Let it snow....

Crystals arise when a pure compound passes gradually from liquid to solid form. The elegant regularity of a crystal is attributable to the way its molecules have configured and fit together. The angles and distances between atoms are determined by the strong bonds of fundamental molecular structure, and then weaker bonds amongst the molecules determine in turn the most comfortable interrelationship as they gather, when cooling from a melted state or drying forth from solution.

In regimented accordance with all these affinities and angles, molecules work out the most stable arrangement and ultimately present a statement about themselves to us. If it weren't for this, we might still be wondering about the structural nature of the executive genetic material, for Watson and Crick had to make crystals of DNA and shine x-ray light through them to eureka the remarkable double helix.

Not to disillusion those who need to believe Jack Frost is a real person, but it is to me a happy point of fact that frost's fractal feathery fronds and the special beauty of snowflakes come about in this way, too. H2O maintains an angle of 104.5 degrees, stout chemical bonds keeping the hydrogens and oxygen together in a molecule, while gentler attractions decide the way they array when they find themselves at a low temperature. The most stable state entails compromise, as there is considerable repulsion between like-charged ends as well as attraction between the oppositely charged points, accounting for the expansion we see when water freezes, as well as a tendency to form a ring of six V-shapes that may ultimately express itself in a swirl of tiny sprites we can view with a magnifier and be impressed---or spread out this way and that across a pane to result in those crystal coastlines, cascades and crochet for perusal by sleepy eyes at sunrise.

What we have here is an awesome living universe – its pulse unmistakable in the cyclicity of planets and atoms and electromagnetic waves. The great universe manifests the profoundest good, eternal and perfect; my religion refers to this absolute as the Dharma or Wonderful Law.

SGTex

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That was a chicken?! I thought we were having turkey!!

Well, here I am and it's not like I've got this big thing I need to share.  I'm just sitting here at the desk doing some Facebooking and waiting for my husband to get home.  It's a beautiful day and the birds are singing outside the office window as if it were spring, but it's not.  Autumn has come to Texas and we're actually not going to mention how the roses are blooming all over town and things look rather green.  Not too many pecans on our trees, but there are a few and the squirrels have been busy as can be.

We've had another change of routine around here and I think I'll like it better not having the Mister working hours and miles away from home for several days at a time.  That's going to be better for me, and I hope it will for him, too.  I guess I wouldn't make a very good long-haul trucker's wife, heh heh.  Quelle surprise!!

No, I'm not the clingy, dependent "attention whore" type.  I just like having my Man around.  ;~)

Thanksgiving is nearly upon us here in America and people are starting to shop for the big day's meal.  I'm not sure what our schedule will be, but I have been making notes about the menu.  I'm a traditionalist, and I've fixed I don't know how many Thanksgiving meals, but it's still fun to pore over the recipes and get ideas and make lists.  I'm more the Barefoot Contessa than I am Martha Stewart in some ways, but it's nice to imagine emulating the best of both.

(Might as well face it, Shawn.  You're more apt to go totally Gordon Ramsay before we sit down to supper.)

Yeah, don't I know it.  This is what happens when I decide it's time to blog and I haven't a thing to say?!  ;~)

Shawn
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