The flame wasn’t because it was a Friday, though. Rather, today is January 6th, which is the Epiphany holiday. It’s the end of the Christmas holiday season here in Verona, and it’s marked by a very particular event.

Now, before I get to that, I should first mention that in Italy, the (good) witch Befana roams around on the evening  of January 5th, trying to catch up with the wise men on their way to see the Christ child.  She brings toys to the kids as she roams around — like I said, she’s a good witch.

But in addition to that part of the legend, she’s also the symbol of the year that’s just ended. Which is unfortunate for her, since in order to wipe the slate clean of all the bad stuff from the old year, and to insure good luck in the new year, there is a tradition in some parts of Italy —including Verona — to burn a towering effigy of Befana to ring — er burn — in the new year.

Befana Effigy before the blaze

Befana Effigy – head detail

Befana Effigy – hand detail

In Verona this takes place in Piazza Bra,  near the Stella Cometa, the Christmas star that marks the spot of the manger with the Chris child. That is, of course, where the wise men were headed, arriving on January 6th.  According to the legend, Befana never actually finds that spot. But in modern times, at least here in Verona, she does at least see it, since the effigy of Befana is set up just opposite the Stella, in front of city hall. You can see the relative positioning of the Stella and the city hall in photos in the Holiday on Ice post.)

Now, during the past couple of weeks the weather has been unseasonably warm – until yesterday the lows were in the upper 40°s F/~5° C.  However,  just in time for gathering out in Piazza Bra today to watch the festivities, the weather turned colder, and it was below freezing. A bit cool for standing around waiting for Befana to burn.  But since we’ve never been in Verona for this event before, Chris and I braved the cold and froze our tootsies so I could get a few photos of this interesting, and very different, holiday celebration.

Of course, once the fire got going, it was very, very, very warm to be standing nearby.

Anyway, I’ve posted a little gallery of photos below to show the progression of the bonfire. Before you look at the photos, be sure to click on the following link to play the  the theme from Rocky in the background.  That’s what was playing on the loudspeaker as the fire burned. Seriously.

Don’t ask why – just play the music, and enjoy this glimpse of the 2017 Befana Bonfire in Verona.

Anyway, the fog hasn’t been as bad as we remembered from years ago, but it still does creep in to create a some atmospheric photographic opportunities. I’ve included a few below – see what you think.

Piazza Bra and the festival market in the fog

Fog starting to come in over the Adige River

Looking the other way down the river, a little later

Another look at the fog coming in on the Adige (same photo, different photo treatment, no sun included)

As typical with our travels, the main mystery you might have, though, is “Why did they go there?”  Arcata is on the northern coast of California, and it seemed like a nice town when we passed through it a couple of months ago (we stopped here for lunch in May).

Moreover,  my project on early women photographers (1840-1930) has been greatly inspired by the work of a photo historian named Peter Palmquist. He was a photographer and photo historian from  …. Arcata. Yup, Arcata. And his research on all the early women photographers started with women who came from Humboldt County, which is this part of California.  Unfortunately, Mr. Palmquist died over a decade ago, and his archive and notes are all on the other side of the country at this point, inaccessible to researchers while the archives at Yale are remodelled. Ah well. But he published books (I have many) about women who were in this area,  and I’m still hoping to track down some more information while we’re here.

Plus, as I said, we thought that Arcata seemed like a nice place to check out for a while. So, we decided to stay here for 7-8 weeks when we found a cute little vacation apartment to rent.

The first Arcata augury happened yesterday when we “checked in” to our latest vacation apartment here (which is technically in Bayside, the small area that is next to or part of  Arcata – I’m not sure which. But I’ll call it Arcata to keep it simple. And alliterative.) Anyway, the husband of the couple that owns this place turned out to have known Peter Palmquist. Nice, eh?  I took that to be a positive sign.

Then, there were two more auspicious things this morning.  First, we beat the odds — weather-wise at least — when we awoke to a large rainstorm, even though there was only a 10% chance of that happening according to the online forecasts.  One of the weather sites actually said there was a chance of fog, but not rain.  Chris read that as we looked out at the rain outside the window. Only 10% chance? We got it!

No puddles near our door as a result of the rain, unfortunately, but there were a few nice raindrops:

After the rain, Arcata, CA

Then, the second thing his morning were the large spider webs that appeared overnight outside our door.  The one below was the most photogenic, since it was covered in raindrops, but there were at least two others nearby (not pictured) :

Raindrops on a Spider Web, Arcata, CA

BTW, that’s an illusion that the web as big as the tree tops. I mean, it was big, but not that big.  The illusion is created since the web was closer to me that the trees and I took the photo lining up the web with the trees beyond.

Anyway, I take spider webs to be a good sign since when we moved to Tübingen a few years ago, we were memorably greeted several mornings there by a series of enormous spider webs outside the door to our first apartment, and I like to think they brought us good luck there. For reference, you can read this old blog post about them.

So, although divining the meanings of the auguries is always a mystery — especially on a Monday — all the initial signs seem auspicious for our visit in Arcata.

Stay tuned…

We’ve been here in Seattle 2.5 months, and we finally got around to taking a ferry to Bainbridge Island this past Saturday.  We’ve had unusually nice, mostly sunny  weather for the past week or so. It was a more typical Seattle day on Saturday, though.

Some might call it gray, but I’ll call it atmospheric.

View of Seattle from the ferry before we left Seattle; there are mountains in the distant fog

Still, you can get a nice view of the skyline from the ferry, even when it’s gray — er, atmospheric.

Seattle, straight head

Seattle Skyline

Zooming in on the Seattle Skyline

It was interesting that from Bainbridge island, you don’t see the whole skyline, at least not from the ferry landing. Here’s a shot taken just before the ferry started moving:

Artistically toned view from Bainbridge Island

Also, the rain left behind a puddle or two that I spotted on the ferry deck on the way back. So, even if the weather wasn’t ideal, finding a reflection in a puddle is never bad.

Puddle on the Ferry

Puddle on the Ferry – #2

—–

P.S. I used to watch the tv sitcom Frazier back in the day. At the beginning, a graphic “sketched” the Seattle skyline.

Screenshot from Video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-SFhhnBwdA

I’m not sure if the skyline in Frazier is actually possible.  The little pointed tower is far over to the right in the real skyline when seen from the ferry, which puts it at the opposite end of the city from the Space Needle. It’s hard to understand where you’d have to be to get the pieces put together that way, since the tower and the Needle are so far apart in reality. But maybe I just haven’t been to the right place in town to see that. Or maybe there’s just a little artistic license going on in that graphic. Anyway, FWIW, I’ve linked that screenshot to a video that someone put together of all the variations in that opening graphic on Frazier. I had no idea that the opening graphic had so many different things happening in it, but there are balloons, moons, helicopters, etc. Fun!

Yes, I know. Seattle is not known for its sunny weather.  But oddly enough, we’re not only having sunny weather, we’re having a heat-wave, Seattle-style.  Today is the 3rd day that the temperature has been over 80ºF (27ºC), which is a record for April in Seattle.

To celebrate, and because I can’t figure out another way to work these in, below you’ll find a couple more photos from our trip to Discovery Park on Sunday, the first day of the heat wave.

Forest plants in the sun, Seattle

Olympic Mountains viewed from Discovery Park

The following panorama is odd – the camera was confused by the sun, or something, and so the automatic “sticking” makes it look like it’s been folded. It’s all digital, so those are only virtual folds below:

Panorama of Olympic Mountains (Mt. Rainer is hidden, off to the left)

BTW, on Saturday, before the heat wave started, Chris and I went downtown to the central library so that I could look at some reference materials that can’t be checked-out. Which means we made a trip to the library, which happens to be the name of a fun song from a Broadway musical called called She Loves Me. The movie is based on the same source material as the movie You’ve Got Mail, a movie that starred Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, the same two actors who starred in the movie Sleepless in Seattle. And, of course, the title of that movie gave me the idea for the title of today’s post.

But I know, I know. That’s a bit of a stretch as a way to work in a song from a Broadway musical, since there is but a very tenuous thread that connects the musical to anything to do with the Sleepless in Seattle movie.

Never mind. Instead I’ll just have to end this post with a wink and a smile … which is the name of a song from that movie.

Anyway, while you ponder the weather wherever you are, I hope you enjoy these two views of English Bay:

On the Water, English Bay, Vancouver

Quiet day by English Bay, Vancouver

The scenery on the drive from Silver City to Tucson was really stunning: you come over the mountains in New Mexico and suddenly see a vista of the desert stretched before you, with a series of mountains/hills in the distance, . Here’s an attempt to give you a quick sense of that view, taken with the cell phone while we quickly stopped by the side of the road (not much traffic on that road, at least not on a Saturday afternoon in December):

Panorama: New Mexico/Arizona border (click to open in a new window; then click on that again)

Panorama: New Mexico/Arizona border (zoomed in)

Here in Tucson, the sky at sunset as been pretty great, too. Although we haven’t been in the right place in town to get an optimal photo of that, this photo taken from the parking area where we’re staying will give you a small sense of the colors in the sky. Please note the photo hasn’t been altered at all — the colors really have been this stunning:

Tucson sunset

The weather here has also been gorgeous: high 70s°F / 21°C during the day, cooler at night. Practically perfect. But in summer the  average high is over 100°F ( 38°C) — everyday — for 3 entire months. Yikes. That’s a little too hot to make Tucson “paradise”  year-round as far as I’m concerned. Quite the reverse, IMHO.

But at least for a couple of days in December, the weather here is not bad at all.