birthday gift from Paris

Look twice.  These are spun spheres of 6.5 cm (2.5 inches) bought in a "le cousin paul" shop by my son and daughter-in-law while in Paris earlier this year.  There's only one shop in North America where they can be bought--in Montreal.  You pop them over tiny tree lights to glow.  Great to have this color in my life!

moon over lights

Our village has a lavish display of lights this year, at the edge, just over the goat path. Tonight the moon is 100 percent full. So...I tried to capture the effect. I didn't know I moved the camera once. The goof turns out best--my little thought for the day. The tall post is to capture Santa's attention as he passes overhead.

best lights prize

Nothing in Monterey rises to the level of a best Christmas lights prize, but I am handing out a new category--most remote lights. These are "in" the village, back Spring Road halfway to the illegal goat path crossing. The real prize goes to a house in the center of Leola with a drive-through. Here are two shots. A second house gets honorable mention, close to second place.

angle of spring sun

Okay. What's the point? Two points. One, the springtime sun throws the light into spots in the house (across from the piano, here) where I haven't seen it in months. Two, the day I saw this I also saw that two of the four robin eggs in the nest out front were hatched. I'll go for that another time.

lights out

In six days the shortest day of the year arrives. So I put out the lights. I didn't outen them. I strung them around the two shrubs in front of the house. I put them up, really. Up and out--and then plugged them in to turn them on. What would a rabbit see, looking up from underneath--the rabbit's-eye view? I sat the camera on the ground and clicked with the remote to see.

Christmas light contest

And the winner of the Monterey Christmas light contest is...

Our neighbors, next house east on West Eby.

Competition was practically nil. Amish refused to participate.

third and fourth generations

Eighteen family members crowded into the Monterey house Sunday, December 23. Of the family of Lester and Elva, that's the whole bunch, except Mel and Patrick.

Late in the afternoon, the entire and third and fourth generations were there and the shop light gave this image of them. Standing: Bonnie, Chris, Joel, Stephanie, Sarah, Ryan; front, Helen, Manny, Angela, and lights girl Emily.

Wow. Great bunch! If Lester and Elva could see them now!

Dawn's early light

The dawn's early light at Monterey. Meeny, Miney and Moe are still sleeping in their sheep shed, barely visible, center right. I know because they did not baa when my footsteps made noise on the driveway.

Our national poem's "dawn's early light" requires glare and rockets. Let me have it without the noise and artificial light. Just soft and pastel and shifting almost erotically.

There's plenty of time then for the noise, the baa-ing, the hustle, the grazing and the glancing. People pay $400,000 for a property but only see it from 7:10 to 7:15 in the morning and from 6:15 to 8:05, let's say, in the evening.

Some people never see their little place on earth.