Newburyport Winter Light
January 8th, 2010One of the things that I think Mother Nature definitely got right, is as the days grow shorter, and the sun is low in the sky, to make sure that the leaves fall from the trees, thereby letting in lots more light.
And in Newburyport, there comes a time in the fall when I am actually glad to see the last of the, by then, translucent, often yellow leaves float down to earth, letting oh, so much more light shine through into my dwelling, as the winter time frame for light becomes more and more undersized.
And there is always a point, sometime in the fall, when the light changes. It is a subtle change, but the hue is different.
And in the winter morning, as the sun rises later in the sky, the light touches the tips of the now leafless trees, and ignites them in a yellow-crimson light, that makes them luminous, and they glow in a way, that they never glow any other time of year.
And my discovery, as I sit in a reading chair one Sunday afternoon, after a Newburyport snow storm. The sun as it goes down around 4:30, lights up the now retreating clouds. And my neighbor’s 3rd floor windows facing West, hidden by trees in the summer, becomes an astonishing deep pink, yellow, blue color.
The windows are so bright that I wonder if my neighbors have done over their third floor, or gotten some exotic light fixture. But the color of their windows slowly changes to a dark and penetrating purple and then finally fades to black.
No, it is not a new decor, but a spectacular Newburyport winter light show, for free, put on by none other than Mother Nature.