The equinox has now passed, so the northern hemisphere has now entered autumn/fall, with less sunlight than the southern hemisphere; a time of dying for photosynthesisers in the north; such as butterflies and leaves; who rely on the sun’s energy for life. So, the Dead Poet’s Society has awoken…
The above is the only colourful background Facebook post since the last time. So for Halloween I thought I’d provide a little explanation to the use of metaphor in the partly autobiographical poem.
The first three sections refer to my age of 56, and being about two-thirds of the average age; and basement floor about my ‘position in society’, despite being a PhD graduate.
Crow cluttered claw was just chucked in for a Halloween feel, and I liked the alliteration. I was thinking of finishing with a simple line that smoothly ended the poem, but then thought I’d punk it up with the above; note how ‘shut window’ is open to interpretation: was the window shut after the spitting or was it already shut?
Halloween COP26
Today, for Halloween; or to counter the way the greenYgrey has been misinterpreted with the passing of time; and COP26 starting tomorrow, I wrote this:
The greenYgrey was created as a nice friendly Scooby Doo-inspired veggie werewolf; to show wolves’ good side, and not the negative propagated by fairy-tales etc; and that’s the way it’ll always be.
Sixteen years later, I’ve become much older and colder; probably what I should be, as a rational middle-aged PhD graduate.
In some ways it’s as a result of the way I’ve seen humanity going, but in others it’s that I reached the end of my philosophical quest, and found that whatever humanity does will be negative. While I grew up thinking it was the negative side to humanity that caused all the problems, I realised that the positive can be worse: destroying the planet with more humans, development, transport, presents etc.
The real horror of Halloween is all the products sold… but don’t let that stop you having a good time… as it probably won’t make much difference in the world picture, compared to some of the biggest populations not signing up to green initiatives etc.
Epilogue
Thinking about it afterwards, I thought that gave another explanation to the ‘Beyond Humanity’ sub-title: that it’s beyond humanity to stop destroying the planet, without completely changing our thinking (and what it means to be human?) and uniting a divided world!
A weather and forecast conjunction alignment provided a cloudless sky for the first Kirkstallhenge unveiling, as the last post in the mistYmuse 20/21 encores.
The sunrise was a bit more northern than I thought, rising behind the second building, but that provided a nice shot as our planet span around a bit more, positioning our view of the sun between the buildings.
You’ve been a great crowd, and I’m sure the ancestors would be proud.
Low cloud on the horizon spoilt the central sunrise, but the sun did pop through the POP clouds a little afterwards. There’s always tomorrow… and the weather forecast’s good!
A year ago yesterday the photos below were taken, and comparing them to photos earlier in the week started the ancient astronomical angle to the mistYmuse.
The sunrise has now passed the pylon, and rises behind it.
This morning’s sunrise, compared to the last one photographed, on January 31st:
The sun is in a similar position to October 25th, mistYmuse false dawn week, just before the hour went back to end BST:
It’ll probably rise across the top like that in a couple of days.
I have proposed POP theory;
think I’ve proved sunrise can be pinky,
but it is for others to study it rigorously.
There was another clear sunrise today, and I was awake, but decided not to photograph it as I took some yesterday. While some may consider me an extremist or fanatic for what I have recorded, for true scientific sunrise/twilight research, every one would have to be recorded for hours, from first light to bright sky.
Maybe there is someone doing that: to distinguish the colours, and how cloud forms in different parts of the sky, and how they interact? Or maybe there will be…
Here’s three photos from the previous time I took some previous to yesterday’s, on January 26th, when pre-dawn pulsating pinky penetrated a mostly cloudy morning, with a band of yellowy orange in the middle of it, like POP with purple on the end; the grey sky looks purplish in the cropped last photo.
They also show how an edit can change the scene. I think they have a different colour to yesterday’s set.
Regarding the post title, I was listening to Solstafir while writing the post, with the name apparently meaning crepuscular rays.
These three photos were taken over six minutes, and show how our planet’s spin gives us our day: of light and dark. While it looks as if the tower has laid an egg, and left it behind; or sent it rolling up the hill, in fact it is our planet spinning around, with this location now facing the sun giving it ‘morning’.
Last month, I saw Jupiter and Saturn ‘drop into the horizon’ after their conjunction; which was again because of our planet spinning. They were both only visible for a short time then, just above the horizon; and didn’t take long at all to ‘drop out of the sky’ behind some trees.
After Saturn (looking fainter as smaller and farther away) had been at 10 o’ clock to Jupiter all year; if Jupiter was the middle of the ‘clock face’; in December Jupiter overtook Saturn as it is on the inside in the solar system, and so Saturn then looked at 4 o’ clock.
Jupiter’s orbit is 11.86 years and Saturn’s is 29.46 years.
mistYmuse 