Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

 

Christmas found us on a sunny, almost balmy morning.

 

So I opened the windows

 

for the cats to take some sun

 

 It was late afternoon when we headed off to the bird sanctuary for our Christmas Day walk

 

just as we did on a warm drizzly day last Christmas, but with the whole place to ourselves

This year there were many people out taking photos and walking about this beautiful place.

 

Bullrush mounds

wild rose bushes stripped of their leaves

 

mostly

 

but still a lot of wild rose hips on their brambley vines

 

They almost made up for the lack of snow, set against the pines

Here we found some ducks bobbing for greens beneath the still pond water

 

It could get almost mystical as the sun begins its downward arc

and here a fine fellow

serenely glides

 

back to join his mate

 

Many photo ops for still water reflections

 

But this one took the cake: a Sundog

a prism phenomenon where refraction takes place in a cloud far removed from the sun which is actually to the upper right, out of the camera's view

(wish I could have got a better exposure; it was quite beautiful)

 we round the path looking back at the bridge from whence we started

 

Now the whole Christmas experience seems somehow far away after a month of preparing, like a big meal that took longer to prepare than to consume. If you're one of those people who enjoy the kitsch of Christmas, apart from its symbol of hope and rejoicing this next section is for you, and if you're not, this may seem like too much dessert: a batch of pictures I took on Christmas Eve and forgot about til late today, Boxing Day.

 

We drove to Berwick and here are shots from along the way, there and back in no particular order.

 

A little floss and sparkle of other folks' creative efforts.