Yesterday I awoke to an intense wind storm that was later accompanied by buckets of pelting rain. Later in the day though, it had cleared sufficiently for a walk.
I expected it to still be quite windy but as my walk progressed, the wind calmed and the clouds began to dissipate.
We even had a minor rise in temperature of 0.5C (that’s a 1° rise in F) for a high of 3.5C (38F). Not fantastic but seriously much better than freezing and without a doubt better than the -15C (-9F) that Yellowknife is experiencing!
I also found these dianthus (also known as sweet william) blooming prettily in a protected spot. Even their lovely scent was still noticeable.
We are supposed to get freezing rain tomorrow, but we’ll see what materialises: nothing, I hope!
Autumn is soon ending and winter is officially starting on December 21, so there aren’t many of those lovely fall colours left, but they’re not completely gone.
There are lots of grasses still and some of them are beautiful. I find that this one almost looks like a weaving.
On second thought, it’s not so much the colour as the texture of these grasses that I find so appealing. We are suddenly getting some very cold winds, so seeing these lovely plants is somehow very comforting.
If you’re in Europe, Happy Saint Nicholas Day! Saint Nick – or as he is known in The Netherlands, Sinterklass – was also referred to as Nicholas the Wonderworker. He was an early Christian bishop from Turkey who practiced from about 300-340 CE and died on December 6, hence his feast day.
He was revered for his generosity and particularly for his custom of secretly providing desperately needed food or money to the poor or struggling. He also gave small gifts to children.
When Dutch colonists arrived in New Amsterdam, today’s New York state, they brought with them the tradition of Saint Nicholas or Sinterklass, which was translated into English as Santa Claus. However, Henry VIII – the much married 16th century king of England who also tended to behead his spouses if they upset him – had already decided to move any celebration around Saint Nicholas (known as Father Christmas in the U.K.) to December 25.
For countless centuries prior to the rise of Christianity this particular day had been celebrated as – among many others – the Feast of Saturnalia or the Celebration of Yule, a time to honour the return of the sun through light displays, gift-giving and banqueting. Over time, the traditions of the two sets of “New World” colonists, U.K. and Dutch, became combined into a December 25 celebration of a fly-around-the-world-in-one-night, North Pole-domiciled entity known as Santa Claus.
I think it’s important to remember that the tradition of Saint Nicholas or Sinterklass or Father Christmas or Santa Claus was based around the idea of giving – in secret – to the less fortunate, something that seems to have become terribly lost in our intensely spendy world.
Seasonal decorations begin to shine in the dwindling winter light. The grasses are still pretty despite the calendar. A pretty sky against the encroaching darkness.
It was a rather rainy month but we definitely had some beautiful colours to admire, if only for a short time. Here’s a selection.
A fiery red maple and some blue sky, so it wasn’t raining all the time!A sweet little duck looking for lunch among the leaves.Leaves were everywhere. I loved watching this swan family. Lots and lots more leaves.The hydrangeas lasted very well. A lace leaf maple at the height of its autumn glory. A little late afternoon sun. As the month wore on, the overcast took over and decided to settle in. It rained a lot …… and snowed a lot, but all that white stuff stayed in the mountains!
The beauties of autumn are mostly gone now but we’re entering a time of year for seasonal celebrations and lots of light displays. Not as good as nature’s shows but definitely also a lovely time of year.
National Geographic has released its pictures of the year, including this amazing shot of penguins getting ready to follow one of their number into the ocean from an incredibly high ice sheet.
Photo courtesy of Bertie Gregory for National Geographic. Gregory photographed a young emperor penguin leaping off a 15 metre (50 ft) cliff in Atka Bay, Antarctica.
You can see all of National Geographic’s pictures at this link:
In the Net! - Pictures and Stories of Life 