A Rainy December Morning

And now it's December. Yesterday was the meteorological first day of Winter, and there have been major snow storms sweeping across the country, but here in the Cumberland Valley we've had nothing but rain. It rained yesterday and overnight, and then it was still raining when I went for my weekly walk in the Dykeman Spring Nature Park this morning. Cold rain is my least favorite weather to walk in, but the wet and overcast emphasizes the colors in the bleakness that is a woodland in December. Here are some scenes from this morning's walk.

The woods along the Dykeman WalkingTrail

More woods along the trail

The back entrance to the park on the trail

A favorite wetland landscape, colored by December

A little wetland ghost, one of the resident ferals in the park

On the way home, the creek between the ball fields

© 2019 by A. Roy Hilbinger

 

Thanksgiving 2019

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year my Thanksgiving time is a particularly thankful one. As you probably know, I had a cardiac crisis in September and October, and I owe a great deal of thanks to my nearby family, my brother Don and sister-in-law Terri, for being there and getting me to the doctors and tests and all that I needed to get to. I am also grateful to all of my family and friends for the support and well wishes I received. And of course to the doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals who made sure I'm still around to enjoy the rest of the blessings I'm thankful for. What would those blessings be? The wonderful Earth we all live on, with all its beauty and brilliance and mystery. It's a blessing just to be alive!

This year I'm going to give you a bunch of music to celebrate the holiday. "All Good Gifts" from the movie version of Godspell; my "Simplicity" slideshow featuring the Shaker Hymn "Simple Gifts" performed by Alison Krauss and Yo-Yo Ma; Peter Mayer's Thanksgiving song "Coming Home"; and Mary Chapin Carpenter's "Thanksgiving Song". Enjoy! And enjoy your Thanksgiving!

Photos © 2008 & 2019 by A. Roy Hilbinger

November, A Time To Be Still

“In November, the trees are standing all sticks and bones. Without their leaves, how lovely they are, spreading their arms like dancers. They know it is time to be still.” ― Cynthia Rylant, In November

Today's walk in the park was magical. The light was subdued, the special late Autumn colors glowed, and the air smelled like tannin and evergreen. It's days like these that make me love November!

November in the Dykeman wetland

Mallard couples in the Dykeman creek

An Autumn still life under the water in the north duck pond

A forest stairway on the Upland Trail

The north duck pond in it's November glow

© 2019 by A. Roy Hilbinger

Walking Through Fallen Leaves

“Now Autumn’s fire burns slowly along the woods
And day by day the dead leaves fall and melt.”

William Allingham - Autumnal Sonnet

I woke up in the semi-darkness this morning, and by the quality of what light there was coming in the window I could tell the sky was overcast. A perfect day for an Autumn hike! I needed to walk on fallen leaves today, kicking through the piles and crunching them underfoot, the ultimate joy of the season. So after breakfast and the usual morning activities at the computer, I tied on my boots and headed for the Cumberland Valley Rail Trail. It was definitely a soul-clearing walk; here are some of the sights along the way.

© 2019 by A. Roy Hilbinger

A Misty November Morning

It was drizzling and in the 30s when I got up this morning, and still in the upper 30s/low 40s when I went out for my weekly walk in the park and grocery run. So today's walk in the park was slightly damp. But it brought out the existing colors in the otherwise drab November landscape. Come take a look.

Drip, drip, drip...

A cattail marsh along the Dykeman Walking Trail behind the ball fields

An empty nest in the Dykeman wetland

A Carolina Wren in the wetland who was not at all pleased with my presence

Looking toward a very misty Timber Hill from the top of the meadow

Self-portrait of the happy wanderer, taken with my cell phone

© 2019 by A. Roy Hilbinger

November

November is the bridge between Autumn and Winter. The trees are much barer, the flowers have turned to seed and down, and the world slowly turns monochrome, with touches of brown and russet and dark evergreen here and there. The Winter Solstice may not be until December 21, but December 1 is the meteorological beginning of Winter and November is when the world trims down in preparation for the Winter snows. Today's walk in the Dykeman Spring Nature Park gives some glimpses of all that.

A lone,withered leaf in the Dykeman wetland

A leaf fallen on a wooden walkway

Old, ragged cattails in the wetland

November reflections on the north duck pond

Bare trees up on the meadow

Yes, I have music to go with this photographic walk. Max Richter is a German-born British composer who is considered one of the more influential voices in post-minimalist composition. This piece, "November", is from his 2002 debut album Memoryhouse, recorded with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. I felt that the mood of this piece perfectly matched that of the photos. Enjoy!

© 2019 by A. Roy Hilbinger

Autumn Up Close - Berries and Seeds

It's November now and Autumn is moving on apace. It's been an odd Autumn though; trees that were colorful last week are now bare, some trees are newly colorful but half bare, and there are an awful lot of all green trees still holding forth. As far as Fall foliage goes, today's walk in the Dykeman Spring Nature Park was something of a washout, so I concentrated on a plentiful resource for Autumnal color - berries. Add to that some Maple helicopters still hanging on to the tree at the top end of the north duck pond and you have the reason for the title of today's post. Come take a look.

Viburnum berries along the Dykeman Walking Trail

Barberries in the Dykeman wetland

Bittersweet berries in the wetland

Maple helicopters still on the tree

© 2019 by A. Roy Hilbinger

Samhain 2019

Today is Samhain! The modern celebration of Halloween gets most of its traditions from the old Celtic New Year celebration of Samhain (pronounced SAH-win), including costumes, Jack O'Lanterns, trick or treating, and the like. The original holiday was all about honoring those passed on, celebrating the ancestors. There were other celebrations with the theme of honoring the dead (the Roman Feralia being one of them) at this time of year throughout Europe, so in the seventh century Pope Boniface IV declared a two-day festival honoring the dead to replace the pre-Christian celebrations - All Saints Day on November 1 and All Souls Day on the 2nd. In England All Saints was known as All Hallows, and the celebrations starting on the night before became known as All Hallows Eve, which through the years became Halloween. The pre-Christian traditions survived the transition and we still follow them today. 

Some of those traditions include wandering the streets to beg for soul cakes, special little cakes baked for this holiday; this tradition was called souling and eventually became the modern day trick or treating. Our ancestors would also carve out turnips and place a candle within, making "turnip lanterns" to light the way for those souls coming to visit at this time when the veil between this life and the afterlife was believed to be at its thinnest; when pumpkins were discovered here in the Americas they were deemed to make much better lanterns than turnips! And of course those who wandered the streets a-souling wore costumes, supposedly to scare away the evil spirits who would also take advantage of the thinner veil between the worlds, although I suspect the costumes may go even further back into time and were originally meant to represent the spirit totems of this time of year - Raven, the Horned God Cerunnos, Owl, and other spirits of the dark half of the year. Nowadays those costumes are more likely to be humorous and light-hearted rather than serious.

Anyone who has been following this blog for a time will know that I always include music in my Samhain posts. There's quite a bit of music over the years that I've used to represent this time of year, both for Samhain and the modern Halloween, and last year I put together a playlist on YouTube to collect my favorites in one place, which you can visit here - these include the 1980s PBS animation of Saint-Saëns' Danse Macabre, Loreena McKennitt's All Souls Night, one of my favorite versions of the A-Souling song by New Zealand ensemble Lothlorien, some old British folksongs dealing with some of the more unpleasant characters who might be wandering about, and some assorted modern tunes associated with Halloween these days. Definitely give it a visit.

This year I'm also posting a slideshow here that I put together of my best gravestone photos, set to a breathtakingly beautiful musical setting by Natalie Merchant of British poet Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem Spring and Fall: to a young child, written for a young girl facing mortality for the first time. This piece, more than anything else I've posted here, exemplifies the spirit of Samhain - honoring the departed, and placing death in its necessary place in the cycle of life. Have a blessed Samhain!

© 2019 by A. Roy Hilbinger

Seasonal Touches in Shippensburg

Walking through town today in search of good subjects for tomorrow's annual Samhain post, I caught these seasonal scenes.

Episcopal Square on North Prince Street

A scarecrow family on Orange Street

Richwalter Street in Hollar Heights

Ivy overruns a sign in one of Shippensburg's back alleys

A seasonally decorated planter along King Street

Branch Creek from the King Street bridge

A front stoop display along King Street

© 2019 by A. Roy Hilbinger

Autumn Leaves

I did my weekly walk in the Dykeman Spring Nature Park this morning, mainly because it's supposed to be pouring rain tomorrow morning and I have a doctor's appointment Monday (my post-op follow-up). And today's walk was absolutely gorgeous! The Fall color is definitely in full swing here, and it was overcast, so the color really popped. Come for a walk with me and see.

One of the Ginkgo trees along King St. near the post office is in full color

Lots of color along the creek as it runs between the baseball fields

The forest's edge along the Dykeman Walking Trail

The best place to view this patch of color is from the other side of the north duck pond

Along the shore of the north duck pond

Walking along the trail as it follows the creek toward the red bridge

Another angle on the creek as it runs between the ball fields, this time on the way back out

And now for some appropriate music! I had already decided to include Eva Cassidy's cover of the popular standard Autumn Leaves, specifically the live version from the 1996 gig at Blues Alley. What I didn't expect to find was this magnificent film produced by Passepartout Films mixing that Blues Alley clip with an orchestral background by the London Symphony Orchestra and some really spectacular photography. Ahhhhhhhh! The perfect cap on a lovely walk. Enjoy!

© 2019 by A. Roy Hilbinger