Celebration of light

Today is the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, but the point at which the days begin to get longer (in the Northern hemisphere). I've enjoyed reading more about this day and its history and celebrations in various places around the world (especially here and here). Taking photos has gotten me thinking more about light and the way it influences us, shapes our moods and activities. I'm taking a few moments to reflect on my gratitude for sunlight, and next year I hope to have a real celebration inspired by some of the traditions I read about today!

Winter Words: hibernation

The word for this week's Winter Words project is hibernation. My photo is on the right and Allison's is on the left.

Lately things

Lately in real life I've been enjoying:
brisk walks in the cold,
peppermint hot chocolate,
going to bed early but staying up late reading,
finding new ways to eat squash (such as warm butternut squash and chickpea salad),
Arrested Development marathons with Justin (isn't it time for the movie already?!)

Lately on the internet I've been enjoying:
a Christmas-inspired tiny street art project,
Brian's latest mix,
multi-layer wallpaper art on Poppytalk,
Tommy's post on bread in Singapore

Winter Words: layers

Here is the second installment of Winter Words. The word for this week is layers. My photo is on the left and Allison's is on the right. I'm really excited with how this one turned out! We chose pretty different interpretations of layers but I think the photos complement each other.

Pathways and pastries

I love this ivy arch. I've come across it several times on walks around my neighborhood and each time I'm thrilled by it and I try to make a mental note of where it's located but it never sticks in my mind. I just have a vague notion of where it is in relation to my apartment. But I guess that's okay since each time I come across it I'm happily surprised.

The beautiful plum danish in the bottom photo is from Cafe Besalu, which is probably my favorite bakery in the whole world. It was a deciding factor in my apartment hunt this summer. When Allison and I were talking about winter projects she suggested that we become regulars at a cafe, which I think is the perfect excuse to treat myself to a pastry here once a week.

Christmas trees in the night

The other night I was walking home and suddenly the air smelled intensely woodsy, like I had wandered into a forest without realizing it, and then I looked across the street of course it was Christmas trees for sale. I had to go over and take in that wonderful smell that has become so rare since I've moved to the city. And since they looked so majestic illuminated by the stark overhead bulbs I also had to take a few photos.

Winter Words: serene

I recently met up with Allison, creator of the awesome blog 24:00, to discuss a project we could collaborate on this winter since we both struggle with finding inspiration during these months of short days and little light, so we came up with Winter Words. We picked a list of words that remind us of winter and each week we'll independently take a photo to represent that word and post them together on our blogs. This week's word is serene. My photo is one the right and Allison's is on the left (click on the photo to see a bigger image).

I'm really excited to see how this project pans out and hopefully it will help motivate me to keep taking photos even when I'm not feeling inspired. Are you guys doing any projects this winter?