The Year is Complete!

Please feel free to look back through the 365 days of 2010 sunrises, but "a year of getting up to meet the day" is officially completed. There will be no more new posts.

PLEASE JOIN ME FOR MORE SUNRISE POSTS AT THE SUNRISE BLOGGER, WHERE YOU WILL FIND SUNRISE PHOTOS AND REFLECTIONS FROM ME AND FROM CONTRIBUTORS AROUND THE GLOBE.


Thank you so much for visiting.
A one year blog project in which I share a process of transitions: emptying of the nest, reacquainting with my rusty intellect, plowing onward with my first full length book, entering the second half of my first century, and generally reflecting on life.

(see Dec. 29th, 2009 entry for further explanation)

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

sunlit moments

sunrise:  5:57

When I walked outside this morning - 23 degrees, frosty ground, cloudless sky- I was content but unimpressed.  The vast blue bowl of sky overhead can feel either very enclosing or completely fathomless when there is absolutely nothing in it; it lacks perspective.  In the same way, the pre-dawn and dawn displays that clouds offer are absent. 

I figured it might be a no-photo morning, but I did take this one of the crescent moon rising.

Once again the blossoming day offered me much more than I had anticipated.  Sometimes the best part of the sky show is pre-dawn, about 15 minutes before the sun comes up.  Other days it is the sunrise itself.  And then there are days like today, when the first light of the morning sun hits the world and I can hardly bring myself to go back indoors.

I took 73 pictures.  But I'll only subject my blog friends to a selection of my favorites.   For those of you who find a surfeit of photos a bother - I do apologize.  I couldn't help myself.  I can only celebrate the fact that this world still stirs me so deeply!

pre-dawn glow


experiment with light - same photo here and below, just before the sun breached the horizon
























Here comes the sun, over the barren fields of March














The dawn light casts a gentle glow on graceful trees...
 














...as the sun rises higher


Here is the infamous bird that I keep mentioning.  It is NOT a cardinal.

I am quite sure (but not 100%) that it has a tufted head.  Can you see the puffed chest as it sings?  (in the crook of the branches - center photo)

it sings a long descending "piiiiuuuuu"

Any help here?






Kate must be featured now and then - she is loyalty personified. (caninified)


















I wish my camera could have picked up the sparkling frost that glittered in the sun all across this field.  But it still has a kind of textured beauty.











Kate and I
















Can you make out the bird in this one?  It is behind the upper of the two parallel thick branches tilting to the left, about a third of the way down.  Another bird just like it had just popped into the hole on the main trunk.

I don't know what they are, and their song is entirely new to me.

I also heard a blue jay's soft mating call.  So sweet!  especially compared to its usual harsh cry.  He moved too quickly for my camera.




Happy dogs. 

 And even this tangled mess of bracken is given a kind of warm loveliness in this exquisite light.




It is reassuring to get these reminders that it is always worth getting up in the morning.

2 comments:

  1. Sorry,Robin...not enough detail to identify either of those birds. The only crested birds I can think of from your area are blue jays, titmice and cardinals. There is no significant sexual dimorphism in the first two species, however female cardinals are a very pretty greenish color with a hint of pink...subtle beauty in contrast to the flashy males.

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  2. Groleau's vote for a tufted titmouse!

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