happy day

christmas day is one of our favorite days of the year. our christmas day morning ritual has evolved over the years into something sacred and immutable. we get up a little bit late. we start a fire in the fireplace. we make two large caffe lattes for mom and dad. we bake two sleeves of wonderfully awful pillsbury orange rolls. the kids open their presents, and fight a little bit. we all open the presents in our christmas stockings. we burn the wrapping paper in the fireplace. we lounge for a little bit. and then it’s on to our extended family gathering. it’s been a lot of years now. it’s starting to look a little bit like a religion. you’re welcome to join us, in fellowship.

cedar tips

cycles

as the year reaches its end, and the start of a new year, i appreciate how hard these very old fern leaves are working to resemble buds.

winter fern

a corner of autumn

occasionally, in a sheltered corner of the yard in december, you can still see a little tail end of autumn hanging on precariously out of the wind. these red maple leaves made me think of the green leaves of last summer, and the green leaves of next summer, and suddenly there was a little bit of spring in my step.

red maple leaves in winter

negative

i think i took five different photos of this prairie grass, and in the end i picked this one, not because the grass was so shapely, although it was, but because the negative space that the grass defined was so shapely. when i look at it closely enough, i feel as if i am floating around in that black.

winter prairie grass

good intentions

i intended to end the year strong, with a week’s worth of thoughtful and well executed images to close out 2017, and then to start the new year with a bang, to celebrate my return to a white background in 2018. and although i am 53 years old, i’ll be damned if the holidays didn’t somehow sneak up on me again. in theory i am completely in charge of my own schedule, and yet i have somehow been consumed with holiday preparations and events, and am feeling as if the holidays should be over now, before they have actually begun. see you on the other side.

mullein leaves in winter