The Wind in the Willows...er Aspens

You would think from looking at this photo that we are having an ideal Memorial Day...

...those stupendous Mountain Bluebird blue skies and just that little cloud in the distance.  But the winds have been annoyingly strong all weekend.  My neighbors have an anemometer....

...which you can barely discern against the background of trees.  I think it probably looks much like this image from Wikipedia...

I didn't know what these were called.  This is what Wikipedia has to say about anemometers:

An anemometer is a device for measuring wind speed, and is a common weather station instrument. The term is derived from the Greek word anemos, meaning wind, and is used to describe any airspeed measurement instrument used in meteorology or aerodynamics. The first known description of an anemometer was given by Leon Battista Alberti around 1450.^[1]

I asked my neighbor what speed their anemometer was measuring the wind gusts because I thought NOAA was way under-forecasting when they said as high as 28 mph today.  She said the highest they had was 50 mph, but because their anemometer is mounted too low, it usually measures about 20 mph under one owned by another resident in Eldora, so she was figuring 70 mph.  That seems more like it.  I can usually tell based on the noises various pieces on the cabin and outbuildings make.


I hoped I would be able to capture the winds whipping the neighboring aspens by using the same camera setting that enabled me to shoot falling snow last winter, but no luck.  You can see the tree tops bending a little in this photo, but it's not capturing the true magnitude of the wind gusts...

...and here they are straight again...

If I took enough of these images I could make an animated flip book...couldn't remember what these were called and had to look it up.  Love Google and Wikipedia.  A person can type the most poorly formatted question into Google Search and have it successfully interpret what you're seeking and direct you there.  In this case, this "duh" question, "Is there a name for the moving cartoons made by putting a different image on each page of a book?" typed into the search box took me to "Animation" and Wikipedia has some wonderful information on the subject:

Early examples of attempts to capture the phenomenon of motion drawing can be found in paleolithic cave paintings, where animals are depicted with multiple legs in superimposed positions, clearly attempting to convey the perception of motion. [I love this!  My comment]:

A 5,000 year old earthen bowl found in Iran in Shahr-i Sokhta has five images of a goat painted along the sides. This has been claimed to be an example of early animation. However, since no equipment existed to show the images in motion, [What about a potter's wheel?  My question] such a series of images cannot be called animation in a true sense of the word.^[1]

A Chinese zoetrope-type device had been invented in 180 AD.^[2] The phenakistoscope, praxinoscope, and the common flip book were early popular animation devices invented during the 19th century.

These devices produced the appearance of movement from sequential drawings using technological means, but animation did not really develop much further until the advent of cinematography.

So, making a bad segue from jumping antelope to foxes, I have been worried sick about Vixen, but was hoping she'd make an appearance and ease my concern before posting anything about it.  Unfortunately, not.  I haven't seen her since Friday night at which time she came at the appointed hour, ate her kibble and raw egg...

 
...while I sat on the bench under the cabin eave and watched her and chatted, then came up on the deck, took this huge piece of chicken from my hand and trotted off in the direction of her den.  No sign of her Saturday morning or Saturday evening, Sunday morning or Sunday evening.  Finally, about dark, the male fox I dubbed Valentino showed up...

There must have been some telepathizing going on because I'd been to-ing and fro-ing about putting out some chicken bones, wanting her to have them if she showed up, but not wanting to attract the bear, and had finally decided to put them out, opened the door and there he was.  But he's very flighty and left without taking the bones or another piece of chicken breast I put in the bowl...unless he came back after I shut the door.


...so now I'm trying to come up with a logical scenario...one that doesn't involve her being killed...and have come up with this:  After being attacked in the den, being injured and losing her month-old kits last spring, Vixen got pregnant again very quickly [gestation 52 days according to Wikipedia], which puts it at about May 5, needed nourishment badly so started coming for whatever calories I could provide, but remained so thin she just didn't look pregnant.  Brought her guy around a few weeks back so he'd know where to come for food when she couldn't.  Gave birth Friday night and can't leave the kits.  All this time she's been trotting off with pieces of chicken she was taking it to Valentino and now it was his turn to do for her and he didn't come through.  I can just hear the conversation...."Do I have to do everything?!"  

I do hope she's OK.  Teddee