OUT WITH THE SHORT!

I don't know about you, but I am very happy to finally have reached the shortest day of the Year.  Winter Solstice is finally here, and power of suggestion being what it is,  I could have sworn that yesterday the early evening was a bit longer.

We live  quite a bit further north than we used to and last summer and fall we noticed that the days were indeed somewhat extended.  Power of suggestion aside - I have noticed the last week that the days were a bit longer...even during the cloudy days that we seem to have so much of lately.

Anyway you look at it - Winter Solstice can only be a good thing.  Yes winter in officially one day away, but also we have turned the corner and now have a straight path all the way to spring.


My weekend was spent organizing the basement.  I have really done nothing in the family room since we just kind of dumped everything when we moved in.  With Gary moving all the TV stuff and some furniture into his home theater, I decided it was time to give the family room a bit of attention.

I rearranged furniture, gave a good clean, found some things I had forgotten I had, and now that room is a nice area to entertain quests especially with the TV gone.

My next project is going to be the very large cold room in the basement that I have only ventured into maybe 4 times since we have moved here.  I forget we have this large room.  I did go in there on the weekend, and it is cold to be sure.  It is going to be a very useful room when I have canned and have fresh vegetables to store.  At the moment it sits empty except for a couple of dormant bulbs that I am trying to save until spring.

The biggest event on my weekend was hubby's announcement that he wanted me to have his computer so I could edit my photography better.  He has a big iMac and I just have a small laptop - so we switched computers.

I never wanted an desktop computer - but I have so say the large screen is wonderful for working with my photos.  Photography is taking me down another new road and now I have the proper tools to expand this wonderful hobby.

My nephew, Scott has inspired me to pursue night photography.  It is a total learning experience for me, and quite the challenge to learn new aspects of my camera and put them to use.

The ultimate goal here is to catch the night sky.  Aurora, stars, comets, the moon... all difficult objects for the amateur photographer to capture with a lens.

I am starting with some normal night shots - lights (perfect timing with it being Christmas and all the houses decorated with lights).  In particular I want to get acquainted with a certain Moose across the lane.  He is going to be my first real subject.

In the meantime, I fooled with some settings and took a bunch of indoor shots.  No flash, just different settings and adjustments to make the camera do it's work.

Here are a couple of images I captured at dusk the other night.  It was dark enough for all the lights to be on in the house and the street lights on outside, as you can see in the last photo, that fleshy haze behind the glass reindeer is actually the reflection of the street light outside.

I am going to have to be very careful in the future - I can see photography becoming a very serious threat to my love of crafting.

For now, it is pure JOY!