12 Days of Christmas Songs (#1) – “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming”

Posted on December 23, 2015 by Katherine Wikoff

The “Twelve Days of Christmas” is actually the 12-day period beginning on Christmas Day and ending on January 5th (the day before the day the three kings/Magi/wise men visited the Christ child, aka “Epiphany“). So I’m getting started a little early.

Backstory: I was thinking about doing a blog post listing my favorite five Christmas carols. Too hard, though, picking just five. Then I tried for a list of ten songs—but when I counted them up, I had twelve. Well, that still works out: If I post one song per day from now until the last day of my break (Sunday, January 3), that’s twelve days.

Today’s song is one of my very favorites, “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming.” To me, the harmonies sound very medieval, like something that should be sung by monks in an ancient European monastery. “Lo, How a Rose” is actually a German carol that dates from around 1600, so not quite as old as the Middle Ages. Its German title is “Es ist ein Ros entsprungen.” (For more, see the Wikipedia article here.)

This video contains both the lyrics (in German) and the sheet music with all four singing parts (soprano, alto, tenor, bass), which is fun.

Hope you enjoy it!

Would you like new posts delivered to your inbox? To subscribe, click here.

Posted in Life, Music | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Looking forward versus looking back

Posted on December 17, 2015 by Katherine Wikoff

Strange how a shift in perspective changes everything. I was walking north with the sun at my back this afternoon when I noticed this interesting pattern of shadow and light reflections on the sidewalk ahead of me.After walking a little farther, I turned around and looked back at that same image in reverse, this time facing into the sun. And, wow—pretty amazing to see how completely altered something can be depending on your vantage point. Looking into the shadows creates a totally different image than looking into the sun. Good thing to to remember, like the glass that’s half empty or half full 🙂

shadow and light pattern on sidewalk

 

Posted in Life, Photography | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Thanks, Google!

Posted on December 15, 2015 by Katherine Wikoff

Way back when I started my blog in April 2012, I wrote a post to articulate the way I see the world and how I expected that perspective to shape my daily (ahem, weekly?) entries. As it so often feels, this post died as soon as it was “published,” slipping away into the ether with nary a comment or “like” to mark that it had ever even existed.

Sigh.

From April 2012–November 2014, my stats for that post, “Up a Chimney Down,” mostly had zero (0) average views per day.

Up a chimney down stats

In November 2014 “Up a Chimney Down” began showing up in my stats now and then.  It was always so nice to see that title pop up, like an old friend dropping by.

Then a few weeks ago that old friend inexplicably started dropping by a lot. (“A lot” relatively speaking, that is, given my blog’s fairly insignificant daily traffic.) Puzzled, I did a quick Google search for “up a chimney down” and “down a chimney up.” Maybe someone was linking to my post or something like that?

Oh, hey—look what came up right below my “down a chimney up” phrase in the search bar. The text in the featured “rich answer box” or whatever that highlighted Google info snippet is called. Yep, those are my words! Pretty cool, I must say! 🙂

Google rich answer box snippet

Posted in Writing, blogging | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Three Views of the Val. Blatz Brewing Bottle House (MSOE Campus Center)

Posted on December 4, 2015 by Katherine Wikoff

Light changes the appearance of things, as shown in these photos I took yesterday. What initially caught my eye was the gleam that obliterated detail as sunlight hit the stone tiles above the windows.

Val Blatz Bottle House / MSOE Campus Center detail

(Update: I noticed a few days later, when it was overcast, that what had looked like tiles in bright sunlight was actually squares of glass block.) I walked a little farther up the hill and decided to take a longer shot to remind myself of the bigger picture.

Val Blatz Bottle House / MSOE Campus Center

Then I noticed that just this slight resulting change in angle was enough to remove the glare while highlighting the design details more than usual.

Val Blatz Bottle House / MSOE Campus Center window detail

As a side comment, one of the people killed this week in San Bernardino was my second cousin. Taking photos of little things like this that strike me during the day and maybe posting them on my blog feels really trivial until something happens to force reflection on the point of being alive.

You breathe in, you breathe out. You love. You work. You go about your daily routine. Nothing of earth-shattering importance much of the time. You try to treat others well and honor the Creator and all of creation in everything you do. Large and small. Significant and inconsequential.

Rinse, repeat. So mundane. So profound.

 

Posted in architecture, Life, Milwaukee, News, Photography | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments

Storm’s Coming

Posted on December 1, 2015 by Katherine Wikoff

Storm clouds moving in

Taken with my iPhone on a mid-morning Starbucks run. The brief, sunny break between today’s rainy weather systems appears to be ending. Lucky for me that my break between classes coincided with the blue sky 😄

Posted in Milwaukee | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Grohmann Museum – Twilight, November Drizzle

Posted on November 30, 2015 by Katherine Wikoff

Streetlight shining through raindrops on glass canopy over entrance to Grohmann Museum

Photo of a streetlight shining through raindrops on the glass canopy over the entrance to the Grohmann Museum, taken as I left work late this afternoon.

Posted in architecture, Milwaukee, Photography | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

November – Sunlight on Silver Maple Branches

Posted on November 20, 2015 by Katherine Wikoff

Caught this glimpse of sunlight on the dangling branches of our silver maple this morning. Can’t decide which of these photos I like the most, so I’m just posting all three for now 🙂  Which should I go with permanently?

100_1602[1]

100_1603[1]

Posted in Nature | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

The Kindness of Strangers: Lost and Found

Posted on November 13, 2015 by Katherine Wikoff

Some kind soul found this necklace and placed it in a spot where its owner might be more likely to find it.

image

When my daughter lost her favorite stuffed animal in the grocery store years ago, someone did the same for us by setting Mr. Bugs atop a freestanding cardboard display of ketchup bottles.

Like Blanche in Streetcar, I have always hoped for—and usually found—compassion and assistance from others. Not that I’m reckless or (overly 🙂 ) detached from reality and the need to be self-reliant. But thank goodness for good people! Especially when the news every day is so full of evil and corruption and careless disregard.

 

Posted in Life, Milwaukee | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Carved in Stone . . .

Posted on November 10, 2015 by Katherine Wikoff

. . . is no guarantee of permanence, as you can see.

image

The carpenters’ union apparently found another home, and their building eventually became a place of support for a new group of people.

Posted in History, Life, Milwaukee | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Calatrava Interior, Late Afternoon on a Sunny Day

Posted on November 6, 2015 by Katherine Wikoff

imageEarly September at the Milwaukee Art Museum with the brise soleil unfurled.

image

Posted in architecture, Art, Milwaukee, Photography | Tagged , , | Leave a comment