24 Days of Making, Doing, and Being: December 11
Winter color.
Welcome to 24 Days of Making, Doing, and Being, a digital Advent calendar for slowing down and making space for presence, creativity, and gratitude. This is a seasonal offering for paid subscribers of the Creative Fuel newsletter. Thank you for being here. If you missed a day you can catch up here.
In an attempt to ensure movement in my everyday, I’ve been trying to get out on a bike ride in the late afternoons. It’s a race to beat the sun, get outside and make it back before it gets dark. On the days that aren’t drizzly or cloudy, the payoff has been the crepuscular colors. Winter sun is softer, hazier, dreamier, than that of summer. As it begins to set, there can be hints of rose gold, an almost copper tinge to the evergreens on the horizon.
We have a tendency to associate winter with a lack of color. Certain animals turn white, not necessarily just as a camouflage trick, but because it might help them insulate better1. We think of the crisp white that comes with new snow, the glisten of frost, influenced by winters past, colder times that are now dwindling. These days, even in quintessential “wintry” places, the season can be gray, wet, and balmy. A palette that’s a bit more drab and dismal.