An Icicle on Christmas Eve by Chipka
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No AI - This artwork was created entirely by hand or with traditional digital tools.
Description
Lights swaying in wind
The river, cold, dreams of Spring
The taste of brandy.
I lived for a time without a camera. I lived for a time in the town of Český Krumlov. Pavl visited me there, on occasional weekends. Other friends marked my days with autumnal apples, and once, a bag of walnuts gained through dubious means. We smoked a lot. I explored the town, ate dumplings, smoked shisha in the flavors of apple, melon, and something pleasantly spicy. I drank masala and danced with a guy in a wheelchair. I drank beer: lots, and lots of beer. On Christmas, without my camera, I spent time at the castle, huddled against the cold with hot wine and friends, cigarette filters clenched between our chattering teeth. We’d gone to the castle on Christmas day, to hear holiday songs in Czech, to eat fresh-baked cookies, and drink wine as hot as a summer day, and as flavorful as any passion found in a bottle. A slice of orange floated in my little plastic cup; its flesh and its pulp stained purple with steaming wine. I did not have a camera at the time, and the friends I wandered with were without cameras as well. It was okay. We had the King’s Apples in autumn, mysterious, dirty walnuts, and on Christmas day, we had singers and bears in the waterless moat of a castle.
I live—for a time—in Chicago. I have a camera. Pavl does not visit me here. He lives in Brno. I’ve marked no autumn days with gnarled, dirty apples of royal pedigree. There are no bears in castle moats here. I will move on, and I will live elsewhere and elsewhere again. As I did in the Czech Republic, I will enjoy a year of five seasons. I doubt that in “foreign” places in the central and eastern reaches of Europe I will drink eggnog near Christmas as I do now, and so the concept of eggnog haiku may find its most profound challenge. This is okay. I don’t mind.
As I wander—this year—with my camera and with Chicago-local friends, I often think of the year of five seasons. I learned of this thing in the Czech Republic, and in Germany. The normal compliment of spring and summer, autumn and winter are present and perpetual everywhere. There is a fifth season as well: a cold one, and a short one. It lasts from the day that Americans eat turkey until the start of the following year. It is called, quite simply, Holiday Season and unlike periods defined by atmospheric conditions, the fifth season is defined by mood. By lights. By icicles hanging from awnings, just in time for Christmas.
Now, on the Eve of Christmas, I sit before my laptop, listening to the music of Narnia: Prince Caspian’s tale, and I think—as I often do—of the Czech Republic. I was in Prague during the filming of this movie, and I laugh at the fact that the small people—the dwarves and midgets dressed as half-mythical beings—all speak Czech as their native language. Now, on Christmas Eve, I see icicles no longer than my shortest finger. They are lit, sometimes by Christmas lights, sometimes by the cheap glow of sodium vapor lanterns lining the flanks of city streets like cheap baubles scored from a gum-ball machine. There are no castles here (no real ones, anyway) and no snoozing, temperamental bears in their waterless moats. I have yet to dance with someone in a wheelchair, here, or to eat strangely appropriated walnuts out of an overstuffed plastic bag, but as I see icicles, and write a brief haiku, I remember castles, bears, apples, and walnuts…and a dancer in a wheelchair. I have a camera, now, and though things can be much, much better, this year’s fifth season is a good one. I have eggnog. I have friends. I have ideas and good books to read. And so now, with an eggnog-induced haiku bubbling through the back of my mind, I wonder what the new year will hold when it arrives.
As always, thank you for viewing, reading, and commenting. Merry Christmas to those who celebrate the holiday. A happy weekend to those who don’t.
Comments (26)
this shape is wonderful and the textures or cracks we see in the ice makes it looks cool
I perfect testament to this fifth season. It's a shame that we westerners don't follow such good things as well as others. Your icicle and all its fine detail is beautiful as it is no doubt unique. Etched into its latticework there seems a map of some ancient realm with rivers and mountains, roads and cities. Perhaps it is the land of which you speak. You see, I too have hit the eggnog. Merry Christmas my friend.
My castles have always been in my mind. I visit them on special occassions and often in my sleep where I dance with swirling skirt with long dark hair. My last name was Knight and I always thought one day I would meet a handsome prince who would take me away on a white horse and I would be the princess of the castle. I don't need a 5th season to visit my castle. But I do wish I could see other people there with me...but I'm always alone. Your icicle reminds me of my childhood, living on the shores of Lake Erie. Nothing was more magical then than the icicles that hung from the eves of the house at Christmas time. Thank you for the memories.
Another beautiful icicle and capture! I love the way the surface is a picture of the motion of the water as it was trapped into hard form. It juts forward here and sinks down there. All through it, trapped air sits, waiting for the thaw. Marvelous patterns, detail, and light! Wonderful shape, coming down to a tenuous teardrop. Very interesting narrative. Wonderful descriptions, and conjured images. I like the idea of a fifth season. I had to look up masala as when I think of masala, I think of chicken tikka masala and such. I did know that chai was really just tea, though it is often used here to mean spiced tea, but I didn't know that masala chai was the proper name for that which I relish highly when I go to my local Indian restaurant. I usually get it iced because the hot is already sweetened and is sweeter than I like. But I love the hot stuff too, when it is lightly sweetened or not at all. I hope your fifth season is filled to the brim with joyous times, good friends and fond memories!
Keep your words flowing Chip! As the Scots say, "Long may your chimney smoke!" I believe their words are "Lang may your lum reek! or something like that.
Stunning work.
merry Christmas to you my friend.May this be awonderful day for you.God Bless.
Happy Holiday Season
Odd, isn't it Chip! I no more feel I belong in this time, than you belong in the place you find yourself in. Neither miserable, nor truly content - actual happiness doesn't facture into it - that's another concept entirely. I escape the 'wrong time condundrum' in real castles, meadows full of daisies, streams and ancient woodland - the latter born in the time I am certain I would feel more at home in. You escape in the most profound memories and words I have read in a long time. Methinks our souls are somewhere - some 'time' else.... Happy Holidays to you Chip. May the coming year fulfill at least some of your dreams. I send the same wish to Corey. Absolutely superb image. ^=^
Wonderful image, and even more marvellous ones spring out of your words.
fantastic macro!! beautiful text! Happy Holidays!!!
Gorgeous shot Chip! I love this series that you have. The other photo that you took of this icicle was equally stunning. I just the detail - it could be an glass sculpture. I love the detail that you have caught with this. Just stunning!
A wonderful find/capture! Merry Christmas to you and yours too! :)
You must really miss Czech Republic. I do hope you can visit it again. Well knights (PJ Mentioned that) and dances?. I can only say I have such things in my dreams.... I saw a knight. A beautiful hero, but I.... I was a human locked up in a mental hospital, but I often broke free and changed into a horse and met my knight to explore new worlds in freedom and we danced on green fields. YIKES! I cant believe I told you that.. and I dont hope we have a dream-reader in RR. LOL ! Chip this is a beautiful icicle, so clear and shiny. A wonderful shot and story.
Ghosts of Christmases past--they don't really haunt us, they allow us to remember good times, good friends. I dream of those sometimes, think about the people who have come and gone, those I'll see again, and the ones I have yet to meet. A beautiful shot and perfect for this day.
It is during the holiday season that I realize the traditions created and passed down in my own family are unique. Perhaps if we were our own country and spoke our own language, people would visit and find us charming or just odd. It's the local traditions, whether by country, region or family, that give richness to our lives and our memories. I love your description of everything, the apples, walnuts and hanging out in a cold castle drinking and singing. I have walnuts in a burlap bag, the last of their kind since the great tree came down and can't bring myself to crack them open. Hang on to those memories, make new ones, and always see the richness of tradition and friendship that is all around us. Salute!
It is the season to recall old memories and make new memories. And to look toward the New Year with anticipation. Love your writing ... you make me want to taste those gnarled apples and see those strange walnuts. And your icicle is so beautiful. I had never really seen icicles until I came to Colorado, and now they hang thick and two feet long from my house. My beloved and I used to marvel at them, and many other things. Without him I don't seem to see as much wonder, or perhaps it is just the way I am looking now, through the past more than the present. This is something I would like to change in the new year. I know your new year will be creative, Chip, and I hope it is also filled with new wonders. CC
EXCELLENT!
Season's Greetings Cards
More Happy New Year Scraps
This is very cool. Well, actually, very cold! From a distance it looks like some sort of glass ornament. One of Edie Sedgewick's long lost earrings? On closer inspection, there's a sinister viscious quality that makes me think of some sort slimy alien invasion oozing down from above. On still closer inspection, it looks like a really amazing icycle that contains the crystalized remains of some sort of ancient civilization. Of course, I have been at the wine again and am trying to adjust to my first pair of bifocals, so make of this comment what you. I like this picture a lot, and your European adventures are always fun to hear about. This was a great Christmas!!
What a beautiful, sensuous, sinuous, graceful shape this is! I love the way the light plays with the curves and the air bubbles, and it's fabulous against that black background. Superb photography, dear one!
A stunning capture, perfectly presented!
Beautiful capture, Chip! Wonderful lighting on this!
your travels, both to physical places as well as places of the heart, have touched a stream in you that seems to predate both travels & even this life. Your reflections show that journey everytime, where these castles & intimate caverns of meeting shine out like miniature galaxies. And they're so etched into your soul that wherever you live, they're called forth to sit in front of you as if they were happening right before your eyes. That's the call of your soul & of your writings. And the ghosts of people no longer in your city come to visit many times a week, as a result, and then they're called forth by your images. Yes, I agree that icicles can reflect lots of worlds: You isolated & intensified this: It's a stunning jetty into the dark. It's beautiful. The long neck of it seems miles long, and it reaches into a dark ocean & brings up the nostalgia you allude to, as if reaching for worlds now far away (even though they're so close in the mind & heart). Beautiful capture, and beautiful words as always. And I hope your christmas with Silence of the Lambs, and the day with K&S were warm & wonderful (they sounded like it). Well, maybe seeing Hopkins slurp his lips isn't exactly 'warm', but it's with a dear friend; and it is a helluva performance! (Hopkins added that slurp to the delight of the director & crew. Apparently they weren't expecting it.) Wonderful upload, and I wish you more great holiday ahead.
Sweet patterns between the bubbles and lighting. I'm sitting in south Florida in the 50s - wearing jeans and a sweatshirt - and thanking the powers that be - that I am not back in New Hampshire looking at icicles and a blizzard dumping a foot of snow all over everything. Dana
We got many of them this year - some of them are about 3-4m long. And I captured some shots of Santa as a victim of Jack Frost. I will post next times. Have a great start into 2011 my friend.
I've always believed that water is the hugest databank keeping memories of things gone and things to come, and the icicle is a Heaven's way to slow down the flow of information .. Like anything else, this should be partly true. Gorgeous image again!