Finishing the rough draft of one of my historical manuscripts and taking a break from fiction writing before I start on the other partially finished one, I have thought maybe I ought to be looking at my own life. Am I living as I want to be? What's going well or not for me? How did I let the area around my desk turn into something that looks like a pack rat's den? But I'm not-- I'm still tweaking the one I just finished and more interested in how Priscilla (its heroine) is managing than with how I am.
The only news story to really pique my interest is of Oscar Pistorius shooting his girlfriend. This is a human interest story which often attracts my interest; but in this case, my following it has been because so far no possible scenario regarding what happened makes any sense. I like to understand why people do what they do; however, sometimes in life there are things that literally have no such logical scenario. Murder frequently fits into that category.
Blasting through a bathroom door to kill a burglar doesn't make sense (logically the culprit is locked in there and you call the police, right?). Killing a girlfriend of three months doesn't, no matter how passionate you are (mad at your girlfriend-- logically, you dump her). Either way what happened is illogical.
The judge, in granting bail, called Pistorius' written testimony as to what happened implausible and that pretty well describes how I see either scenario; so I read when I see something new because I keep thinking eventually it'll make sense. So far not. All that is obvious is this is a horrible tragedy and involves a killing by a man full of fear or rage who should NOT, for his sake and others, have had a gun at all.
Having served on a jury not that long ago, I had been thinking I'd hate to be on the one that decides this case. Then I learned South Africa doesn't have juries. Judges decide innocence or guilt. I don't know if that's better or not. The articles on the high crime rate, fear there of home invasions, level of gun ownership, and then the horror of their main prison system has all been an eye opener as it wasn't how I saw South Africa. Nothing like a notorious crime to reveal culture. It happens to us in our own country all the time!
Otherwise on the farm-- lots more lambs, many twins, one set of triplets, one single that had to be pulled, one born dead. The first photo below is of twins, a few hours old and one of my favorite ewes. The others are of twins born the day before.
Locally, most of our weather has been gray and moderate this winter with no really hard freezes yet, only a smattering of December snow, lots and lots of fog. On one of our rare sunny days, Farm Boss and I drove out to Finley National Wildlife Refuge with the Nikon CoolPix P510 that we recently acquired, using frequent flier points, to see how our three cameras with telephotos compared.
The new one held up nicely against its bigger brothers. It is a nice little camera, less weight to carry on hikes and a pretty good telephoto, 16.1 mp, 42x zoom. All the photos in this blog were taken with it-- some at a considerable distance. I have yet to totally understand all its settings, but it looks like it has a lot of options that will be useful when finally figured out.
So far I still wish I had a really big telephoto like I said I wanted but can't justify the $10,000 it would cost. And yes, for shooting photos of the wolves in Yellowstone, that's what it would cost to get one that could do it at the distance we generally see them. It's obviously much cheaper to buy the photos someone else took!
In this last photo at Finley, those are hundreds of geese in the distance. They might be readying themselves to head north. It is getting close to the season and you could feel the excitement in the air.
8 comments:
love the photos.
I'm with you - the whole OP story doesn't add up. So sad because a young woman was killed, and because a mad we all looked up to and were inspired by is the culprit.
Beautiful photos, Rain, as always!
Cop Car
BEAUTIFUL pictures, my dear Rain....I LOVE Seeing the Ewes and their dear little babes...So Very Sweet.
The Pistorius case is bizarre....One wonders what REALLY happened! And, one wonders if we will ever know.
Beautiful photos. It is a bizarre story and the police have done a terrible job. Look for an OJ type acquittal.
I like my Cool Pix because it is easy to use and takes interesting photos because the astigmatic lens distorts images somewhat. I hate professional photography and photography with professional aspirations.
I enjoy the thought of you wrestling with your fiction and helping birthing lambs. It's a good life you lead, you know.
Ingineer, I think if he did purposely murder her, the more likely outcome is he kills himself before he goes to trial
And Hattie, this is the life I wanted. It's not always perfect but it gives me a base and level of freedom I very much appreciate. And I can live out some of my dreams through the fiction without having to actually live those more risky lives ;)
Love the sheep pictures. I am not sure of the possitive benefit of adding my 2 cents worth of input on the Sequester. I see a dead lock of simplified propaganda slogans on both sides.
Our spring lambs and returning ducks are still several weeks away, but I DO love looking at yours!
Post a Comment