Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Christmas Carols

Christmas Vespers
As the last months of the year approach and pass, I look forward to and enjoy listening to Christmas music.  I have my favorite contemporary vocal artists, and listen to the satellite and Pandora internet radio stations, but have found a fondness for the beautiful choirs from around the world that perform classic vocal and instrumental renditions of the carols.  It’s the Vespers, Masses of Christmas, Handel’s Messiah, Medieval Carols and the very old and ancient songs that have been sung for hundreds of years that I am referring to.

Olde World Carols
Many of the Christmas songs I am very familiar with, but most of the very old songs I am not; meaning the songs from the middle to late Middle Ages that would have poured out of castles and cathedrals, and hummed in the lowly homes of the common people.  Mixing in music from the 18th and 19th centuries too, the carols of old sound to me of a celebration of not only Christmas, but the winter season. Made for a time when Christmas lasted longer than an evening and a day, and the season was focused more on who you were with than what you received.

Like every year, I’ll listen to the carols long after Christmas.  Letting the sounds resonate thru the winter and thru the snow.  It’s amazing to think that notes composed so long ago can be enjoyed over centuries of time, some becoming more familiar to me, while others already well-known and welcome, each helping me to express my beliefs, sentiments, and reactions to this season of the year.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Foto Friday: Effects of drip, drip, drip


Current Conditions:
Partly Sunny
16 degrees Fahrenheit

Outside is my very own icicle.  I should probably knock it down, but there is something beautiful about waking up in the morning and seeing the pink sky through my icicle.  For some reason this icicle in particular has not broken off on its own on some of our warmer days, others have, lying on the ground below as proof.  Instead, it stays; slowly climbing down from my roof.

I'll leave it, for now, letting the display of winter crystal clearly show itself for the time being.