Monday Musings

Today I sat down at my laptop and wondered what to share with you, my readers. A glance out of the open door showed trees tossing. Wind chimes sounded in the background, the breeze nuzzled my skin, and the scent of early alyssum teased my nose. Once again, nature nudged me. Taking a moment to pause and experience our surroundings can enrich our hearts and minds. But did I just give you a rote description of my view? Authors and artists see and feel the situation before them and translate those sensations into their creative medium. A poem, a painting, a sculpture, or a song attempt to elucidate an extension of those feelings in the individual that looks at or listens to the art form. Writing and other arts are labors in observation, rendering, and transformation. A light bulb moment can be quickly reproduced or take hours, days, or even years to realize a satisfactory final product. Perseverance is requisite. Are you a creative individual? What sparks your work? You can follow the Auth

The term  march madness  conjures up visions of basketball and brackets.  In fact, as I write, NCAA Women’s basketball drones in the background. As a gardener, I imagine a different sort of insanity, wild weather swings that endanger new growth. Weeks of 60-degree warmth enticed forsythia, spring bulbs, and flowering trees into bloom. Grass greening, worms, and mud. As we basked in their beauty, a nasty cold snap with fifty-mph winds brought us back to reality. Tree limbs sagging, bowed under ice, fruit tree blossoms brown, dead, and withered daffodils. Fruit harvest threatened. Winter getting in her last licks. Have you seen weather fluctuations in your region? Did you have enough warning to cover and protect your plants?  You can follow the Author on her  Website  or on  Twitter.

In 1988, the holiday  π  (pi) Day was founded by Larry Shaw, a physicist at the Exploratorium California Science Museum, to observe the mathematical constant pi ( π ). March 14 (3/14) was chosen because the first three significant figures of  π  are 3, 1, and 4. The United States House of Representatives passed a non-binding resolution recognizing  π  (pi) Day in 2009. Super Pi Day was celebrated in 2015 on 3/14/15 at 9:26:53 to represent the first 10 digits of  π . What is  π ? It is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. It is an irrational number (not equal to the ratio of any two whole numbers.) π , or its approximation, was described by the ancients. The  Babylonians  (c. 2000 BCE) obtained the value 3.125 by calculating the perimeter of a hexagon inscribed within a circle. The  Rhind papyrus  (c. 1650 BCE) scribed by the Egyptians used the value ~ 3.16045, and more recently,  Archimedes  (c. 250 BCE) as ~ 3.1418. Since then, Arab, Chinese, and Indian mathemat