The big day has arrived. As is traditional, wrapping went on until the wee small hours. After an evening of food and fun powered over the finishing line.
Whatever shape your day takes. Enjoy the moments. See you on the other side.
I found this temporary sculpture yesterday. Doubtless commissioned as a photo opportunity. But beautiful in its own way without humans posing against it. I love the ambiguity of it. Are they Angels wings or Fairy?
Christmas has become for many of us the most delightful mash up of Sacred and Secular. Consumerist and cozy. Family and friends. Memories and Magic.
I nearly always overthink Christmas. Preparing for the present yet nostalgic for the past.
Studying Fine Art as a mature student, gave me a new mentor as I found the writing of Robert Hughes as an excellent guide to Art Theory. But his famous quote about Christmas baffled me when I first read it. I had completely forgotten my bafflement until I was standing near his plaque in Sydney two weeks ago.
So here I am having given myself renewed bafflement fresh from the sunshine of Sydney. Bafflement caused by a man who had rejected Catholicism for deeply personal reasons and yet mentions God in one of his often quoted quotes.
I suppose my circular counter argument would be that a deep winter celebration was much needed by early humans in the Northern Hemisphere.Short cold days can be relentless. Early Christians saw an opportunity and popped God into the mix by a convenient Birth of Christ Story to coincide with Winter festivals.
Bob is your Uncle and Christianity gets a popularity boost. Whose heart did it start in?
Actually Bob probably becomes your drunk Uncle who always appears with his slightly grumpy partner Sylvia whose family Christmas traditions do not involve being pleasant to anyone.
So wherever Christmas sits in your heart currently. Seasons Greetings.
I think we only started to engage with the Northern Hemisphere Christmas yesterday. For certain we have done Christmas admin for a few days but yesterday we went to gather with friends and strangers in a warm house, had good food, good conversations and gathered around a piano to sing Christmas Carols without a hymn sheet. 100 per cent accuracy of harmonies but maybe some of the words were a little erroneously placed. All part of the charm.
The Christmas admin today took me to two of my favourite places. Exeter and The Barbican, Plymouth. Both places made me feel warm and fuzzy because like the harmonies of the night before success was 100 %.
Two images from earlier visits, nobody needs to see Exeter or the Barbican in the rain.
A new bauble for 2025. After a slow start to prep we have Christmas 2025 on track. Taking our holiday during Advent made for easy choices of memento purchasing. Baubles have been a particular focus this year. Having never experienced the Southern Hemisphere in December, I wondered quite how Christmas baubles would sit in gorgeous summer sunshine. As it turns out Christmas baubles look absolutely wonderful in bright sunshine. Particularly at Dawn.
One Southern Hemisphere bauble made it into our suitcases. Somewhat loosely described as a bauble, a glittering pale green prawn hangs happily on our Christmas tree.
My own Christmas image for 2025 was a handful of regular festive baubles. Enhanced now by the experience of seeing baubles in both the Southern and Northern hemispheres. Warm cozy background for the familiar wintery experience and splashy, brightly coloured sea shades for the new experience of baubles by a hot summer beach.
And just like that the shortest day is here and my inner pagan skips and jumps.
I am a closet minor melancholic from the minute the Summer Solstice brings the longest day. Shortening days and looking towards the gloom of winter from the 22 of June is my secret USP. I keep it well hidden until late November but from then on I grump and moan a bit.
Singapore, Australia and Hong Kong reset me like nothing has ever done before. Long days of sunshine in December perked me up like new batteries in small electrical devices.
Buzzing would be the word. Never have I had so much va-va-voom in December.
Even the adverse events of this week have failed to dim my physical energy. My heart and soul might be mightily bruised and hollowed out, but I have been ready to meet the day at stupid o clock. Thanks to being super charged by the Southern Hemisphere.
Onwards to longer days.
I have never experienced Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere before. Or any other time to be honest. I was a newbie. As an artist I knew the colours would be significantly different. As a winterphobe I knew I would welcome sunlight like a lizard on a hot rock.
Nothing prepared me for the first hour of coffee and breakfast on Coogee beach half an hour after landing.
Sunrise in a new country is quite the moment. Mind blowing clarity and colours and a small town vividly bustling at 6 a.m.
I am still trying to work out how to paint the sensations and flavours of those first few hours.
The universe has seen fit to give me a bit of a pause for thoughts both domestically and internationally. I have decided to revisit our holiday creatively and pleasurably in the new year. January will be a cornucopia of sunshine spam.
For now just Baubles in Sunshine.
First day back in Firestone Bay. Cold and crisp.
Community, Christmas Cheer, condolences and Chai.
Describe a man who has positively impacted your life.
The obvious answer would be my Dad. A quiet, clever man who avoided conflict and worked hard. He was dependable and wise, a man ahead of his time in many ways and out of step with the masculinity of his generation.
The bar was set quite high, but having a gentle father gave me a natural resistance to toxic masculinity in my inner circle. Such men are unavoidable in the real world, but I am lucky that the significant men that I have as friends and family are of the same calibre as my Dad.
I took this photo last week. I was intrigued by the twist on the normal message of Merry Christmas. Taking Christ out of the salutation and replacing him with love. Millions of people with no Christian faith at all celebrate Christmas, and for them Christmas is all about being with the people you love, sharing food and gifts and most importantly sharing oodles of love widely. I never expected to use this photo, but the sudden death of a much loved dog has plunged us into a Love-mas. Not merry but a Love-mas never the less.
#1366 theoldmortuary ponders
Messages of sympathy and love have flooded in from all over the world. Along with photos of Hugo that we have never seen before and stories of his antics that have made us smile.
Hugo was an Interventionist Flâneur, from the day he arrived.
Having observed, he intervened, fixing people with his eyes, limpid, black pools of love and interest. He looked into souls, searching for a reason to give one of his specialist dominating cuddles.
A dog who knew all about the human need for comfort. He felt the pain of bereavement, heartbreak, hangovers, period pains and sorted things out with long moments of eye to eye contact.
Before collapsing into the cuddle position which was always his unstated intention. If he had been a human therapist he would have been struck off every list that exists.
For the first time in 13 years he is not around to resolve my sorrow and sadness. But because he was so good at what he did, our family has been flooded with love from all corners of the world. We have loved getting the photographs and anecdotes. They make us smile and they make our eyes leak, but we find ourselves in a Lovemas all of his making.
From time to time, people tell me, “lighten up, it’s just a dog,”
or “that’s a lot of money for just a dog.”
They don’t understand the distance travelled, the time spent,
or the costs involved for “just a dog.”
Some of my proudest moments have come about with “just a dog.”
Many hours have passed and my only company was “just a dog,”
but I did not once feel slighted.
Some of my saddest moments have been brought about by
“just a dog,” and in those days of darkness, the gentle touch
of “just a dog” gave me comfort and reason to overcome the day.
If you, too, think it’s “just a dog,” then you probably understand
phrases like “just a friend,” “just a sunrise,” or “just a promise.”
“Just a dog” brings into my life the very essence of friendship,
trust, and pure unbridled joy.
“Just a dog” brings out the compassion and patience
that make me a better person.
Because of “just a dog” I will rise early, take long walks and look
longingly to the future.
So for me and folks like me, it’s not “just a dog”
but an embodiment of all the hopes and dreams of the future,
the fond memories of the past, and the pure joy of the moment.
“Just a dog” brings out what’s good in me and diverts my thoughts
away from myself and the worries of the day.
I hope that someday they can understand that its’ not “just a dog”
but the thing that gives me humanity and keeps me from being
“just a man” or “just a woman.”
So the next time you hear the phrase “just a dog,”
just smile, because they “just don’t understand.”
~Unknown Author~
© 2016 PROFESSOR NOEL FITZPATRICK All rights reserved – Built by Lightflows Digital Agency
Hugo died suddenly, one day after we returned from our holiday. His last enthusiastic greeting had broken his heart. Heart Failure caused by a sudden rush of love to his heart.
Our world will not be the same without him.
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