Yep, the annual winter solstice news--the tinge of sadness I felt late June now reflects back as a tige of joy. The sun is dead. Long live the sun. 12:30 A.M. tonight the sun will stand still for an instant, shift its mass*, and head back north. 6 months ago, when we sat on the opposite side of the sun, I celebrated the summer solstice, a joy ...

Last week of the sinking sun. The Earth hurtles closer to the sun, but my little piece of paradise edges more and more oblique to the sun, our source of light, of life. We're in the dark season. *** The bell still rings at 7:45 in the morning. It's not a bell anymore, but we still call it that. I blew a conch shell as the bell sounded, an ...

In a few moments the Earth's shadow will start to creep across the full moon. While it gives the science news folks something to squawk about, and they do, I suspect events like this turn more than a few children off to astronomy. Oh, it makes for a nice rusty moon (blood red's a bit of hyperbole), but it takes a bit of time to develop, and ...

Someone stumbled on this old post yesterday, and kindly commented.  As we celebrate Dr. King's birthday today, it seemed like a good one to repeat.... Organizations love mottoes and mission statements and other sorts of committee-speak that expend lots of time and energy that might actually be used for, say, teaching. Committees drink lots of ...

I warmed myself up tonight, shoveling snow off a patch of concrete. Orion, lying awkwardly on his back, shivered above as he aimed his bow at Taurus snorting high in the southwestern sky. On my way in, I grabbed a handful of Brussels sprouts, plucked off the plant now surrounded by snow. Winter is here, as good a reason as any to talk about our ...

There’s just no accounting for happiness, or the way it turns up like a prodigal who comes back to the dust at your feet having squandered a fortune far away. Jane Kenyon, from ''Happiness'' Daphnia! My glass kettle of pond water sits on the windowsill, where it has for years. Were I an empiricist, I'd have deduced years ago that life ...

6:38 P.M. here--the sun stood still, shifted its mass, and headed back north. 6 months ago, when we sat on the opposite side of the sun, I celebrated the summer solstice, a joy tinged with the weight of knowing the sun would start its slow, long course southward. Winter is only hours old, and winters can be brutal here. The light, however is ...