Marja-Leena Rathje

by Marja-Leena

on the feast of Stephen

photo: 4:30 pm Christmas Day 2014

Good King Wenceslas looked out on the feast of Stephen… I wrote at the start of a post on this feast day in 2008. Please visit that favourite page of mine for an interesting story about the Finnish source of this well-known song. Also check out the comment from Kate Laity!

Note all the snow we had that Christmas. It’s a green one this year. How is yours?

Have a great day! The two of us are having a quiet morning while some of the family are out visiting friends and one is out at a Boxing Day sale.

December 26, 2014 in Culture, Current Events, Home, Music 8 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Winter Story 2014

Once again, our granddaughters’ annual Winter Story is up! Please click here. This one looks to be partly inspired by their brood of chickens and their new kittens. The crocodile is revisiting from an earlier Winter Story.

You can see their other annual winter stories on their site as well. Long time readers may recall that I’ve posted each of them here every year with grandmotherly delight and pride. Enjoy!

We hope you have had or are presently enjoying a wonderful Christmas Day with loved ones or dear friends, as are we.

PS – Did you know…

The word “Christmas” means “Mass of Christ,” later shortened to “Christ-Mass.” The even shorter form “Xmas” – first used in Europe in the 1500s – is derived from the Greek alphabet, in which X is the first letter of Christ’s name: Xristos, therefore “X-Mass.”

And I thought “Xmas” was just a modern lazy way to write what it means!

December 25, 2014 in Being an Artist, Culture, Home 6 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

happy holidays

Merry Christmas, Hauskaa Joulua, Frohe Weihnachten, Joyeux Noël!

My warmest good wishes for a peaceful holiday week to all you dear readers and friends, however you celebrate it, or not. I am so very grateful for your visits and friendship over the years.

I am still baking and cooking and cleaning in preparation for tomorrow. Some of our family will be here for our own blend of Finnish and German Christmas Eve traditions. Our latest wave of the Pineapple Express should be over soon and we may have a sunny green Christmas. Hope yours is a beautiful and safe one.

December 23, 2014 in Culture, Current Events, Home 9 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

winter solstice fog

It is a foggy winter solstice morning, conducive to stirring some ancient pagan feelings. Being too lazy to go out, I went searching through my photo archives for certain recalled images to mark this occasion.

Long ago I wrote, in part:

Those of us in the northern Hemisphere can now breathe a collective sigh of relief that the sun has not disappeared forever and the days will be getting longer! Spring will come and we can begin planting again. I think of all the ancient cultures of the world that observed the solstices with festivals, rituals and great architecture to appease the spirits, long before Pope Julius tacked the celebration onto Saturnalia, the Roman winter festival, or jule became Christmas. It seems to me that we’ve lost some connection to nature’s rhythms and a universality of a common human celebration not based on a multitude of divisive religious doctrines.

Happy Winter Solstice, dear readers. Now we can watch the days get longer, a few minutes at a time. Enjoy your holiday preparations for the celebration of light.

December 21, 2014 in Culture, Nature, Photoworks 9 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

the Canuck version

Here’s a bit of fun and truly delighful art work for those of us in need of a light-hearted break in the midst of decorating, letter writing, poring over recipes and food shopping lists:

A Moose in a Maple Tree – The All Canadian 12 Days of Christmas

The song is written by Troy Townsin, illustrated by Jennifer Harrington and performed by Canadian Ska legend Chris Murray. More here.

December 17, 2014 in Canada and BC, Culture, Current Events, Music, Neat stuff 4 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Cards from Christmases Past

Christmas 1999

Christmas 2000

Christmas 2001

I am going through the stash of my own designed and printed extra cards from past Christmases to choose from for this year’s mailings. (Because I cannot print new ones this year). I find a few from pre-blog days which I’ve not shown before and thought to add a little bit of early holiday spirit and colour to these pages. I hope you enjoy them. Now back to those letters!

December 10, 2014 in Being an Artist, Blogging, Culture, Current Events 2 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

busy time of year

It has been a week of hard work cleaning house, putting up the door wreath and a few lights outdoors and doing some baking.

It’s a start on getting ready for Christmas but first we had weekend guests, our dearest friends who always bring flowers or a lovely plant, this time a stephanotis with heavenly scent! New to me, what a delight!

Now to the Christmas letters, cards and some gifts to go in the mail. I thought I was making an nice early start a couple of weeks ago when I was about to do a test print of my card design for this year. As I fired up the printer, a little plastic gear fell out in little pieces and the paper feeder would not work. Husband hopes to repair it if he finds the part and a repair manual but it won’t be in time for the mailing. So, we will be handwriting cards and letters, just like the good ol’ days, eh! My handwriting has become atrocious but at least I have lots of extra cards from past years, some my own, some commercial. These days more and more of us correspond by email which lessens the handwriting chore and those trips to the post office. But I do still love real cards and letters.

And how are your holiday preparations coming along?

December 8, 2014 in Culture, Current Events, Photography 9 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

snow white

The Snow Queen came for a visit yesterday evening and overnight, accompanied by Wind.

How bright was the night, keeping me awake watching tossing snow-heavy tree branches and flying snow devils.

Not much of the five centimeters or so melted in today’s sunshine.

Tonight is very cold and clear. Winter is here.

November 29, 2014 in Canada and BC, Home, Nature 13 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

clouds at eventide

Recently my husband got me an iPhone, a used older model for emergencies or quick contact when away from home. I’m still new with this technology. One of the things that intrigued me is the camera and the quality of the photos. I’ve seen others using Instagram for processing and sharing photos and like some of the results I see out there though I’m not interested in the sharing aspects. I am just trying it out. The above photo is one I’m rather pleased with, a capture of the southwest sky last week from the back deck, and using some of the Instagram filters. (You would not like the black rain clouds around here now!)

While thinking about posting the top photo, I came across an odd envelope tucked in with some old Christmas cards. Inside were some photos of my children when very young as well as the above scenic shot, which I think was taken decades ago on a beach in Denmark. The ‘instagram’ look, caused by aging I know, made it a timely find so without any processing I decided to add it here to compare.

These are to also show that I do look up at the sky often, not just down at what is underfoot, as I’m often teased about! And I like the old English word eventide, just right for these images, I think.

November 27, 2014 in Being an Artist, Nature, Photography, Photoworks 16 Comments »

by Marja-Leena