(no subject)

[fajrdrako]

The SparkPeople admonition of the day was to enjoy life, an idea which I heartily approve. It contained the following statement:

Rediscover the natural wonders that you walk past every day. How can there possibly be that many shades of green?

So I looked out the window and I saw black trees with a few brown-and-rust leaves, brick buildings, grey skies, and the ground a layer of white as the snow comes down in big white flakes. Green? I see no green in the world today, and no blue either. Okay, maybe there's a little very dark green, where a bit of the neighbour's juniper bush is still showing.

No green, certainly not multiple shades of it. There won't be much green in the world (except Christmas trees) for the next five or six months. So looking for 'green' probably isn't the best way to appreciate the world just now.

Winter is here.

Comments

[wijsgeer.livejournal.com]

my garden, though definetly automnal, still has quite a lot of green in it. Some greens will stay during the winter. For example the ample bamboo stalks at the back of my gard, they hey have green leaves as plumes. They look beautiful in the snow, laden, bending over. A white trail over every green leave.
During the summer I find the bamboo a pest because they spread and kill the plants I want in my garden.

(I haven't yet brought back my camera so no pictures)

[duncanmac.livejournal.com]

Out of curiosity, does "stem" (in the context of your user-pic) mean "voice" or "speak"? [My knowledge of Dutch is rather weak; while it is partway between English & German, there are words that don't match either of the other two languages, and my German is rather rusty, too.]

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I bet my German is rustier than your German!

[wijsgeer.livejournal.com]

well, yes and no. "stem" could mean voice (not speak) but in this instance it means "vote" and Groen Links is the party I support. the 22nd of November we will have local ellections over and I want to encourage voting. (in general but preferably on GroenLinks.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Well, if you ever manage to get a picture of the bamboo in winter, I'd love to see it! Or in summer, for that matter.

Being in an apartment building, I don't have a garden of my own. They do keep the lawn nice, with flowers in summer, and there's a lovely maple tree right outside my window - with, currently, no leaves at all, even dead ones.

Beside the building - where I can't see it from my window unless I go very close and peer eastwards - is the canal, surrounded by National Capital Commission parkland, so there are beautiful evergreens there. And in the February, many colourful skaters on the canal.

It isn't that winter here isn't cheerful, it just isn't green. It's more... white and sparkly. And there's a lot to be said for white and sparkly.

[brashley46.livejournal.com]

It isn't that winter here isn't cheerful, it just isn't green. It's more... white and sparkly. And there's a lot to be said for white and sparkly.Lucky you. Winter here in TOwn is more often grey and slushy.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, we get our share of grey and slushy, especially in March and April. But the earlier part of winter is mostly white. It gets increasingly muddy as the winter goes by and the salt and sand mixes up with the snow. After a while it's all black. I prefer not to remember that in November.

[cupati.livejournal.com]

I can see two whomping willows [no, honestly, they are so much like the Harry Potter ones it's unreal], quite a bit of grass and nettles, and some trees [including proper willows] on the other side of the lake.

And here was I thinking it was winter here too.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Whomping willows are great trees. There are some along the canal, though not visible from my window, and they're not green now, either. Willows become a gorgeous black-all-over in winter - until they get white snow and glistening ice all over them.

Hmm, today's snow seems to have stopped, though it was snowing quite heavily a little while ago.

So where are you, where it isn't winter yet?

[cupati.livejournal.com]

York, England, UK. I call it winter, but we don't tend to get snow until January here. But it is nastily [well, to me anyway] windy.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I remember winter in England very well! I was in London: Not much snow, not very frigid as far as temperature goes, but always damp and bitterly cold.

[cupati.livejournal.com]

London is always about a degree C warmer than surrounding areas anyway.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

A city of hot air!

[cupati.livejournal.com]

The correct term is a "heat island", but that's far more accurate.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

There's nothing to stop it from being both at once.

[cupati.livejournal.com]

Argh, misunderstandageness! The term we were taught in geography was "Heat Island". The term I will be using in future is "A City of Hot Air".

[jhayman.livejournal.com]

Sometime over the winter stop by a snowfield and wait. There are hundreds of shades of black to straw colours. Yes, all the "dry" colours of stripped or dead plants, but many. On the show are a thousand variations of often purple shading. It's like nature ran the picture through colour adjustment to take out colour saturation.

We who live in this colder climate need to work at finding these things. Still, that was a pretty cheery message and hardly suited to most of the northern hemisphere in November.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

that was a pretty cheery message and hardly suited to most of the northern hemisphere in November.

Yes - we need the variation: find the different shades of white, the infinite shades of grey, the different browns. We don't want to wait till spring to appreciate the outdoors again.

[filkferengi]

After the rains this week, the fungi came out in force at the nature trail: not many classical mushrooms, but an almost infinite variety of striped half-circles in lots of different colors. When the moss gets in, it's quite striking, with the green, brown, beige, cream, white, etc.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

That sounds so pretty!

[filkferengi]

it is, really. Yay for being a) nearsighted and b) detail-obsessed enough to notice!