Friday Music

This week we celebrate the Feast Day of St. Patrick - Patron Saint of Ireland.  We're celebrating our Semiquincentennial this year and our war for independence from the yoke of the British Crown.  The Irish have their own story of the struggle for independence from British rule.  I figured this is as good a week as any to feature this song.

Composed by Father Charles O'Neil (1887-1963) it is a product of the political situation in Ireland in the aftermath of the Easter Rising and World War I.

More than 200,000 Irishmen served in British forces during the war.  This resulted in mixed feelings for many Irish, particularly those with nationalist sympathies.  Many Irish felt the moral justifications for the war and freedom for small nations such as Belgium and Serbia should be applied to Ireland subjugated by the British.

The Easter Rising of 1916 was an armed rebellion in Dublin against British rule.  The British put down the unrest in six days of street fighting.  450 were killed - mostly civilians and the rebel leaders were executed.  Public revulsion to the response and executions contributed to a growing alienation from Britain and led to the Irish War of Independence (1919-1921).

O'Neil reflected this alienation when he composed the the song telling the story of the Easter Rising and commemorating the few hundred brave men who rose-up against the most powerful empire in the world.

His feelings are summed-up in the line:  Twas better to die 'neath an Irish sky than at Sulva or Sud el Bar.

Foggy Dew.....  

Scratching Your Druid Itch

 

06.08.24 Stonehenge

The ancient Druids did not build Stonehenge.  As a matter of fact, as a consequence of a timeline mismatch they had nothing to do with it.  This monument was constructed during the Neolithic and Bronze Age and predates them by more than 1000 years.  This was long before the Celtic Druids appeared in Britain.  Any association is a 17th-century myth, although ancient Druids may have used the site for rituals just as modern-day Druids do.

As the sun grows warmer we notice small signs of life beneath our feet.  First are the crocuses and daffodils, followed by the bluebells and wood anemones. Many of us view these emergent plants as mere greenery.  Druids see life in all living things including springs, creeks, rivers, rocks and stones.  In Druidry all life is sacred.

One of the great mysteries is the Druid's egg.  Life-giving, it is the egg protected by the hare, which is the symbol of Alban Eilir, - the Festival of the Spring Equinox which means The Light Of The Earth.  As Christianity supplanted pagan festivals Christians today celebrate Easter with eggs courtesy of the Easter bunny.

Happy vernal equinox.   

The astronomical arrival of spring is a consequence of the earth’s tilt on its axis as it orbits around the sun.  Equinox from the Latin aequus (equal) and nox (night) means the the earth’s two hemispheres are receiving the sun’s rays equally.  On this date the sun rises exactly due east and set exactly due west with sunlight striking both hemispheres of the earth equally.   Night and day are approximately equal in length. 

As you observe the movement of the sun across the sky each day you will note that it is shifting toward the north.  Birds and butterflies begin their northward migration as a response to this change in daylight following the path of the sun.

 

It would be premature to pack-away your winter outerwear, return the snow shovels to the shed or plant a garden.  Nevertheless, this is a harbinger of the arrival of astronomical spring for those of us in the northern hemisphere.  

 

The official start time will be tomorrow, March 20, at about 9:46 AM CST (give or take). 

Astronomers base season cycles upon the position of the earth in relation to the sun.  The beginning of Astronomical Spring or the Vernal Equinox marks the time when the sun passes directly above the equator.  Meteorological spring is based-upon annual temperature cycles.  Your weatherman will tell your that meteorological spring begins March 1 and goes thru the end of May.

 

No matter how you slice it the days will grow longer, the temperatures warmer and mud season is in full swing.

What's For Dinner?

There are two constants on our menu.

Salmon and venison once a week. Tonight was the latter.

Clockwise, sautéed fresh spinach, baked jacket potato and pan-seared backyard whitetail. Medium rare. 

It's what's for dinner.

Pretty good chow if you can get it.

One Tough Bird

We've had a pair of resident sandhill cranes nesting here for as long as we've had our big pond; making it thirty years.  I don't believe it has been the same pair for the duration ; nevertheless, we've been witness to cranes arriving here in the month of March is some remarkably harsh weather conditions.  Including Winter Storm Elsa which ended late Monday.  Our cranes have been here for a couple of weeks already and when I arose yesterday they were easy to spot given all the snow on the ground.

There they were - several hundred yards north of the house - at the edge of the frozen pond, in a couple feet of snow, on a sunny 18F morning.  The sandhill is an incredibly hardy critter always arriving at their northern breeding grounds while there is still snow covering icy wetlands. 

This bird comes factory-equipped with some sophisticated physiological adaptations that allow it to thrive under the harshest of conditions.  One of these is a sophisticated network of blood vessels in their legs called rete tibiotarsale.  Also found in penguins and turkey vultures this allows warmer arterial blood from their heart to transfer heat to the cold venous blood returning from their feet.  This keeps their core temperature warm while allowing their feet to remain at a lower temperature while standing in snow or icy water.  

When airborne cranes typically fly with their long legs trailing behind.  If it is too cold at 10,000 feet of altitude the bird will tuck their legs into their belly feathers to conserve heat.  Speaking of which, the crane's plumage is a dense layer of soft downy feathers beneath an outer layer of contour feathers.  Air trapped by the inner layer provides thermal insulation beneath the outer feathers that repel wind and freezing rain.   

Crane behavior strategies include the use of tail winds to speed their migration from Mexico and southern states, roosting in warmer waters adjacent to power plants and preening their gray feathers with mud to make a rusty-brown camouflage to hide from predators.  Until the arrival of spring green-up, this is a bird capable of digging beneath snow to locate waste grain in agricultural fields and tubers and dormant invertebrates and amphibians in frozen mud. 

Anyway, we're looking forward to observing the ritual mating dance of Wisconsin's tallest bird.  The birds will face each other, bow and jump while flapping their wings and making loud cackling calls.  Yes, this tough bird can dance too.

Stay-tuned for any lucky trail camera photos I might capture this season. 

Patron Saint

Clonmacnoise, Ireland

The Feast Day of Saint Patrick has taken-on more significance for me since we traveled and visited the Old Sod of my ancestors before COVID.  Unless you are oblivious it is obvious that the Republic of Ireland is most assuredly a bastion of the Roman Catholic tradition of the Christian faith.  And I suppose more than a few visitors are left with the impression that Ireland is - in some official capacity - a Catholic country.  While Catholics significantly outnumber all other faith traditions in Ireland, there is no reference to Catholicism in the Irish Constitution.  Ireland is officially a secular state and tolerates all belief systems.  Of course, on my visit not even once did I spy a Lutheran church.  But I digress.

Getting back to the Feast Day the story of Ireland’s Patron Saint persists and you readers are likely wondering if St. Patrick really did chase the snakes out of Ireland.  Or is that tale just a bunch of blarney?        

According to the tale way back in the fifth century the legendary priest raised his staff and banished the reptiles into the seas surrounding the Emerald Isle.  Save for those in captivity it is true that Ireland has no snakes.  But this current condition has less to do with religious tradition and more to do with geologic history and events dating many millennia ago.  Following the retreat of the last glaciers some 15,000 years ago Ireland was devoid of snakes.  Surrounded by icy waters to this very day snakes cannot swim or find their way there and as a consequence Ireland remains snake-free.         

That’s too bad because if my recreational DNA test is to be believed I am becoming more Irish with every passing year.  And I have a particular fondness for snakes. The bigger the better.   

Like this dandy five foot long Western Fox Snake.  I also like a good saint when I see one and St. Patrick wasn’t even Irish.         

Patrick was born of aristocratic blood in Britain probably around the year 390.  The legend says that he was not particularly religious.  At age 16 he was kidnapped into slavery was forced into life as a sheepherder in Ireland.  It is held that it was during this time that he found God and became a believer.         

As the story goes he began hearing voices and the voices instructed him to flee.  Which he did.  Patrick eventually found his way back to Britain and his family.  Alas, the voices returned commanding him to return to Ireland.  He was ordained a priest, went back to Ireland and spent the balance of a rather difficult life converting the pagan Celts to Christianity.  He died on March 17, 461 and was promptly forgotten.      

Nevertheless, over many years faithful conviction and belief in the story of Patrick grew.  And he grew ever larger after his death than he did in real life.  Hundreds of years after the fact he was honored as Ireland’s patron saint.         

So on March 17th we gather to pay homage to this saint who - ostensibly - banished the snakes from Ireland.  It is said that on this one day of the year everyone is Irish.          

Since I have real Irish blood coursing through my veins I intend to raise a glass of Guinness and toast my ancestors and Saint Patrick.  I will ignore the part about the sketchy British and Western European connection.         

Speaking of Guinness - according to the Guinness people somewhere around 5.5 million pints of Guinness stout are consumed world-wide each and every day.  On St. Patrick’s Day this will grow to 13 million pints; lifting a Lenten restriction on alcohol for just one day.     

Drink responsibly people.         

Sláinte!

 

Sockdolager!

Forecast was for a cessation of snowfall by 4 PM. Took these shots before 3:30. The sun is shining and the wind continues to howl out of the north. Gusts up to 60+ MPH are absolutely brutal. 

 

 

Look like we got at about 27-30 inches on the level. Reports suggest Sturgeon Bay got 35+. 

The drifts are amazing.

 

Businesses, schools and churches are closed with many of the town roads impassable. We’re on a county road and will get further attention after the state highways are completed. No power outages for us but half of the statewide total is confined to the peninsula. 

 

Waiting on our plow guy to take a stab at clearing the driveway so I can fetch the blower from the machine shed and finish digging out. 

 

Winter Storm Elsa was a whopper two day nor'easter; a real Sockdolager! 

Guns Versus Butter

I haven't had much to say about the war with Iran.  On one hand it is easy to come down on the side of regime change or, at a minimum, defanging the regime. The Mullahs are a dangerous collection of twisted religious revanchists who would kill me in a heartbeat for simply being American, Christian or both.  Yup, I am the Great Satan.  Nuclear weapons in the hands of these gangsters is taboo.

On the other hand, my preference would have been for a President to take his case before Congress before going to war.  I am unconvinced of the clear and present danger of an immediate threat as much as I am convinced that the president would have gotten the go-ahead from Congress along with buy-in from the public.  What we got instead was more executive unilateralism.

Almost three weeks into Operation Epic Fury - the war on Iran - the President's promise of prosperity and economic growth in his second term is facing a handful of critical risks that heretofore did not exist.  Going into the new year the current economic condition was basically OK.  Notwithstanding a nonsensical tariff regimen my sense was that the president was counting on a second-term economic agenda of deregulation and tax relief to propel the economy forward.  

In the absence of a Congressional resolution supporting the war, shifting rationales for the war itself and no clearly articulated strategy to end the hostilities at this particular point in time and space there are any number of elements that might conspire to trip-up both the domestic and world economies.

The most immediate of which is the disruption to the energy supply chain.  Even an Iranian 'threat' to shipping via the Strait of Hormuz has caused oil prices to spike impacting everything from gasoline, to LNG and diesel. The domino-effect of this is a spike in inflation pressures as a consequence  higher prices for groceries (transportation and farming costs), airfares and utility pricing.

Wars costs a big pile of money; with the first week alone reported to cost us taxpayers $11.3 billion.  Even if the burn rate settles-in at $1 billion a day the implications for expanding the the federal deficit are huge.  The President and Pentagon are going to come back with hat-in-hand to ask for more money; and the resulting borrowing will crowd-out private investment and lead to calls for raising taxes.   

Iranian threats have disrupted maritime security resulting in the rerouting of shipping, higher insurance premiums and increased freight costs impacting virtually every last consumer good traveling the global supply chain. 

Economists have been setting-off alarm bells that a prolonged conflict could damage business confidence leading to a pause in hiring and capital investment.  A combination of persistently higher energy costs and depressed growth could lead to a 1970s style 'stagflation'.  Naturally, the investment market's response to uncertainty is greater volatility.

I do not believe that an air campaign alone can effect regime change much less political change. Consequently, I'm anxious to know how this gets wrapped-up before it morphs into an unintentional 'forever war'. 

Meanwhile, the resulting energy crisis and fiscal drain have very real implications to our economy, and the world economy writ-large.  The risk for shifting from an expected period of domestic growth to one of stagnation and rising living costs is quite real.

I want policy that improves your and my prosperity and general lot in life.  Along with making the world a safer place.  But what it is ain't exactly clear.  We have not been to a Trump rodeo like this before.