we'll miss you, leroi

LeRoi Moore
1961-2008
R.I.P.

curious

-by sibylle szaggars

may song

-by sibylle szaggars

moonrise from glacier point

-by ansel adams

master bedroom

-by andrew wyeth

blue morning glories

-by georgia o'keefe

vanishing animals ~ butterflies

c1986

echinacea purperea

maurice the dachshund

-by andy warhol

in a park

-by berthe morisot

the first woman to join the circle of the french impressionist painters, she exhibited in all but one of their shows, and, despite the protests of friends and family, continued to participate in their struggle for recognition. she was generally considered one of the most important women painters of the later 19th century, along with american artist mary cassatt.

happy mother's day!

blenko loves blenko

vase of irises & calla lilies

"my garden is my most beautiful masterpiece."

- claude monet

morisot - girl with greyhound

Daffodils - William Wordsworth

Daffodils
By William Wordsworth

I wander’d lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretch'd in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed -- and gazed -- but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

happy arbor day

yosemite valley from inspiration point in yosemite national park

"the clearest way into the universe is through a forest wilderness."-John Muir

happy earth day

calla lily

nature in all its glory

a beautiful spring day in Virginia
apple blossoms in rural Virginia
redbud and dogwood trees along the Virginia countryside

why the date for Easter changes every year

Something interesting I just read in the New York Times about the subject:

Why does the date for Easter change every year? Have you ever wondered why Easter Sunday can fall anywhere between March 22 and April 25? And why do Eastern Orthodox churches celebrate Easter on a different day than Western churches? These are all good questions with answers that require a bit of explanation.

In Western Christianity, Easter is always celebrated on the Sunday immediately following the Paschal Full Moon date of the year. In the past, Easter was always celebrated on the Sunday immediately following the first full moon after the vernal (spring) equinox. This was true in 325 AD, when it was established by the Council of Nicea. However, the course of history has modified the meaning of this instruction, and therefore, a clearer, more accurate explanation is necessary today.

There are, in fact, as many misunderstanding about the calculation of Easter dates, as there are reasons for confusion about Easter dates. What follows is an attempt to clear up at least some of the confusion.

In actuality, the date of the Paschal Full Moon is determined from historical tables, and has no correspondence to lunar events. In the year 325 AD astronomers approximated the dates of all the full moons in the year for the Western Christian churches. These were called the Ecclesiastical Full Moon dates, and they have been used ever since 326 AD to determine the date of Easter. So, the Paschal Full Moon is always the first Ecclesiastical Full Moon date after March 20 (which happened to be the vernal equinox date in 325 AD).

The Paschal Full Moon can vary as much as two days from the date of the actual full moon, with dates ranging from March 21 to April 18. As a result, Easter dates can range from March 22 through April 25 in Western Christianity.

Western churches use the Gregorian Calendar to calculate the date of Easter and Eastern Orthodox churches use the Julian Calendar. This is partly why the dates are rarely the same.

Easter and its related holidays do not fall on a fixed date in either the Gregorian or Julian calendars, making them moveable holidays. The dates, instead, are based on a lunar calendar very similar to the Hebrew Calendar.

The Eastern Orthodox Church not only maintains the date of Easter based on the Julian Calendar which was in use during the First Ecumenical Council of Nicea in 325 AD, but also according to the actual, astronomical full moon and the actual vernal equinox as observed along the meridian of Jerusalem. This complicates the matter, due to the inaccuracy of the Julian calendar, and the 13 days that have accrued since 325 AD. This means, in order to stay in line with the originally established (325 AD) vernal equinox, Orthodox Easter cannot be celebrated before April 3 (present day Gregorian calendar), which was March 21 in 325 AD.

Additionally, in keeping with the rule established by the First Ecumenical Council of Nicea, the Eastern Orthodox Church adhered to the tradition that Easter must always fall after the Jewish Passover, since the death, burial and Resurrection of Christ happened after the celebration of Passover. Eventually the Orthodox Church came up with an alternative to calculating Easter based on Passover, and developed a 19-year cycle, as opposed to the Western Church 84-year cycle.

Since the days of early church history, determining the precise date of Easter has been a matter for continued argument. For one, the followers of Christ neglected to record the exact date of Jesus' resurrection. From then on the matter grew increasingly complex.

west virginia apartment complex

(art with steel)

a dust storm at camp fallujah in iraq

censorship is unamerican

register to vote

01.20.09 bush's last day

rockthevote.com