Magma Stone.

I am really having a difficult time accepting that we are loosing light. Every passing day gets shorter, loosing more minutes to the night. It is unbelievable that already now we get one hour less daylight than a month ago.

However, that is the yearly cycle up here in Scandinavia and a natural way of things. I guess I am feeling the loss a bit more intensely this year, due to the absolutely horrid weather we are having. July has been terrible weatherwise; a total disappointment. We have received a lot of rain lately. Too much at this point and my flowers are not happy anymore. They need water but they also need the vital sunlight; without it they look sad and lifeless. They loose colour and become soggy and slowly wither away. Or rot away would be a better description.

There is one positive factor though, which makes up for the dark and rain. The early evenings bring back the candle light.
Yes, I love candles and I burn through hundreds of them in the winter season. In the summer most of them are forgotten in drawers and cabinets, but slowly, the need for them starts to return.

Yesterday evening I lit for the first time in several months a few candles here and there around the house. Among others, my "Magma Stone". A very unusual and so very intriguing candleholder, which I received from the students in the lab, when I turned forty a few years ago. A lovely gift and frequently in use in my white house on the hill.
Strikingly Scandinavian, its design is rugged and pristine, carved in a form of hollow lava stone, made out of dark clay with coloured (orange or yellow) inside. When the candle is placed inside the stone and lit, the stone resembles magma.

I have placed it high up in my kitchen, which is open and connected to my living room. When it gets dark, the stone glows orange and spreads a warm, almost magical light.