As Autumn moves into Winter, the snow falls gently from the skies, as though to remind me that today is the longest night of the year. For centuries, people have celebrated this day, across civilizations, under names which are as differing as the tides. Candlemas, Yule, Jul…the Winter Solstice. Tonight is the Longest Night – when the Northern hemisphere is plunged into the darkest of depths, only to emerge at the dawn with something faint, yet tangible. Hope. Hope for a new solar cycle, and a hope for warmth in the coming days. Represented by beginnings, I bring you this.
This blog. I will still post in my regular travel blog during trips, over at paienne.blogspot.com, but here, here is something new. I deleted Facebook at the beginning of 2012, and I’ve fallen out of touch. I’ve become reclusive, and secretive, and I’ve stopped doing something I love – take photos. So, I guess in a somewhat-related 365 project, I’m going to try and post a photo-a-day. Some days, like today, I will post more than one photo. Some days, I suspect I will struggle to post just one. There may not always be commentary. But then again, maybe there will be. That’s the beauty about new projects – they’re so fresh and young, and they haven’t fully formed in the mind of their author! As Winter turns into Spring, it is my hope, that so too will this little place to put my photo memoires …my photo memories.
Canon Rebel XS. 1/30 sec, f / 3.5, ISO 400.
Our Yule log completed! Wrapped with fabric ribbon, cranberries, cinnamon sticks, cedar, and pine. Our birch yule log is tied with the wishes of our coming year.
Canon Rebel XS. 1/30 sec, f / 4.5, ISO 1600.
The burning of the Yule log to represent the coming year of light!
Canon Rebel XS. 1/100 sec, f / 7.1, ISO 400.
The moose came back this morning. This little beauty has been eating my plants all year. I’m surprised she can find anything to sate her hunger, this late into the season.
Canon Rebel XS. 1/10 sec, f / 4.0, ISO 400.
And the stockings were hung, from the wall with tacks, in the hopes I could stop Santa, dead in his tracks. Cedric pounced from the tree, with nary a thought, as Old Saint Nick, dropped the presents he brought. He jumped and he thumped, that poor head of his, and he swore and he threatened to beat us with fish, which is precisely how Cedric got his Christmas wish.
Canon Rebel XS. 1/60 sec, f / 5.0, ISO 400.
The wreath on my ruby red door. I made it from cedar, hemlock, and pine boughs I collected myself, and constructed it from a metal hoop and some hot glue. And cranberries, of course!
Canon Rebel XS. 1/25 sec, f / 5.6, ISO 400.
Bokeh Christmas lights, just to see if I could do it. I still don’t entirely understand this as an art form.
fall in love. take photos. repeat. 