Lofty Matters

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I missed Wordless Wednesday!  We just got back from being away for 2.5 weeks and so yesterday was a pretty chaotic day.

Anyway, this is a picture of the snow that just hit the UK. A car heading through a snow blizzard in Stevenage, Hertfordshire to be exact. Apparently this winter is forecasted to be an extreme one for much of the world. Our area is supposed to get over 150 inches of snow according to the Farmers Almanac!

A Japanese Air crew observed a strange set of clouds over the Sea of Okhotsk. This is a very rare type of cloud formation.

The clouds were observed last year from a Japan Coast Guard aircraft off the northeastern coast of Hokkaido.

The clouds floated just over the sea surface, stood over a half mile tall and stretched over 62 miles.

Villagers pour water on a beached whale in Kampung Kuala Nenasi, Malaysia.

Have you ever wondered what causes animals like this to beach themselves? It’s just so heartbreaking.

This baby moose was rescued in distress from a creek. The moose was taken out of the creek and rescuers tried to find the mother and send him on his way. The mother was not found and the moose stumbled back into the creek and had to be rescued again.

This photo is of the moose in a pen with a rescued baby fawn.

Incredibly, in just a few years this little baby moose will weigh between 1200 and 1500 pounds.

Here’s an image that ought to send chills down your spine. Taken several years ago, Then-Russian President Putin and Hugo Chávez, President of Venezuela…schmoozing and cozying up with each other. This is NOT a union that is in our best interest.

My thoughts and prayers are with all of those who are struggling in the wake of Ike several days ago.  As always, I think a picture says a thousand words…and so I am putting up some pictures so that the devastation and destruction can be firmly implanted in our minds and we can keep these people in our prayers.

An aerial view of Crystal Beach, near Galveston, which took the brunt of Ike.

Ike tossed boats around as if they were toys.

The storm reduced much of Galveston’s seafront to matchsticks and the city has been left without water or electricity.

Rescuers are using boats, high-wheel lorries and helicopters to rescue thousands of people who did not evacuate.

This picture has haunted me since the first time that I saw it years ago. I’ve always meant to put it up for a Wordless Wednesday blog entry just because everything about it is so tragic and I think that reminders about some of these realities is a good thing for we who are so blessed to be insulated from these things.

Photo Background:

Photographer Kevin Carter won a Pulitzer Prize in 1994 with this picture. The picture was taken during the Sudane famine and is a starving child who was attempting to crawl to a UN food camp that was a kilometer away. One can’t help but notice the vulture stalking the child.

The fate of the child is unknown. As soon as the picture was taken, the photographer left the area. Kevin Carter later confided to friends that he wished he had intervened. Unfortunately, he must have been haunted by this regret because only three months later (and just weeks after winning the Pulitzer) Carter committed suicide.

Though this is a “cartoon” my heart goes out to all of those who are living in the path of destruction. My prayers and thoughts are with you! Hoping for the best as these nasty storms churn their way through.

Can you even imagine? I quit buying prepared salads after the salmonella scares from a while ago so I don’t plan on running into any extra protein in my salad…but still…

A man loads water into his pickup truck in Florida as he prepares for Tropical Storm Fay. Stalled Tropical Storm Fay has now soaked the state for a third consecutive day. Fay passed almost harmlessly over the Keys, but stalled over Florida on a second swing through. There, it has done the most damage.