House lights at dawn in December - photo lightened to show details.
Like many far-north places, once Thanksgiving arrives, Alaska decorates with lights everywhere. Some places decorate with them earlier than that. They help with the dark nights, making any home or yard a place of winter white beauty. I put up white lights along the small front yard's cedar fence early, usually before the first snows fall in October. They will stay on a timer until some time in March when the days lengthen once again. Right now it starts to get light out around 9:30am and it's dark before 4pm, with the shortest day coming later this month. We need lights up here! I have a string of white lights I put up in the fall that run the length of the barn aisle too, letting off a soft night-light glow for anyone in their stalls for the night. Even the dog kennel has a big lit wreath that sends off a nice night light for them. The glow from the lights reflects in my registered flock's eyes too. Their paddock is out front, closer to the house.........but this also means they are acutely aware of every time someone steps out of the house and the BAAAAAAAHHHHHH at full volume. Just because. They could be standing in hay, doesn't matter, they yell just in case I might have something better than what they're standing in. HA!
On another note, we've had major Gulf of Alaska storms blowing through. The poor Aleutian Chain has been severely blasted. This past Saturday, Attu, waaaaaay out on the chain, recorded some of the nastiest winds ever. They officially clocked 178 MPH - yes, I typed that correctly, one hundred seventy eight miles per hour. Nothing can be out in that kind of wind. Hurricanes have lesser wind speeds. Tornadoes have lesser wind speeds. It's simply incredible that there could be human inhabitants at the Coast Guard base there. My poor sheep would tumble all the way across the island non-stop and on into the ocean with winds like that! But I'll bet they have Christmas Lights up inside there too.....
Christmas Lights. In this time of severe recession, the spending of money on electricity certainly may make us think twice about plugging them in, but the joy they bring and sanity they instill through a dark winter is worth far more than sending raspberries to the local electric company.
I hope you are enjoying your Christmas season......
3 comments:
Beautiful! I've been known to leave my lights up outside for longer than normal (for here) on the hopes that we WILL get a snow to show them off ;-).
The lights are a good way to counter the excessive darkness. I also have noisy sheep. People ask "why" and "when will they stop"? Myself, I just enjoy hearing their greeting.
Thanks Gals!! Yes, ya gotta love the lights and yes - those sheep certainly can YELL!! HAHA!!!!
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