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I find that comments made by readers don't always show up here -- something to do with Google+.  If you have a comment please send it via email to phoenixcir@yahoo.com.  We want to hear from you!!

DISCOVER OKLAHOMA SEGMENTS

The segment on the Chaparral Retreat filmed by Discover Oklahoma was aired on December 12. 
They also did a story on the Whirlwind Winery and their vineyards.  Thanks to the film crew from Discover Oklahoma for your work in bringing our little corner of Oklahoma into the homes of your viewers!  You guys did a great job!!
(I couldn't get the Whirlwind Winery segment to download here, but you can go to www.youtube.com and type in Whirlwind Winery to see the video. 

As a business owner in Blaine County, I am doing all that I can to promote our town.  Lots of people come to Roman Nose State Park but don't know that there are things in the nearby town of Watonga to see also!!  Watonga has been known for years as the home of the Watonga Cheese Factory, but the factory closed down in 2007 and reopened in the panhandle of Texas.  There are merchants here that still sell Watonga Cheese, and the local Chamber of Commerce still hosts an annual Cheese Festival, but there is more to our area than a once-a-year festival.     

Anyone can see my facebook page BLAINE CO. COMMUNITY EVENTS to see what's happening here.  Come out to see us!!!

A CHRISTMAS POEM

Toward the Winter Solstice

by Timothy Steele, 1948 - no copyright infringement intended

Although the roof is just a story high,

It dizzies me a little to look down.

I lariat-twirl the cord of Christmas lights

And cast it to the weeping birch’s crown;

A dowel into which I’ve screwed a hook

Enables me to reach, lift, drape, and twine

The cord among the boughs so that the bulbs

Will accent the tree’s elegant design.

Friends, passing home from work or shopping, pause

And call up commendations or critiques.

I make adjustments. Though a potpourri

Of Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Jews, and Sikhs,

We all are conscious of the time of year;

We all enjoy its colorful displays

And keep some festival that mitigates

The dwindling warmth and compass of the days.

Some say that L.A. doesn’t suit the Yule,

But UPS vans now like magi make

Their present-laden rounds, while fallen leaves

Are gaily resurrected in their wake;

The desert lifts a full moon from the east

And issues a dry Santa Ana breeze,

And valets at chic restaurants will soon

Be tending flocks of cars and SUVs.

And as the neighborhoods sink into dusk

The fan palms scattered all across town stand

More calmly prominent, and this place seems

A vast oasis in the Holy Land.

This house might be a caravansary,

The tree a kind of cordial fountainhead

Of welcome, looped and decked with necklaces

And centuries of green, yellow, blue, and red.

Some wonder if the star of Bethlehem

Occurred when Jupiter and Saturn crossed;

It’s comforting to look up from this roof

And feel that, while all changes, nothing’s lost,

To recollect that in antiquity

The winter solstice fell in Capricorn

And that, in the Orion Nebula,

From swirling gas, new stars are being born.

“Toward the Winter Solstice” from Toward the Winter Solstice (Swallow Press/Ohio University Press, 2006, www.ohioswallow.com).

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!!