). So I am gradually going through them to delete duplicates, and place them in subfiles (albums) on various subject items: family, our condo, our Up North cabin, Sleeping Bear Dunes, dozens of Frank Lloyd Wright houses, Chicago, Art Institute, trips to Mexico, Central America, Bolivia, New York, DC, Miami, or San Francisco - and yes, European Baroque Architecture captured mostly from internet photos since I have been to Europe only once. Once in a while, I run a slideshow of my 300+ baroque photos as I listen to one of my baroque music playlists. Totally inspiring and dazzling to the ear and eye. Five degrees in Chicago, but subzero with the wind. Probably the same as you are experiencing in WI. Stay warm!
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Submitted by Mary Beth on January 25, 2022 - 2:04pm
Oh wow. I would listen to Baroque music and watch those slides. That sounds beautiful, with your city lights outside your windows. Theology professor, Paul Hessert (AKA Yoda, which I mentioned to him once and his eyebrows just about left his face) ... Hessert said we build new buildings all the time but when we truly want to question, seek comfort, pray or worship, we find place that is "hallowed by use."

Submitted by Lois Miller on January 25, 2022 - 2:25pm
I remember a documentary about Emperor penguins that told how they huddle together for warmth, especially when the group is incubating eggs. But they apparently shift around every minute or so, so gradually those on the periphery move towards the center and those in the center move outward, sharing the group warmth. Community!
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Submitted by Mary Beth on January 25, 2022 - 2:49pm
So penguins are a bit (or a lot!) smarter than cows... Are cows the only animal that require people to take care of them?

Submitted by Karen K on January 25, 2022 - 4:42pm
When I was in college many moons ago; a crow showed up on campus. He, or she, was tame, obviously someone's escaped pet. It would come around people sitting outside, and hop around. Folks would take coins and other shiny stuff and lay it down, and the crow would pick it up, and carry it to a pile of leaves in the corner of a bench, burying the loot. It's intelligence was so apparent, and we would sit silently watching it until we had to leave for class. It was the talk of the campus - "Have you seen the crow?" It hung around, and after a few days, my English professor took it home and cared for it.
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Submitted by Mary Beth on January 25, 2022 - 5:09pm
The Nature show talks about this - crows learn us, they figure out who among us will leave them things. They tell their friends who of us are good. There is a true story of a neighborhood where a nice old guy left peanuts for crows to eat. One day that man had an accident. Shoveling or mowing his grass or something like that. The crow started screaming, other crows came to help screech and scream. People in the neighborhood were amazed at the racket, came outside, discovered the guy and took care of him. I love this story.

Submitted by David Saunders on January 25, 2022 - 7:00pm
Yup, I save photos of a lot of different subjects. Of course I love to take screenshots of now gone streetcar and heavy rail branch lines that I remember as a kid, before I was taking photos. I realize that I have at least one image that I shot after I read about you and Len hiking by the Niagara Escarpment, in Wisconsin no less! Of course, I knew that I had seen it around Niagara Falls and Hamilton ON. However, when I read your article, I looked for a map image of the whole shebang, so I could see how it’s western tip ended up in Wisconsin. I then realized that I had also seen some of its rock outcroppings in the UP, shortly after driving over the Mackinaw Bridge.
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Submitted by Mary Beth on January 25, 2022 - 8:38pm
Sometimes I look on Google images for a place I've heard or read about. Sometimes, if I am writing to an older person (and when they are older than me...) I look to see if there are houses or infrastructure photos from the place and time that person was young. There are treasures to see.

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The Good Old Days???

9/28/2022

Over the past few days Len and I have been emailing with two cousins regarding this interesting topic.

Were the Good Old Days All That Good?

The four of us grew up in the late 40’s, 50’s, 60’s. We are from three hometowns. Two of us were and still are science nerds. Two of us grew up in the same family and church.

This is what Len said about his childhood.

This is a more intense version of joking to kids that our smallpox scars are power ports.

Send $ to Welcome the Strangers Among Us.

If you have a heart for new immigrants among us and are open to another way to support them – Listen Up.

Three Things - Surviving the News, Our Web, Hiking Pix

9/16/2022

Len and I went on a hike yesterday at the Monches section of the Ice Age Trail and the photos are from there. 

…

Was it only a week and a half ago? My how time flies when one lives in an open and free society under daily assault.

3 Things - Cool, 9/11, Bulbs

The photo is from Hiroshima. It's the shadow of what was there before the bomb. 

9/11/2022

Yesterday it was hot and muggy and sticky. Almost every day since May has been hot and muggy and sticky. We have a small house with air conditioning; utility bills are not prohibitive so I am a lucky that way.  It’s usually cool enough in here.

But spending time outside, as one ought to do, is perpetually hot and muggy and sticky. I’m weary of sweating. Most weeks my laundry has included nearly twenty spent t-shirts … just from me.

3 Things - QE2, Triplets, & Me

The death of Queen Elizabeth dominated the news yesterday and it still thick afoot today. ‘Thick afoot” is my attempt to sound like a wee English countryside river animal political pundit. You know. An otter with a pipe. A weasel in a dark suit and an appropriate tie. A crow with an Hermès scarf.

I have two responses to QE2’s passing.

Wild Horses & Other Beauties

8/23/2022 

I first saw this photograph on Twitter in April. I don’t know the photographer, but the photo stopped me in my tracks. 

The Twitter handle of this person is Chris Byrne @ChrisByrnePhoto. He has a website; I think he leads photography workshops. His website is: chrisbyrnephotography.com.

Meanwhile, here I am, awestruck by a beautiful and wild place I will likely never go. It’s called Torres de Pain and it’s a national park in Chile. https://national-parks.org/chile/torres-del-paine

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