Still life in winter

One thing I’d never fully appreciated until I started this blog is just how much the light changes throughout the year. When I take photos for Roundtop Ruminations, I archive the photos by month. When I look at my July photos, say, the light is visibly much different then than it is now. Although I was aware on some level that the light is weaker in winter than in summer, it’s quite another thing to see the evidence in my hands.

Today’s photo suggests just how weak natural light is near the winter solstice. I took this photo on Saturday afternoon, sometime between 2-3 p.m. The shadows are already rather long. The light is weak and pale, with little warmth, undistinguished. That’s the light of winter, when just a few degrees in the path of our sun changes the light and temperature across the earth.

The fern in this photo is a Christmas fern, so named because the plant’s fronds remain green through the winter. During Victorian times, the bright green fronds were used in Christmas decorations. Today, I find the color welcome in the vastness of brown that covers the mountain right now. Color is difficult to find at the moment, and any shade that isn’t brown stands out like a welcome beacon.