Winter Skies at Dawn

The sun's rising is not dramatic this time of year.  Often only gentle colors light the predawn sky, and the sun is lost in fog or clouds...Today the predawn sky showed only a small band of salmon and gold, but as the disk itself rose above the horizon, the drama was immediately visible in the bands of light on the trees behind me.  The dusty old grey trees became a burnished brown, and the branches seemed to lift towards the sun, as if praise-filled, or perhaps as an old Ent, lifting his face to seek warmth.  

 

In front of me, unwatched for a few critical moments, the sun rose in a wash of color, for only a few moments, and then drifted up into the clouds to hide its face.  

                       

Warming Up Winter

Today was the first snow of the season.... well, real snow.  An hour to the south they got hit pretty badly, but here we just got enough to keep people home and off the streets a bit.  I did go in to work, but just thought I would post a few photos of things that warm my heart!  

Making things makes me happy.... and winter needs to be cozied up.  That means I make more quilty things in the winter time!  

Cold Day

Isn't this a tasty looking cup of tea? It is a tea flower from Numi, though other companies carry florals too. This is a green tea, and the leaves are tied into flower shapes. Today has been cold and raw, with a strong blustery wind. I like winter better than summer, but here in northern VA the winters have little snow and lots of cold wet rainy days, not the type of winter I enjoy. Teas like this help me stay warm.

I have been working on my sister's birthday gift, but can't show it yet. Her birthday is Saturday, and hopefully it will make it on time. We live 5 hours apart, but having webcams help us stay in touch. (Thanks Sis!) I guess some of this new techy stuff is okay but I long for simpler days sometimes.

My kitty seems to be more interested in the inside of the bag than his treats, which I put out to lure him away! Right now he is making my typing very difficult by laying across the desk and hanging his legs over the keyboard so I have to move them out of the way to hit the keys. His brother is on the fleece box again... his favorite place aside from his mom's shoulder! It is the small familiar touches that make a home, isn't it? I have done a bit of thinking about my life and all that is going on... I am not rich, but I have all I need and much of what I want. I have a job, and we have enough coming in to be okay, even in todays tough times. I don't need to be bailed out, I don't want the government to take up a parental position, and I see blue skies down the road a bit, if the slimy media pundits will stop trying to make it worse. If they would just stop frightening people we could get about the business of coming back from the recession. It needn't even have been a recession, if the media hadn't done all they could to bring it about. That side of technology I don't like.

Well, I am going to spend this weekend cleaning my studio, so I can make more fun things, I really need to sort things out. How do you sort things out?

Compliments of the Season

Well it is winter in northern VA, cold and wet. The pretty snow of a few days ago is but a memory now, and there will be three more days of cold and wet. My daughter is wishing she was back in San Diego, where the days are predictably warm and sunny. But then they have just had 6 inches of rain, so even the predictable isn't. As Christmas draws closer I look forward to seeing my son too. The holidays can get so harried and rushed, I want to just slow down and enjoy the advent, the anticipation. Remember to breathe and slow down, and do a little art. And if it were to snow a little, that would be okay too.