The Barnum’s Animal box just got new art. The animals are now out of their cages and roaming the veld with acacia trees in the background and a bright sun overhead!
In case you don’t remember, here is the old box. When I was a kid, it had a string rather than a handle and prominent bars.
The article elaborates:
PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman says she’s celebrating the box redesign for the cultural change it represents.
“The new box for Barnum’s Animals crackers perfectly reflects that our society no longer tolerates the caging and chaining of wild animals for circus shows,” she said.
Illumination of Earth by Sun on the day of winter solstice on northern hemisphere. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Summer begins in the Northern Hemisphere on June 22, 2018. The word Solstice is Latin in origin and translates as, Sol =the Sun, + stitere =standing still.
On that day, the North Pole tilts most directly Sunward. Those of us in the Northern Hemisphere experience this as the longest day and shortest night of the year. Around December 21, or 22nd of each year, the Winter Solstice, the North Pole points away from the Sun giving us in the Northern Hemisphere, our shortest day, and longest night. This tilting of the Earth’s rotational axis gives us our seasons. During each Solstice, the Sun appears to both rise and set at the opposite spot on the horizon. The Solar Calendars like Stonehenge and the Sun Dagger in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico operate by indicating this point. The Autumnal Equinox will be on September 24th.
Symbols of Summer:
The rose, the fast-growing vine, and the bright sun. Modern symbols include flip-flops, outdoor weddings, icy pitchers of lemonade, beach umbrellas and baseball games!
Cancer from June 22 – July 23, Leo from July 23 – August 24, and Virgo from August 24 – September 24 this year.
The Stones of Summer:
Cancer resonates with white stones like shell and pearl. Leo with gold stones like citrine and tiger-eye. Virgo with blue stones like sodalite and sapphire.
This is a fun one. I direct warped my Baby Wolf with a bunch of leftover skeins of worsted weight yarns out of my stash bins. Direct warping is how one warps a rigid heddle loom, not usually how one warps a multi-shafted loom. The warp is measured from the back beam through the raddle on top of the shafts, to a peg on the bookcase (not pictured), then cranked on smoothly using friction provided by the guides in the warp helpers on the back beam. Next the yarn is threaded in a bird’s eye point twill pattern from Dixon, and then sleyed at 1 end per dent in a 10 reed, this is full width on this loom. I lashed on but didn’t take any pictures of that. I am using all three of the patterns that go with this tie-up on page 72 like a random sampler. If I was actually planning the warp instead of just running up and down the stairs grabbing skeins of yarn I’d have put the greens in the center and made the colors symmetrical but I like how quickly this weaves up, the hand of the fabric and how the twill looks. It’s a fun break from the finer thread projects on the Millbruck and I can’t wait to see it finished.
This is a long warp that should make three shawls. I’m planning on one gray, one black and one blue. These are all cotton so they will look quite a bit different once they are off the loom, washed and dried. I corrected the threading error that you can see in the gray one. It won’t show once it is finished.
The gray is a basket weave. The black is three different twills and the blue will be a zigzag pattern.
Spring is the dawn of the new zodiacal year in the Northern Hemisphere. Don’t you just love the word “equinox?” I have to decide each time whether to say it with a short or long “e”. The equinoxes are the two times during the year when the dark of night and the light of day are in balance or equal. Another name for the Vernal Equinox is Ostara, from the name of a German Goddess of fertility, Oestarae.
She is the deific equivalent of the Greco-Roman goddess, Aurora, the personification of the sunrise. Consider that the Sun rises in the East and her name is where East and Easter both come from. The Christian Easter date was decided by the Council of Nicaea to fall the first Sunday after the first full Moon occurring on or after the March Equinox. This effectively removed its observance from conflicts with either Ostara or Passover. Continue reading Welcome Spring!→
PBS Nature makes photos and videos, including additional footage and “making of” clips available on their website. Some are only clickable with membership but the ones that go with the current week are always free.
RIP Sue Grafton and condolences to your family. Wow, I’ve been reading this series since I was 20, really my entire adult life. I’ll miss them and I’ll miss waiting for each new one to arrive every couple of years. This reminds me of Master and Commander ending with the unfinished 21, published as Patrick O’Brian left it at his death. Tony Hillerman’s series ended on a satisfying note as did Terry Pratchett’s, but the Alphabet mysteries will end on “Y”, always leaving me to wonder what “Z” would have brought. Sue, thank you for 25 entertaining books.
