suns along the Mohawk

. . .

– autumn’s last sunset and winter’s first sunrise of 2009 –

After an inspiring sunset Sunday evening to end autumn, the first day of winter (December 21) started with a clear, crisp morning and a lovely sunrise yesterday.   I snapped a few sunset pictures on Sunday, but the wind chill was too low for me to hang around outdoors waiting for sunset to go through its various phases and changes of palette. Of course, it was also much too cold for a reasonable man (who had not yet had his first mug of coffee) to head out with a camera to record the solstice sunrise.  I did just that, however, around 7 A.M. yesterday, because of the unique sight I saw above the Stockade from my bedroom window:  There seemed to be a giant, perfectly-formed pink feather floating over our neighborhood.

As often happens with clouds, however, the image in my viewscope was quite a bit different by the time I was in position to take a picture.  Instead of a pink feather, I found a large hawk-shaped cloud soaring over the Stockade.  For example (click for a larger version of a photo, and scroll over it for a description):

. . . rising behind the Pumphouse:

– flying over Lawrence and his Circle:

. . .

. . lurking behind 26 Front St.:

. . . and taking off in the sky between Mabel’s place at 22 Front St. and Franca’s at 22 N. Church St.

The solstice sunrise sky held many interesting pink and orange clouds yesterday, but I was unable to find a spot elevated enough to capture the scene, which was hidden behind buildings and trees.  I’ll leave you instead with a few more shots from the last autumn sunset of 2009, taken from Cucumber Alley:

. . .

You surely don’t need to be a pagan to celebrate the solstice, winter’s beauty, and the graceful limbs of leafless trees, along the Mohawk River in the Schenectady Stockade.