I've been working on the image of the year selection, off and on, on and off, now and then, every once in a while. You get the idea. I'm down to 18, thinking about what I can say about such an image that I haven't already said in previous image of the year posts. As always, the final selection will be determined by what criteria I use.
What are the 18 photos of, you ask? A bee, two birds, a cat, a dragonfly, a bridge, some flowers, some landscapes, some dramatic skies, and of course, there is some overlap. That still leaves many photos that don't quite make that cut, but are still really good by my standards.
I'm having a tough time believing it's Christmas Eve. I know some people are all excited about Christmas, and somehow manage it year after year, and how nice for you, but that's not me. Maybe having kids that get wired about it spills over, and again, that's not me. As I write this we are in the process of setting up the tree. I've humped the tree upstairs, but there are things that need to happen before I can assemble it.
Once upon a long time ago, I suggested that we do a really good job setting up the tree and create a nice space for it out of the way. Then after the season we could cover it with a sheet and carry on. The next year all we'd have to do is take the sheet off. That suggestion got made about the same time I said I'd be happy to put up Christmas lights on the house and job done. The discerning will have noted there are no Christmas lights on the house ever, the tree is re-assembled every year on Christmas Eve, and taken down on 12th Night.
Every family has their own Christmas traditions. They're sort of like a virus, the traditions, when you think about it. One person's traditions merge with another when they start living together, and the tradition mutates. It mutates more as children are added. Maybe traditions change as the people move into a bigger or smaller house. Or the Christmas tree lighting technology changes. Or someone gets a good deal on decorations and passes the tired old ones onto someone else.
Which gets me thinking about agent Smith's comments to Morpheus about humans being a virus. We're an extremely slow one, and big, but the more I think about it, the more I wonder if he's onto something. Humans are often behaving in a mindless way.
In what is not a digression, we recently watched The World's most Outstanding Homes. Most Expensive is a good alternate title. Most of the homes are indeed outstanding, some outstanding from a cliff face, or outstanding from a rocky shore, but some are under-standing, being earth sheltered homes. Many of them are summer homes. Expensive, over the top, summer homes, not built for shelter or particularly practical (In one of them two adults couldn't figure out how to turn the stove on to boil a kettle for tea), but rather to show off. If you watch this, my advice to you is keep a finger on the mute button, and hit it every time the female host appears on screen. That, or play a drinking game where you take a shot each time she says "isn't it?". Bring lots of booze and be prepared for a hangover.
We are going into another COVID wave, and nobody knows quite what to expect. Even vaccinated people are getting the Omicron variant, and the jury is still out if getting sick from it is milder than Delta or not. Last thing we need is for the Omicron and Delta to mate and produce the Omega strain, the one that is more infectious than Omicron, and more deadly than Delta. Human population might actually go down, which is a heck of a Christmas present, isn't it? (wink) Except if it's from the Republican, authoritarian, wing of the political spectrum maybe that's not such a bad thing.
On to happier thoughts.
(Hmmmmm. Contemplation during tree decorating.)
It snowed lots yesterday, and it's snowing lightly now, so it will be a white Christmas. It's cold AF out and will be for the next week. The tree is almost decorated; I'm taking a break to contemplate the wise words of my cousin Sherrie, "glitter is the herpes of the craft world." This year Celina panicked at the sight of the tree, after the first glimpse and some sniffing, she has disappeared. One of the ornaments looks like a sheep doing something obscene to a beet. Or vice versa, if the beet were sentient and perverted.
Not what you'd call happier thoughts, I guess. Strange state of mind, and I'm not even drinking while decorating.
There are no Christmas related photos. I do have what is probably a stupidly expensive house (practicality unknown), what with the cost of buying that lot, tearing down the expensive house that was there, and building another.
These were seen during a walk with these two.
Of the Day
Driftwood
Peony
Lily
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