Christmas, 2016

Photograph taken on Sunday, December 25, 2016 by Henry
Christmas Lights

Christmas Lights

Every year is different. That’s good, in the sense that we want a little variety in our lives. If every day were just like the last, we’d get bored (some of us sooner than others). That’s why so many people love the changing seasons. Autumn and spring, times of transition, are especially beautiful. But even with the change, there is a sameness the overlays it all. Every year has the same four seasons and that repetition is quite comforting. We know what to expect next, at least in broad terms, even if the details are different.

Every year, the details are different. We all know that but we’re still surprised by it, from time to time. Last year was different to all the others (at least all my others) because Albert wasn’t there. This year was different for a totally different reason. Ralph’s son and daughter-in-law (Stephen and Maya) had a son yesterday. What a wonderful combined Christmas and Hanukkah present. They named him Kaien (pretty much rhymes with Ryan) but gave him the middle name Albert. That was a very sweet thing for them to do and a very nice present for all of us.

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Christmas Eve

Photograph taken on Saturday, December 24, 2016 by Henry
Olivia, Alyssa, Ellie, and Hope with Sugar

Olivia, Alyssa, Ellie, and Hope with Sugar

For a number of reasons, not least of which was a scheduling conflict at our normal location for church tomorrow and the fact that most people want to be with their families on Christmas day, we had a Christmas Eve service today instead. It was a fairly small, informal affair, with only about 20 people in all including more children than adults. After the service, I took this picture and if I have their names right, they are Olivia, Alyssa, and Ellie behind Hope and Sugar (the dog).

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Dorothy and D’Argo

Photograph taken on Friday, December 23, 2016 by Henry
Dorothy and D'Argo

Dorothy and D’Argo

Cathy and Dorothy went over this afternoon to pick up D’Argo from Steve and Maya’s. They were going to the hospital to have their first child and we will have the dog for a little while, certainly until they are home again and settled down a bit. As I write this, late on Saturday morning, there is still no word on the baby’s arrival, but we should hear any time now.

As you can see, Dorothy is enjoying having a dog.

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Sunset

Photograph taken on Thursday, December 22, 2016 by Henry
Sunset

Sunset

Yesterday I got a sunrise photo at about 7:15 AM. Today, we see a sunset at 4:45 PM. These are about the extremes for our latitude, yesterday and today being about the shortest days of the year. As of now, the sunrise will get earlier and the sunset later. I was coming home the round about way today, having had an errand in Olney, so I stopped at the commuter parking lot at the ICC and went to the top of the hill to get this picture of the sun setting behind the trees in the distance.

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Sunrise With Moon

Photograph taken on Wednesday, December 21, 2016 by Henry
Sunrise With Moon

Sunrise With Moon

At a little after 7:00 this morning I noticed that the color of the morning light was on the orange/pink side and I grabbed my camera and went out front to take a few pictures. This is the best time of year for sunrise photographs, not least because the sunrise is about as late as it gets so I’m more liable to be up and about. On the other hand, I generally have very little time to get the color so I grab my camera and run out without bothering with shoes, which I rarely wear when I’m inside. It’s not as cold as it was last week, fortunately, or that might have been painful.

I got a few pictures of the lower, eastern sky, where the most color was (and it was fading fast). I turned and took this one to the southeast, where the crescent moon was floating among the colored clouds. In some ways it isn’t as good a picture as the others but I thought the moon makes it unusual enough to warrant it’s appearance here.

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Trees

Photograph taken on Tuesday, December 20, 2016 by Henry
Trees

Trees

I had meant to get out of the office today. It’s not as cold as it was and it was mostly clear today but I was quite busy and didn’t get a chance. As the sun was going down late in the afternoon it lit up the trees outside my office and I watched the bird moving about. There were quite a few starlings in the tree tops and every now and then a large group of them would fly off or another large group would join them from somewhere else. This picture is just of trees with a few large, older trees that are growing just beyond the parking lot and then the smaller trees beyond in what was a field when I started working here.

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Tree and Crèche

Photograph taken on Monday, December 19, 2016 by Henry
Tree and Crèche

Tree and Crèche

After work today I did some shopping while Cathy went to her weekly Pilates class. Then I came back and picked her up and we went to her mom’s house to help get some Christmas decorations up. We had put up the tree earlier but didn’t have time to decorate it. I also got out the large crèche which was stored on the top shelf in the basement. Getting a picture with the lights on the tree showing and the rest of the image lit properly is a challenge but I’m pretty please with this one.

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White-tailed Deer

Photograph taken on Sunday, December 18, 2016 by Henry
White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus)

White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus)

I fixed some coffee and was making breakfast when Cathy came down and saw this white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in our back yard. It appears to be a young one, not fully grown but I don’t really know enough about deer to say for sure. It was just lying there and would look at me, then turn to the side. I went outside and took a few more pictures before it got up and trotted to the back corner of the yard, where it stayed for a while. When I checked back 20 minutes later it was gone.

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Ice Storm

Photograph taken on Saturday, December 17, 2016 by Henry
Ice on Colorado Spruce

Ice on Colorado Spruce

Dorothy drove from school to Lancaster, Pennsylvania yesterday, getting most of the way home without having to deal with the winter weather that we had today. This morning it started sleeting about the time I got up and came down for a good three or four hours before petering out. There was a nice coating of ice on everything but it didn’t last, having warmed up into the 40s by the afternoon. Dorothy left Lancaster around 2:00 and with the exception of a little back road driving getting to interstate 83, she didn’t have any problem getting here. But for the little time it lasted, the ice was very pretty.

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Ice Crystals

Photograph taken on Friday, December 16, 2016 by Henry
Ice Crystals

Ice Crystals

As I mentioned yesterday, it’s gotten cold. Today I wore a sweater and if you know me at all, you know that means it was below 20°F (about -7°C), which is when I usually will put a jacket on even if I won’t be outside long. Anyway, I also had a glove for my camera hand. That made my foray into the woods much more comfortable than yesterday’s. I walked through the woods and across the creek in the empty lot next to my building. Up on the higher ground across the creek there was a large, flat, open area with small puddles, all frozen. In what was formerly mud, there were these fingers of ice crystal that I thought were pretty awesome.

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Raccoon Footprints

Photograph taken on Thursday, December 15, 2016 by Henry
Raccoon Footprints

Raccoon Footprints

It’s gotten cold suddenly and today was quite cold. I went out for a little while to take pictures and by the time I came back in, my right hand was quite numb from the cold (I can put my left hand into my pocket but I hold the camera with my right hand). I took pictures of a sycamore leaf in the woods and then walked down to the pond next to my building. It’s only just gotten cold so there was still open water but there was ice along the edge. In what had recently been mud by the stream were raccoon footprints.

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Christmas Presents

Photograph taken on Wednesday, December 14, 2016 by Henry
Christmas Presents

Christmas Presents

Cathy spent much of the evening today wrapping Christmas presents so we could get them in the mail in time for them to arrive before Christmas. Many years she’d be doing this next week, so it’s pretty great that she got them done. I’m not judging, mind you. I barely helped do it, although I did wrap one or two of the presents. I’m a terrible procrastinator. Anyway, she got four (I think) separate boxes packed and ready to mail. Happy Christmas, everyone!

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Five Guys

Photograph taken on Tuesday, December 13, 2016 by Henry
Five Guys

Five Guys

Cathy and I went to work together today because our second car is on loan temporarily. That did complicate the evening a little because I have my men’s group on Tuesday evenings and Cathy has indoor soccer. When we have two cars, I come home, fix myself dinner, and then head back into town for the meeting. This evening Cathy dropped me off and I walked to the Plaza to pick up something to eat. I took a few pictures, mostly of the Christmas lights and then went into Five Guys to buy a burger. While I was waiting for that to be made, I took this with the camera sitting on a table. It’s a 1/2 second exposure at f/9.9.

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Oil On Wet Pavement

Photograph taken on Monday, December 12, 2016 by Henry
Oil On Wet Pavement

Oil On Wet Pavement

I went over to one of the other buildings on campus early this afternoon for a meeting. As I sometimes (often) do, I brought my camera with me in case there were any opportunities for photographs. As I walked over, it was overcast and dreary, but that’s sometimes good photographically. By the time I left the meeting, only an hour later it was sunny and clear. The pavement was still wet from the rain overnight and there was a little oil or gasoline spilled on the pavement. That’s what this photograph is of.

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Tea Set

Photograph taken on Sunday, December 11, 2016 by Henry
Tea Set

Tea Set

I was looking around for things to photograph this evening. The first thing I photographed was soap bubbles in a roasting pan soaking in the sink. They turned out alright but they were not exactly riveting. Cathy had been washing this tea set that she’s had since she was a little girl. It was set out on a tea towel. I moved them to a cutting board and took a few pictures, of which this is one. It’s a dainty, little tea set with cups that are only about an inch across.

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Apple Orchard

Photograph taken on Saturday, December 10, 2016 by Henry
Apple Orchard

Apple Orchard

I’ve already posted two pictures from our brief trip to Pennsylvania today, although both of them were taken in Maryland on the way home. I showed this picture to Dorothy and she agreed that it was worth posting, so here’s the third picture from today. This one was taken before the two church pictures so I’m posting them in the wrong order, but that’s life (“that’s what all the people say”).

We cut our Christmas trees at a place called Shower’s Tree Farm (http://www.showerstreefarm.com/). In addition to a fairly large field of Christmas trees, they have apples, which isn’t surprising in this part of the state (the home of Musselman’s (now part of Knouse Foods) and the National Apple Museum. The trees were all bare but some of them had quite a few apples on the ground around them and that, obviously, is what this picture features.

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Dilapidated Church

Photograph taken on Saturday, December 10, 2016 by Henry
Dilapidated Church

Dilapidated Church

As mentioned in the previous post, we went to Pennsylvania to cut Christmas trees today. After a brief (but less brief and more eventful than expected) visit to the farm, we went to a local tree farm to cut a few trees. For quite a few years we’ve gone to a farm in Cashtown, west of Gettysburg. It’s nice to go to the same place year after year but we received word from them that they were not going to be open this season. We don’t know if that’s a permanent closing or if it’s for this year only. In any case, they recommended another farm that’s actually closer, so we went there.

We had lunch at the Ott House in Emmitsburg, as we’ve done for about four years (prior to that we’d go somewhere different every year). Mom had seen a piece in the newspaper about a church that was in bad enough shape that it couldn’t really be repaired but that is old and historic enough that it shouldn’t be torn down. Of course, if it isn’t repaired, it will come down eventually under its own weight. Anyway, we decided to try to find it and (as you’ve probably guessed by now) we did. The sun was behind the church, which made lighting difficult, and again, there were power lines to contend with, but I’m pretty happy with this shot.

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Elias Evangelical Lutheran Church

Photograph taken on Saturday, December 10, 2016 by Henry
Elias Evangelical Lutheran Church

Elias Evangelical Lutheran Church

We drove up to Pennsylvania today with some other family members to get Christmas trees. For a while dad was planting trees at the farm every few years and we’d often cut trees from among those but new trees haven’t been planted for at least ten and probably closer to 20 years so all of those are much too big to be of any use. Still, we go there as a sort of tradition, knowing we’ll only stay a short while. Some years we have had snow and a few years there was enough that we had to part at the entrance and then walk in. The last few years have been clear and mild. Today it was cold but there was no snow. There was a thin layer of ice on the pond and it was making the most amazing pinging noise as the sun heated it slightly. At first we were sure it was a bird making that noise but it was the ice.

We cut our trees at a local tree farm and then drove down to Emmitsburg for lunch. I took a little time to take some pictures of Elias Evangelical Lutheran Church on North Avenue, a block from Main Street, where we parked. The trick here was to get a picture without telephone and power lines crossing in front of the church.

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Holiday Party

Photograph taken on Friday, December 09, 2016 by Henry
Kasia, Troy, and Katie

Kasia, Troy, and Katie

The group I work with had its annual holiday party today. It’s not exactly the sort of party portrayed in some movies or television shows, with dancing and revelry. It’s just a bunch of folks (about 150) getting together for a meal, a silent auction to raise a bit of money for a local charity, and a time of mostly quiet socializing. I was one of two photographers today with the other being the “official” photographer. That freed me up to take a few candids and not really stress.

Being a technical person, I’m technically not a member of this group but this is the group we largely support. I work with quite a few different teams within this group although there are a lot that I don’t know at all. I’ve worked with these three for quite some time and probably know them better than all but a few others here. They all hate to have their picture taken but they were kind enough to let me take a few.

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Iridescent Cloud

Photograph taken on Thursday, December 08, 2016 by Henry
Iridescent Cloud

Iridescent Cloud

Where clouds are made up of especially tiny ice crystals or water droplets, they can cause light to be diffracted, creating this rainbow-like effect in the clouds. I saw one to the left of the sun as I was driving up interstate 95 from the capital beltway and then when I got onto Maryland 200 (the Inter-county Connector) I saw this on to the right of the sun. I was able to pull over and take a couple pictures of it before it faded away. I love clouds and take pictures of them fairly often but don’t figure most people will be as interested as I am, so only post them here when they are involved in sunsets or particularly unusual (like the Fallstreak hole I photographed in November, 2013). This isn’t nearly as rare as that, but I still like it when I see it.

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