Recent Visitors

Visitors over the last week or so  -  in order of most to least visitors

United States

Russia 

Czech Republic
 France 
Poland

Germany

Ukraine

Canada

United Kingdom

Bulgaria

Joe Pye

More Quietude

Cape Breton Solitude

Black Holes

Glenfiddich Mincemeat Tarts

Glenfiddich Mincemeat Tarts

photo later 

Got six lovely Glenfiddich Mincemeat Tarts for Christmas - tried one microwaved about 20 seconds WOW 

they are good, which I was not expecting - the only thing of this nature that is close is porridge with Bailey's Irish Cream

If A Tree Falls

An' the dawn comes up like thunder

Deck The Porch w/Boughs Of Green

Christmas is a Ball

LED

Light Up My Mind

Morning Has Broken

Transkinesis

Knurls

Scenes AT An Exhibition - NorvellModestMussorgskyHimsel

- and my son fast asleep with James looking on

Scenes AT An Exhibition - NorvellModestMussorgskyHimsel

Scenes AT An Exhibition - NorvellModestMussorgskyHimselF

- AND THE BIG RUG RATS - the ending of a long Christmas day and they still have to drive back to Baltimore

Scenes AT An Exhibition - NorvellModestMussorgskyHimself

 Late on Christmas day

Scenes AT An Exhibition - NorvellModestMussorgskyHimsel

Scenes AT An Exhibition - NorvellModestMussorgskyHimself

The crèche set gathered through the years from various sources starts to appear on the mantle, piece by piece, one each night, some weeks before Christmas with the Angel and the manger being the first to appear and so it goes night after night until Joseph and Mary appear on Christmas Eve - and then the baby Jesus in the night

Scenes AT An Exhibition - NorvellModestMussorgskyHimself

Visitors over the last week or so  -  in order of most to least visitors

United States

Russia 

Czech Republic

Germany

Ukraine

Canada

United Kingdom

Poland

France

Ireland

Down Stroke - II

Rural Road - II

A Service of Shadow & Light - 21 Decembere 2014 II

A Service of Shadow & Light - 21 Decembere 2014

On 21 December, St. Mary Anne's Episcopal Church had a quiet service of candle light with soft music and singing.  The damp cold night, the lighted church, the empty church yard conveyed the hush of expectation even to the dull ears of this devout agnostic himself.

Silhouette - II

Eyes To See

Shortest Day

Eventide

Old Man River

The Colora Christmas Tree Farm - II

Looked over a lot of trees with the selection criteria being 'has to be taller than me' - two trees met the bill.  I walked the field again then went back to chose the second tree (its' trunk was a little skewed and the trimming not quite as symmetrical so that decided it).  Walked back, paid my $22 then drove round the field and loaded it up.  Tomorrow night - the 23rd - we'll put it up and decorate while drinking wine and listening to a multitude of Christmas songs.  Merry Christmas everybody or Happy Holidays if that salutation fits you better, my wishes for you are the same - love, health, a warm place to sleep, and good food to eat.

The Colora Christmas Tree Farm

For my first sixty or so years of  life our Christmas tree was a wild, shaped by nature not by shears, sort of tree - and was, when living here in Maryland, usually what we colloquially called an Elk Neck Pine that I or my father before me cut in the then semi-wilds of Elk Neck.  However the press of rapidly expanding developments and population density stopped that holiday rite some time ago.  So I grudgingly gave in to the 'buy-a-tree' idea and the artificial look of a geometric cone-shaped tree that grew in some old hay field rather than the natural sprawling uniquely shaped old wild pine.  This particular tree farm was pointed out to me by my older son.  When I first went there some fifteen odd years ago I was pleased by the pleasantness of the 'old fellow' (he was some few years older than me at the time and though not active now in the sales is still going at 98) running the operation and was able to swallow my chagrin at 'buying' what amounts to a manufactured tree.  By now I accept it fairly graciously but still feel a nostalgia for the 'good-old-days'.  So yesterday - the 21st, for I still am a Christmas-Eve-put-up-the-tree person even though this has slipped back to maybe the day before Christmas eve - I drove out through the still lovely rural country side to once again perform this centuries old historic ritual of bringing an evergreen tree into the house during the time of the winter solstice, though now it has became associated with most people to the birth of Christ.