Inching Toward Spring
Woke up to another inch of snow on the deck (yesterday's inch having melted away) Ha ha, Ma Nature--very funny... There's still probably a foot of hard-frozen snow in noncontiguous areas of the yard, with the dead grass of last fall peeking out in places.
Lest you think we only have one season in Alaska (and Denny just pointed out if we have just one season, it wouldn't really be a season, then, would it?) the number of Alaskan seasons has been various given as:
Two: Winter and Construction. Or Winter Major and Winter Minor.
Three: Freeze-up, Break-up and Pick-up.
Four: Not Winter, Almost Winter, Winter and Still Winter.
Or five: Winter, Break-up, Spring, Summer, and Fall.
Yes, we like to joke about our weather, we do. By most accounts, anyway, we seem to be moving into Break-up. The overnight temperature--despite the snow the last two nights, is hovering around freezing and we are reminded that snow has a liquid form. There are--honest--green shoots coming out of the venerable chive plant that has spent the winter on the front porch. It is always the first thing to green up in the spring and it is reminding me that I need to haul water out to the greenhouse this week. I guess I'll try to find the time tomorrow, between taking Denny into the hospital for a check up, tending the cats and going to work. I don't know what's the point of daylight-savings. My days are always too short.
*Sigh*
We started re-watching the Lord of the Rings Trilogy last night--I guess as a homage to Peter Jackson after watching King Kong on Tuesday night. King Kong was okay but the LOTR is what he will be remembered for. He did such a great job in translating the story from books to screen that despite any short-comings, his love of the work shines through. Bless him for having the courage to insist on three films instead of one and for shooting them all at the same time to maintain the quality and sustain the flow. I am impressed anew each time I watch the trilogy.
Of course, we only got through "The Fellowship" last night. Tonight we'll start "The Two Towers", which is my favorite. It seems darker and denser than the first films, with deeper characterization.
I am reminded of that other trilogy of films that punctuates my life, Star Wars IV-VI. My favorite of that cycle was the second film, "The Empire Strikes Back," which was darker and richer... I can't even consider the most recent three films in that cycle--they have been disappointing to varying degrees. George Lucas is still a seventeen-year-old boy at heart and wants to make films about spaceships, robots and aliens and so neglects, I think, the human component. Motivations and characterizations in his most recent films are thin to ludicrous and he strikes dissonances with the earlier films, picky little incongruities and several glaring breaks within the canon. It's almost as if he was in such a hurry to get to the gee-whiz stuff that he couldn't be bothered to get his own pre-established timeline right. He disappointed me and didn't do justice to his own vision.
And makes Peter Jackson look like a (short, barefooted) god.
Lest you think we only have one season in Alaska (and Denny just pointed out if we have just one season, it wouldn't really be a season, then, would it?) the number of Alaskan seasons has been various given as:
Two: Winter and Construction. Or Winter Major and Winter Minor.
Three: Freeze-up, Break-up and Pick-up.
Four: Not Winter, Almost Winter, Winter and Still Winter.
Or five: Winter, Break-up, Spring, Summer, and Fall.
Yes, we like to joke about our weather, we do. By most accounts, anyway, we seem to be moving into Break-up. The overnight temperature--despite the snow the last two nights, is hovering around freezing and we are reminded that snow has a liquid form. There are--honest--green shoots coming out of the venerable chive plant that has spent the winter on the front porch. It is always the first thing to green up in the spring and it is reminding me that I need to haul water out to the greenhouse this week. I guess I'll try to find the time tomorrow, between taking Denny into the hospital for a check up, tending the cats and going to work. I don't know what's the point of daylight-savings. My days are always too short.
*Sigh*
We started re-watching the Lord of the Rings Trilogy last night--I guess as a homage to Peter Jackson after watching King Kong on Tuesday night. King Kong was okay but the LOTR is what he will be remembered for. He did such a great job in translating the story from books to screen that despite any short-comings, his love of the work shines through. Bless him for having the courage to insist on three films instead of one and for shooting them all at the same time to maintain the quality and sustain the flow. I am impressed anew each time I watch the trilogy.
Of course, we only got through "The Fellowship" last night. Tonight we'll start "The Two Towers", which is my favorite. It seems darker and denser than the first films, with deeper characterization.
I am reminded of that other trilogy of films that punctuates my life, Star Wars IV-VI. My favorite of that cycle was the second film, "The Empire Strikes Back," which was darker and richer... I can't even consider the most recent three films in that cycle--they have been disappointing to varying degrees. George Lucas is still a seventeen-year-old boy at heart and wants to make films about spaceships, robots and aliens and so neglects, I think, the human component. Motivations and characterizations in his most recent films are thin to ludicrous and he strikes dissonances with the earlier films, picky little incongruities and several glaring breaks within the canon. It's almost as if he was in such a hurry to get to the gee-whiz stuff that he couldn't be bothered to get his own pre-established timeline right. He disappointed me and didn't do justice to his own vision.
And makes Peter Jackson look like a (short, barefooted) god.
