hellos and goodbyes

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Much greeting and hugging and then goodbyes have been a large part of our holidays as our family swelled from seven for Christmas Eve to nine on the 27th, then twelve for just a day on the 28th and down to six as of today. Several of us have been suffering some flu, which even yours truly of the cast-iron-tummy picked up on Boxing Day. It’s been a bit of a struggle to be jolly and feed everybody. I’ve resolved to keep these last days of the year and first of the new very quiet and low-key with no more entertaining so that when some of us head back to work next week we’ll be fully recovered.

Our sunny frosty weather was a wonderful Christmas gift. Husband indulged in a new camera lens for us both and has played with it, including capturing the above image of ice that I just love. I wished I’d had time and wellness to capture some of the hoar frost in the garden! I look forward to getting acquainted with it and will tell you more later.

Speaking of ice, you may recall some of my past photos of frost flowers or fractals (search). The other day while browsing a new-to-me blog by a resident of Gabriola Island (off Vancouver Island near Nanaimo), I was stunned by his/her photos of frost flowers that look like spun sugar. I’ve never seen anything like them, have you?

Soon, much too soon, we’re into another year and leaving behind a decade called, what, the aughts, noughts, the 00’s? Twenty-ten, twenty-eleven and on will roll a bit easier on our lazy tongues though still sound rather foreign to me. I plan to be back with a proper New Year’s greeting but not with one of those long lists which I’ve been enjoying elsewhere. Just a simple goodbye and a hello.

lights of the season

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enjoying the days of sunlight and frost
fires and warm candlelight in foggy nights
these last days of the year

happy winterfest

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Happy Christmas, Hauskaa Joulua, Frohe Weihnachten, Joyeux Noël, God Jul or Blessed Midwinter!

Wishing all of you a joyful holiday, full of cheer with those who are dear, as well as some quiet moments for gratitude and peace.

Many thanks as always for visiting and reading and for the many friendships this blogging has blessed me with.

Many of you are having a beautiful white Christmas this year while ours is the normal green. So I’ve been satisfying some of my snow envy by looking at my photos of last winter when we had a record amount for many weeks. Check out for example this night shot and the countdown to Christmas a year ago which includes the photo that was used for this year’s card, both printed and e-versions. Cheers!

‘Tis the shortest day

and the longest night for us in the northern hemisphere. It’s a very dark and rainy day here in Vancouver starting strangely at an unseasonal high of 10C (50 F) and to drop down to 5C (41F) this afternoon. But we are to have sunny days and frosty nights ahead. If I can’t have a white Christmas, a sunny, crisp and green Christmas is second best. The light of sunshine or the brightness of snow, the seasonal lights, candles and fires are all a blessing against the darkness of this time of year and the looking forward to lengthening days, in a continuing ancient and universal celebration.

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I always think of solstice celebration sites like Stonehenge so this year I’m tickled to be able to put here one of my own Stonehenge photos from our springtime visit there, though the light of course is not as it is this time of year.

Also curiously suitable to this day is Qarttsiluni’s publishing of my piece, Silent Messengers: Writing on Stone III. Was it planned so by the editors? Do listen to the fascinating discussion on the podcast.

Happy Solstice, dear readers and friends! Keep warm and safe, those of you in other parts of the globe who are snowed in! And my southern friends, enjoy your summer!

More from the archives:
solstice time, 2008
to light, 2007
the longest night, 2006, with Newgrange
happy winter solstice in 2005
and in 2004

safe arrivals

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Our middle daughter and our granddaughters arrived late this afternoon safe, sound and tired from their long flight from London, England with only slight delays but nothing like during last year’s snowstorms. How excited we all were to see each other but soon after a barely eaten dinner, they went to bed early. The girls’ daddy will be coming on Monday.

Youngest daughter had her last day of work today until the new year so now begins the countdown with all the baking to be done with many helping hands. First I need to restock the pantry! The house is prettied up, just the main tree still to do and just a couple of gifts still to buy, as well as the ham, the bird and vegetables closer to the big days.

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Hope you are all enjoying the holiday preparations. We wish a safe journey to all travellers including our eldest daughter and partner heading out to Calgary for a few days. They will be joining us on Boxing Day. My holiday card and wishes will come next week!

Lucia and lights

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How lovely, on Lucia’s Day to have our first real snowfall, light flakes slowly dancing down, the frozen ground now white and an icing-sugar-like dusting on evergreen branches. It set the right mood for finishing up the holiday letters and cards.

We were lucky to have two weeks of sunshine before these clouds came along, but the days are short, the nights long, thus our craving for light becomes a part of the season’s celebrations here in the northern lands.

St. Lucia is celebrated by the Scandinavians, even the Finns now. Expatriates might have such celebrations in the Scandinavian community centers outside their home countries. But we had a small taste of another celebration yesterday when we met friends from out of town for lunch at the beautiful VanDusen Gardens. It’s the setting for the annual Festival of Lights. It was a treat to see them come on in the darkening afternoon just before leaving but we had no time to go in for a walk for it’s a huge park. We have enjoyed those amazing light presentations there one night some years ago with these same friends and it really is a magical place. The garden volunteers spend two months putting up the lights.

On the drive home we spotted Christmas trees for sale next to a Catholic church doing a fundraiser for their school, and so it was we picked up a tree, saving a trip out today! It’s sitting inside the garage in a bucket of water, awaiting the night we bring it in and put on lights and ornaments. We usually do it on Carol Ship Night when the boats go by all lit up with lights, with the biggest one ringing out Christmas carols.

Now that the letters are done, thoughts turn to start cleaning and decorating our home. On Wednesday, our family in the UK are arriving, so there will be the merry sound of excited and happy grandchildren in the house again! Soon there will another midwinter celebration of light.

December’s here

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?

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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

November’s end

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As usual here on the ‘wetcoast’, November has been very rainy and often very windy, with above average precipitation but maybe not quite record-breaking except for early snow on the mountains. Some days the darkness has felt a bit heavy but one just has to keep busy, as I have with printmaking and holiday cards. Later, after all the Christmas preparations and the big days are over, I’ll have to start documenting and posting some of the work here to show you all.

Yesterday we had our first taste of the coming holiday season. Erika, husband and I went out to the annual Christmas craft fair put on by the Finns at the Scandinavian Centre. We went early to join the line-up to buy some home-made karjalanpiirakkas and braided loaves of pulla (both almost as good as my mother’s!). I resisted buying any more Christmas decorations after so many years of collecting but found a few good books for the granddaughters, plus some Danish marzipan that I always use when I bake the stollen. One of the books was written by an old friend and former neighbour, a Norwegian, who had a table there – it was a very pleasant surprise to see him there!

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As we often do when we are in the area, we stopped afterwards at the Burnaby Art Gallery to see Robert Young’s exhibition** on it’s last day (naughty me). I’ve seen much of his work before but it was still great to see it all together in this lovely old building. I’ve written about Young here before and here’s a review of the exhibition.

As it was not raining for a change we went for a stroll around the gallery’s lovely gardens… yes, lovely even in November. I love the shapes of the bare old trees, some covered in moss, the pond with all it’s subtle colours and reflections and the soft pale mist over the lake beyond. I’m glad I remembered to take the camera, though I forgot to use it at the craft fair.

Since we were more than halfway there, we then went to that famous Swedish home furnishings store where Erika and I picked up some frames for some of our artworks. So you can say we had our Scandinavian fix mixed with some art and gardens, followed by delicious goodies with our afternoon coffee back at home.

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Today the sun came out for a while after the morning showers. The forecast calls for more of that pale yellow ball in the sky this week along with colder temperatures. I can see an almost full moon out there too! I hope we’ll have a dry day next weekend to put up our outside LED Christmas lights. Some of the neighbours got theirs out yesterday and today so it’s slowly becoming festive and bright outdoors to chase away some of those Scandinavian Christmas trolls hiding in the dark!

** Edited March 2nd, 2013: Link has expired and has been removed.

Paris: Notre Dame #2

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Paris: Notre Dame

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Too tired for words, so it’s a good time to post more of our photos of Paris. Notre Dame de Paris is a magestic awe-inspiring beauty, both architecturally and sculpturally. Just across the Seine and short walk from our apartment, we visited it several times, though not indoors because of long lineups. More photos to come…