Winter Solstice

 

Yesterday marked the beginning of the winter solstice.  It's a happy time for me because I look forward to more daylight each day.  I took the photo above about a week ago when there was a bit of snow on the ground, but all the snow has disappeared now.  It has been gray and dreary with absolutely no sunlight for days on end.  I've lost track of the cloudy days.  My guess is we've had about ten days of no sun and it's expected to stay this way.  Rain is in the forecast for Christmas Eve.  Not exactly the white Christmas that I'd hoped for.  But, we'll make the most of it, turning on the festive decorations and lighting the candles, creating our own holiday cheer.

 

I remember living in Key West and wishing for a cloudy day.  I tell my friends that I got more than I wished for when I moved to this little corner of the northeast.  But, soon the snow will arrive.  It's almost inevitable and then my little world will be transformed.  Can't wait! 

 

Yeah, I'm one of the crazy people who  loves winter and gets excited about snowstorms.  It's a forced retreat that I cherish.  In a big storm, the world  around us often comes to a complete halt.  Kind of special.  And, peaceful.  But, not for the faint of heart.  I often think that my sailing days prepared me for the serious snowstorms and sometimes bitter cold.  It's another adventure.

No big storms yet this year, so I'll post some winter photos from the past couple years.

 

The barn across the street. Why would I want to go south??

 

Delaware River - looking south from Basket Bridge.

 

Winter on Swago Pond.



 

A sunny shot of the barn.
 

 

Snow falling in the backyard, magical.






 





Winter Storm Warning

Emergency Broadcast System was going off  like crazy on some of the radio stations today.  Winter Storm Warning begins tomorrow morning at 4 a.m.  Forecast looks like a wintry mix, my least favorite and the most scary time to be out on the roads.  I long for the white powdery snow, when I can strap on my snowshoes or cross country skis.  This wintry mix stuff is when one starts hunting for ice treads to put on your shoes and the snow loses a bit of its magic.    However, I'm looking forward to the forced retreat.  My day job has been insanely busy and I typically don't drive in snow and ice.  I just might have two days off.  Yay!!  Batten down the hatches and get the wood fire roaring!

Meanwhile, we've mostly been living in a black and white world here.   Which is fine.  I'm finding myself wanting to shoot more photos in black and white.  Suddenly my dismal world becomes slightly brighter as I capture some interesting  black and white photos.

 

 

 

 

These are the nights I have swimming and sailing dreams.  My sea/country world collides and this Herman Melville quote runs through my head.  Not from Moby Dick, but a time when Melville lived in the Berkshires.

 





"I have a sort of sea-feeling here in the country now that the ground is covered in snow, I look out my window in the morning when I rise as I would out of a port-hole of a ship in the Atlantic. My room seems a ship's cabin; & at nights when I wake up & hear the wind shrieking, I almost fancy there is too much sail on the house, & I had better go on the roof & rig in the chimney."          
~Herman Melville

 

Saturday night and freezing rain

It's Saturday night and I cancelled my plans based on a winter weather advisory for freezing rain.  Yeah, my AWD Subaru has studded snows, but not everyone else  on the road is as well prepared.  I decided to stay home, snug in my house with the wood stove going.  And, Charley the cat.
The outside world can be a bit dreary this time of year.  The landscape is stark and trees look terribly bare without their leaves.  Reminds me of that Joni Mitchell song, "Urge For Going," made famous by Tom Russell.  Love these lines:



I awoke today and found the frost perched on the town
It hovered in a frozen sky, then it gobbled summer down
When the sun turns traitor cold
And shivering trees are standing in a naked row
I get the urge for going but I never seem to go
    ~Joni Mitchell

This is the time of year when photo opportunities don't pop up as frequently.  But, if you look closely, it's really quite beautiful.  I noticed today that small sections of the river were beginning to freeze and there were icicles on the rocks by the river.  It has been  very cold here.  A bit too early in the season for me.
I spend lots of time looking at the sky these days, which appears to be constantly changing.  In fact, almost rear ended the car in front of me the other day when the sky looked like this:

 

Inspired by Joni Mitchell -  "shivering trees are standing in a naked row" 

   

All has not been totally bleak.  We did have a light dusting of snow last week.  Yay!  Grabbed my camera and got a few shots of the barn/field across the street in the early morning.

 

Sometimes I love capturing the world in black and white rather than color.  Love the shadows in this barn shot.



Fog and Art In Sixes

Yesterday was my first show where I presented my photographs: Art in Sixes, a small works show at the Delaware Valley Arts Alliance in Narrowsburg, NY.  I was pretty excited and a little nervous.  Not sure why I was nervous, but I was.  Turned out to be great fun!  Huge crowd, wine was flowing, lots of interesting people.  At one point it was wall-to-wall people (literally!) and I never did see the entire show.  Will go back one day soon when I'm alone and can take in everything by myself.  Many terrific artists in the show and I was proud to be a small part of it. 

Big surprise of the day for me was that I sold two photographs!  Wow.  I'll post them here, even though I posted one before in a previous blog.  One photo is a foggy morning in Mystic, CT .  Always loved that photo and was thrilled that someone else did.   A friend asked me about some of my fog pictures and how I take them. Obviously, there is a sense of knowing your camera, but it also involves patience.  One must wait for the fog to lift.  It's always best for me to get out early in the morning. Then, I watch carefully until things slowly begin to appear in the dense fog.  I love the waiting part and sensing that 'right' moment to take the photo.   Good thing I'm a morning person.  By the way, a good cup of coffee is also an important piece in getting the fog pics just right.

 

I used to do lots of sailing when I was younger and found fog incredibly scary.  All one had to rely on were lights and horns.  When I'm on land, I love fog.  However, last year crossing over to Block Island on the ferry we were in thick fog and I didn't mind.  That's because the Block Island ferry is a big boat and I was always on small sailboats, feeling rather vulnerable.  That fog horn on the ferry blew almost constantly for the entire trip.  I felt very safe even though I couldn't see a thing - nothing.  Next time in the fog I will take a pictures of the 'nothingness.' 

 

One of the other photos in the show that sold was a house on Block Island.  It's a house that I photograph frequently, a house that always stays in my mind.  I return every year to photograph that house and still don't think I've gotten it quite right.  But, someone bought it.  That felt great! This year I will find out who lives there.  Guess I used to think it was an empty house because of its location, but not so sure anymore.  It appears to sit on the edge of the sea and I never noticed a road.  Will have to do some exploring.  Ok, here are the photos:

 

Autumnal Sky

 

Not Fade Away

Fall is upon us, but fading fast.  The ground is turning into a blanket of leaves, but the  trees are still holding onto bits of color.   Definitely a fantastic time to be driving around the country.

"Autumn...is the year's last, loveliest smile."
               -William Cullen Bryant






The Delaware River with subtle fall colors.





 



Picnic benches by an ice cream stand, closed for the season.

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Fog - Mystic, CT







 

 

 

This was about a month ago.  I was on my way to Newport, RI and stopped in Mystic CT, mostly to shoot photos in the early morning.  Oh yeah, I got to swim in the ocean the day before.  I was happy.  Anyway, I set my alarm at my motel and got up early to catch the fog.  It was foggy!!  Almost too much fog.  I had to wait until it lifted a bit before anything was visible.  I was the only one around in most places.  Great to have these tourist spots practically all to myself. 

 

 

 

 



 



 

 



Fog - Catskills

 

 



Morning is my favorite time of day.  Even as a young child, I'd always be up in those early morning hours ready to start my day, usually before anyone else.  Morning is a great time for capturing fog and mist.   It changes minute to minute and one has to be standing by vigilant with the camera.  Often, I jump out of my car on my morning commute when the fog seems just right in a particular spot.  Love these foggy shots.

Neville Lens: Pictures And Words

Winter, Wood, and the Missing Piece

 

View of the barn across the street on a walk to the woodshed

 

 
It's that time of year when everyone begins to talk about how many cords of wood they have had delivered.  Important topic.  Wood is the main source of heat for many of us living here in the country.  But when I think of wood, I think of that 'stacking' thing.  There is an art to stacking wood, an art I have never fully mastered.  Yeah, I'm able to get my wood stacked and it looks fine.  At least to me.  But, there were many years when my entire wood pile came crashing to the ground while I was removing one log.  I barely survived a serious disaster.  This year I hired someone to stack most of my wood.  I felt slightly guilty when I saw numerous friends' posts on Facebook and viewed their impeccably organized wood piles, which they had of course stacked themselves.  I reminded myself that I had assembled a few little log racks late summer and stacked all those racks with wood on my own.  Forget the guilt.  I finally admitted that I don't embrace some of these country chores like others do.

Despite my non-interest in stacking wood, I love a wood fire.  Nothing better to warm up the house when the winter's chill begins to move in.  Wonderfully romantic. The warmth,  the crackling, the smell.  Close to perfect

Something is missing here though.  I am mesmerized by my wood fires.  I love the mountains, rivers, lakes, and my friends.  Yet, I long for the ocean.

Soon after I bought my house here in Pennsylvania, a completely land-locked area, I entered a period of confusion, which exists to this day.  I had lived in Key West for over twenty years and being near the sea had always felt like home.  Shortly after I settled into my country home, a literary journal in Key West was focusing their first issue on the healing power of salt and the sea.  The confusion about my living situation prompted me to submit an essay for their first publication.

The journal didn't accept my submission, I admit to going  off on a tangent, but they sent me copies of their journal until their final issue.  That was great for me because I fell in love with the journal and it kept me connected in a small way to my island home.  The journal was called "The Secret Of Salt."  There is a "secret," and only those who know the sea deeply can truly understand. 


Here's my essay:

It is only in recent years that I have been drawn to the remarkable quality of wood.  There is a certain allure with the smell of wood and the special warmth it provides me during the long cold winters.  These days I often feel that wood has healing qualities very similar to the solace I used to find with the salt and sea.

I don't recall how or when this happened.  I remember thinking that I would live on my island home of Key Wet forever.  I was captivated by that island like one is attracted to a crazy lover.  I was addicted to the tropical waters, my love of sailing, the wondrous feeling of dried salt on my body, and the scents and smells of a place that never quite leave you.  I had found a home that was closer to whatever I thought God was at the time.  I was a free spirit and wonderfully happy.  Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would find myself living on a remote hilltop in rural Pennsylvania some twenty years later.

Today is it early morning when that first hint of light is attempting to wake up the world.  I walk out slowly to the woodshed and gaze at the fresh snow that has fallen during the overnight.  The bitter cold temperature hurts, but the utter stillness comforts.  I gather as much wood as I can possibly hold to heat my little house for the morning.  My mind wanders to a time in Key West many years ago when I read about snow and silence in a small northeastern town.  I had secretly longed for this experience.  I wanted to hear the nothingness, to know this totally different world.  And today, the only sound for miles around is my boots crunching in this icy snow.  I have arrived. 

In the morning's quiet, I walk back to my house.  I quickly throw the kindling, newspaper, and logs into the wood stove.  I am proud of how adept I have become at starting fires. In only a matter of minutes, a roaring fire engulfs my small stove and the heat begins to make its way through the chill.  Sooon I am surrounded by a warmth, which only one who knows a wood fire can fully comprehend.  I am totally at peace and want to be nowhere but here.  Yet tonight, I will dream of Key West.



Winter morning - view from my house.

 



the sea

 

Wood stacked on the porch last year - by me!







 



 

 

A Fall To Remember, 2014

"Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it,

Boldness has genius, power and magic in it!"

   ~ Goethe

 

 As I write the first post in my blog, we're in the midst of the lingering days of fall.  It has been a brilliant fall, far exceeding everyone's expectations.  Today is October 17th and one would think the autumn display would be almost gone.  But no.  It's as if fall has been given carte blanche to continue as long as it likes.  The colors were magnificent today, even after a long hard rain.  Wow!  I don't remember it ever being like this.  Stunning.

 

 

Going backwards a bit, I took the photo below in September during the early days of fall.  It was halfway through my morning cup of coffee when I noticed the sun breaking through the mist, as it often does on September mornings.  Still sleepy from the night, I grabbed my camera and made my way into the field across the street.  Love the photo I managed to capture of this deer in flight.  Such graceful animals.

 



 

 

 Today I got up early and was supposed to be doing paperwork, but got 'busy' instead watching the light attempting to break through the fog.  Here are some pics from my busy morning.

 

 

 

 

What a fall!!