Creation Photos Around the World

[Kendel]

Cool. Thanks for your reply!
I know non Native-Americans are welcome at some of the pow wows in MI, but I can only imagine myself standing around like a ninny, looking like some voyuer.

I wondered, too, about Juneteenth celebrations, now that it is an official holiday in MI. I would love to support, even celebrate, but I’d be coming in as a foreigner “with a history” and with no clue what is appropriate or expected. A parade for Juneteenth, I could manage. Stand around, clap, cheer; it’s a spectator event, and I can take a clue (with advisement) from the other spectators, but away from a parade or similar activity, I would just feel like an intruder.

Good for you, though, and I love that you recognized an area of common interest and ran with that. I had no idea that horror films were such a big thing.

Oh, and once again: Incredibly cool photos as always. Thanks for all your amazing contributions to this thread.

[SkovandOfMitaze (Mi)]

Horror films are only a big thing really to those that enjoy them. But overall much of horror is pretty mainstream and popular. Every year several horror movies come out and do well at the theaters. Netflix and Hulu and even places like HBO routinely drop horror series to their streaming services. Horror movies have been around ever since film has been. Some of the earliest movies ever made were horror. You’ll find creators in every culture and subculture basically.

A lot of the pow wows are purposely made to be a spectators event. It’s one of the few events they open up to the public. So they are perfectly fine with anyone and everyone showing up and getting pictures and supporting it. They do dances and drum off with even little kids which is always cute all the way up to their elders. So they they typically last several hours and even into the night. Almost all of the ones I’ve been too are Creek Indian ones and so I’m not sure how all the other tribes do it. I use to hike the reservations with a friend but she moved off to Oklahoma and so I stopped making the hour plus drive to go there. Though I go to that area often because of other hiking places. They sell a lot of jewelry and food. I don’t eat meat and so I don’t eat Bison and stuff but they always have stuff like bison burgers, rabbit tacos, deer jerky and sometimes if it’s a tribe community from somewhere else like near Canada they will bring down stuff like bear, moose and seal meat. But again, I never eat it. But I know many show up just to get stuff like bear Indian tacos or alligator jerky. You’ll also see lots of sales of feathers. I guess the reservations have different laws and so sometimes people go to them to purchase feathers from all kinds of birds, or teeth necklace. Someone was selling necklaces made of mountain lion, bear and wolf teeth where they had a few of each one drilled through with some stones made into a necklace. Some of its Native American only stuff. Like they had someone with these types of headband stuff and I just overheard them telling some they had to have a tribal ID to purchase it. I was not going to anyways but was looking at the booth when they said that. Often lots of books too. Normally overpriced. Sometimes not though. But if it’s a public event, they expect people who are not familiar to show up. They will guide everything . They will say “ everyone stand up and cheer for our dancers” or you can sit down and close your eyes for the prayer and so on. They are often very Christian based faiths mixed with Native American religious beliefs and terms. Like instead of heaven they said “ when we die we await to be resurrected with our ancestors “ and so on.

[SkovandOfMitaze (Mi)]

Did not really have time to get many pics. It’s just more from a short hike this morning and the job site. Really foggy morning and I’m the only one here working so it’s a good day for some lovecraftian sea horror podcasts.

[klw]

I’ve also attended some powwows in Saskatchewan when I lived there. as @SkovandOfMitaze mentioned, they’re pretty open to public spectators sitting in the stands and cheering on the dancers. I have danced in regalia I’ve made, during “intertribal” dances which are open to everyone. I have gotten positive comments from First Nations about my regalia, but it is important not to wear eagle feather headresses etc. which have an honourific status (it would be a severe cultural affront), also not to copy designs of spiritual meaning which are used by another… At least in Canada, it’s illegal to buy or sell eagle feathers or many types of animal parts, I think road-kills are given automatically to First Nations people for their own ceremonial use.

[Kendel]

Thanks, @klw.
Yep. It’s illegal to possess eagle feathers here, too. I don’t know what the requirements are for Native Americans to possess them.

[SkovandOfMitaze (Mi)]

Collected a few dozen wood ear mushrooms today. I’ll make a soup with them tomorrow.

Had fun looking at the fall colors today and sharing with a friend a bit of information on identifying trees. Talked about some basic botany information such as how cool weather breaks down the green / chlorophyll and as it breaks down it reveals the browns / tannins, yellows / xanthophylls , and oranges such as beta carotene that exists all year but are hidden by the green. But as cool weather breaks the chlorophyll down various chemical reactions occur resulting in reds and purples developing in fall from anthocyanins.

[SkovandOfMitaze (Mi)]

Also found a nice witch hazel being pollinated.

Some more oyster mushrooms.

Just liked the way the dew drops looked in the web with the shelf mushrooms.

Just some neat stump or root pics.

[Kendel]

A very pleasant inducement of vertigo.

[Paraleptopecten (Timothy Campbell)]

This requires a bit of background: the homeschool group I am in is having a Christmas party in two weeks, and as part of it the students are supposed to make something to put in for a white elephant. I went with photographs of mine over some of my other ideas like “a wisdom tooth” or “50 pounds of post-processing coarse shell”.

Which one of these pictures should I put in as my last of 8 pictures (two birds, two landscapes, two lepidopterans, two shells)

Rimula

Chicoreus

Eupleura

Glyphostoma

Kurtziella

Vitricythara

Doxospira

• Rimula
• Chicoreus
• Eupleura
• Glyphostoma
• Kurtziella
• Vitricythara
• Doxospira

[MarkD (A Whateverist, not a Christian)]

The European Birch in my southeast corner is having its golden autumn moment now. Taken one morning this past weekend.

[jpm (Phil McCurdy)]

I think Chicoreus was most Christmas-y. White Elephant gifts are fun, especially when they are true White Elephants, that is, they are something of value yet nothing you want around the house.

[Kendel]

Gorgeous photos of gorgeous subjects.

[SkovandOfMitaze (Mi)]

I like the way it looks like embers.

The squares are the seed heads of the meadow beauties. It’s one of my favorite small seed heads. The pine cone looking flower is yellow eyed grass. Back drop of the bog.

[Dale (evolutionary providentialist)]

I’m reminded of when I first learned that dead trees (or dead branches) don’t drop their leaves – it takes trees to ‘unzip’ them, and how cool I thought that was (and still is ; - ).

[MarkD (A Whateverist, not a Christian)]

@SkovandOfMitaze

I like the way it looks like embers.

Or like it is lit from within. I’m putting together a post of pictures from a fellow you’d appreciate who built an off grid cabin as part of his retirement dream. It’ll take a bit to transfer his captions too. I think he is quite the poet.

[MarkD (A Whateverist, not a Christian)]

Here are some creation photos taken by my new online friend Gary taken upon his and his wife’s return to their cabin somewhere near Bend, Oregon following the conclusion of this past Thanksgiving holiday and the departure of their guests.

What follows, with his permission, are his photos and captions:

Well, the dust has settled

All is calm

The cabin calls this time of year

…

We’ll stoke the fire
maybe grab a book off the shelf

maybe just snuggle and look out, sipping something hot

It’s where, at times, you can feel the weight of the sky

or the onset of its passion

seeing, feeling its remorse

Yeah, I need to again hear the moon dog’s mournful wail
wandering thru the pines

If one flirts with creation long enough, it’ll take hold of one’s heart
never letting go
Becoming an eternal romance of the soul

For those interested in seeing and hearing more from Gary he hosts a diary thread that starts here here at Senior Forums:

Our version of retirement: Living a childhood dream

I looked into these forums as a possible escape plan if my fellow codgers manage to get us old, bored retired guys chased away from this site. (So far, so good on that score.)

I’ve started a diary thread there of my own about my own retirement dream including my garden, dogs and books. I also opened a general thread on whether “soul” is a meaningful concept amongst the religiously feral in our largely secular society. I of course say it is. Interesting to hear a wide range of responses in an unaffiliated venue.

[Dale (evolutionary providentialist)]

@MarkD

If one flirts with creation long enough, it’ll take hold of one’s heart
never letting go
Becoming an eternal romance of the soul

For some select it will lead to the Creator and an appreciation of C.S. Lewis’ ‘Great Dance’ and the true eternal romance of the soul with its Spouse.

[Dale (evolutionary providentialist)]

I’m a little surprised that I was able to relatively quickly come up with the name of a man whom beauty saved, back in the ‘60s if I’m not mistaken, whose story I’d heard and whom I’ve met decades ago:

God’s “General Kindness.” The Reason Why I Did Not End My Life — Sage...

[SkovandOfMitaze (Mi)]

Looks nice. I wish I was more into many aspects of nature when living there. Drove up the i5 from LA all the way to Seattle. Was 17 with my 18 year old GF lol. Spent a few weeks and went from Florida on the 10. Spend a week in Cave Creek Arizona where it was nice and warm. Stopped a few days in northern cali and southern Oregon. Then continued up through the mountains to Portland. I remember near San Francisco I saw some of the biggest palm trees by far that I’ve ever seen. Was also surprised to see some palm trees in Portland with snow on them and they were surviving. Though they were wrapped with insulation and then i think a wooden box around them. At some of the peaks on the 5 in mid Oregon you could see so far with waterfalls and lakes. Even saw what I think was a bear down a few hundred feet from a pass once. Looked like it just dived into a lake.

[Kendel]

Morning guests. Out the kitchen window.

And yet more guests