Patti and I really (as in REALLY) enjoy Ff ‘s (Frostbite frank’s) photos and writing.<\/p>\n
The latest missive from Frostbite frank..\u00a0<\/p>\n
“The winter’s back is broken. Aeolis can wail, Hibernian cold can still attack, but the tide of battle has turned and Spring is leading the charge.” There is a day every year when that thought of comforting assurance passes through my mind: today winter’s crippling injury appeared in the form of tiny orange blooms carpeting the verdant grass, and suddenly white flowers stood in profusion along my afternoon walk. The air was only 59 but the sun was so warm that I walked in my shirtsleeves.<\/p>\n
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There is a day every winter when that idea comes to me: ,”The winter’s back is broken.” One year (1976) I was working on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline at Glennallen, in the Copper River Valley of Interior Alaska. It had been below -40 for 4 weeks straight (and below -20 since mid-January): the feeble sun could only produce a few hours of frigid light (and no heat) each day. One mid-March morning we saw tiny frozen droplets of ice clinging to the underside of the above-ground Pipeline. Water had actually warmed to the point of liquefaction the previous afternoon! Crocuses and songbirds could not have been a brighter harbinger of spring than those tiny diamonds glistening in the light of the morning sun! I exclaimed, quite impromptu, “The winter’s back is broken!” I have felt that glorious day when winter is finally too feeble to fight the sun, every year since. It has become my mantra when I see the forces of summer gathering on the horizon.<\/p>\n
Of course here in Ostuni the Winter Is milder and that day of reckoning comes in late January rather than Mid-March, but it is still a welcome assurance that warmer weather will soon be here.<\/p>\n
The building in the picture below is an old abandoned masseria, equivalent to a Mexican hacienda, where olives were pressed, sheep sheared, and pigs and cattle butchered. It served the surrounding farms for probably a couple hundred years before the larger post-War masserias defeated the old ways with automation and electricity .<\/p>\n
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Frank it is an honor to receive your outstanding contributions. You Sir are a REAL writer.<\/p>\n
– – – – – – – –<\/span><\/p>\n Friend’s of Bill.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I have published a very interesting World Health Organization article about alcohol consumption. To read my Post, please click onto the below link.<\/p>\n