Frost Quakes and Polar Vortexes

Here in the American Midwest we are in the middle of a polar vortex which has brought freezing temperatures. It is currently colder where I live than in Antarctica. At the time I am writing this post the actual temperature is -21 degrees with a wind chill factor of -54 degrees.

Last night I woke up three times in the middle of the night hearing loud thuds outside. I got up to look out the windows to see what was happening outside or to see if the windows cracked but saw nothing. This morning the TV weatherman explained that we were all hearing frost quakes which is a seismic event.

Here is how a frost quake occurs. While water naturally freezes underground, when the weather is in a deep freeze the water goes deeper underground. This forces the soil upward which releases kinetic energy. The release of the energy makes a loud sound that is called a frost quake.

Here is a photo of a frost quake in nearby Milwaukee, WI showing that it's much more than a loud sound. This is scary.

I guess if you lived in Antarctica this would be common knowledge for you. Now it's common knowledge for those of us in the Chicagoland area. The quakes are still occurring this morning. It is going to get a little warmer today and by that I mean -13 but I don't know at what temperatures the quakes stop.  We had a -17 degree day 2 years ago and we didn't have frost quakes then.

With three polar vortexes now under my belt I should be accustomed to their challenges. No one ever said anything before about a frost quake. Now I am worried about the ground opening up near my highrise apartment. We have never seen the train tracks set on fire before either.

The steel tracks get pulled apart into pieces during extreme cold and after being set on fire they can be molded back into one piece that the trains can run on tomorrow.  I don't really trust those train tracks. They just don't seem safe.

Polar Vortex 2019 has been the toughest and it's not over yet.

2019 My Kind of Mystery Challenge

I am rejoining this challenge this year. It runs from February 1, 2019 through January 31, 2020.  There are no reading requirements for the challenge which I find freeing. I think I actually read more mysteries than if I knew I had to read a certain number of them. Based on what I read for the challenge last year I presume that I will be reading mysteries published in 2019.  We'll see!

Irresistible

In Irresistible-Reclaiming the New that Jesus Unleashed for the World, the reader in invited to embrace the original form of Christianity, the version that turned the world upside down 2,000 years ago. The author, an Atlanta, Georgia pastor, shows how a shift from faith in the resurrection of Jesus to a Bible-centric faith has left Christians with an anemic version of the faith that is not very interesting to those outside the faith or even inside the faith.

The premise of the book is that the first century Christians, not having any Scriptures other than the Jewish Scriptures spread the faith with their eye witness accounts of the resurrection. Succeeding generations similarly used their zeal over the resurrection event to gain new converts to the faith. It worked. The faith spread like wildfire even though getting caught and having to admit it meant that you would be put to death by the legal authorities. The author wants us to regain that zeal for the resurrection that our predecessors in the faith had. He believes it will transform how outsiders view the church and Jesus himself and bring people to Jesus as well as bring backsliders back into the church.

The author spends a lot of time distinguishing between the old covenant between God and Israel and the new covenant between God and everyone willing to participate in the new covenant. He explains that when the church became organized, rules and customs were set that were a blending of the two covenants. The two covenants were never supposed to be blended as after the resurrection the old covenant was ended because a new one had been created. Forty years later when the temple was destroyed in 70 AD and animal sacrifices could not be made any longer, ancient Judaism ended. Here he produced a considerable amount of Scripture and history as proof of his thesis.

He continues that the church today still blends the old covenant with the new covenant with Bible focused preaching and reading requirements. However, today's preachers are failing to tell their parishioners that the Old Testament was a means to an end. It brought Jesus to the world. The author is critical of those who pull passages and promises from the Old Testament and apply them to themselves when the passages apply to ancient Israel. This is also what he calls blending the two covenants. The final third of the book deals with how Christians should handle themselves with each other and with those outside the church in a new covenant manner, all backed up with Scriptural references.

The topic was well researched.  Stanley presented Scriptures from Genesis through the New Testament as well as historical references from ancient Israel and the early church as proof of his interpretation and conclusions. He knows the material well.

The writing style of the author is poor. He writes in the same way that he speaks. Unless you are a member of his congregation and are accustomed to this approach you will find the writing disconcerting. Consequently, I found it difficult to connect the points as I got bogged down in the writing method.

Irresistible is the first book of Stanley's that I have read.  I was expecting a serious book given the title and the back cover blurb. The writing style subtracted from the strong ideas that Stanley presented. Having said that, the author did do a good job of setting up major points in a dramatic fashion. However, he then fell into his culture-specific speaking style. He should, in the future, realize that his audience reaches far beyond the culture of his own congregation and city and adjust his writing accordingly.

This is an intellectual book written in an unintellectual manner.  Because it has strong arguments that the church should hear, I would like to refer it to it to a few friends.  I believe the book's message is important.  However, I am not sure that they will read a book that does not appear to be serious in the beginning section. They might give up and put it down.

Irresistible counts as a selection for the 2019 Christian Reading Challenge as a book that was a 2018 bestseller.  I would have rated it 5 stars for the thought content but due to the writing problems I can only give it 3 out of 5 stars. 

The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook

Deborah Robson and Carol Ekarius began writing the Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook after the United Nations declared that 2009 would be the International Year of Natural Fibers. The declaration was an environmental one as the process of producing synthetic fibers released harmful compounds into the air. The result was smog and many health problems for people who lived near the areas where they were produced.  The book was published in 2011.

As a person who spins fiber into yarn, having a book with information on 200 different sheep and other animals is quite resourceful to have on my bookshelf. The hair, or fiber, that is shorn from each type of animal has different characteristics and may need to be spun a certain way.  A spinner may need to purchase more fiber from a particular species to complete a project than from another species. Having all this information at your fingertips helps in making purchasing decisions.

When an animal can be grouped into a category, it is.  For example, there is the Cheviot Family of sheep, a Down Family, English Longwool Family, Merino Family and others.  Goats, camelids, bison, yak, rabbits and musk ox are also covered. Note that a camelid can be an alpaca, llama, guanaco, vicuna, or camel.

For each sheep/animal there is a description of its traits, facts on its fleece weight, length, diameter, lock characteristics and natural colors. There is also information on how to prepare it for spinning, how well it takes dyes, and the types of garments it is best suited for. In addition, there is a full color page showing the fiber in various forms.

You can see with all this information at hand, the spinner or weaver basically has a goof proof guide to selecting the best fiber for a project.

This is a must read for all spinners! 

Botanical Portraits with Colored Pencils

I came across Ann Swan's YouTube channel earlier this week and was pleased to find a botanical artist who only uses colored pencil in her botanical drawings. Usually colored pencil is only used as a final highlight after pen, ink and watercolor have been used. I immediately ordered her book from Amazon and it arrived yesterday.

This book is not for beginners.  The author assumes that you know how to draw as well as how to use colored pencils.  You need to be a high achieving intermediate colored pencil artist or an advanced one before taking on botanicals. The first thing the author teaches the reader is the need to know the scientific structure of the plant that you are drawing. How does it grow? How is it constructed? How are the leaves on the stem arranged? You need to study the pattern of the veins on the leaves, all of them, as no two leaves are alike. In addition, the artist needs to study the life cycle of the plant, making measurements of each part of the plant as it changes.  It seems like the artist needs to buy a botany book on the plant before getting started as there is so much scientific information needed before you can start your drawing.

The author recommends using a small sketchbook to record details about the plant's growing habits as well as making a series a thumbnail sketches of the flowers, stems, roots, leaves, and buds.  She also recommends taking a series of photographs to use as a reference for your drawing.

One fact I learned is that botanical paintings are always lifesize. That was why you needed to take measurements of the plant in the planning stages of your drawing. Also, Ms. Swan shows the reader how to use the Divine Proportion, which occurs in nature everywhere, when planning the composition of the drawing so that it is aesthetically pleasing. I also learned that there are 3 styles in botanical illustration. There is the traditional style which was the only style I was aware of, the contemporary style where the focus is on just one part of the plant and the abstract style where one part of a plant is enlarged and it's the only part of the plant that is drawn.

The author also includes great tips on which colors to use when shading leaves in the foreground versus shading them in the background as well as how to develop a critical eye toward the style and elements in your drawing.

The latter half if the book consists of how-to demonstrations of various plant subjects.  Ms. Swan primarily uses Polychromos pencils but will also use Prismacolor and Luminance pencils for blending. I was surprised that she didn't use the Luminance pencils more often since they are 100% lightfast but the colors they come in are not suited for botanicals. In fact, they are not very vibrant for other types of drawings and I wish Caran d'Ache would create more colors for us.

Botanical Portraits with Colored Pencils is a wonderful addition to the colored pencil instruction books. It is quite unique from the rest since botanical art requires a different skillset.

This book is a must-read.

Drawing Birds with Colored Pencil

Kaaren Poole's Drawing Birds is a beginner's guide to drawing birds with colored pencils.  However, more advanced colored pencil users may be able to pick up a few tips from her too.  I know I did.

Ms. Poole begins her book with the usual beginner information on supplies, creating a sketch, how to transfer it to the paper you will be using and color theory.  However, she has a section on bird shapes and anatomy that I think is unique in colored pencil instruction books. Anatomy is a subject that I have neglected in my own drawings and perhaps I need to study it.

The skeletal structure of humans has always been taught in the classes I took in art school when we were learning how to draw the human form in various poses.  It makes sense that when you are drawing a bird or other animal you need to first draw its skeleton and then smooth out your lines to the shapes that your eyes actually see of the creature.

The author moves on from there to the anatomy of the eyes and beaks and shows how to correctly position them. The tip regarding the eyes is going to help me tremendously with my drawings. Now that I see how she does them I can see that my drawings fall flat because of the eyes.

The bulk of the book consists of step-by-step demonstrations of various birds. These demonstrations are quite detailed and even include the type of pencil to use as well as the color to use and in what order.  There is an emphasis on layering.  The author layers color over three times and her instructions tell the reader exactly how to do that.

Drawing Birds with Colored Pencil is a great resource for the artist.  I definitely rate it 5 out of 5 stars.

The Rivals of Versailles

The Rivals of Versailles picks up the story of the mistresses of Louis XV from the first book in this trilogy The Sisters of Versailles.

After Louis XV recovered from an illness he found himself without a mistress. He soon met a bourgeois girl from Paris, Jeanne Poisson, and fell in love. Jeanne, not being royal, needed a name worthy of Versailles and was granted a title that was held by someone else. She became the Marquise de Pompadour and was given a large apartment formerly occupied by Louis' last mistress Marie Anne Mailly Nesle. The newly minted Marquise redecorated the space to distinguish herself from her predecessor and for four years captivated the king. After suffering two miscarriages with Louis her doctor said she must abstain from sex if she wanted to live.

The Marquise told Louis that their sex life was over and he began to stray. However, he needed her company and political advise but found that he could no longer physically climb the stairs to her apartment. Louis ordered a new and much larger apartment for her that was closer to his bedroom even though he had found a new lover, which astonished her enemies.

The Marquise found ways to get Louis girls but in a way where she retained control over the situation. When the girls began to ask for treasures, or her banishment, they were sent home. Louis, now 50, still loved the Marquise and made her a Duchesse while he continued to have sex with many other women, proving her power in the Empire.

After I finished the book my first thought was how well did Louis govern when he was with a mistress every afternoon, evening and most weekends? This does not count the number of weeks he spent holidaying at various chateaux each year.  He seemed to me to be a party animal but it also appeared that this socializing was required by the French Court. How could Louis possibly have spent enough time on governing his nation?

Louis' loyalty to the Marquise/Duchesse was interesting to say the least. Why stay loyal to her but cheat on her with other women? Note that his wife, the Queen, was still alive and living at Versailles while all of his sexual affairs were happening.

The Marquise/Duchesse certainly had a hold on Louis' heart. Her path to power was no different than those of the mistresses in Part 1 of this Trilogy.  Was he in love? It seems so but he had been in love with his Queen too and stayed loyal to her long past the time expected by his Court.

I am looking forward to the third and final installment in this trilogy.

5 of of 5 stars.