Sunday, December 22, 2013

The Sun Stands Still


Winter Solstice, 2013 - digital - 2013, DS 


Well, I'm a little late with this post; technically the sun "stood still" yesterday, the day of the winter solstice, but I spent the day working on the image above. This all came about when I rediscovered a little rock in the glove compartment of my car - one of my beach finds, probably picked up off a sandbar around the time of this year's summer solstice.

It's an enigmatic little rock... which looks as if its flat surface has lines carved into it. But, if that's actually the case, then it's only a small portion of something much larger. Who knows? But, in its own understated way, it kind of brings to mind the larger - and more celebrated - mysterious rocks that cover the globe, which are thought to be directly related to the winter solstice; Newgrange in Ireland, for instance.

Known to the druids as Alban Arthan, and the beginning of Yule, the winter solstice marks the time of the year when the sun returns, and the daylight hours slowly begin to grow longer... which is a good thing to know as we drag ourselves through the ice and snow!

Anyway, my little rock wanted to be a star... and so, I made it one... scanning it into this machine, and positioning it with an old scan of some ice I had on hand. (Yes, you can scan ice on a flatbed scanner... but, be quick about it!)

So, take heart... the winter has just begun, but, the "darkest hour" is already history!


(Additionally: 6 Ancient Tributes to the Winter Solstice.)




4 comments:

  1. Happy Solstice and love the new image -- I'd never have imagined scanning ice.

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  2. Happy Solstice to you, too, BG!
    Actually, believe it or not, ice scans well. And, if you can't scan it immediately, you can just pop it into the freezer.

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  3. As usual, the only blog that gets down to what is really going on. Nice post.

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  4. Thanks, TB, but, I don't know. Your post on "Histories" is much more comprehensive... and talk about ice - yikes!

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