Cut a bit of firewood today (involved a little wandering with camera time), and cooked a birthday meal for my friend ( a)curry red lentils with tofu b)mashed potatoes c)mildly chile spiced broccoli with black beans, lots of caramelised onion and yellow pepper involved in a and c!
Now for posting and photo editing! #ArtAdventCalendar I may yet catch up, but it won't be with this post for Day 7- featuring afternoon #WinterLight the day after #rain and #snow#WinterPictures#Frostodon#Alberta
There was beautiful light that day, so I couldn't choose just one photo: I made a 2 part collage to keep it as 1 image, but decided these photos deserve to be seen separately..lol We had a significant rainfall the previous evening (in December, in Alberta!), followed by snow- luckily not too much ice (lots of glitter though) but snow stuck to wet freezy things. Next day was warm enough for some things to melt in the sun, but snow and bits of ice left in many places. #Solstice draws near! #pagan
I'm having a funny little run of synchronicities involving "tamarack". I thought I spotted some along Route 1 yesterday and had a moment of doubt that I'd remembered the common name right. As if in answer, a young man sitting right in front of me at the town meeting last night sported a t-shirt with the word boldly printed on the back — the name of a business, I think. And now your photos. What fun
@richardgrant Cool :) Where were you that you saw them, is that in Maine? Would that be near their southern limit? They are one of my fave trees (though as per a discussion on another platform today-- there are only a handful of tree species here, I love them all..lol). It's also the only tree (here) that we refer to by a native (ish? not sure how accurate it is, should look it up) name :)
@cohanf Yes, midcoast Maine — I'm not sure about their native range; the map in wikipedia seems to show them extending down into southern New England. I think the locals here mostly use the name hackmatack, and I've personally always known them as larches — so thank heavens for botanical names so we can agree on what we're talking about ;)
#ArtAdventCalendar Day 14 Since reading more about her by chance, recently, I've been thinking a bit about the #Baltic#Latvian#goddess#Ragana She seems more to stem from the primordial nature worship of Old Europe (the ancient pre-Indo-Europeans). (more to come on this some day soon). She's associated with birch trees in particular, so now I think of her whenever I see them! Next year's catkins on this one, I think? #pagan#BorealForest#CommuneWithNature#WinterPictures#Alberta
#ArtAdventCalendar Day 15 Still Higher temps- such as we're still having mostly- can mean wet heavy snow, freezing rain etc-like this sticky stuff on trees, roads etc-luckily not enough for the weight to be a problem (we 'normally only have dry powder snow this time of year!) #WinterPictures#Alberta#landscape#December
#ArtAdventCalendar Day 17 that was Sunday, so, a work day and so the pic is from the moving car on the #commute#BorealForest#Alberta#WinterPictures#landscape#CountryLiving I was talking a little to @richardgrant a while back when an earlier photo in this thread showed some Tamarack / Larix laricina ( I had a question mark on the id then, just because with snow/frost/ice covering the trees, it was hard to see what trees were there). This view shows Tamaracks again--continued:
#ArtAdventCalendar Day 18 but I'm posting #December 21 so Blessed and Happy Solstice to all! This date is what all the mid-winter holy days/festivals are really about in the Northern Hemisphere - Sun has reached the maximum of her southward journey, and will begin the slow return. We celebrate the anticipated return of #light but also should take some time to reflect on the darkness: #sleep#blood#soil#death#regeneration#SeasonalRhythms#pagan#animist
Happy mid-summer to Southern friends!
Winter Solstice is associated with #Ragana (Latvian sp) in #Baltic tradition - Indo-European gods + Christianity have reduced this nature deity to a hag #witch (often in a negative way, not the modern reclaimed use of the word!) of wild places and dubious ways- I'll be exploring ideas restoring her primal attributes, and will be thinking of her essence as a symbol of natural forces/cycles this Solstice day! eg- She may represent natural darkness, and essential balance to the light of #Saule /Sun
#ArtAdventCalendar Day 19 this was taken a couple of days before the Solstice, but the #sun#WinterLight is a major focus for many weeks over winter (okay, maybe I'm always obsessed with light-not so much pure blinding sun, but the effects as she lowers, peeks out through trees and clouds, etc!). Here it was mid afternoon, just a couple of hours from sunset, a little below freezing (well above average!) with sun and sun dog! #WinterPictures#Alberta#CountryLiving#SunDog#snow#December
#ArtAdventCalendar Day 20 The #sun provides much less warmth in winter, but provides many great photo opps, being lower in the sky/ easier to combine with other #landscape elements! In general, #winter here is not our stormy season- summer skies are much more dramatic, but we can still get some good clouds at times! To get these unobstructed southwest views, I have to trudge over to the neighbours' fence (trees, saplings, fences in the way before that!) #WinterPictures#Alberta#CountryLiving
#ArtAdventCalendar Day 21- I guess I should have wrapped up by today? Oh well! Today's a work day, and tomorrow some cooking, I won't be getting caught up yet-I'll be adventing for days!
This shot from the day most meaningful to me anyway, the #WinterSolstice -even though it's the sun's big day this is the #moon over #GrandmotherSpruce#HappyHolidays to anyone celebrating, happy days off if you get some of those even if you're not celebrating! hope you get some self-care time! #Alberta#pagan
#ArtAdventCalendar Day 22 it's #Dec25 afternoon-- hope anyone who celebrates in any way is enjoying and/or surviving! The meaningful day for me is Dec 21, but we still treat this like a #holiday. Just two of us here, we had a nice pizza breakfast followed by pumpkin pie with ice cream...lol.. I'll cook a #vegetarian meal a bit later.
This view is from the morning of Dec 22, first sun of the real 'new year'! I don't often see #sunrises, ran out in boxers, t-shirt and rubber boots...lol #Solstice
@NatureMC we've been luckier here, but this winter has been very mild and relatively dry so far-- seems nice for people, but if it goes on that way, it will mean a very dry spring, which means dry wetlands, early wildfire season etc... More serious snow may come yet, time will tell..
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