This is my new favorite “unportrait” of Bradley and Gregory! Love the angles, the light, the sky, the clouds, the honey locust trees, the depth, everything! COOL! We were out all afternoon playing on this beautiful Saturday before Easter, and I took lots of pictures of my sweet boys. LOVE YOU, GUYS!
Later on, as I started to edit the pictures in the waning light of sunset, I was talking to my mom on the phone — she lives in Charleston where the dogwoods are in full blossom and I’m SO jealous — and she asked me if I knew why Easter is so early this year.
By the way, here’s today’s dogwood mugshot. (And some more randomly scattered throughout this disorganized post.) My dogwood is not going to blossom by Easter morning. But we knew that already and can still appreciate the Charleston dogwoods, thanks to my friend, Jill.
So anyway, the timing of Easter for us Western Christians (as opposed to Eastern Orthodox Christians) is based on a complicated formula of the Gregorian calendar, as in Pope Gregory XIII. (My Gregory will like reading that one!)
Generally speaking, Easter falls on the first Sunday after the full moon that occurs after the vernal equinox.
But that’s not entirely true.
Because the “full moon” of which we speak is not the ACTUAL full moon, but an ecclesiastical full moon, which just means that it’s the full moon as determined from tables, and not necessarily the exact date of the astronomical full moon.
But, thankfully, that table of full moons is pretty close to the astronomical one. Phew!
So, Easter falls on the first Sunday…
… following the ecclesiastical full moon…
…that occurs on or after…
… the day of the vernal equinox.
This ecclesiastical full moon is the 14th day of a tabular lunation. (Day 1 of a tabular lunation corresponds to the ecclesiastical new moon.)
(Got a headache yet?)
… And since the vernal equinox is fixed as March 21…
… that means that Easter can never fall before March 22 or later than April 25.
The vernal equinox occurred on March 20 this year, and the ecclesiastical full moon occurred on March 21, so, happy Easter tomorrow!
Just remember, you can’t go by the astronomical full moon…
… because there are differences between the astronomical full moon and the ecclesiastical one. Lunar motion is a complex system!
In 1962, for example, the astronomical full moon was on March 21, 6 hours AFTER the astronomical equinox. The ecclesiastical full moon was on March 20 and BEFORE the ecclesiastical equinox on March 21. If the date of Easter was determined by the astronomical full moon, Easter would have been on March 25 in 1962. But following the rules, Easter was not until the Sunday that came after the next ecclesiastical full moon on Wednesday, April 18. So Easter Sunday fell on April 22 in 1962. My brothers, Steve and Bill, age 2 and 4 then, would have had a grand and fully warm Easter that year!
And I most definitely have a headache!
So for my mom, down in Charleston with the blossoming dogwoods, here’s a pretty bud for you and the gift of answering your question, “Why does Easter fall so early this year?” (Information gleaned from the United States Naval Observatory and various calendars and astronomical tables.)
Above, that’s my dogwood from the point of view of the squirrel-proof bird feeder looking up at the sky.
Incidentally, here’s a little Julie tidbit for all my loyal blog readers…
… my mom was BORN on Easter Sunday! Her name is Easter! Her birthday won’t fall on Easter again until 2018, on which date, she says, she will turn 4 years old.
…Because thanks to leap year and the ecclesiastical moons and the vernal equinox and the… oh never mind… I have to be at church at 6:40 a.m. GOODNIGHT!
posted by Julie Walton Shaver at 8:17 pm
At last night’s Maundy Thursday Tenebrae Service, the bell in the Sanctuary tolled 33 times in complete darkness, once for each year of Jesus’ life on earth. After the last bell, and a moment of silence in a crowded Sanctuary, the pastor lit the Christ candle, symbol of hope for what is to come on Easter morning, and yet we leave the Sanctuary in darkness, speaking little, if at all, to our friends as we headed toward Good Friday.
Instead, we listened to the profound silence.
As I was walking into the church last night, the sky was beautiful against the trees and clouds. Can you see the moon? (Bottom center.) Bradley and I have always thought of pink clouds as being a symbol of hope, so I thought it was interesting that I’d be walking into church last night and notice pink clouds.
This morning Bradley and I watched the alternate DVD version of the movie “I Am Legend” with a different ending from the theatrical one.
SPOILER ALERT. Not to worry. If you haven’t seen the movie or read the book, my discussion will not spoil if for you, so keep reading.
A voiceover in the alternate version says, “You are not alone. There is hope. Keep listening.”
That’s the message of Easter! Because I committed myself to writing about Holy Week, I’ve been listening very carefully, and watching with an open mind, waiting for inspiration.
The great thing is: It was there all along! All I had to do was open my eyes and ears.
I hear it in the seasons, too, watching the trees. Above, today’s dogwood mugshot.
We’ve been watching her all week. And even though I’m pretty sure MY dogwood won’t blossom in time for Easter morning, the dogwoods SOMEwhere are blossoming!
In fact, just today, my friend, Jill, in Charleston, took pictures of her blossoming dogwood and posted them on her blog JUST FOR US! See? Keep listening and watching.
There is hope!
Coming tomorrow on my walk: don’t know yet. I’m still waiting for inspiration.
posted by Julie Walton Shaver at 4:05 pm
The title of this post should have been “A Day of Random Reflections” because that’s what it’s turned out to be. My life has a weird randomness to it that has my head spinning.
I’ll start with the first pictures of the day, taken around 2 a.m. at the Metuchen train station, above.
That truck was too tall to fit under the train trellis. It rammed into the bridge and sheared off the top of the cab.
I’m just letting you know in case you heard a really loud crash some time last night and wondered what it was.
I thought the parking sign was interesting covered with rain drops and glowing in the streetlight. The randomness of the little reflections combined with “24″ as in round-the-clock randomness — see? That sign is my life.
Ever since I got my new camera, I wondered if I could take a picture of the church courtyard at night with no flash, and actually get a decent shot. It worked!
First thing this morning, I checked on the dogwood.
Still not much movement in the blossoming department, but the pictures are challenging my graphic edgyness. I like the one above for it’s random focus, yet nicely spaced intervals.
I took this one of Bradley working at the computer, trying to see if I could get a cool reflection in his glasses. Ah, not so cool, but I still like the picture. It has a graphic composition of balanced corners that I like.
To complete the circle of randomness, I went to the Concert for Peace at Gregory’s school today. That’s Gregory, the tall one in the tie.
Above, and below: random pictures from the concert.
(Wide angle lens.)
(Sisters.)
Just after the bow at the end of the concert. (He bowed into her head!)
I’m heading out the door in a minute. My choir is singing at the Maundy Thursday Tenebrae Service at church, my favorite worship service of the whole year, and the one which will end my randomness for the day. The church will grow darker as the service progresses through the story of Jesus’s last night, ending with the Sanctuary in complete darkness, the symbol of the darkness of the tomb. And then one candle, the Christ candle will be lit…
Coming tomorrow on my walk: Hope.
posted by Julie Walton Shaver at 5:41 pm
In the Living Dramatization of Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper,” an event at my church last night, worshippers entered the Sanctuary just after Jesus spoke the words from Matthew 26:21 “…Truly I say to you that one of you will betray Me.” This is the point at which Leonardo created his famous painting, and the point at which the dramatization began.
I was in the back balcony, taking pictures only during the songs with no flash. I took the picture above with my Nikon D3 on ISO 6400, f/3.2 at shutter speed 1/160 seconds. Focal length: 52 mm. The lights in the Sanctuary were very low; the actors on the edges were in shadows creating quite a lighting difference between “Jesus” in the center, and “Simon” on the far right and “Nathaniel” on the far left.
You can see the picture above as a 13×19 print displayed in the First Presbyterian Church of Metuchen Narthex on Easter Sunday.
This one realistically depicts the lighting, and how far back I was, except the camera makes it seem as though the chandeliers were bright, and they were actually dimmed quite a lot.
I could switch lenses and get closer too.
“Jesus,” right, stared straight ahead for entire length of the program.
The dramatization explored the instant emotional tumult the disciples might have felt just after Jesus spoke of the impending betrayal. One by one, each man broke his pose and delivered a soliloquy revealing his inner thoughts, ultimately questioning who the guilty one was, and each one ending with “Is it I?” before resuming his pose in Leonardo’s painting.
When I said I only took pictures during the songs, I lied! Yikes! I did take this one during “Philip’s” monologue as a way to illustrate the point of the dramatization.
We either need a slightly shorter table, or a spotlight.
In this one, I did a little photoshop work to see if I could even out the lighting by blending two versions of the same picture. I bumped the exposure up for the end with “Simon,” and darkened the side with “Matthew,” but I didn’t bother disguising the line between the two exposures because I think it looks kind of interesting, like a rainbow. I’m sure you can see it.
Here’s what it really looked like, with no exposure tweaking in photoshop. If you go back to the image at the top of this post, I bet you can’t see that line. I photoshopped it out on the picture I wanted to make as a big print. Sneaky, huh? (But it’s possible you can see a subtle line in the print.)
Click here for a little slide show of the split second after the actors finally were allowed to break pose.
To all involved in the production: EXCELLENT job! From the costumes to the backdrop to the acting, posing and music, it was a very moving service. Thank you for all your hard work!
Yesterday, I promised an update on the dogwood’s progress. Will she blossom in time for Easter? I seriously doubt there’s any chance we’ll see even a hint of blossoming by Sunday but I’ll keep watch, just in case.
Above, that’s her mugshot for today. Not much different from Monday, except the sun has gone away. Coming tomorrow on my walk through Holy Week: my Lenten promise.
posted by Julie Walton Shaver at 11:36 am
posted by Julie Walton Shaver at 7:04 am
This short squirrel movie
stars Twirly, a squirrel so-named for regularly feeding happily from the “squirrel-proof” bird feeder while doing gymnastics. When the little show is finished (be sure to turn up the sound), it will twirl back here. Feel free to leave a comment telling me to get back to work already and stop watching the twirling squirrel.
Or, for a completely different diversion,
click here to read an excerpt from “Boyhood Days in Old Metuchen” by David Trumbull Marshall. In this chapter, Dr. Marshall wrote about a squirrel he was obsessed with when he was 12, circa 1877, right here in my town. I love the last two paragraphs from that chapter the best:
“I tried for a long time to take a photograph of the squirrel on the outside and the two cats and the dog on the inside, but to get the combination of two cats and a dog and a good light and the proper hour of the day and time to make the exposures, took me more than two months.
“I put my camera on a step-ladder outside of the window and rigged a string from the inside of the house to the trigger of the camera, but what with not having a white background for the black cats and what with the scraping of the string on the window-sill and what with two or three neighbors’ cats trying to catch Susie from the outside, I had some job getting even so good a picture as I did get.”
I HEAR YOU DR. MARSHALL!! Squirrels and photographs, who can resist?
posted by Julie Walton Shaver at 12:58 pm
A new edition of Metuchen Musings is coming out! Click the book cover above
— or click here —
and turn up the sound for a little slide show of the writers doing what they do best — writing!
This will be the fourth anthology created by the Writers of Metuchen. It includes extraordinary poems by Marcia Holtzman, director of the Writers’ Room at Edgar School, poignant prose by Jennifer Jolly and Joni Scanlon, charming illustrations by Mickey Waring (who provided the painting on the beautiful cover), memoirs of everyday life by Leah Kane
(from her charming Raising Kane blog), poetry contributions from young writers Jamie Zwiebel and Lauren Hooghuis, and many more. We’re all so excited to be publishing another book! Check back for more information as the book moves along in the publication process, or, if you’d like to pre-order your copy, books will be available for $10 if purchased through a member of the group, and will eventually be available for purchase on Lulu.com. (But with shipping, you’ll save by ordering through one of us.) Email me if you’d like to pre-order your copy!
The back cover
More information on book availability and Writers of Metuchen events coming soon!
posted by Julie Walton Shaver at 7:56 am
posted by Julie Walton Shaver at 11:56 pm
Click the picture
— or click here —
for the slide show from Andi’s family session.
(By the way, my 13-year-old son, Bradley, picked out the music for this one. It’s perfect! Thanks for your help, Bradley!)
There’s a really great tree-related contest question in this one. Answer it and win the family an 8×10 print. Have fun! Above, for a bonus print credit for Andi, what kind of tree is that in the background? I love that picture!
Forget the tree! Aren’t they cute together!
She’s adorable.
Everybody loves the jump shots.
(I love that sequence in the slide show.)
She has beautiful eyes.
Believe it or not, this one and the one above were taken underneath the Metuchen train bridge downtown. It’s a great place to shoot because of the cool rocks in the background, and the overhead shade, and the great big softbox effect created by the underpass opening. Very dramatic.
Pretty light in her hair from the quickening sunset of approaching winter. I love this time of year! Great clothes, great light. It’s perfect.
TODAY’S CONTEST QUESTION
To win this family an 8×10 print and to win enormous helpings of blog praise for yourself, what kind of tree makes this gigundo leaf?
Thanks Andi! I love your slide show!
posted by Julie Walton Shaver at 4:49 pm
posted by Julie Walton Shaver at 7:25 am
