Red sunrise
Mar. 20th, 2006 06:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
altivoAnd early too.
Today is the official equinox. The sun is also rising before 6 am for the first time, I guess (haven't looked it up.) But about 5:50 the whole sky here was flaming reds and oranges. I haven't seen a sunrise like that in years. It went by so fast I couldn't find a camera in time.
Odd thing-- Mate was up earlier than usual because he had a nightmare about being attacked by some sort of large cat in our woodlot. He described a cougar or a Florida panther, neither of which is likely to attack a human without provocation. But the odd thing is, he didn't know the species at all. He could only describe it. He wanted to call it a lynx, but it clearly was not (long tail, rounded ears.) He's prone to nightmares but most have to do with work, or are flashbacks to his time in the military. The really odd thing, though, is that I woke up with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
songdogmi's song, "Panther in Michigan" playing in my head.
True, I did listen to that last night, but not right before bed. I switched it off to go tocorelog's web broadcast, which lasted 75 minutes or so, and then we had dessert and talked some before going to bed.
Anyway, I reassured him that cougars are not comfortable in our climate, because it's too cold in the winter. Their primary prey is smaller, rabbit-sized things, and they don't normally attack grown humans. Lynx, on the other hand, though they can be found this far south, prefer it colder and farther north. I didn't mention global warming, which will shift all this around at the present rate and well before the end of this century.
Today is the official equinox. The sun is also rising before 6 am for the first time, I guess (haven't looked it up.) But about 5:50 the whole sky here was flaming reds and oranges. I haven't seen a sunrise like that in years. It went by so fast I couldn't find a camera in time.
Odd thing-- Mate was up earlier than usual because he had a nightmare about being attacked by some sort of large cat in our woodlot. He described a cougar or a Florida panther, neither of which is likely to attack a human without provocation. But the odd thing is, he didn't know the species at all. He could only describe it. He wanted to call it a lynx, but it clearly was not (long tail, rounded ears.) He's prone to nightmares but most have to do with work, or are flashbacks to his time in the military. The really odd thing, though, is that I woke up with
songdogmi's song, "Panther in Michigan" playing in my head. True, I did listen to that last night, but not right before bed. I switched it off to go to
corelog's web broadcast, which lasted 75 minutes or so, and then we had dessert and talked some before going to bed.Anyway, I reassured him that cougars are not comfortable in our climate, because it's too cold in the winter. Their primary prey is smaller, rabbit-sized things, and they don't normally attack grown humans. Lynx, on the other hand, though they can be found this far south, prefer it colder and farther north. I didn't mention global warming, which will shift all this around at the present rate and well before the end of this century.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-03-20 07:55 am (UTC)On the cusp of darkness and light we dance in joy and love, with minds on the present but our hearts full of hope for the future.
Peace be with you, and love always.
Light and laughter,
SongCoyote
no subject
Date: 2006-03-20 08:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-20 09:50 am (UTC)I must not reminisce.
^_^
no subject
Date: 2006-03-20 10:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-20 12:17 pm (UTC)Here's a map, though the "suspected" ranges are way too extensive I think and are really just "former" ranges from the 19th century and earlier. Our area is not covered at all.
Cougars in much of North America depended on the white tailed deer as prey. Increasing human populations tend both to run the deer out and destroy the cat's habitat as well. However, the deer are making quite a comeback in recent years, and are pretty pestilential in our area, so I suppose it's not inconceivable that the cougars could return as well.
I tend to associate the cougar with desert (southwestern US) and subtropics (Florida) and forget that they are found in mountainous areas all the way up into Canada. So the presence of too many humans has probably done far more to keep them out of the midwest than the climate has done.
Like the wolf, they would probably be hunted and harried and feared to distraction if they reappeared in populous areas.
Actually, what I thought of and did NOT mention to Gary was the "brown tiger" of Edgar Pangborn's post-apocalyptic North America. Those would fit the description in his dream both physically and behaviorally, but I'm sure he's never read Pangborn's fiction.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-20 10:56 am (UTC)Gary wasn't watching that show on the maneating tigers in India, was he? Animal Planet was showing that a few times this weekend. (Or maybe it was National Geographic channel, I don't remember.)
no subject
Date: 2006-03-20 12:06 pm (UTC)