Snow White Kinda Moments

I was up very early this morning - took off to the Heath and made it as the sun was up and starting to peep into the Heath.  It has been a very animal oriented day starting with the ducks at Hamsptead Heath:

Ducks at the Heath

 

and then moving to the other end of the pond with the swans:

Swans at the Heath

and then we were joined by the white swan's buddies - are there grey swans???  or are they geese?  I should interject that I like to admire all fowl from afar after being traumatized at 2 years old by a goose that was as tall as me and fascinated with my lacy toddler panties - so fascinated that he chased me round and round poking at me or, more specifically, at my butt.  Since then - I admire from a distance although geese do not really rank high on my list (right!?!!?) so forgive my ignorance of knowing if these are grey geese (I mean it IS a vodka) or grey swans....

So life was idyllic this morning at the ponds...until the arrival of Rob - an energetic golden retriever who apparently had quite a passion for fowl himself...

A passion that only lasted until the swan/geese/birds/whatever noticed him swimming frenetically towards them.  They turned as a unit and began to swim towards him and Rob (who must have done this before) hastily reversed direction and contented himself with posturing from the bank.  Another pet owner standing there and giggling with me commented that actually, swans were quite dangerous and could break a dog's neck.  Geez - who knew??  Apparently Rob did judging from his reversal.
So, all was well at the Heath as the dogs began to arrive and walk their owners. 

This afternoon, though, I was heading to the library and walking up the street when I spotted a squirrel dashing in front of me.  I took out my camera figuring I would not catch him but to my great surprise, not only did he stop, but he proceeded to chatter and move towards me.   Aggressively.   I was a bit taken aback at the ferociousness but it was enormously funny at the same time.  I suppose I need to leave more nuts for the winter...

He actually was scampering away when he heard the camera and turned around again at the curb and started all over again. I guess even squirrels need to have a release.  Hilarious!

So - those are my Snow White moments with the animals minus me singing (be grateful for that) and birds landing on me (I AM grateful for that)...wonder when the short guys show up and do you think that they will do the laundry?

Leda & The Swan

The Swan is a potent symbol that is present through multiple mythographies.  The appearance of the Swan is usually accompanied by a transformation of some kind and tension between opposites - example being that in Leda and the Swan, Zeus is the Swan and representative of the Sun while Leda symbolizes the Moon.  The alchemy of opposites is also implied in the poem as the White Swan denotes the whitening process, a step along the journey to the quintessence in the alchemical marriage and a process with which Yeats was certainly familiar.
Blackening - Black Crow, Raven, Toad, Massa Confusa.
Whitening - White Swan, White Eagle, skeleton.
Greening - Green Lion.
Rapid cycling through iridescent colours - Peacock's Tail.
White Stone - Unicorn.
Reddening - Pelican feeding young with its own blood, cockerel.
Final transmutation - Phoenix reborn from the fire.