In junoir high we had to memorize a poem with a winter theme and this is the one I picked. It's call, "The Song Of Ski".

Norse am I when the first snow falls;
Norse am I till the ice departs.
The fare for which my spirit calls
Is blood from a hundred viking-hearts.
The curved wind wraps me like a cloak;
The pines blow out their ghostly smoke.
I'm high on the hill and ready to go —
A wingless bird in a world of snow:
Yet I'll ride the air
With a dauntless dare
That only a child of the north can know.

The bravest ski has a cautious heart
And moves like a tortoise at the start,
But when it tastes the tang of the air
It leaps away like a frightened hare.
The day is gloomy, the curtains half-drawn,
And light is stunted as at the dawn:
But my foot is sure and my arm is brawn.

I poise on the hill and I wave adieu:
(My curving skis are firm and true)
The slim wood quickens, the air takes fire
And sings to me like a gypsy's lyre.
Swifter and swifter grows my flight:
The dark pines ease the unending white.
The lean, cold birches, as I go by,
Are like blurred etchings against the sky.
One am I for a moment's joy
With the falling star and the plunging bird.
The world is swift as an Arab boy;
The world is sweet as a woman's word.
Never came such a pure delight.
To a bacchanal or a sybarite:
Swifter and swifter grows my flight,
And glad am I, as I near the leap,
That the snow is fresh and the banks are deep.

Swifter and swifter on I fare,
And soon I'll float with the birds on air.
The speed is blinding; I'm over the ridge,
Spanning space on a phantom bridge.
The drifts await me; I float, I fall:
The world leaps up like a lunging carp.
I land erect and the tired winds drawl
A lazy rune on a broken harp.

Child of the roofless world am I;
Not of those hibernating drones
Who fear the gray of a wintry sky
And the shrieking wind's ironic tones,
Who shuffle cards in a cloud of smoke
Or crawl like frozen flies at chess,
Or gossip all day with meddling folk
In collar of starch and a choking dress.

Come, ye maids of the vanity-box,
Come, ye men of the stifling air:
The white wind waits at your door and knocks;
The white snow calls you everywhere.
Come, ye lads of the lounge and chair,
And gird your feet with the valiant skis
And mount the steed of the winter air
And hold the reins of the winter breeze.

Lord of the mountains dark with pine!
Lord of the fields of smoking snow!
Grant to this vagrant heart of mine
A patch of wood where my feet may go,
And a roofless world to my journey's end,
And a cask of wind for my cup of wine,
And yellow gold of the sun to spend,
And at night the stars in endless line,
And, after it all, the hand of a friend —
The hand of a trusted friend in mine.

Not fotgetting that he doesn't take a wage for being president, he gives it straight to charity. Cue Mark and PB with conspiricy theory about why he doesn't take a wage and not needing the money won't be one of them. Has anybody ever come across a President who works so hard, for so many hours. he's like a man half his age. He's here, he's there, he's everywhere, so beware.

Trumps a joke and your senite doesn't seem to happy about carrying on trade with the Saudi's if the rumours turn out to be true. Why are you even buying oil off them in the first place. Imagine what the shipping alone costs you. You have all the oil and natural gas you could ever need right next door to you and at a better price. It's all about what the States does best and that's selling arms to mickey mouse countries with dictators. Who cares if these same arms are used down the road against your own military,right? How many of your own weapons are still in Iraq, Afganistan and Syria. You sell them to the Saud's who don't even know the difference between a school bus full of children and a tank. You aren't solving any world problems but only seem to be creating most of them.

Trudeau announced today that anyone who was convicted for small amount of Mary Jane (an ounce and under) will be granted a pardon and have their charges expunged. Canadians visiting the States won't bother taking any to the States because that would be like taking a sandwich to a banquet anyway but Americans visiting here may now find it harder getting back into their own country. It will depend on what mood your Black Shirts at the border are in I guess.

Not fotgetting that he doesn't take a wage for being president, he gives it straight to charity. Cue Mark and PB with conspiricy theory about why he doesn't take a wage and not needing the money won't be one of them. Has anybody ever come across a President who works so hard, for so many hours. he's like a man half his age. He's here, he's there, he's everywhere, so beware.

That is total rubbish; Trump has the reputation of being lazy and inattentive in meetings (due to him being a halfwit) he's spent more time on the golf course than Obama did and remember the flak he got for that.

Why do you allow your TDS to overide your common sense Mark? You say he takes a wage? What makes you say that without knowing? He said he wouldn't before he became president and he's been a man of his word. I believe he gives his salary away quarterly and his latest cause was the to a veteran's charity. I suppose we've all been following the Elizabeth Warren saga? Another triumph for Trump. The total fraud had actually convinced herself she was a native american and actually declared herself a woman of colour. HA! She rode on the back of her lies to get where her brains couldn't normally get her but Trump called her out on the sham. He began goading her, calling her Pocohontas and saying she was the whitest person he'd ever seen. Then he offered to donate a million dollars to a charity if she took a DNA test and the idiot fell for it. I suppose after all this time the half wit had actually convinced herself of it. Anyway, she turns out to be 1064th Indian, which means that I'm more Cornflakes than she is Indian, as I had a bowl this morning. Cue PB, dashing to her defence.

As if you Canucks weren't dazed & confused enough........now add Mary Jane. Weapons & soybeans are our only exports, Pete.

Let's say soy was a big export of yours Tommy but Trump ruined that for you. American can't find a market for what they have now and if they did they would have to sell it for 25% less that they got for it last year. These are not my numbers but come directly from your farmers. We also grown a lot of soy now and may get stuck with this years crop also. I had no idea what soy been looked like until I asked a local farmer, so I took a picture of it up close. They wait until the crop looks dead and turns a mixture of yellow and brown before the harvest it. Look at lot like pea or bean pods.

Trump doesn't take a salary because he would have to pay income tax on it and we all know Trump won't let anyone see that. You say he donate it all to charity and that's worth laughing about.  He promised money to the veterans a year or so ago but they still haven't seen it. The only charity he donated to is called The Trump slush fund. A hard worker, are you blind? When he's not entertaining other crooks in Florida or on the golf course he goes to some times three organizied Trump rallys a week to spread fear among the brain dead and raise money for himself.

A great and innovative airship followed by two even better the ZRS-4 Akron and the ZRS-5 Macon. The Germans were the masters of airship operations but the Americans built very effective and safer versions. Sadly all three US built airships crashed in bad weather. In my opinion the world's greatest airship was the US Macon launched in 1933. The Germans wanted helium for the Hindenburg, but the US wouldn't allow the export of the gas to NAZI Germany.

Everyone thinks of the fiery end of the Hindenburg whenever airships come up, but the passengers killed in that crash in 1937 were the ONLY fare paying passengers to die in the wreck of an airship. Germany operated passenger routes and excursions 1910-14, 1919 and 1928-37 carrying hundreds of thousands of passengers without any fatalities until the Lakehurst tragedy, but are those flights remembered - no.

The ZRS-5 Macon the world's most advanced rigid airship in 1933.

The Hansa, one of the German airships that carried thousands of passengers in the years immediately before World War I.

I call bullspit, Little Mr. Mymindisasteeltrap.  There's no way you memorized that entire poem.  You must be inching over to the Trump side.  I suppose your dog can bark in seven languages, too. I did Littlemissproveit and also other long poems but that was then and with that one I posted I can only the remember the first paragraph through.  I still have a good memory but it's short now. My father in his 80's could still say poems that he had learned as a kid in school. I know American schools have a lower standard of education that here but surely you had to memories poems in English classes. I am also teaching my granddaughter poems like, She stood upon the blazing deck, picking her nose like mad. She rolled it into little balls and shot it at her dad. No dog can bark in 7 languages Shula but mine dogs had masters 6 different barks. They were, I want a treat, there is someone at the door, I want to go out and do my business, I want to go for a car ride, I want to go for a walkie or a swim and last but not least was, that dam squirrel is in my backyard again. Another Canadian poem we also had to learn in school.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
           Between the crosses, row on row,
           That mark our place: and in the sky
           The larks still bravely singing fly
           Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead: Short days ago,
           We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
           Loved and were loved: and now we lie
           In Flanders fields!

Take up our quarrel with the foe
           To you, from failing hands, we throw
           The torch: be yours to hold it high
           If ye break faith with us who die,
           We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
           In Flanders fields

It has been know to bring a tear to many a mans eye Major. A simple but direct poem from a Canadian medical surgeon who have seen it all. He wrote the poem May 3rd 1915 at the battle front in Ypres Belguim. He died of pneumonia Jan 28th 1918. The poem is read out every year on Rememberance Day and especially in every school across Canada.

A saying I have on one of my ball caps Major that I wear around Rememberance Day.

                                                                            LEST WE FORGET

Meaning of Lest - with the intention of preventing (something undesirable); to avoid the risk of

Is that so, LittleMisssmartypants. Name me the capital cities of the Canadian Provinces and Territories. That might be too hard so just name the 10 Provinces and 3 Territories. In school we had to learn your States so see if you can name ours. lol  No cheating.

He probably meant that he didn't have to drink cheap American corn Bourbon or Near beer anymore Tommy. I see many Americans are trying to get into the Canadian stock market to buy up shares in the pot industry here. They are also offering 6 figure numbers for Canadians to come down and run their operations in States that have seen the light and legalized it already. You would probably do better with what you have left in your 401K (if there is any with you markets still dropping down there) and invest in something you know is greatly expanding and going to keep it's value like premium Canadian Mary Jane. So forget the Soy Beans, the market is dead because of Trump and follow the money north.

Trump's a lazy sod.  Now there's a good one. Well sitting on the throne all day tweeting can be draining I imagine. Right Shula? lol

That Mexican sagebrush seed and shake that you are use to smoking down there just won't cut it girl. What I might try is that CBD stuff that comes in an oil. Apparently it's good for treating just pain without the high.