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swivelling on the year’s axis
I purchased this candle-holder and holiday decoration this winter. It’s a star entirely made of beads, and it’s been hanging in my dining room window for a couple of weeks. Today I lit a votive candle, placed it inside the star and took pictures of it illuminated by the Solstice sun. It’s quite a special day since it’s a full moon with a lunar eclipse on the solstice. I’m glad to celebrate the passing of the shortest day and to welcome back longer days. It’s been a cold and tough winter by Irish standards, and we’re not out of it yet, but I often feel optimistic on the winter solstice.…
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a dash of colour
I took this picture of flowers in a bouquet a couple of weeks back. It warms me just to look at it. A nice antidote to the ice and cold at the moment.
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the joys of frost
This is another image from yesterday, when it was bitterly cold. It’s funny the things you learn because a picture can get you interested in a subject. Yesterday’s image of a small natural frost bridge made me wonder about the exact nature of the frost growing upon the surfaces I photographed yesterday. I love the crystalline structure of the shapes. It appears that it is hoarfrost, which is a deposit of ice crystals caused by the sublimation of water vapor in the ambient air directly to ice. Here’s a close-up of another photo I took: Some of the shapes look like tiny Christmas trees growing on the shrub. My philosophy…
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iced in
Our severe cold snap (by Irish standards) continues. Tonight is supposed to be the coldest night we’ll experience during this period. Here in the West we’ve had two days of gorgeous sunshine, but the temperatures have not risen above freezing. All the snow that fell a few days ago is still on the ground. This means the roads in my area are dangerous to drive on, so we’ve doing as little of that as possible. Today I managed to get to the woods after a slow, careful drive. It was dazzlingly beautiful, although the tips of my fingers went numb as I tried to take photographs (I was using my…
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snowy WexWorlds
The drive down to Wexford yesterday was good, if somewhat tiring, and on a couple of occasions made frustrating by a lack of signage – an old problem on roads in Ireland. We went to the opening of WexWorlds – the Mayor of Wexford showed up – met friends, and had food. This morning we were greeted by a winter wonderland. Unfortunately, it’s meant that some of the guests of the convention have not been able to get to Wexford. My two panels thus far have been very enjoyable, even though the numbers were smaller as a result of the weather. So far everyone seems to be having a great…
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winter morning
For a dog that’s camera-shy – Minnie hates me taking her photo – she’s beginning to creep her way into a lot of my nature shots lately. I don’t mind as it often adds a spot of interest to the image. As you can see it’s cold today with wintery fog. I won’t say anything else about that image because it’s doing all the heavy-lifting. I’ve been churning away at the novel, and it’s over the 30K mark now. I had a couple of missed days for a variety of reasons but I’m in the swing of things now. I need to be because I have WexWorlds this weekend. I…
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night walk
Tonight, there is an amazing moon. I’m lucky to live in a place with little liight pollution, and there are some nights when this is a joy. Earlier this evening, because it was a clear night with strong moonlight, I decided to walk Minnie in the woods in the darkness. I don’t do this frequently, but whenever I do I swear I’ll do it more often. When we arrived at the woods I noticed that the person with the property opposite to the entrance was having a bonfire. It was magical. The fire snapping and popping, the saffron-crimson flames licking up between the gaps of the trees and Mistress Moon…
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making friends
This is a picture of Mr. Barky and Minnie, which I snapped today after they became friends in my local woods. I don’t know the name of the dog, but that’s what I’m calling him, after his method of introduction when he spotted us. Dogs are pretty easy to understand if you take the time to learn to read their body language, and remember that they normally strive for harmony. They want everyone to get on, and preferably to live together in a large, affable, smelly pack and to run about, play, sleep and gnaw the odd bone. This is not to say that they don’t grump at each other…
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going monochrome
I’ve been experimenting with changing some of my recent photographs of trees to black and white, and taking a slightly arty style. In some of them I’m using sepia tones. I start with the base image, go with my instinct about which filter works best and start building layers of effects. Of all the creative work I do artwork and photography are probably the most satisfying. I lose massive chunks of time when I get involved in it because it absorbs my attention completely. It’s also the work that has no pressure attached: I do it simply for my pleasure. I’ve mentioned before that woods and forests are where I…
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the frost dance
Another picture from today where Minnie edged her way into the background. She’s a rather impatient dog and doesn’t like it when I stop to take photos. Sometimes she’ll snuffle around, while other times she’ll plant herself on her arse and wait for me to stop staring at mushrooms through the shiny metal object. There are flaws to this photo that make it less than perfect, but the double subject makes up for it. For those of you who don’t care for dogs, you get a mushroom, and for the dog and mushroom lovers you get nirvana. If neither takes your fancy then I might not be the best blogger…
