My Christmas Offering--Franz Biebl

Christmas is so many things to me, and one of the most special aspects of Christmas is the music.  Everyone knows Schubert's  "Ave Maria," but the version by the German composer Franz Biebl, though lesser known, is even more sublime.  This angelic song may sound ancient, but in fact it was written in 1964.  The Biebl version was first brought to wide public attention by Chanticleer, but I think this rendition by the St. Olaf Choirs is even  better.  Listen to it now, and return to it often.  Merry Christmas!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKMPfkbIZ1c&feature=related

Wassailfest

One thing I have learned after a couple of years in New Braunfels--this town likes a party!  And, given the German origins of the area, the celebrations are usually called a Fest.  Wassailfest is the official welcome to the Advent Season in preparation for Christmas.

Even though the original settlers were German, the town embraces multiculturalism.  No matter that wassail is an English libation:  put together the popular warm English beverage and the German heritage and we have a new coinage--Wassailfest!

As thousands of people stroll the cordoned-off streets, merchants offer free wassail, service groups offer all manner of food for sale, and everyone seems to be offering the music of the season.  How multicultural is the festival?  Well, as we drank English wassail, we were served a German bratwurst wrapped in a Mexican flour tortilla!

Most of all, however, the Wassailfest is about lights, decorations, and music.  It seems as if everyone is making music--from choirs to brass bands to a steel drum orchestra.

A children's choir singing in front of the most-decorated house in the downtown area.

     

A local handbell choir

Another children's choir on the town green

Music came from both young and old

And, of course there was a "living"  nativity scene:

What made this manger distinctive is that, rather than the shepherds watching their flocks by night, in this case it was the angels keeping care of the livestock.

Even the courthouse, scene of serious county business, is decked out for Wassailfest!

Backyard Drama

 

There is a reason that this fine specimen of a buck will likely go loveless during this fall mating season.  The reason?  This fellow who is also waiting patiently for the same doe:

Yes, the two pictures were shot on the same day, a few seconds apart.

Advent, 2010

Advent begins on Sunday, 28 November, which hardly seems possible.  Isn't there a lot more autumn ahead of us?   I think what is throwing me off is the recent warm spell in Central Texas. It just doesn't "feel" like winter is upon us yet!  The weather prognosticators are predicting a cold front will roar through on Thanksgiving afternoon, so perhaps that will aid in the seasonal adjustment.

Trinity Church Wall Street has for several years produced an online Advent Calendar which they offer freely to everyone.  The calendar can be accessed daily and can be embedded on blogs and web sites.  I discovered the Trinity calendar last year and found it a good devotional tool and I am happy to share it with others.  Access the Trinity calendar at this address:

Trinity Wall Street Advent Calendar

Blessed Advent!

The Colors of Autumn

One of the most colorful events of autumn I have ever experienced is a cranberry harvest, the time when the bogs are flooded and the berries separated from the scrubby bushes they grew on.  The berries rise to the top of the water in an explosion of color that rivals the foliage surrounding the bogs.

The best place I have found to marvel at the riot of crimson is Carver, Massachusetts, a town settled by liberated slaves, and the best time for observing the harvest from the dry shoreline is Columbus Day weekend.  

First the bog is flooded by a system of locks and dams.

Then a contraption that looks like a giant tricycle is run through the bog, releasing the berries from the bushes where they have been growing all summer.

At first there are only a few berries that slowly float to the top as the harvester steers through the bog.

As the labor continues, more and more berries appear.

 

 Slowly the flooded bog looks less like a pond and more like an artist's palate.

 

 The bog changes right before your eyes.

Who ever thought that cranberries are simply red?  In fact they are crimson, pink, white, and every shade of red in between.

As you watch the palate evolve before your eyes, slight currents in the water flow through the berries making pictures that move.

Performance art in nature!

Click on any of the pictures for a larger view, and you can almost see the picture change before your eyes.

Early Winter? Detour to Cape Cod?

When you look at these pictures, it is easy to imagine a winter snow scene.  Or even a visit to the Cape Cod National Seashore just down from Provincetown.  

 

In fact, this is the Tularosa Basin in New Mexico, the world's largest gypsum dune field, aka White Sands National Monument.

We detoured to White Sands after leaving Ruidoso, wending our way back to the El Paso Airport by a circuitous route, and we were glad we did so.  The area is both unique and impressive.  And we were also glad that there were no missile firings on the day of our visit.  The monument is closed when there are "activities"  at the nearby White Sands Missile Base.

 

The gypsum of White Sands (hydrous calcium sulfate) comes from a dessicating lakebed to the west, with the wind producing the dunes usually seen at a seashore.  These are "active"  dunes, moving as much as 30 feet per year.  The movement comes as the wind blows the sand into a dune, which gets higher and higher, making the leading edge of the dune (the slipface) steeper and steeper.  Finally the force of gravity pulls the dune down, now a little farther to the east than when the movement started, and the entire cycle begins again.

The area averages about 10 inches of precipitation each year, which makes it even more astounding that the dunes sustain substantial animal and plant life.

Some plants have learned to adapt to the harsh conditions by quickly growing an elongated stem when a windstorm has buried the plant under a ton of sand.  The plant literally digs itself out.

How I long to return to this magnificent area at dawn and at dusk, when shadows play over the dunes!

A Journey Back in Time

Perusing one of the tourist brochures of the Ruidoso region, this entry caught our attention:

Lincoln is a village forgotten by time. Its only street is lined with adobe homes and

buildings dating from its colorful and often violent past. There are no

gas stations or convenience stores in Lincoln, and only one public

telephone. It wasn't always so peaceful. Gunshots, some fired by the

infamous outlaw Henry McCarty alias William H.Bonney (Billy the Kid)

often echoed in the surrounding hills during Lincoln's territorial days.

Today's visitors can see the Old Lincoln County Courthouse Museum and

walk in the footsteps of Pat Garrett, Billy the Kid, and other

characters of the Old West--famous or obscure. Because it looks much as

it did a century ago, it isn't hard to picture the Kid's escape from the

courthouse jail, the shootouts, and the more peaceful inhabitants taking

cover as bullets flew.

So we decided to drive over and check it out for ourselves.  Enjoy the images! You can click on any image to enlarge it on your screen.