Last evening

Orion spinning overhead
chasing the moon.

Bright but in the 30's

Feels a bit like winter, but with the sun out it, it is not so bad.
Hard to believe this year is drawing to a close!
I can already feel the days growing longer, hooray!

Yesterday

An odd stripe of yellowish green
peeked under the lid of clouds
on the northern horizon at dawn.

Another lovely day

The sky was painted with splashes of crimson and gold at dawn and now the bright sun is beginning to melt the frost.  Looks like another good day for a walk at the lake to visit the gulls, marvel at the seed cases of the summer plants, and stretch our legs a bit.

Blessed with 47 and bright sunshine

Gorgeous day after Christmas, slowly putting gifts away, planning meals with leftovers, french dip tonight, pumpkin pie for breakfast with leftover quiche.  Restocking the larder for the new year.
So delightful to be warm and have the house so bright, we shall enjoy it for the couple of days we have it.

Christmas Day

And it has arrived with warmth and sunshine, thank you!
We had a lovely eve of fishes and Christmas lights tours, music and movies, snacks and laughs, thank you.
Today the gifts await, the food is ready for preparation, all are here, thank you.
Happy holidays to all, may they be filled with peace, love, acceptance, and fun.

Fingers crossed

Hoping for some sunshine and warmth for Christmas, today is a bit of the warmth, hopefully we will have the sun for a few days as well.
Friends stopping by with gifts, get-togethers, cards and gifts arriving in the mail, salmon, shrimp, oysters, and beef laid in.  Seems like it is almost time for the holiday.

Cold, rainy morning

Well at least we aren't shoveling,
That is about all the good you can say
with the weather we have been having.
Gloomy, gray, cold and wet,
about sums things up.
Lots of hunkering down
and getting through.

Monday

Icy rain in the forecast and colds that keep lingering, after a month or more of dreary weather, ick.
Hoping the New Year will bring some good changes to us.
For now we will drink our tea and try to patiently wait to feel better.

And Now

Light, my light, the world-filling light, 
the eye-kissing light,
heart-sweetening light!

Ah, the light dances, my darling, at the center of my life;
the light strikes, my darling, the chords of my love;
the sky opens, the wind runs wild, laughter passes over the earth.

The butterflies spread their sails on the sea of light.
Lilies and jasmines surge up on the crest of the waves of light.

The light is shattered into gold on every cloud, my darling,
and it scatters gems in profusion.

Mirth spreads from leaf to leaf, my darling,
and gladness without measure.
The heaven's river has drowned its banks
and the flood of joy is abroad.

Rabindranath Tagore

For the dark times

Shadows by D H Lawrence
And if tonight my soul may find her peace
in sleep, and sink in good oblivion,
and in the morning wake like a new-opened flower
then I have been dipped again in God, and new-created.
And if, as weeks go round, in the dark of the moon
my spirit darkens and goes out, and soft strange gloom
pervades my movements and my thoughts and words
then I shall know that I am walking still
with God, we are close together now the moon’s in shadow.
And if, as autumn deepens and darkens
I feel the pain of falling leaves, and stems that break in storms
and trouble and dissolution and distress
and then the softness of deep shadows folding,
folding around my soul and spirit, around my lips
so sweet, like a swoon, or more like the drowse of a low, sad song
singing darker than the nightingale, on, on to the solstice
and the silence of short days, the silence of the year, the shadow,
then I shall know that my life is moving still
with the dark earth, and drenched
with the deep oblivion of earth’s lapse and renewal.
And if, in the changing phases of man’s life
I fall in sickness and in misery
my wrists seem broken and my heart seems dead
and strength is gone, and my life
is only the leavings of a life:
and still, among it all, snatches of lovely oblivion, and snatches of renewal
odd, wintry flowers upon the withered stem, yet new, strange flowers
such as my life has not brought forth before, new blossoms of me
then I must know that still
I am in the hands of the unknown God,
he is breaking me down to his own oblivion
to send me forth on a new morning, a new man.

Baking day

Banana, coconut, walnut, date, chia, flax, quinoa muffins, with ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg, in the oven, to help ward off another chill, gray morning. The house is dressed in holiday quilts and the lights are on.  Glimmers of hope and warmth.

Shouldn't complain

33, windchill 26,
brrr and gray,
again.
Colds and tummy upsets.
But, the house is fairly snug,
there is good food to share,
and though spirits aren't too high
we still can smile here and there

Wednesday

Bright, bright sun
shimmering on the windows
filling up the rooms
bouncing all over the place
wowzers

Rain

42 and rain
plinking outside the window
wetting and shining the roofs

Monday morning

Chase away
your demon tigers
with abdominal breathing - ahhhh.

Saturday

Hint of sun
slight warming
a chance of a break
a tiny lift
a moment 
to be grateful

We could always use a miracle

A time of reflection,
a time of assessment,
the holidays come upon us and we are inundated with false cheer
cold comfort against torture reports, bad economies, abuse statistics,  corruption, and more.
But the times are much the same as the season we celebrate, filled with hardship and woes
inconveniences and worse, but we bring new life into the world in hope and fear, and go on.

Ash gray

The light, the buildings, the roads, the sky,
all an ashy gray.
The snow falls like soot,
more darkening then brightening,
the air burns against the skin.
Hopefully this bleak season
will soon give way...

Clear morning

A pane of blue white light
painted the porch this morning
a mystery answered by the bright moon above.

glassined branches

Glassined branches,
the scritch of ice scraped off windshields,
splatters of fat, icy, raindrops,
portents of  the end of autumn.

Monday

Slashes of vivid coral,
pools of molten gold,
filled the sky at dawn,
while the full moon mistily set
into the gray of the rest of the day

Sunny Sunday

Bright sun bounces off of neighbors' houses,
reflecting into our home dressed in its holiday finery
filled with the sounds of classical guitar
playing quietly on Pandora,
warm apple pie with cheese serves for our breakfast,
as the solstice draws nearer and nearer.

Holiday quilt

We are beginning to dress the house for the holidays.

Back to gray

Back to gray
another day,
but a lighter gray,
silvery, whitened,
thinner, drier,
a tad more hopeful
that the sun still shines,
that the earth still turns,
that there is the divine

Sunshine

Thank heavens,
some sun,
to raise our spirits
to lighten our day
to give us the chance
to see colors again

Time for outings

Bright lights and colors
of the holiday stocked stores
to distract us from the foul weather
and gray, icy, dreary streets
selling us the hope
that we will endure
this cold season,
that the warm times
will be returning
if only we don't focus too hard
on this dark, bleak time

Now 61

61 years here
a minute jostle in time
sending out my feeble light
to be reflected into the infinite
a warm vibration
the quietest of sounds
a shared breath
called into being
by the divine

May make it to 61 degrees today

..but tomorrow is forecast for snow and ice, quite the rollercoaster these days.