Photo from Pixabay.com
kat ~ 21 February 2016
Happy Year of the Monkey! A haiku for Haiku Horizon’s prompt: Monkey. If you would like to read others or enter your own, click HERE.
Photo Credit: Sonya Oldwin
Crescent Moon whispers
as Horizon blushes pink
promising delights.
kat ~ 19 February 2016
A Three Line Tale for the photo prompt challenge from Sonya at Only 100 Words. There is a saying that says “red sky at night, sailor’s delight”. I thought of this when I looked at the photo above. Today I penned a Haiku (3 lined poem/tale) for you. If you would like to read other tales or enter your own, click HERE.
Happy Friday! Today’s Dictionary.com Word of the Day is Cosmology. Originating from the Greek words kosmos (order/world) and –logia (discourse), it might surprise you to know that astronomers, philosophers and even astrologers have been studying Cosmology since ancient times. Through the years, mathematicians, engineers, physicists and even religious figures and politicians have weighed in on the ever evolving theories and philosophies of Cosmology. Here are a few names that you may recognize: Plato, Aristotle, Copernicus, Galileo, Isaac Newton, Henrietta Swan Leavitt (one of the first women to enter the field of astronomy), Edwin Hubble, Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking.
One of the most popular theories, of course, is the Big Bang Theory, but the evolution of the study of Cosmology has not stopped there. Other theories to be introduced in later years include the Oscillating Universe developed by Alexander Friedmann based on Einstein’s general relativity equations, the Steady State Universe (which opposed the Big Bang) and then a number of theories that have expanded on the Big Bang including, Inflationary Universe and Multiverse theory which see our organized, observable universe as one of many in an infinite cosmos that operates basically in a state of chaos.
The one thing we can know for certain is that as long as there are universes to discover, there will be great minds who seek answers to the questions, what, where, when, why and how. As for me, I prefer to gaze at the stars, become lost in their magnificence, and write poetry. BAZINGA! 🙂
Speaking of poetry…here’s my Haiku…
Theory not faith
Informs the Cosmologist
Starting with a Bang!
kat ~ 19 February 2016
Happy Thursday! With all the chilly weather I have barely made it out my front door for weeks. Except, of course, to head to work and back (gotta pay for that front door!) So I decided since the title of this challenge is Echoes of my Neighbourhood I could share a bit of my drive to the office with you.
This is me and my sleeping buddy…yes it’s Maxwell…and yes I generally wake up happy…much to the chagrin of my housemate who needs coffee before she’s able to deal with the world! 😊
The front step of my house and the audacious little weeds that thrive in concrete and inclement weather! Love those guys! They inspire me!
Heading downtown now…
And then about 5 miles West to the industrial park where I work…but not before passing the Chinese Buffet. Good place for lunch btw! 😊
…and a few more stop lights and we are here…
One last look at the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountain Range…
…and another day begins!
Until it’s time to go home to this! ☺️
See other Neighborhoods at my friend Jacqueline’s blog, “a cooking pot and twisted tales” echoes…😊
Dr. Edward Jenner
The saying, “As smooth as a milk maid’s skin” has a very interesting history. At first blush one might imagine that it meant milk baths or sweet cream facials for milk maids who, because of their ready access to milk, had exceptionally smooth skin. It is true that certain milk maids did have smooth skin, but the truth is more sobering.
I found this snippet in Wikidpedia:
The expression “as smooth as a milk maid’s skin” means exceptionally smooth. This phrase came about as a result of exposure to cowpox, which causes no serious symptoms, but does convey a partial immunity to the disfiguring (and often fatal) disease smallpox. Thus, milkmaids lacked the “pockmarked” complexion common to smallpox survivors. This observation led to the development of the first vaccine.[1]
The first vaccine, in fact, was performed in 1796 by Dr. Edward Jenner in Berkeley (Gloucestershire), England. He discovered that milkmaids who had contracted cowpox did not get smallpox. When his patient Sarah Nelmes presented symptoms of cowpox on her hand, Jenner “took the pus from a cowpox lesion and inoculated an eight-year-old boy, James Phipps, the son of Jenner’s gardener. After the boy got a slight case of cowpox, Jenner exposed him to smallpox. As he suspected and much to his relief, young James remained unaffected by the deadly disease. (Read more about Dr. Jenner HERE.)
The visions of milky white, soft, beautiful skin that I once imagined when I heard this saying are definitely not what those who initially coined the phrase intended! The truth is quite gruesome, what with cowpox pus scrapings and human experimentation. But I suppose it is the final result, discovery of a vaccination against a deadly disease, that matters most. Here’s the Haiku then…
She was one so fair
“As smooth as a milk maid’s skin”
implied survival.
~kat – 18 February 2016
This Haiku is in response to Ronovan Writes Weekly Haiku Challenge with the Prompt Words: Milk & Smooth. If you would like to read other Haiku or enter your own, click HERE.
like mercury colliding... 