With less dynamic range than my eye, my camera exaggerated the chiaroscuro in the images posted here. But not too much. With a nod to a common way to describe tempo in musical scores, I began drafting this post with the title [Chiaroscuro Ma Non Troppo]. Then I noticed a closer connection to music. My sequence of images is a visual rondo.
Tag: chiaroscuro
Gourd-geous Nativity Scene
The gourds in the foreground are kneeling shepherds. No, I did not take this photo last fall and save it for the Xmas season. The backstory is more interesting than that. It’s a minor miracle.
(BTW, the [Menu] button atop the vertical black bar reveals the widgets.)
I took the original photo on 2019-02-25 after noticing that my display of 5 gourds and a few rocks looked a little like a Nativity display. (I edited the photo to have more of the chiaroscuro in some old Nativity paintings.) The gourds were the survivors from the 10 gourds I had bought on 2018-09-24, still looking good after 154 days. Those gourds were like the temple’s oil supply in the Hanukkah story.
Sure, it’s unlikely that gourds will last 154 days. But unlikely things do sometimes happen. Don’t bet on when or where.
Have a Merry Xmas
and take it in stride if the New Year brings U yet another illustration of the statistical truism
Oh Come, All Fibo-ku
An old Xmas lighting tradition defies a darkness worse than long nights. I honor it with my lights and with a fibo-ku (a haiku using the Fibonacci series rather than 5-7-5 for syllable counts).
My response to
Carpe Diem Weekend-Meditation #10
Fibo-ku winter time
could be called a “fibo-bun” because it is like a haibun but has syllable counts from the Fibonacci sequence in the haiku part.
Several cultures have responded to the long nights of winter with festivals or structures celebrating light at roughly the time of the solstice. While not quite old enough to have personal memories of Stone Age passage tombs aligned with the sunrise (on a few of the several days that amounted to the solstice with Stone Age time-keeping), I do remember multicolored Hanukkah candles and the cheerful chiaroscuro of multicolored Xmas lights draped over trees and large shrubs.
Nowadays I see mostly different kinds of Xmas lights. Some people set out ugly jumbles of inflated Santas and other symbols of the gifting frenzy; others outline their houses with harshly uniform white lights. But some still carry forward the old Xmas lighting tradition (with LED-s now). And the glorious vocal music of Hanukkah and Xmas still transcends the literal meanings of the verses (2 of which inspired my titles here).
Darkness worse than long nights and garish decorations hangs heavy in today’s air. Maybe this darkness will also recede. My lights are up.
Yet in the Darkness Shineth
Red,
green,
blue, and
yellow lights:
multicultural
winter solstice celebration
defies dark tribal hatred to sing of love and light.
– Gray button (upper left corner) reveals widgets, –
– above post (on phone) or beside it (on desktop). –
– above post (on phone) or beside it (on desktop). –
Stained Glass in Spring
Another haiku in fragment/phrase style honors the memory of Jane Reichold.
(BTW, the [Menu] button atop the vertical black bar reveals the widgets.)
Also of interest:
Carpe Diem Theme Week (6) 5 “Ask Jane …”
Carpe Diem Theme Week (6) 5 “Ask Jane …”
Stained Glass in Spring
Leaves and seeds glow as
sunlight nourishes new life.
Cathedral window.
Chiaroscuro
Autumn is the best season of the year and also the shortest, unless we submit to calendar tyranny and say that “late fall” includes the leafless gray weeks before the winter solstice.
(BTW, the [Menu] button atop the vertical black bar reveals the widgets.)
I have a daylight photo that looks much like a shot of the full moon thru colored leaves, so I can illustrate Chèvrefeuille’s beautiful evocation of true autumn while responding to
Carpe Diem Haiku Experiment #1 an introduction
with a short haiku (in 3-5-3 form) about how short the season is.
© Chèvrefeuille
light of the full moon
shines through colored leaves
at last … autumn
Ending Too Soon
Wind speeds up!
Leaves fall in panic!
Clouds roll in …
Mellow Curmudgeon 