Words that flow...

Words and images - powerful elements of our everyday life. Most of the time we take them for granted, but sometimes something happens to make you aware of how important they are... and how thankful you are to have the opportunity to use or appreciate them. Here lies some of my words and pictures (which are untouched apart from cropping, unless I've said otherwise) - Please add your words to mine, and leave a comment. Thanks for visiting!

28 December 2006

Pondering the daily Yin-Yang

Coming back from my walk just now, I suddenly realised the balance between darkness and light is returning to a more acceptable one - nights are getting shorter (and have been for several days) and the day is stretching itself just a little further.

Admittedly the moon is strong tonight, but nevertheless, it wasn't so long ago I was fumbling along in pitch black at this time. Yes, I know there's such thing as a torch, but I find, when I use it, I can only see what's directly in my path, in the bright beam. Whereas, if I use my eyes, however hard they struggle, I can make out the trees, and feel more comforted by the softness of my surroundings.







I, like many, have always had a wariness of the dark. The unknown. What supernatural or natural creature could be using it to mask its presense? It is the time night-hunters come out to prey on the weaker day creatures. In town there was often the fear that people up to no good were more likely to carry out their deeds after the sun went down.

I know better now. There is as much wrongness in the day as at night. 'Bad' people are just as likely to be on the prowl in the daytime as night. The creatures of the night are as likely to be afraid of me as I am of them... And If there are any goblins, they are in my head.

This doesn't take away the unease of darkness though. My son used to be afraid of the dark, but overcame his fears by going out in it. So now, occassionally, I do the same. I prefer the light - I can see forms and colour so much more clearly. But, there's a quietness about the night...







It sometimes feels there are two worlds:

Day... whether sun-dazzling; cloud-cloaked; snow-covered; or rain-soaked... is the time where most of us are out working (in one form or another) and moving around. With sight there is safety, perhaps a false sense of security. We kind of know what to expect from it.

Night... the darkness immediately conjures up ghosts and gremlins from our childhoods, a shadow of our fears following us around our whole lives. Night is the time to be secure inside, knowing that our doors hold most of our childhood nightime fears away; a time to party or to relax in front of the television or (more often these days) the pc. And many of us sleep a good chunk of it away, as we should, being naturally diurnal creatures.

...and then there's the time between the two - the merging of the two, which holds satisfaction of another day beginning or ending, the security and comfort of knowing that this has been the way since the beginning of the world and will continue until its demise.








So, to celebrate the half-light, the time in between the two worlds, these pictures are taken at dusk - after the sun is down, but before total darkness descends. They're grainy because my camera hasn't got as many pixels as I'd like it to when I plucked the images out of the blackness they appeared to be, but personally I think it adds an air of the mysterious...




© Annelisa Christensen 3:40 pm

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20 Comments:

At December 28, 2006 6:49 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Annelisa,

Welcome back and I hope your Christmas was wonderful. Love the pics, they capture that time perfectly. I love the night, but understand what you are saying. When our eyes no longer see in color, when the sunlight fades, then out primitive brain takes over and looks for a hole to crawl into.

 
At December 28, 2006 7:17 pm, Blogger Annelisa said...

That's about it exactly, Brian!

Even in this modern world of ours, full of electrical gadgets to light up the outside, and to stave off the dark, there are still shadows (maybe even stronger ones, because of the stength of the light...

 
At December 28, 2006 8:31 pm, Blogger QUASAR9 said...

Hi Annelisa,
hadn't realised the previous pics were optic fibre 'UFOs'
Pretty groovy, I may have to ask to borrow one for a future post.
Like these grainy pics too

So the kids away with dad. hmmm so you gonna be letting your hair down for a few days?
oh! no I forgot no hair - lol!

Hope you are having fun!
wishing you plenty of good cheer
for the holidays & incoming Year

 
At December 28, 2006 8:55 pm, Blogger Annelisa said...

Ha Ha Haaa, Quasar9!!! No, I'm not going to be letting my hair down... unfortunately, with being out at work most of the day, and returning as the kids do, I rarely get time to do things to the house without them under my feet... so I have plans (which, of course, will simply have to be broken when I find better things to do! :-D )

Funny, I thought it must be obvious those last pics were UFOs - I'm probably around one too much in physics :-)

 
At December 28, 2006 10:51 pm, Blogger David Hodges said...

I don't know which I prefer, half-light or half-darkness. I guess I'm of two minds about it. Love the goblins in your head.

 
At December 29, 2006 12:28 am, Blogger I blinded you with Science! said...

I love the pictures.

You are right about there being dangers both at night and during the day. And of course, there is uncertainity in both. I don't mind going out at night, I actually enjoy it. But I live in the brightly lit city, so there is still some light. But when I lived out in the woods (lol), I really couldn't go out without a flash light. I hate being inside the house in the dark, that is petrifying. I can't tell you why though, nothing really comes to mind.

The time between is gorgeous because it allows us to see the line between them. There's still some level of uncertainity developing but we can still see the sights.

Again love the pictures! Hugs peachy!

 
At December 29, 2006 12:51 am, Blogger Annelisa said...

Hiya David :-D
Is there a difference between half-light and half-dark? (like the glass half-full / half-empty...?)

I've noticed that even the birds respect that slot in between - they don't start to sing until just after the sun rises... in the winter, slightly later. And in the evening, most quieten just as the sun sets, leaving a sense of silence afterwards.

If you like my goblins so much, you're welcome to them! :-)

 
At December 29, 2006 1:02 am, Blogger Annelisa said...

Hi Diana - good to see you over hear (as opposed to other blog...)

Must admit, when I was living near Croydon (suburb of London), it was quite well lit, but I didn't feel safe day or night (but then, there were reasons for that...). I actually feel safer in the countryside, but even here I have a healthy nervousness of the dark. I say healthy, because it isn't unknown for a person to be attacked at night in the forest, and also it is strongly rumoured, by someone I know who knows someone who works in the forest, that there are big cats , and I swear something followed me once (dogs were real skitterish and kept looking back)...

I tend not to mind being in the dark in the house (now, as opposed to kid-hood!) seeing as my inside gremlins have been locked out one by one (I had a huge collection of them as a child... :-) )
The only remaining inside house fears are the windows (worried a face might pop up at one and scare the living daylights out of me) and mirrors (unaccountably imagine a face appearing behind mine in the mirror... only at night though...)

But, as you say, the line in between allows us to see the best of both worlds...

(((hugs))) back!

 
At December 29, 2006 3:41 am, Blogger Tracy said...

The pictures are wonderful, and you are right the graininess of the pictures add mystery. :) I too always felt uneasy at night when growing up. It did not help that I had a father who like to scare us kids all the time. One evening my girlfriends and I were playing with a spooky game with only candles to give us light. We heard this scratching at the window which of course freaked us all out, when we looked up a face was in the window all lit up by a flashlight, and a nylon over the face. Of course we all screamed. My father came into the house took of the nylon and was laughing so hard he could hardly breath. When he finally caught his breath he told us that is what we got for playing such spooky games!

To this day when I see candle light in the evening I think of how scared I was that night!

 
At December 29, 2006 3:47 am, Blogger Mother of Invention said...

I don't like the dark because I just have no night vision since I've had cateract surgery and much laser surgery for bleeding in the eyes. I have to hang on to people! No depth perception at all.

My husband wears what's called a headlamp or "torch" around his forehead when he's skiing at night so he has his hands free. They're cool.

I love the times of merging light, dusk and dawn equally. Just enough sun to make it dreamy.

Talk about grainy due to fewer pixels...my dumb computer is in safe mode now and everything looks like you threw sand on it! Don't know why it's acting up and don't know how to fix it! Are you surprised?!!

 
At December 29, 2006 10:55 am, Blogger Annelisa said...

Crikey, Mysti, if someone had done that to me when I was a kid I think I'd be freaked out by it too! What a rotten thing to do!

So, I guess you don't much like power-cuts then?!

It's giving me the jitters just thinking about it- it's one of my worst nightmares... If I forget to shut the curtains in the living room, I don't want to go and do it, just in case a face pops up... but you, you had that... brrrrrr... chills

 
At December 29, 2006 11:05 am, Blogger Annelisa said...

Surprised? MOI, why would I be surprised?!

:-D I think you enjoy your computer as much as I do mine, and you seem to have as much trouble keeping it working too! (Can't wait for later - my son's replacement laptop is coming [- for the one the dogs knocked on the floor in their flurry of excitement of someone coming to the door], which should be the first computer in the house that's bug free... and I might even get my head-shave video working on it! I digress...again)

It occurs to me that you're already seeing grainy, so my pics must just be a blur? :-S

Sorry to hear about your eye trouble (on top of everything else!!)- sounds like a real hassle - and a bit nerve-wracking not able to go around on your own very easily.

I've always wondered about those head-torches... I imagine people wearing them not being able to see where they're walking, unless they look down at their feet... and then bumping into things 'cos they're not looking :-D

 
At December 29, 2006 11:48 am, Blogger that frolicsome kid said...

Hey, you're right, the pictures do indeed have that mysterious aura surrounding it. They're like taken from Dracula's Transylvannian castle. Hahaha. Or the views you see from night-vision googles.

It seems like the not-so-good features of your camera has done good in this case!

Is it nearing spring over in the UK? Man, I wish there are seasons over here in the Equator!

 
At December 29, 2006 3:08 pm, Blogger Annelisa said...

Nearing Spring, FK? YOu have to be kidding! Winter hasn't hardly set in yet! For the last few years the snow hasn't come until Feb-April (weird, when you think as I child I definately remember snow soon after Christmas)

I must admit, I've often wondered what it would be like to have virtually the same weather day after day, month after month. There's definately pros to it (only one wardrobe, for a start! :-)) but I like the seasons more!

I think my favourite of the three 'night vision' shots here is the last one at the reservoir - that was a strange, single cloud, which at firstI thought looked like bird wings, but now I think looks a bit like an anvil...

 
At December 29, 2006 5:42 pm, Blogger Giuliano88 said...

Beautiful post Annelisa, thanks for your compliments and happy new year :-)

julian

 
At December 29, 2006 10:10 pm, Blogger Maryam in Marrakesh said...

Nightly walks? How very fabulous. But I am glad that you have the dogs with you. And do let us in on some of your plans...!

 
At December 29, 2006 10:52 pm, Blogger Annelisa said...

And thanks to you Julian! I hope you have a very Happy New Year - Happy and Fun!

Hello Maryam, yes, nightly walks are something else - for me both scary and exciting and relaxing... a strange mix, to be sure! Admittedly, I wouldn't go without the dogs...

Plans? What plans? :-)

 
At December 31, 2006 12:22 am, Blogger TopChamp said...

Think you're right - these pics do look very arty.

 
At December 31, 2006 11:15 am, Blogger Annelisa said...

Especially the last one... really like that one :-)

 
At April 11, 2007 12:35 pm, Blogger twilite said...

Hi Annelisa! How did you get the special effects of blue? Natural lighting?

 

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