Wintertime Gloom

Winter hasn’t even started and folks are already complaining, whether it be too cold, too dark (we get only 8 hours between sunrise and sunset here right now), or too depressing.

Honestly, it’s a viewpoint I have never understood. You can’t control it, so it’s better to adapt to it.

But that doesn’t mean that I can’t try to understand.

Goddess and I enjoyed a Weinachtsmarkt today.  A wonderful classic German town called Bad Wimpfen, with history going back to the Neolithic times, although it’s been settled since the first century AD (yeah, I know about BCE.  Get over it).

The temperature was hovering just above freezing, which is perfectly fine.  That’s what they make clothes for.  But just as we had completed the rounds of the entire market, we felt the first raindrops.  Which increased in intensity.

So that’s the one weather situation that I will agree is the worst – just above freezing and raining.  Because once you get wet in that situation, it’s pert near impossible to warm up.  Luckily we were done, so we didn’t have to think hard about heading to the car.

On the way back to the car, we stopped in a small park which happened to be the old cemetery.  The park overlooked the Neckar River and the river valley below.  It would be a beautiful view, except it’s dominated by a very large industrial complex, complete with large steam stack.

With the snow on the ground, the rain falling, the bare trees and the factory in the background, I began to see.  I may not agree, but I saw.

And understood.

And had to capture the mood with my camera.

Exactly as visualized.

Five second exposure, hand held.