december skies.

We've had some unusually non-rainy, clear sky days for this time of year. I'm almost afraid if I say it out loud it might start raining right this minute. But I'll take that chance. These were all snapped from my cell phone, most of them out the front door or the back door of our house, or at the parking lot of my favorite grocery store. It's been my latest cell phone photo obsession - the trees and the sky.  Naked trees against a bright, blue sky. Branches peaking out through ghostly, dense fog. A white contrail streaked across a the great blue yonder. Maybe I'm obsessed with the simplicity. Or maybe it's the limitless feeling evoked by looking up to the heavens.

{Taking the week off to spend time with my boy, destress from the craziness of the holidays, and gather my thoughts as we head into a new year. Enjoy the last week of 2011, friends.}

his shadow.

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,

And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.

He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;

And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.

The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow—

Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;

For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,

And he sometimes gets so little that there's none of him at all.

He hasn't got a notion of how children ought to play,

And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.

He stays so close beside me, he's a coward you can see;

I'd think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!

One morning, very early, before the sun was up,

I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;

But my lazy little shadow, like an errant sleepy-head,

Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.

Robert Louis Stevenson

(I've got nothin' today, so you get a little poem.)

Happy Friday, friends.

a.

winter sun.

Looks can be deceiving. Doesn't that sun look warm and inviting? It was anything but that. It was a crystal clear, blue sky day, but it was oh so very cold. I did not set-out to photograph leaves this day. I had bribed my son into a little photo shoot outdoors (photo to come...) Afterwards he ran around in the sun, on our driveway. All boy. I sat down to soak-up what I could find of the warmth, only to find the pavement ice cold. And this lone leaf caught my eye. Beautiful color, lovely shadow. It was almost as if it had joined me there, on the cold pavement, trying to stay warm. I almost deleted that first shot, but something about the soft blur of the leaf and it's golden hue set against the sharp backdrop of that cold pavement spoke perfectly of what it felt like to sit there in the cold, winter sun.

You are the one that drew me here

Now that I've come, I find I am no nearer to you
Led by the light so dim, you didn't even penetrate the skin
Oh winter sun

Promising all the answers
Knowing I could be captured with the information
Never to radiate the hidden heart or penetrate the skin
Oh winter sun
You're a promise in the distance, winter sun


If I chase the light to find the heat
Will I feel the earth grow warm beneath my feet
Can I move beyond what you've begun
Oh winter sun

Winter Sun - Out of the Grey