Blank Canvas Empty Mind

Something - or rather, nothing - to start the New Year with.

Winter Song

Just as I was lamenting not hearing enough music during this holiday season, I saw this man playing a barbeque grill (!) and singing his heart out at our local shopping center right before Christmas.

He wasn't playing a carol or holiday song, but I think his choice was very appropriate for right here, right now.

There is a beautiful photo essay on youtube featuring this song ("Streets of London" by Ralph McTell). Take a minute to listen and watch it, I promise it will add something to your day.

Cling Wrap Aquarium (holiday activity)

Recipe for a Cling Wrap Aquarium

Ingredients:
-- one 2-and-a-half-year-old (with 2-and-a-half-year-old's imagination)
--one adult who is good with kids but sort of lazy (doesn't want to clean up water on the floor)
--some toy fish and sharks and stuff
--some big rocks and shells (optional)
--a colorful scarf (preferably blue/green color)
--plastic wrap

Arrange sea creatures, rocks, and shells on colored scarf or fabric (colored paper could also work). Remember from some old movie that giant squid likes to hide under rocks, and place him there, telling child authoritatively why you are doing so.

Cover everything with plastic wrap and pretend it's water (the child will believe you, if you believe it).

Sit back and hope the parents come home before the novelty of this activity wears off and the child panicks, thinking he is stuck with you forever.

Snowstorm Redux

Regarding my earlier post, I should say that there was something exciting about New Year's Eve this year - we had a snowstorm. So that makes a perfect bookend for our snowstorm right before Christmas Eve. With all sorts of crazy, unseasonal and seasonal weather in between. Global warming or just general New England weather mayhem? Man, I keep thinking of those Puritans, arriving here from Merrie Olde Englande, thinking the weather here would be similarly mild. What a shock that must have been to have been proven so wrong.

Winter Shadows

And here are some winter shadows, decidedly blue.

Afternoon Light Show

I've been captivated by the midwinter light - especially on cold, clear days like today, when at 4 pm the world is full of hushed tones of blue and pink and gold. This kind of light only lasts a few minutes - a half an hour at most. I don't have time to paint it from life, but i can snap some photos.

Winter Whites

These are some pics from the first snowstorm we had, right before christmas. It lasted exactly 24 hours and then the sun came out and everything looked liked it had been given a new coat of blindingly white paint.