Your Interests About

Shaped by capsizing and melting, this growler was transformed into a modern sculpture. Western side of the Antarctic Peninsula.

Virtual-Pano, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

Old Proverb

Kenneth Thewissen on Unsplash

Chestnut-naped antpitta (Grallaria nuchalis ruficeps), Reserva Las Tangaras, Chocó, Colombia.

Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

Quino Al on Unsplash

The Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch, better known as The Skating Minister (1790s), by Henry Raeburn.

Henry Raeburn, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

Every evening, the skies above the village of Petulu in central Bali fill with Little Egrets, Cattle Egrets, and Javan Pond Herons as they arrive to roost overnight. Their numbers have been estimated to total 20,000. The Balinese believe that the birds are the spirits of the survivors of a massacre in 1965. That year, the villagers in Petulu took action to rid the village of negative energy by holding a ceremonial cleansing ceremony; a week later, the herons called “Kokokan” arrived for the first time ever and have rested there ever since.  @lindzmarsh Lindz Marsh on Unsplash

Blue whale skeleton at the Central Hall of the Natural History Museum, London, England. 'Hope', nickname of the blue whale skeleton, is 25.2 metres (83 ft) long and is suspended from the ceiling since July 14th 2017. Blue whales are the largest creature ever to have lived in the Earth. In the 1800s there was an estimated amount of 250,000 blue whales across the world's oceans. After decades of commercial hunting the species was to the brink of extinction, with only around 400 surviving in 1966. That year the world took action in London and decided to legally protect blue whales from commercial hunting. Since then the population of blue whales has steadily grown to its current level of around 20,000.

Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

Roman Kirienko on Unsplash

New Year's fireworks over the Swabian village Eberhardzell near Biberach an der Riss. Today is New Year's Day.

Andreas Weith, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

Only a night from old to new!
Only a night, and so much wrought!
The Old Year's heart all weary grew,
But said: "The New Year rest has brought."
The Old Year's hopes its heart laid down,
As in a grave; but, trusting, said:
"The blossoms of the New Year's crown
Bloom from the ashes of the dead."
The Old Year's heart was full of greed;
With selfishness it longed and ached,
And cried: "I have not half I need.
My thirst is bitter and unslaked.
But to the New Year's generous hand
All gifts in plenty shall return;
True love it shall understand;
By all my failures it shall learn.
I have been reckless; it shall be
Quiet and calm and pure of life.
I was a slave; it shall go free,
And find sweet peace where I leave strife."
Only a night from old to new!
Never a night such changes brought.
The Old Year had its work to do;
No New Year miracles are wrought.

Always a night from old to new!
Night and the healing balm of sleep!
Each morn is New Year's morn come true,
Morn of a festival to keep.
All nights are sacred nights to make
Confession and resolve and prayer;
All days are sacred days to wake
New gladness in the sunny air.
Only a night from old to new;
Only a sleep from night to morn.
The new is but the old come true;
Each sunrise sees a new year born.

Helen Hunt Jackson - (1830 – 1885).  American poet and writer, born Helen Maria Fiske. She became an activist on behalf of improved treatment of Native Americans by the U. S. Government. Writing under her Pen name, H.H, she described the adverse effects of government actions in her history book,  "A Century of Dishonor" (1881). Her novel "Ramona "(1884) dramatized the federal government's mistreatment of Native Americans in Southern California after the Mexican–American War and attracted considerable attention to her cause  and estimated to have been reprinted 300 times.