SolsticePlace

[Hoarded Ordinaries] If this were Punxsutawney, PA instead of Keene, NH, if it were February 2nd instead of December 15th, and if I were a groundhog instead of a human, we'd definitely be in for six more weeks of winter. For the first time in days, the sun is out and shining brightly here in Keene, and with the sun come the shadows.

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In the [Twilight] of the year, a snowy afternoon eases toward darkness. Take heart: On the 15th of December, the days are almost as short as they're going to be, and just six days from now, they get longer.... P.

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[Feathers of Hope (Pica)] The ship that is breaking up off Unalaska has my colleagues on alert; if a lot of oiled animals start coming in and they need a vet, somebody's going to have to work over Christmas.

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[Via Negativa] Now this frozen and snow-dusted pond in the woods is the opposite of a looking glass. But with the sun so bright and the sky so blue, its surface offers a sneak preview of coming attractions one or two months away. The long shadows will be just this shade of blue, yes, and in between, the granular surface of the snow pack will glisten, just like that. I will time my walks and set my course so as to head as much as possible into that "certain slant of light," alert for anything that gleams.

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[alembic] Of course, it rarely, if ever, snows here. Most of the time, the sun¡¯s winter-slanted* light illuminates ¨C instead of heating up ¨C the valley and the hills. It¡¯s all picture perfect, even if the night does descend rather early and hangs on for hours on end.

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[CassandraPages]We got in a habit of marking its setting place each evening on the window glass...