Christmas Colours on the Bridge

As you already know, I return to the bridge when it is lighted for various occasions. Of course, Christmas is one of those occasions, so we had a little photoshoot around supper time on Christmas Day.

The views are always close to being the same and they almost always include townhall, for there's not much else that one can do. But the colours are different, so I return to the scene.

It would be better if the night wasn't quite so pitch black, but that is when the lights show up best. 

Of course, I share Sue's de rigueur pic de moi.

You may be tempted to ask why Sue takes photos of me and me not so much of her. Well, it's less work for her. She can swing her tiny phone around with reckless abandon while I must fuss and fume with my tripod and settings. She can, therefore, squeeze off 12 photos in the time that it takes me to press the shutter once.

An Unexpected and Delightful Christmas Memory

I swear that I was not going to post on this Christmas Day, but after seeing this photo on FB, I feel compelled. It is the Christmas train right inside the Eaton's department store in Montreal, 1957.

By 1957, I likely would have considered myself too old, for I probably would have ridden it in the early 50s. In fact, the experience was completely gone from my memory from then until now. All these years later, I feel the stirrings of something wonderful and almost magical. On FB, others remember it better as travelling through several Christmassy rooms and getting a little gift at the end, but all I can conjure is a warm, nostalgic feeling.

While I am here, I might as well post a few images for our Christmas, which, as you know, we celebrated early.

A Short Note

Here it is our Christmas Day and everyone else's Christmas Eve. It is almost 6:30 in the morning, and we promised to be back with the kids by 8 to open gifts with them. Sue is still asleep, and I had hoped to be, but I didn't have a great night — again!

But we had a pleasant Eve over there. We munched, talked and played a few games. Then, I scraped the ice off the car for the drive home. Yes, sorry to say that we did have freezing rain, but it could have been worse and gone on for longer than it did.

The Mexican lasagna ↑ has been pre-cooked and is already over there, and I picked up the apple pies from the church in Ashton ↓ so dinner will just take warming up whenever we choose to have it.

In the meantime, I leave you with several composites by Sue of our evening at the Mill, which is what I most wanted to post today.

Enjoy your Christmas Eve and Day wherever you are and whenever and however you celebrate the season.

The Other Mill Photos

While I knew that the cabin would be lit up for yesterday's post, there were many more lights, and more than I will show here.

The Cloister

The Picnic Pavillion

The museum building was also lit up down below. We could have gone down there, but we were chilled by then. 

Sue took some snaps of me. I took one of her, but I didn't like the photo very much. All the light spots were created by two specific lights throwing colours.

In case you can't tell, I enjoyed this photoshoot very much. Should the Mill do this again next year, and I suspect that it will, I'll provably concentrate on the museum. This evening helped set my mood for Christmas, which for us, starts tonight for our day-early Christmas Eve gathering.

They Lit the Cabin at the Mill

They lit the lights at the Mill of Kintail on the weekend and kept them on until last evening when we were finally able to visit. We were worried at first, for there were no lights at the 4:30 starting time, but about 10 minutes later a worker pulled in and began to get to work. After another 10 minutes, they were all finally on.

When I say all, it is because I was surprised by the number of lights. From social media posts, I knew that the little cabin would be lit, but I hadn't known about the cloister or the picnic pavilion or other lights.

So I ended up taking more photos that I had thought, but I have decided to just show the cabin today. I photographed the cabin from various angles in the order that you see. The first composition was most in my mind, and I think it's the best, but I like the third one too, and perhaps even more. I am not sure.

I did take other photos that I am sure that I will get to in future posts, but here's one that features the cabin but that also reveals a little more context. The cabin sits on the left and the cloister lies in the background.

I really enjoyed the outing. It was cold, and my hands were really feeling it after about 45 minutes, but it was good to get out on a photoshoot. Due largely to health problems, there hasn't been a lot of that this year, and I have been missing it. While I wish the snow had been deeper and certainly less trammeled, I was pleased that there was snow at all because there wasn't just a few days ago.

Card and Snaps

Thinking more about the gyrations that we had to go through with Shauna as described in yesterday's post, I recalled when we tried the same movements with our second child. PJ just about had conniptions when we got rowdy with her, so we had to learn all over again. Actually, it wasn't a hard lesson because PJ was normal — at least then. 

I had another think about Sha's picture from yesterday and realized that there must be snow in the background. I don't think that I am very good at this, but then again, I am not good at much, and I do have my fun trying. I also changed the aspect ratio and made this version wider do I could insert the greeting. That extra step required a little thought too.

Yay! Snow for a snow-suited baby. Doesn't that make more sense?
Actually, there was green grass in the original photo before
I got to playing, which is why I was ok with the trees at first.

I also found this composite that I created once upon a time and just adjusted it a bit. I should probably have started over from scratch, because I think I am better at it now, but time has been a looming factor. I believe the first image, top left, was taken in the hospital not too long after Shauna entered the world. It reveals the marks of her passage into our realm.

I wrote a lot about Shauna yesterday, so now we have a few phone party pics, taken in horrid lighting.

A gizmo that will play all sorts of old music media

JJ is putting candles on the cake

I wish you Happy Solstice in parting.

Happy Holidays

We here are most definitely Merry Christmas types, but I like to take a stab at wishing folk the more inclusive Happy Holidays, and I have decided to post that on my annual, homemade card, below. I am posting earlier than usual this year while there is still a chance that most of y'all will see it before going a'wandering or a'wassailing. 

The scene is from the park around the corner, and since I just got Photoshop up and working, I used generative fill to add the other bits and bobs. Generative Fill is what Adobe calls their AI. In this case, for example, I targetted the area on the lower left, and typed white snowman, and what you see is that which the program inserted, As you can see, I also added bridge lights, a sled, and a deer in the same way although I don't know about that deer; it seems a bit odd looking to me.

I thought that all these things added a bit of fun and interest, at least for me, even if they are a bit kitschy. I like to learn and experiment or more likely experiment and learn from my mistakes.

Anyway, it is my card to you as I wish you happiness and joy in this festive season.

Christmas is almost upon us. We've moved everything back a day to accommodate split families. We will do Christmas Eve on the 23rd and celebrate Christmas on the 24th. We will have snacks and things and likely play games on the Eve, and I shall make a Mexican lasagna for our Christmas meal. We'll have an apple pie for dessert that I will pick up at the Ashton Church, which you see and read about several times a year.

There will be a somewhat disappointing difference on Christmas Eve, for Sue and I shall return home after our little family gathering. For all of the years since the grands have come along, except for the COVID interruption, we have slept over at theirs and been present in the morning for the fun to begin. Now, with my rotator cuff nonsense, I can't get comfortable in bed, and so I sleep in my chair. We will drive back there bright and early, however.

I have been sleeping in my recliner for months now, and it is pretty well a necessity. I gave into temptation the other night went to bed, but I only managed a few hours before the pain was irritating me too much. My arm was also sorer than usual the next day. So, I will return home to slumber on our Christmas Eve and will return to Sha's early on what will be our Christmas morning.

Today, however, is the actual beginning of Christmas for us because it is Shauna's birthday. My little girl has been living in tis world for 51 years, How can that be? She was born on the 20th of December 1972 and came home on Christmas Day. What a Christmas present!

However, Sha was not happy about being home, and we were at our wits end until Sue's mother arrived all of the way from Toronto (200 miles) with Christmas dinner. More important than dinner, however, was that grandma knew just how to settle and comfort a distressed Shauna. Thankfully, she was able to teach us before she return home abut a week later. Basically, we had to bounce her (Shauna, not grandma) furiously in the carriage or rock her with exuberant gusto. People couldn’t believe what we had to do to keep this little baby girl content. 

Once upon a time, Sue’s Aunt Elsie came to visit. When Sue was out, Elsie took Shauna for a walk in the pram. Fortunately, she was walking with our neighbour who also had a baby girl. Shauna was unhappy with the way Aunt Elsie was pushing the carriage, so the neighbour, who knew the routine, took over the carriage, bouncing it with considerable enthusiasm. This settled Shauna right down, and Elsie, pushed the neighbour’s normal child sedately, as normal people do for normal babies. I swear that I am not exaggerating. Our routine perplexed and astounded many a person, let me tell you. 

I re-edited this photo of Baby Shauna in her snowsuit. There was no snow on the ground, but that was often the case when we lived in Sarnia. The snow came and went and came and went again. Here in Easter Ontario, it tends to come and stay although the big snow of December 04 did almost vanish before we got a little more on Monday night.

I used generative fill for the background. Why I didn't specify snow, I know not.
I simply asked for trees, and AI gave me very summery ones.
Perhaps I shall retry later when I have the time,
for it is going to be a busy day.

That is our precious and beautiful, Christmas baby, Shauna. She looks sweet, sedate and normal. Doesn’t she? Actually, she was always sweet but just not normal. However, I think she had grown out of the frenzied state by the time of this picture, which I liked well enough to print as an 8x10, just to have around for the party.