Frosty 4 Colour Sun Wheels

Frosty 4 Colour Sun Wheels, originally uploaded by ...escher....

No not a super-sweet kiddies breakfast cereal but a reprise of the 4 Colour Sun Wheel I made in Spring earlier this year.

As a follow up to the 'leaves and light' series that I was following then, which was all about finding out whether Autumn colours were present in Spring and Summer, I am now starting a colours of Winter theme. I realise that Winter doesn't officially start until 21st of December and there are still deciduous leaves hanging onto some trees but the short days and frosty mornings, blue skies and golden light equal the best of Winter for me regardless of the calendar date.

But despite it being the tail end of Autumn these leaves are not Autumn leaves. Each was taken from evergreen shrubs, the same as I did in Spring. So it is clear to me now that it is possible to make these wheels at any time of the year.

I spent yesterday making the wheels but by the time I had finished the light had already turned golden and faded shortly after and I missed the opportunity to get a photograph.

So instead, after dark we headed onto the moors and looked for a sheltered spot to arrange them so they would hopefully become frosted over during the night. I was also hoping that the next day I could sit and watch the frost gradually melt off them as the sun rose and struck their frames.

But before that we would have to make it back to the car in the dark. There was just enough light to see, but for some reason the path back (despite being the same path but in reverse) was much trickier to negotiate than on the way out. Someone had placed odd shaped rocks all along the way, that tripped us and weren't there on the way out and I can tell you it isn't much fun walking into a gorse bush in the dark, although I obviously needed convicing of that fact as I repeated the experience several times.

My first thought as I woke up this morning was what the temperature was and how frosty the wheels will look. It was 1 c and so I raced out the door as quickly as I could.

When I found them they weren't as frosted up as I hoped but then the frost wasn't as heavy anywhere as it was yesterday. I took some shots of them where they were then headed off to find a spot where the dawn light would strike them. Despite the ground being hard and frosted, the air was not as cold. Within minutes of setting off walking the frost began to melt from the wheels and it was all gone after a few short minutes. So I set them up on a patch of frost and waited for the sun to appear.

Once I was done I looked for a really cold frost pocket and once more placed them out ready for tonights frost. The UV of the sun had faded the yellow and as ever the sculpture's appearance changed with time, just as everything does, the only key factor is how quickly or slowly things change, but as sure as sure everything changes whether we are aware of it or not.

The time I spent out this morning tuned me in to the temperature of the ground and the different temperature of the air. The low arc that the sun follows and the places where the sun hits at different times and the other places where the sun doesn't hit again until Spring. Although I made the sculptures yesterday and just photographed them today they still gave me the opportunity to experience the changes and cycles of a crisp winters day, the fluctuations and eddies and transitions that one might miss if you did not spend the time to study so closely.