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by Marja-Leena

snow and ice

8:41 pm in Canada and BC, Home by Marja-Leena

SnowDec17.2008.jpg

Well, more snow came down on Wednesday and it has stayed. Here, in the usually balmiest corner of Canada, we are experiencing zub-sero temperatures. Instead of the rain quickly washing it all away as usual there’s lots more snow forecast for Sunday and some days after. Can it be that we will have a white Christmas, the rarest of events in Vancouver?! I do remember one very snowy Christmas in the 70’s…

As one who grew up in Winnipeg and lived a few years in northeast British Columbia, I chuckled over Stephen Hume’s essay: Cold? This isn’t cold. I’ll tell you what cold is*.

sunrisekitchenDec19.08.jpg

While ice makes for treacherous roads, its beauty is delighting me around home especially on the sloping glass of the solarium beyond our kitchen window. This morning the sunrise was glorious through it! I’m thinking of Wirkkala’s ice glass all over again.

And, while I was out later this morning, Erika discovered unusual icicles and captured beautiful photographs of them – go have a look!

Oh, and I almost forgot… you must see Lucy’s gorgeous frost and ice photos!

*link has expired, sadly

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by Marja-Leena

bruised

1:35 pm in Nature, Photoworks by Marja-Leena

bruisedmagnolia.jpg

He brought me some branches of magnolia
bruised by the fall, the snow and the frost.
Sitting in a vase near a sunny window, opening
ephemeral beauty, like ancient silk.

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by Marja-Leena

old year, new year

12:03 pm in Being an Artist, Culture, Home by Marja-Leena

frostflowersforNYear.jpg

On this last day of 2007, I feel some sadness in saying goodbye to another year. Changing the annual calendars is such an adrupt marker of the passage of time and of aging, inducing a twinge of melancholy in me. I’ve sometimes wondered if all the partying, drinking and merriment is a way to avoid looking at Father Time in the eye.

Not being party types, we usually spend New Year’s Eve with a couple of good friends or just the two of us as it will be tonight. I remember our first New Year’s as new parents of a baby. We were to go to friends with her but she became feverish and we decided to stay home, and that night I taught my husband how to play chess.

In recent years I’ve been acknowledging New Year’s Eve as the sixth day of Christmas and the beginnings of a gradual lightening of the darkness, a sort of ancient ritual practised in thought and writing. I also like to remember an occasion or three in my childhood when we followed an old Finnish tradition of pouring molten tin into snow and reading our fortunes from the shapes, all in fun.

Instead of fortunes in odd shapes of metal, I offer up these frost stars and ice flowers of hope, peace and beauty for all of you reading this, and for this earth and everyone on it. Thank you to all of you, whether or not you comment here, for visiting my blog through the year and making this blog endeavour a less lonely pursuit! I love the connections and friendships with others all over this globe and feel that we do make a small difference in making the world a better place.

I wish you all many new successes and joys, good health, peace and contentment, and abundant creativity. Happy New Year! Hauskaa Uutta Vuotta! Bonne année! Allen ein frohes Neues Jahr!

froststarsforNYear.jpg

Addendum Jan.2, 2008: I came across this at Wood s Lot a little late, but worth noting:
New Year’s Day History, Customs and Traditions at new-to-me blog Follow Me Here that I just bookmarked for further explorations.

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by Marja-Leena

December’s here

2:55 pm in Culture, Finland, Estonia & Finno-Ugric, Other artists by Marja-Leena

The sun is shining and I can see the snow on the mountaintops. It’s cold and still very wet from the November rains. I think we had some frost last night, not the first for we had a few in November on the rare clear nights. I’ve been outdoors raking more leaves, especially the big heavy wet magnolia ones that are about the last to fall. I gathered the few fir branches that had been tossed down by recent windstorms and saved them for Christmas decorations.

That’s when I remembered it’s time to flip the calendars to December and time for advent calendars to put me in the mood! So I’m now looking at last year’s post for some online calendar links since I no longer buy the now-too-kitschy-ones with cheap chocolates in them that are sold around here.

Speaking of links, over the almost six years of this blog, I’ve written now and then about Finnish culture, traditions and history, especially regarding Christmas. One of the sites I linked to frequently was Virtual Finland. I was very sad to note sometime earlier this year that it is gone, replaced by a more modern business and tourism oriented version called this is Finland. Call me old-fashioned but I miss the old one, plus all my great links in past posts are dead! Don’t you hate when that happens?

KidZoneFinAdventCal.jpg

Anyway, today I see that they now have a Christmas special that I’ll be perusing. And I’m pleased to see they do have an advent calendar*, by Mauri Kunnas, Finland’s most successful children’s book author and cartoonist. (I see his birthday is the same as mine!) His wife works with him and paints his drawings. (There’s more about him here.)The calendar can also be downloaded and printed as a poster, should you have children in your life you wish to delight. I’ve emailed the link to our granddaughters in England. I might even print it for them to use here when they come the week before Christmas! Should I cut some windows and hide some little treats behind them?

Now I really really must start those Christmas letters, after all I got the cards printed well over a week ago. And I do have plans for new work to test in the print studio for the rest of the week. Life goes on…

Happy new month, dear readers!
Related link: December 1st, 2005
*link has expired and thus has been removed

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