Golden Hour Days

The last hour of sunlight in late June and July is splendid on clear days and for a few minutes before the dusk truly settles around us, the whole of Sassafras House is aglow with light so magical that even calling it the Golden Hour doesn’t sum up how lovely it is.

Saturday evening the light was especially nice and I popped outside to make some pictures.

I find such joy in moments like this; a pleasure that infuses my heart for longer than the moment itself lasts.  

Summer, with its verdant plants and blooms, with its ease and warm blue skies, seems an especially nice time to pause and enjoy the Golden Hour.

Winter's Lights

In the post-Christmas days, as the amount of light in our days lingers at barely 9 hours, I find comfort in the twinkling lights that glow in my home.  There are lights on the front porch.

A string of fairy lights in a glass hobnail jar is tucked among the plants that have come inside for the frosty season.

There is candlelight throughout the house in the form of glowing electronic candles that I enjoy immensely; they are a cozy pool of light that make Winter’s darkness less daunting.   A candlestick shines in each of the front windows.  I've tucked another into a metal house that sits by the front window.

In the dining room, another candle flickers in the hurricane lantern.

Winter’s short, dark days can sometimes darken my mood.  I consult my sunrise/sunset calendar and remind myself that the daylight will eventually begin to lengthen.  But it’s the tiny lights in the house that provide the most comfort in these dark Winter months.

That's happy!

Winter Sky

Monday morning started with an icy rain and temps in the 20s.  Eventually, the sunlight broke through and the day warmed to the low 40s.  It was a short-lasted respite and our polar friend returned with a sharp breeze to accompany the chill.  But the days are steadily getting longer and in the light that was still in Monday’s sky after sunset, the Winter sky was starkly beautiful, with dark tree limbs in front of ribbons of pink light on the horizon.

It’s still cold and Winter is wearing thin.  But the sky and the light in it are lovely.  That’s happy.

Endless Sky

One of the things I loved about living in Nebraska was the endless sky.  The prairie horizon is immense and when I lived under that sky there were times when I would just stop and admire the beauty of all that space.

In New Jersey, the hills and trees (not to mention the dense population) mean that views of an endless horizon are rare.  That sense of space everywhere is just not present here, not in the daily way that I would see it on the prairie.  Last week, JT had baseball practice at a school with large fields and I realized that the sky was lovely in the evening light.  So I got out my camera and enjoyed the horizon.

And the sense of abundant space.

I love the light at the twilight hour, especially in the early summer when the trees and grass are still a lush green.  And all this space, so rare to see in New Jersey, made it more lovely.