Today is the shortest day of the year, or if you wish, the longest night.
Darkness abounds.
Tomorrow we begin climbing back up the year into light.
Curves
Curves are everpresent in nature.
These reeds growing this past fall near my place have some of the most gentle and elegant curves to be seen
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Monochrome
King’s Landing is an interesting place to make photographs of Lake Nipissing.
The moods of the Lake and clouds are emphasized by black and white. Colour reduces the impact somewhat.
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Merry Christmas Mr. Postman
A little Christmas touch at a mailbox near our place.
Neat and elegant and understated.
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Construction
When it’s warm all the time construction requirements differ markedly from my part of the world.
This is a section of an intererior wall of this house.
Note the lack of insulation.
Of course, ventillation is always good!
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Colour
Pride is evident in the care and neatness of these small houses.
Colour expresses the optimism and hope of many whose lives might be considered less than easy.
In my part of the world this spirit is missing in the decoration of houses and other buildings. Is it possible that as life gets better we lose the need to express our joy?
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Dominican Republic
We visited the Dominican Republic last week (sorry, no posts possible during that time) and were imprisoned in a very comfortable “all-inclusive” resort complex. Beautiful beach, lots of scantily clad people (some of whom shouldn’t have been – but they’re paying so they get to do what they choose) few smiles, fewer greetings. Weather was great – warm, no rain, just the nirvannah everyone seeks, right?
We were able to escape this utterly artificial jail on a one day ride around the countryside to visit the “typical” DR on the back of a specially equipped four wheel drive truck guided by Jonathan.
Well…I have ridden some rough roads but these were some of the roughest I’ve seen. Off the pavement it became a real adventure to hold on and stay in our seats. It was WONDERFUL! And eye-opening.
The areas we travelled into were the equivalent of the rural areas around North Bay. Read “Chisolm Township”, “North Himsworth”, “East Ferris”, etc. The gravel roads here are superhighways in comparison to the roads we bounced along in the DR. People live in the rural areas and have a tough job getting to town, but that’s what’s available and so you live with it and you deal with it. Our truck got bogged down at an intersection of two roads and was pulled out by another truck using a piece of cable. It was a true adventure.
Here is the road after we were rescued.
Another fellow approaching the intersection was not fortunate:
Note that he is up to the back axle in mud. We weren’t able to stay around to see how he made out.
More next time.
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Ice Cream Cone?
Hawaiian flowers are colourful and exotic.
This one reminds me of an ice cream cone:
Yum, yum! What flavour might it be?
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Banyan Tree
This large Banyan Tree is in Lahaina, Maui. At over 1/3 of an acre it provides a unique shaded area in front of the Courthouse.
The tree was planted in 1873 and is a wonderful place to be on a hot day.
Too bad they don’t grow in Canada!
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Volcanic Origins
Hawaii was formed as the Pacific Plate slid over a hotspot in the earth’s mantle. The Big Island is the most recent of the islands to form and is still volcanically active.
Awesome desolation surrounds the crater of the most recently active lava pit, Halema’uma’u Crater.
The plume is composed of steam and sulphur dioxide, which when the wind blows the wrong way requires evacuation from the area as air quality gets very bad indeed.
One feels very small in the presence of this kind of power.
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Life’s a Beach
There are beaches here…
Fun to walk on. Watch out for the surf.
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Back From Holidays
We visited Hawaii for the past two weeks to celebrate our 50th Anniversary.
A great place to go.
One of our first views of Waikiki Beach from the top of our hotel.
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