Thursday, December 10, 2009

Birdwings, campfires, and Christmas

We decorated our Christmas tree last night. We cut it down ourselves at a nearby Christmas tree farm last Sunday, but had to wait until last night before we all had an evening free to gather round and decorate it.

I was clicking through some older photos on the disk drive from my old computer, which I haven't had access to for a while. I came across this photo from a family backpacking trip a few years ago:

The caption under the picture was, "Campfire tales." It occured to me that the cozy feeling of sitting around the campfire and telling tales is exactly like the feeling of gathering together to decorate the tree and then sitting around afterward admiring it and telling stories. I suppose a scene like that would likely be captioned, "Christmas tales."

The morning after the campfire picture, I remember standing near where the fire had been the night before and hearing a strange zip-zip-zip sound. I looked up to see a crow flying over us, and the sound was the sound its wings made with each pulse. That's how quiet it was in the mountains of Pennsylvania that morning - quiet enough to hear a bird on the wing.

This morning, however, I woke to the howl of a biting wind and to snow. I hope you all are warm wherever you are, and out of the wind, and telling tales with your families.

6 comments:

jo said...

Nice glow.
We don't have snow.
We've got fog and rain.
I have a hot water bottle on my knees, to keep me warm. Too mean to switch the CH on to the rest of the house. My way of saving fuel.
Any of those tales forthcoming?

ICQB said...

Hi Jo!

A huge storm hit most of the US - we didn't get the brunt of the precipitation, but we got plenty of wind and cold. The wind chill was down to -10 F, and believe me, it was windy. The garden is officially done for.

After the Christmas rush, I'll get to work on those tales : )

ricki - sprig to twig said...

Nice comparison between the campfire and the tree. Now I am off to check your Etsy store. I just opened one for my pillows.

Anonymous said...

Why isn't feeding real fish as fun as feeding fish on your blog?

ICQB said...

Hi ricki!

How do I get to your Etsy shop? I'll pop over to your site to see if I can figure it out : )

ICQB said...

Hi Anonymous!

Feeding the fish is addictive. I do it everytime I'm on my blog page.