It is about 20ºF this morning (-7°C), the squirrels are tucked into their nests, and, as I walked to work in the dark, a bunny (Sylvilagus floridanus) ran across my path. The iPhone picture I took in darkness (too far away for the flash to have much effect) shows a glowing eye on an otherwise unidentifiable lump:
It is too cold for the beasts of the field (and of the campus), and I was reminded of the wonderful lines that open Keats’s poem, “The Eve of St. Agnes”:
| St. Agnes’ Eve—Ah, bitter chill it was! | |
| The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold; | |
| The hare limp’d trembling through the frozen grass, | |
| And silent was the flock in woolly fold: |
Don’t forget to give the deer, squirrels, birds, and other animals an extra ration of food.
UPDATE: Ben Goren has improved the photo as much as he could, noting this:
I spent a few minutes tweaking the bunny photo…still mostly a blob, but perhaps a bit more recognizable…maybe….
This now looks like Seurat painting a rabbit!
Poor chilly bunny! The quick change in temperatures caused a change in pressure so I got my typical migraine last night & although my medication took care of the head pain, I’m stiff all over this morning from it! 🙁
🙁 no fun… chocolate & red wine? I mean, maybe they would help?! 🙂
Diana, I used to have killer migraines. Menopause took care of the problem finally. No more prostaglandins. Maybe that’ll help you someday?
Maybe. My mom still gets them post menopause but they aren’t as bad. When she was my age they were bad like mine.
Well, hopefully they’ll be less frequent and milder in the coming years.
This article from the Times might actually be of interest to you, especially in conjunction with Sam’s most recent book:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/30/opinion/sunday/can-mushrooms-treat-depression.html
b&
Would lots of hot (fresh) ginger tea help?
No, I have a lot of nice ginger shavings for tea but they don’t really help. Sometimes, when I’ve had a lot of migraines, as I’ve had this month (9 or 10 so far) I get a reaction to the medication as well. I will get a sudden fast heart beat, feel dizzy etc. I felt pretty low yesterday and just made sure to take it easy and drink a lot of water (I get thirsty with migraines as well). I also have to remember to eat. I always forget and I think the blood sugar spike when I do eat is a bad thing for migraines and for just feeling horrible.
I’m going to talk to my doctor about going a beta blocker soon. My heart is fast anyway and a beta blocker would bring that down so I can exercise better. I get too quickly into my VO2 max and recovery time is looooooong.
Miserable experience. I used to get them really badly until my eye problems were diagnosed. Nowhere near as common now, but they were hell.
Sheesh! Invisible night jars and now, an invisible rabbit.
Email inbound, Prof. CC….
b&
What about a Swedish goat?! 😉
http://www.visitgavle.se/sv/gavlebocken
I was wondering why the goat had a handle, than realized they were extra-long horns.
Yeah, it was 15C (60ish F) just yesterday. Crazy weather!
Rabbit (Oryctolagus) eyeshine is demonic red; is this a useful taxonomic character within Leporidae, or was your Sylvilagus illuminated with blue LEDs?
I wouldn’t read too much into the color. The phone didn’t have a prayer at getting correct white balance, and so everything in the image is much, much, much more blue than it actually would have been.
b&
While I was cycling back from the DHL depot at the airport last night, I had a fox dash across the cycle path in front of me. No chance for a photo, having hands occupied at the time.