A Light in the Forest / The Dragon's Hoard

Frozen bubble set #2 of the 2024/25 winter season. 
(Here's one from the first set.)

It was one of the coldest nights so far. When I got up in the morning, conditions were still, not a single breeze, the golden morning light was just breaking, and the local temperature was 17 degrees F (about -8 C). I went out around 8:45 a.m., and I lasted about 40 minutes in our backyard.

My toys were a dragon with a sparkly crystal ball snow globe*, a green plastic gingerbread man (from our Christmas tree) on an ornament stand, an acrylic paperweight with a dandelion seed head inside, and a white osteospermum bloom. 

A nearby stump did me a favor by hosting an ideal spot for a bubble, and the light was just perfect coming through it. You may see that shot above: it seemed like the light was coming from INSIDE the glowing bubble. I enjoyed the sight enough that I included it in the background of several additional shots.

My dragon, I gave a bunch of bubbles as baubles, so that it looked like the dragon was surrounded by sparkling riches as they froze. You may see one of those shots in the extras. Inside the glittering snow globe is an additional, much smaller, dragon, so this is actually a double dragon shot!

Now, you may see a few more frozen bubble photos on my Instagram set. It's real minimalist. No words. No hashtags. Just images. But just let me just point out that I have a real BUGGER of a time getting Instagram postings right. (I don't have a cell phone so I use the web version; I'm on a Mac and my browser is Firefox.) 

I upload my photos. I put words on them. I put hashtags on them. I hit "share." And half the time, Instagram strips those things off. I am successful in editing my posts to add those things back in about 10% of the time, so, no, I'm not one of those cool kids who is so self-sufficient that I don't need to say anything about my art work because I think it speaks for itself. I'm just apparently CLUELESS; that's all. And I say all of this good-heartedly, with a shrug and an "oh well."  ;-)

I find I have one more thing to say and so I'll get straight to it. There are things in the world that you can do that will please you, give you straight-up delight. The things that bring a great big YES to your heart and to your lips. For me, some of those things are affirmations of the magic and the mystery that live at the very center of this world: the simple, incomprehensible, beautiful things. Anyway, you should try to FIND those things and do more of them, more often. They will make your heart sing!

Guess what: for me, frozen bubbles are one of those things!

I've got two photos and so here are two songs. First is an all-time favorite morning anthem of mine: the Call, with Let the Day Begin. And after listening to that song many times, and coveting a spot among those giant sequoia trees with the guys, and watching the Simple Minds homage to lead singer Michael Been and the Call (Michael Been passed in 2010), I bought a bunch more of their music. (Yay, me!) Here's one I can't believe I didn't know they sang! There's a cover of it on The Lost Boys soundtrack, but this is the original: here's the Call, with I Still Believe. And here are the Call performing the song, with Been's son as lead singer.

Bonus: here's my canonical list of frozen bubble tips.
*One of my tips is that you should NOT take outside anything that it will pain you to lose, drop, or ruin. So yes, I WAS extra-careful with the dragon and snow globe.