He Who Turns Dawn to Darkness

He who forms the mountains,
creates the wind,
and reveals his thoughts to man,
he who turns dawn to darkness,
and treads the high places of the earth--
the Lord God Almighty is his name.

Amos 4:13

The Sea cannot sink a ship

 An entire sea of water can't sink a ship unless it gets inside the ship.  Similarly, the negativity of the world can't put you down unless you allow it to get inside of you.

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Journal of Beach Walks - Janaury

 

This is a motivational walking journal to keep me up and out to continue these walks.  When it is cold and wintery in Florida (Yes, it does get cold with the wind chill factor!)  I want to stay indoors with a coffee mug or cup of hot tea. 

The Morning Crescent Light: Waves and Patterns

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At the different stages of the sunrise, light reflects through the clouds with shades of pink or orange hues.

Beach Wonderland - Through the Looking Glass

 

When the white beach reflects the light from the morning sun, the wet sand illuminates a mirror.  Shadows of the clouds, birds, sand piles, sea weed have a looking glass effect. The visual effect is surreal like a favorite children's book by Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland:  Through the Looking Glass.

'As to poetry, you know,' said Humpty Dumpty, stretching out one of his great hands, 'I can repeat poetry as well as other folk, if it comes to that—'
         

     'In winter, when the fields are white,
     I sing this song for your delight—     

     'In spring, when woods are getting green,
     I'll try and tell you what I mean.'

         

     'In summer, when the days are long,
     Perhaps you'll understand the song:
     In autumn, when the leaves are brown,
     Take pen and ink, and write it down.'

          

     'I sent a message to the fish:
     I told them "This is what I wish."
     The little fishes of the sea,
     They sent an answer back to me.

     The little fishes' answer was
     "We cannot do it, Sir, because—"'

    'I sent to them again to say
     "It will be better to obey."

     The fishes answered with a grin,
     "Why, what a temper you are in!"
     I told them once, I told them twice:
     They would not listen to advice.

     I took a kettle large and new,
     Fit for the deed I had to do.
     My heart went hop, my heart went thump;
     I filled the kettle at the pump.

     Then some one came to me and said,
     "The little fishes are in bed."
     I said to him, I said it plain,
     "Then you must wake them up again."

     I said it very loud and clear;
     I went and shouted in his ear.'

    'But he was very stiff and proud;
     He said "You needn't shout so loud!"

     And he was very proud and stiff;
     He said "I'd go and wake them, if—"
     I took a corkscrew from the shelf:
     I went to wake them up myself.

     And when I found the door was locked,
     I pulled and pushed and kicked and knocked.
     And when I found the door was shut,
     I tried to turn the handle, but—'

There was a long pause.
'Is that all?' Alice timidly asked.
'That's all,' said Humpty Dumpty. 'Good-bye.'

Excerpts from Chapter 6, "Through the Looking Glass"
by Lewis Carroll

Pavilion of Heaven

 

I took this picture on a morning walk at Surfside Beach.  It was a cloudy day and the sun rays were breaking through the storm clouds.

Gathering Storm Clouds South Ponte Vedra Beach

I am taking an Oil Painting Class with instructor Artist Linda Holmes at the Cultural Center in Ponte Vedra.  Driving on A1A is a very scenic coastal drive from St. Augustine to Ponte Vedra.  Today the massive thunder clouds over the ocean was astounding and I had to stop and take pictures.  I applied a dry brush technique to give the photos a painting effect.

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

These pictures were taken during the summer when we visited friends Tom and Melody in Marquette Michigan.  The Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is located is located on the south shore of Lake Superior in upper Michigan, between the communities of Munising (west) and Grand Marais (east).  It was a two hour boat tour and worth every minute.  We saw spectacular multicolored sandstone cliffs, pristine beaches, sand dunes, waterfalls, and caves.

Pungarehu Loop Surf

Summer time in New Zealand and surf highway 45 is the route to travel.  Surprising there were not that many people on the beach and it was a beautiful sunny day.  Unlike Florida where the beaches are crowded from tourist and vacationers from all the world. People flock to Florida's white sandy beaches.  Pungarehu Loop's beach is dark sand with a lot of shrubs and vegetation.  This was very quiet and basically we had the beach to ourselves.

Hearts of a Dragon at Fort Matanzas Beach and Other Tales

Fort Matanzas Park includes a beautiful unspoiled beach of white sand dunes that are protected so wildlife can dwell in their natural habitat.  Dragonflies were everywhere flying along the walkway.  They behaved like miniature planes landing on tips of branches with their wings pointed upward.  I never saw so many dragonflies in one place.  A Dragonfly is suppose to have the heart of a dragon.   The Desolation of Smaug is a new movie coming out in December.  I wonder if Smaug has the heart of a dragonfly?  Dragons appear in many folklores, legends and children books.

Watercolor by J.R. Tolkien

The Hobbit

In Tolkien’s fantasy world, Middle-earth, is populated with creatures that owe much to the literary tradition of northern Europe.  A Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford, Tolkien had an expert knowledge of this tradition. In the year he drew this watercolor, he wrote: ‘A dragon is no idle fancy. Whatever may be his origins, in fact or invention, the dragon in legend is a potent creation of men’s imagination, richer in significance than his barrow is in gold.’

This vibrant illustration is one of a set of five, painted by Tolkien in the summer of 1937 for the first American edition of The Hobbit. It is full of vivid details, including the Arkenstone gleaming on top of the treasure trove, the skeletons of those who had attempted previous thefts, and a curse written in Elvish script on the large amphora. A feast for children's eyes!



THE TALE OF CUSTARD THE DRAGON

By Ogden Nash 1936

Belinda lived in a little white house,
With a little black kitten and a little gray mouse,
And a little yellow dog and a little red wagon,
And a realio, trulio, little pet dragon.
Now the name of the little black kitten was Ink,
And the little gray mouse, she called her Blink,
And the little yellow dog was sharp as Mustard,
But the dragon was a coward, and she called him Custard.
Custard the dragon had big sharp teeth,
And spikes on top of him and scales underneath,
Mouth like a fireplace, chimney for a nose,
And realio, trulio, daggers on his toes.
Belinda was as brave as a barrel full of bears,
And Ink and Blink chased lions down the stairs,
Mustard was as brave as a tiger in a rage,
But Custard cried for a nice safe cage.
Belinda tickled him, she tickled him unmerciful,
Ink, Blink and Mustard, they rudely called him Percival,
They all sat laughing in the little red wagon
At the realio, trulio, cowardly dragon.
Belinda giggled till she shook the house,
And Blink said Week!, which is giggling for a mouse,
Ink and Mustard rudely asked his age,
When Custard cried for a nice safe cage.
Suddenly, suddenly they heard a nasty sound,
And Mustard growled, and they all looked around.
Meowch! cried Ink, and Ooh! cried Belinda,
For there was a pirate, climbing in the winda.
Pistol in his left hand, pistol in his right,
And he held in his teeth a cutlass bright,
His beard was black, one leg was wood;
It was clear that the pirate meant no good.
Belinda paled, and she cried, Help! Help!
But Mustard fled with a terrified yelp,
Ink trickled down to the bottom of the household,
And little mouse Blink strategically mouseholed.
But up jumped Custard, snorting like an engine,
Clashed his tail like irons in a dungeon,
With a clatter and a clank and a jangling squirm
He went at the pirate like a robin at a worm.
The pirate gaped at Belinda's dragon,
And gulped some grog from his pocket flagon,
He fired two bullets but they didn't hit,
And Custard gobbled him, every bit.
Belinda embraced him, Mustard licked him,
No one mourned for his pirate victim
Ink and Blink in glee did gyrate
Around the dragon that ate the pyrate.
Belinda still lives in her little white house,
With her little black kitten and her little gray mouse,
And her little yellow dog and her little red wagon,
And her realio, trulio, little pet dragon.
Belinda is as brave as a barrel full of bears,
And Ink and Blink chase lions down the stairs,
Mustard is as brave as a tiger in a rage,
But Custard keeps crying for a nice safe cage.

Boneyard Beach's Silvered Skeletons

Boneyard Beach is a good name for the driftwood covered beach at Big Talbot Island.  Very usual  trees, shaped like skeletons with pale white limbs that are twisted by the ocean winds and waves at Nassau Sound.  The beach is unspoiled and no motor vehicles allowed and a beautiful place for hiking.

Song of the Sea
by Rainer Maria Rilke

Timeless sea breezes,
sea-wind of the night:
you come for no one;
if someone should wake,
he must be prepared
how to survive you.

Timeless sea breezes,
that for aeons have
blown ancient rocks,
you are purest space
coming from afar…

Oh, how a fruit-bearing
fig tree feels your coming
high up in the moonlight.




Writer and poet, Rilke was considered one of the greatest lyric poets of modern Germany. He created the "object poem" as an attempt to describe with utmost clarity physical objects, the "silence of their concentrated reality." He became famous with such works as Duineser Elegien and Die Sonette an Orpheus . They both appeared in 1923. After these books, Rilke had published his major works, believing that he had done his best as a writer.
Biography

"A Song to Myself: 35" by Walt Whitman

These pictures were taken at the Washington Oaks State Park and Beach.  It had been raining for 3 days and Matanzas River was high and winds were still strong. 

Song of Myself: 35

By Walt Whitman 1819–1892
 

Would you hear of an old-time sea-fight?

Would you learn who won by the light of the moon and stars?

List to the yarn, as my grandmother’s father the sailor told it to me.

 

Our foe was no skulk in his ship I tell you, (said he,)

His was the surly English pluck, and there is no tougher or truer, and never was, and never will be;

Along the lower’d eve he came horribly raking us.

 

We closed with him, the yards entangled, the cannon touch’d,

My captain lash’d fast with his own hands.

 

We had receiv’d some eighteen pound shots under the water,

On our lower-gun-deck two large pieces had burst at the first fire, killing all around and blowing up overhead.

 

Fighting at sun-down, fighting at dark,

Ten o’clock at night, the full moon well up, our leaks on the gain, and five feet of water reported,

The master-at-arms loosing the prisoners confined in the after-hold to give them a chance for themselves.

 

The transit to and from the magazine is now stopt by the sentinels,

They see so many strange faces they do not know whom to trust.

 

Our frigate takes fire,

The other asks if we demand quarter?

If our colors are struck and the fighting done?

 

Now I laugh content, for I hear the voice of my little captain,

We have not struck, he composedly cries, we have just begun our part of the fighting.

 

Only three guns are in use,

One is directed by the captain himself against the enemy’s mainmast,

Two well serv’d with grape and canister silence his musketry and clear his decks.

 

The tops alone second the fire of this little battery, especially the main-top,

They hold out bravely during the whole of the action.

 

Not a moment’s cease,

The leaks gain fast on the pumps, the fire eats toward the powder-magazine.

 

One of the pumps has been shot away, it is generally thought we are sinking.

 

Serene stands the little captain,

He is not hurried, his voice is neither high nor low,

His eyes give more light to us than our battle-lanterns.

 

Toward twelve there in the beams of the moon they surrender to us.

 

'Song for the Sea'

 

 

Song for the Sea
by J.R.R. Tolkien

To the Sea, to the Sea! The white gulls are crying,
The wind is blowing, and the white foam is flying.
West, west away, the round sun is falling.
Grey ship, grey ship, do you hear them calling?
The voices of my people gone before me?
I will leave, I will leave the woods that bore me;
For our days are ending and our years failing.
I will pass the wide waters lonely sailing.
Long are the waves on the Last Shore falling,
Sweet are the voices in the Lost Isle calling.
In Eressea, in Elvenhome, that no man can discover,
Where the leaves fall not: land of my people forever!

This song, sung in "The Field of Cormallen," most fully expresses Legolas' longing for the Sea and the journey to the Uttermost West. The "Last Shore" refers to the shore of Eldamar. The "Lost Isle" is Eressea, which was broken off from Middle-earth and moved to the Uttermost West as a transport for Elves by Ulmo and then left there as the eastern most island. "No man can discover [it]" because it was forbidden by the Valar.