In centuries past, wassailers went from door to door, singing and drinking to the health of their neighbors. The concept actually harkens back to pre-Christian fertility rites — only in those ceremonies, villagers traveled through their fields and orchards in the middle of winter, singing and shouting to drive away any spirits that might inhibit the growth of future crops. As part of this, they poured wine and cider on the ground to encourage fertility in the crops.

Eventually, this evolved into the idea of Christmas caroling, which became popular during the Victorian era, and is still seen today in many areas. If you think your family or friends might enjoy starting up a new, musical tradition, why not gather them together to go out a-wassailing for Yule? The following are traditional, secular wassailing songs which were performed back as early as the days of King Henry VIII. Although some are Christian in background and make references to “God” in their original form, I’ve made Pagan-friendly substitutions in some places. You can always change these to accommodate a particular deity of your tradition.

After you get home from your night of singing, relax by your fire with a pot of spiced wassail.

Wassail was originally a word that meant to greet or salute someone — groups would go out wassailing on cold evenings, and when they approached a door would be offered a mug of warm cider or ale. Over the years, the tradition evolved to include mixing eggs with alcohol and aspersing the crops to ensure fertility. While this recipe doesn’t include eggs, it sure is good, and it makes your house smell beautiful for Yule!

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 3 hours
Total Time: 3 hours, 15 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 Gallon apple cider
• 2 C. cranberry juice
• 1/2 C honey
• 1/2 C sugar
• 2 oranges
• Whole cloves
• 1 apple, peeled and diced
• Allspice
• Ginger
• Nutmeg
• 3 cinnamon sticks (or 3 Tbs. ground cinnamon)
• 1/2 C — 1 C brandy (optional)

 Preparation:

Set your crockpot to its lower setting, and pour apple cider, cranberry juice, honey and sugar in, mixing carefully. As it heats up, stir so that the honey and sugar dissolve. Stud the oranges with the cloves, and place in the pot (they’ll float). Add the diced apple. Add allspice, ginger and nutmeg to taste — usually a couple of tablespoons of each is plenty. Finally, snap the cinnamon sticks in half and add those as well.

Cover your pot and allow to simmer 2 — 4 hours on low heat. About half an hour prior to serving, add the brandy if you choose to use it.

I have updated the images & I added a song by Deep Forest that captures the feeling I am looking for in my images. Check it out… I am very excited with it…

This is the first project that I have completed in Adobe’s Flash CS5. What a great program! I can’t wait to create some shows & banners for my clients!

Slide Show

I can’t believe Shutterworks IV is finished. I think it was the best show we have put together so far! I am looking forward to next year’s show.

We are thinking about adding another show that is all Black & White images. I think this would be a great addition. Worth the extra work & money.

Thank you for being there & if you missed the show for some reason, I look forward to seeing you next year!

Shutterworks IV Group show at the Square Deal Framing & Gallery 1460 S. Colorado Blvd. Denver, CO. The show runs from October 21st through November 11th 2011. Opening night is Friday October 21st from 6 to 9 PM.

I have put together 8 images that cover a spectrum of my work from the 70s & 80s. I have enjoyed scanning these old slides & working on them with our modern tools such as Photoshop CS5. I am amazed with what that program can do. Please come & join me at the opening to see my images & the many wonderful images created by the other photographers in the show.

Photos for Shutterworks IV are done!

I have the prints into Rich at Square Deal Framing to be matted & framed. The show gets put up next week with the opening that Friday. From what I have seen of the other participant’s work, looks like we are going to have a wonderful show this year. Thanks Rich for creating the environment for us to create Shutterworks IV!

If you are interested in seeing the show, go to Square Deal Framing & Gallery to get more information on the show or come to our opening Friday the 21st from 6 to 9 PM. See the Postcard below. Love to see you there… Tim

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I love Adobe’d Illustrator CS5! I have been having a blast creating there & in Photoshop CS5… Here is an example of a client’s loge that I have upgraded in Illustrator:

The Current Shift Guru Logo

It is fun to keep working on a logo project & watch it evolve over time. Here is my new ConnectingPointe Logo that I created in Illustrator CS5

This image is one of my favorites and one of the hardest to clean up. I have added it to the Nature 1 Gallery. The Suwannee is a magical river that I was so blessed to be able to spend some time on for The Nature Conservancy.

The Nature Gallery

I have been working on scanning my old images and artwork to clean up my junk. I have tons of slides to scan so I am looking at a many year project. I have almost finished scanning my saved documents and pictures. Well, at least I think I am! I keep finding more stuff to scan. I look forward to having everything in a digital file. That way I can store my history and still find it when I want to see it!

I am adding galleries as I go along so keep checking back to see what I have added.

©Tim loomis Photography

The amazing variety and density of vegetation that grows on the sides of the crater walls is truly amazing.

©Tim loomis Photography

©Tim loomis Photography