Winter approaches; the nights are longer, the sun sets now only a little after 4 pm, and it gets very dark very early in the evening. It’s no wonder that so many of the Winter celebrations, and especially the Solstice celebrations, make use of candles and fires; there’s no darkness like a Winter night, and we do all we can to lighten it. This photo was taken a year ago as part of an available light photography challenge, and I like it so much I included it in last year’s Solstice video and in the Solstice photo book I just published. Here it is again!

The music I’ve included for this Sight & Sound post is Malcolm Dalglish’s “Pleiades”, from his 1985 Windham Hill CD Jogging the Memory. Mal Dal plays hammered dulcimer, but he goes far beyond the traditional styles and playing techniques. I chose this because the Pleiades is a Winter constellation, and the music so clearly depicts the pin-pricks of light in the dark Winter sky. Enjoy!