Light and shadow

Snowfall and morning light combine to give us lovely shadows.  Shortly after waking this morning, with the first sun since yesterday's snowfall, I went out to have a look.  I loved seeing the curved shadows of the blueberry bush, and the straight edge of the back step.

One advantage of winter (for a photographer) is that the sun stays so low in the sky.  Sure, it means the days are short and the weather is cold.  But the shadows are beautifully long and elegant, even if I sleep until 9:00.

Not enough snow to cover the stone wall (so far).  It has its own version of dark and light.

Inside the house, the storm windows are coated with the bright frost crystals contrasting against a darker outdoors.

And a cup of tea to warm me back up!

Blue on blue

Monday afternoon after New Year's day we arrived at North Caicos Island.  It's a direct flight from JFK to Providenciales, the most populated (and popular) island in Turks and Caicos. Fifteen minutes by taxi to a twenty minute ferry ride gave us our first glimpse of the turquoise water and deep blue sky.  Another fifteen minutes and we reached our hotel on Whitby Beach, a seven mile long stretch of white sand beach.

 The beach looked like this -- deserted -- most of the time.  We got into the habit of counting how many people we would pass on a three hour walk (12 one day, 16 another).  Most of the time it was just us, the white sand, the blue sky and clouds, and the water, which changed color depending on the sun, the wind, and whatever lay below.

If you like walking on a beach, and swimming in the warm sea, then North Caicos Island is the place for you.  It may not be the best place if you like to lie on the beach for hours -- it was sometimes windy and sometimes the bugs were nibbling.   This definitely is not the right place if you are looking for night life; the place was so untouristed that we had to order our dinner at the hotel restaurant by mid-afternoon to be sure they would have food for us.  But everytime we looked up we saw the beautiful sea and sky.

There were some other colors.  We found amazing conch shells and some huge starfish both in and out of the water (how great is it that the latinate name is Asteroidea?).  We threw this one back in.  Bon voyage!

Sunrises and sunsets gave us some other colors to contrast with the blues

as did the local flora.

But mostly it was sand, sea and sky.  I have never seen so many shades of blue at one time.  Let's go back soon !!

Lights

At this time of year, the darkness seems to take only a short pause for daylight before enveloping us again.  The weather in the northeastern United States has (mostly) been uncommonly balmy, but the winter solstice came with its usual long night.  It's natural that so many of our traditions have us creating light to push back the darkness.

Our family's folk music group, Just Harmony (the four of us with our friend Rick), resumed our annual tradition of performing at First Night in Northampton (you can hear a bit here).  We are fortunate to have the slot right before the 6:15 p.m. fireworks, and we organize our evening around these two events.

Last weekend, we started what will likely become a new tradition for us, courtesy of my brother Eric.  He gave us sky lanterns that he had first seen in Thailand.  We wrote wishes for the new year on the paper, then lit our lantern in a field in New Hampshire on a cold, dark night.  As the fuel burned, it heated the air in the lantern, which filled, then silently lifted up into the sky, higher and higher.  When it was becoming a small dot in the sky, we saw that it had suddenly reached a level at which the wind was moving much faster, and the lantern swiftly disappeared across the sky.

The lantern gave me a new sense of what we are doing with these burning lights -- the Chanukah candles, the fireworks, and all.  I think it matters to us that  the heat carries the light upwards.  Whether floating silently upwards or going up with a bang, these lights are carrying upwards and outwards, sending our best wishes and hopes into the larger world.

Happy New Year, everyone!