Fourth Day

 

No calling birds, at least I couldn't find any. So how about a Christmas fox and some holly? :-)

Reminders

 

It's a special time of year, to be sure. Everywhere, there are small and sometimes not so small reminders.

The Goodwin

 

Two looks at the recently renovated Goodwin Building on Henry Street, home of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

Ring Out, Wild Bells

 

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas Eve and are not too tired out this morning. :-) I finally got in a half hour after midnight this morning after singing one service yesterday morning and three last night. Whew! Lots of fun. 

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,

   The flying cloud, the frosty light:

   The year is dying in the night;

Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,

   Ring, happy bells, across the snow:

   The year is going, let him go;

Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind

   For those that here we see no more;

   Ring out the feud of rich and poor,

Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,

   And ancient forms of party strife;

   Ring in the nobler modes of life,

With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,

   The faithless coldness of the times;

   Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes

But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,

   The civic slander and the spite;

   Ring in the love of truth and right,

Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease;

   Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;

   Ring out the thousand wars of old,

Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,

   The larger heart, the kindlier hand;

   Ring out the darkness of the land,

Ring in the Christ that is to be.

-- Alfred Tennyson

Ice Rink

Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la 

The ice rink on Duke of Gloucester Street (aka Dog Street) has become an annual tradition here. Quite a treat, especially in southeastern Virginia where daytime temperatures around this time of year rarely fall below freezing. Hope you are able to enjoy a wonderful Christmas Eve. I've got a full day and evening of singing ahead of me. Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la!

Oranges

Odd, isn't it, how certain images provoke thought. This wreath had me thinking of those suffering from hunger all around the world this season.

As promise wakens in the sleeping land:

They carol, feast, give thanks,

And dearly love their friends,

And hope for peace.

-- Susan Cooper 

The Shortest Day

 

So the shortest day [yesterday] came, and the year died,

And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world

Came people singing, dancing,

To drive the dark away.

They lighted candles in the winter trees;

They hung their homes with evergreen;

They burned beseeching fires all night long

To keep the year alive,

And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake

They shouted, reveling.

Through all the frosty ages you can hear them

Echoing behind us—Listen!!

All the long echoes sing the same delight,

This shortest day,

As promise wakens in the sleeping land:

They carol, feast, give thanks,

And dearly love their friends,

And hope for peace.

And so do we, here, now,

This year and every year.

Welcome Yule!

The Shortest Day by Susan Cooper