Wednesday, December 05, 2012

Fall into Winter

This is such a sweet/melancholy transitional time of year. One day warm, sunny, beautiful fall weather; the next day deep, dark wintery gloom. December always—always takes me by surprise. It still feels like summer is just barely past us and shazam! it will officially be winter in just a couple of weeks. How does that happen and why don't I ever figure it out?

We have had some breaks from the rain the past few days and it has made our walks real gifts. The colors have deepened, but the richness of fall is still there. Yesterday we walked along the pond, that was more a mud flat during the summer. It is full and swarming with wild birds. It has been a couple years since we have seen an egret, but we rounded a corner and there he was.

We continued and Beth popped her umbrella open, startling a nearby, but hidden, great blue heron, who shot into the sky squawking and flapping, and then soared, regally over the wetland.

Today we explored the other end of the pond where it had overreached its normal shoreline and was lapping onto the abandoned tennis courts. Ducks and Canada geese swam lazily among the tall grasses and cattails.



Back home, Ray pointed out some brilliantly colored orange peel fungi growing behind the studio. I have never seen these before. The color is amazing.


Ray put up some Christmas lights on the house and greenhouse, and decorated a tree near the road.


Nice to see later, as I headed back from the studio to the house. This is my commute.



I guess Christmas is really coming.  Seems like I post this song every year. It must be that time again.



I hope we can ease into it and enjoy the season and not get sucked into the stress-y stuff. I'm really talking myself into simple and sweet. How about you?

6 comments:

  1. Simple and sweet it is. Or at least well-paced. The rule at our house is that Thanksgiving is sacred and not to be infringed upon. As of First Advent (like with the Kristkindlemaerkte in Germany) we can start baking cookies, turn on the Christmas music, and decorate. Today is Nikolaus Tag so the kids each got a chocolate santa (even though they forgot to put out their boots last night). The thirteenth is Santa Lucia, so until then a group of little Lucia dolls with candles graces our mantel. Afterwards, they will most likely be replaced with creches. The tree can't go up until the weekend after my birthday on the fifteenth. That had been my family's tradition when we got fresh trees, and it lives on today even though my fake tree COULD go up earlier.

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  2. Anonymous6:46 AM

    I've never seen orange peel fungi before, either. Amazing!! Thanks for sharing.

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  3. Ah yes my favourite too, I have added another to my Christmas music list and that is Happy Christmas a John Lennon and Yoko Ono song. It is on a Sarah McLachlan CD called Winterson, she also sings River but my fav is Joni. Thank you for your blog, I am a long time lurker, always enjoy seeing what is going on in your studio.

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  4. I first heard Joni Mitchell's "Wish I Had a River" on your blog (?a few years ago?) and bought an album so I could hear it whenever I wanted to--really love it and thank you for introducing me to it (even though it is not new). Your low-key stress-free season is what we will have, too, centered around music and advent celebration. Merry Christmas!

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  5. Today I was inspired by your post, thank you for stating how I feel about the "holidays". We love Thanksgiving, because we all spend time together in one place! We spend Christmas with our children and Grandchildren. Our traditions are simple; there is always a fuss about decorating the tree, whose turn to place the topper and which gift to open on Christmas Eve (everything else waits until morning). I pack away the music and books each year so those are like seeing old friends.
    Thank you for taking the time to share your art on this blog. I enjoy your perspective and new discoveries.
    Merry Christmas

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  6. I am with you Terri. Simple and Sweet sounds perfect! :)

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