Second best photo of the year

I posted this on one of our monthly theme days - one of the things I love most about the Daily City Photo Blog experience. The theme that day was "working people" and this, of course, is our local Wine and Spirit shop, and the proprietor thereof. He was one of the first local people who discovered my blog and he has been a loyal visitor and contributor ever since. There is so much that I love about living in Sharon that this photo represents!

Stay tuned: later this evening I'll post - the best? or just my favorite. Hard to say! But I'm sure over 100 other blogs around the world will be posting on the theme as well so take a tour around the world to see the best photo of the year from the Daily City Photo Blog family. (An easy way to take the tour is to visit our portal, http://dailyphotoblog.com)

Then, as I've mentioned, this blog is going into semi-hibernation, along with the bears, for the month of January. I'll be working hard to prepare my show at the Sharon Historical Society. Thanks for all your support in 2007!

Third best

snow ocean desert, originally uploaded by jahansell.

The snow-ocean-desert - it's so strange and otherworldly. I'm not sure it says anything about life here, I just like it.

Fourth best!

I think my top choices for the year are going to end up showing a lot of children. But this photo is the perfect summation of the many wonderful public events we've had in Sharon this year - including the Sharon Classic Road Race, the craft fair, and the Fourth of July parade, which this picture is from. There will be themes I don't get to show in this list - I often show closeups of flowers blooming, which I could argue represent the changing seasons here. But they also could be taken anywhere in the northeastern quarter of the country, so I won't use up one of my precious top few slots showing a rose or a lily. However I also might not get to show mountains in the mist, or brilliant fall foliage, or Mudge pond, or the twin oaks - all favorite and iconic images of my town. On the other hand, I haven't made my final choices for the top three - anything could happen.

Fifth best...

I've published a lot of photos of beautiful houses around town - on the green, as this one is, as well as in Ellsworth, up on Sharon Mountain, around Calkinstown Road, and many others. While this isn't the best photograph, it represents something about Sharon and about blogging: I got a number of comments,and private email giving me the history of the house and a sister building in the center of town, including from its current occupants. That's always interesting: once early this year someone stopped me in the grocery store and asked if I was the Sharon blogger (she recognized me from the profile photo) - turns out I'd just posted a photo of her house. Luckily, she wasn't mad! (I labeled it "dream house" as it is in a spectacular location!) So this photo represents the homes of Sharon, especially old and historical ones, but also the community of people I've gotten to know that I might never have otherwise.

Sixth best photo of 2006

library night, originally uploaded by jahansell.

This represents the community spirit of our town. It's our wonderful school librarian, reading to pajama-clad kids during "TV turn-off week." My kids didn't even attend the school at the time but we were welcomed in for an evening of stories before bed. It truly does take a village!

Seventh best photo of 2007

Fence me in, originally uploaded by jahansell.

As I choose my top photos of this year, counting down to January 1, I'm not sure what my final choice will be. I do know that I"m not going to try to pick the "best photographs" in the abstract, but the seven pictures that, all together, give the fullest picture of what Sharon, CT, USA is all about - what life is like here. (My life, anyway!) So this one represents farmland!

In the lane...

in the lane, originally uploaded by jahansell.

snow is glistening.

Merry Christmas to all!

Starting tomorrow, a countdown of my favorite photos of the year, leading up to January 1,2008, which will be The Best Photo of the Year across the daily photoblog family. If you have a favorite, let me know!

(PS in January I'll be taking a semi-break, posting only occasionally, as I prepare for my first real-world show. More details to come soon - but you are invited to the opening, February 2, 2008 at the Sharon Historical Society!)

Encased in ice

ice leaves, originally uploaded by jahansell.

I wonder if these leaves would stay green all winter if the ice never melts?

Everything is Illuminated

snowy field, originally uploaded by jahansell.

This title doesn't really go with this photo - I just happen to be watching it as I blog this. But everything is snow-covered - completely different from this shot from Fall 2006 taken in almost the same spot.

Snow stripes

snow stripes, originally uploaded by jahansell.

What color is snow? I could have color-corrected this shot in many ways - yellower, bluer - and it would still have looked like snow to you. I don't think the stripes looked quite as blue to me when I was looking at the actual scene as they do here. Soon enough, the snow turns grey with the soot of passing cars - even here! But for today, it's still pure...what color is that, again?

Tendu

tendu, originally uploaded by jahansell.

The little ballerinas from Arts In Motion in Salisbury had their open-houses this week - the Ballet 1 class acquitted itself quite nicely.

Another view of the Oak

winter oak, originally uploaded by jahansell.

Which picture do you prefer - this one, or this one?

Oaks in winter

oaks in winter, originally uploaded by jahansell.

I hadn't been down to the Twin Oaks field in a while - I drove by this morning to see what it looks like after a snowfall.

Cold cows

cold cows, originally uploaded by jahansell.

I know they're covered in fur, but they didn't look very happy! (Although I don't know how I'd tell the difference between a happy cow and an unhappy one.)

blue shutters

blue shutters, originally uploaded by jahansell.

Another pretty house on Main Street!

Snoopy!

snoopy, originally uploaded by jahansell.

Tri-Arts put on a production of "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown," this weekend, with a cast of high school (and one college) students. We went on Friday night, and it was charming - perfectly done. (I wore out my LP of the original Broadway cast as a kid, but I'd never seen it before.) The kids loved it, especially Snoopy's great song, "Suppertime," performed with great pizzazz by 14-year old Frankie Moschetto. Today's sold-out performance was postponed til tomorrow evening due to a threatened winter storm (that has mostly, happily, fizzled out) - it's worth a call to Tri-Arts to see if you can still get tickets because some folks who planned on going today might not be able to make it tomorrow! (However, anyone hoping to see the song made famous in the 1999 revival by Kristen Chenoweth be forewarned - that was added just for her, and is not in the original as it is performed here. No matter, go anyway.)

PS. I've been tagged again. If you want to learn more about me, click here!

I Love a Parade!

l-1 canaan, originally uploaded by jahansell.

Saturday Night in MIllerton was the annual Parade of Lights - fire trucks, trailers, even campers all decked out within an inch of their lives! I laughed at this one, put on by a local sanitation company - perhaps their Santa has an incontinence problem!

Evening falls

evening comes, originally uploaded by jahansell.

Nothing looks l ike itself at dusk, or when covered by snow. This is the civil war monument at the corner of the green, across from the cometary - where generations of children love to climb while their parents contemplate the enormity of wars past and present.

A Snowy, Snowy, Day!

trekkin, originally uploaded by jahansell.

Doesn't this picture remind you of the wonderful old Ezra Jack Keats book? All she needs is a stick in her hand! Everything was closed or cancelled so there was nothing to do but enjoy the day. The snow started at 10am, and by 1 there was enough snow to have some fun, so we were out the door to go sledding at a neighbor's (thanks for the mac and cheese and ginger cookies, Colleen!) Then trekked back up the hill for more hot chocolate, hot soup, and a warm fire. It fit every stereotype of small town American life, in the best possible way. And it's why we live in Sharon, CT.

When it was all over we'd gotten about ten inches of snow. Click here for a tour of a day in the life of a snowstorm. (I"m pretty proud of some of these pictures!)

Eighth night

eighth night, originally uploaded by jahansell.

Last night we lit all eight candles - the first menorah on the left is made of wood (whose idea was that?) and belongs to my older daughter. The one in the middle is a tree and was a gift from my husband to me. The one on the right is a train, a gift from my parents to my youngest daughter. By the end of the 8 days, they still hadn't quite gotten the hang of sticking the soft, easily breakable candles into the holders (first you have to scrape out yesterday's wax bits) lighting the match, and igniting each candle so you don't drip wax on your fingers - each candle seems to go out at least once so the prayers are long done by the time the menorah is completely lit. We may not have a menorah on the town green (and I appreciate the interesting comments that were left when I posted about that a few days ago) but anyone passing by could see our candles burning bright.

A cold morning

icy morning branches, originally uploaded by jahansell.

This was not from TODAY, which is warmish and rainy. Tomorrow promises our first real snow, up to 7 inches. I'll believe it when I see it!

Icy pumpkin

icy pumpkin, originally uploaded by jahansell.

Yesterday we had our second ice-storm of the year. The first one wasn't much of anything - schools were canceled or delayed, everyone changed plans, and then we got almost nothing. (Typical!) But this time it was for real - we realized it as we were driving home through a rain storm that suddenly the road was very slippery! The last 30 miles were taken at a crawl. The next morning everything was covered in a 1/2 inch of ice, including the little pumpkins (grown by Ella in our garden) still sitting on our front porch.

little green house

little green house, originally uploaded by jahansell.

Not so little, really. This house dates back to, I think, 1735. As I've written before, many houses started out simple and small according to our current (American) standards, but have been added onto over the years. To see a different view of this house, click here.

Tall yellow house

tall yellow house, originally uploaded by jahansell.

Back to my occasional tour of the interesting houses of Sharon. I lik this one - it seems unusually tall and narrow, with what looks like three complete floors. I think that's pretty rare for the old houses along the green and North Main street. It has a gorgeous view of the hills behind.

Town creche

creche, originally uploaded by jahansell.

There was a time that having a creche (a little nativity scene) was controversial but I've never heard any complaints about it here - we have a Christmas tree and a nativity scene, and those of us who are Jewish celebrate privately. And I have no objection to this: I have long since lost my sense of high dudgeon over this kind of thing - I used to get into big arguments like the one I had with the kid at college who said "what's the big deal about having a Christmas tree in the dining hall, Christmas is an American holiday!" The fact that I am an American and don't celebrate Christmas didn't seem to make a difference to his world view. I don't know if multiculturalism has become so generally accepted that people think it's not even necessary to make the gesture towards, say, a menorah on the green during Hanukah, or if it's just dead. Kinda like feminism - but don't get me started on that topic because we'll be here all day. (Suffice to say I despair of my daughters growing up in a world where they will always be judged harshly for being: too fat, too thin, too strong, too weak, too smart, too dumb, too nice, too mean, all at the same time. None of which has anything to do with Sharon or daily photographer, so, end of rant before I even get going.)
I will add, however, that the school teaches something about all the holidays - as I walked through today after delivering my daughter (5 minutes late so we had to get a tardy pass!) to her kindergarten class, I heard another teacher telling her students to put another candle in the menorah! I will post aHanukah picture later this week.

A Town father

a town father, originally uploaded by jahansell.

This gentleman presides at the Sharon Historical Society. If one of my regular readers (Janet?) could supply his name I'd appreciate it as I forgot to note it down! Janet N. tells me that he is:
John Cotton Smith
b. 2/12/1765, d. 12/07/1845
Federalist
Governor of CT 1812-1817
Born and died in Sharon, CT

December Morning

Yesterday we were told we'd have all kinds of snow and ice - schools were delayed or cancelled altogether, people stayed home from work - my daughter even missed a playdate! But it turned out to be a lot of fuss over nothing much - by 10am all the ice was melted and everyone went back to their routines. However all the precipitation did create some lovely mist over Indian Lake.

By the way, I didn't mean to suggest that I baked all the cookies in yesterday's post myself - far from it! The picture was from the Sharon Historical Society's party on Saturday, and at least a dozen people contributed wonderful things, from gingerbread to mincemeat to some kind of incredible creamy chocolatey coconut thing that I will dream about til the day I die!

The True Meaning of The Season

cookie time, originally uploaded by jahansell.

Is COOKIES! How many cookies have you eaten yet? How many have you baked? How hard will it be for me to fit into any of my clothes by the time January 1 rolls around? (and I do mean ROLLS!)

I've already baked my special chocolate chip / cranberry / oatmeal recipe (available upon request) for three different events, and it's only December 3!

Holiday party!

pretty decorations, originally uploaded by jahansell.

Yesterday was the town tree lighting, when everyone gathers to sing carols along with the Salisbury Town Band, and an open house (with LOTS of cookies! at the Sharon Historical Society. It was hard to pick just one photo to represent the day (the rest are on my Flickr site but I love this one of C. and D., both fourth-graders, admiring the tree's decorations at SHS.

Under the Bridge

underthebridge, originally uploaded by jahansell.

Just made it under the wire - 40 minutes left in the December theme day and I'm just now getting my bridge picture up! This is the Route 7 Bridge over the Housatonic River.

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