For this unique edition of the Friday photo blog [posting rights passed to me by LEP], ET readers, including lurkers, occasional and former bloggers who, like me, may be preoccupied by survival issues, are encouraged to post anything and everything that may come to mind: poetry, reflections, reminiscences, analyses, self-promotion, videos, drawings, and ... photographs, notably :-)

To launch this week's edition of the photo blog, a few images taken by a little known American photographer, Roy DeCarava [1919-2009].

From DeCarava to you and me, and billions of us to one another, the message is one of affinity and solidarity. Why do we continue to accept the pillage and destruction of what belongs to us all?

Fine print:

Please try to keep to 600 pixels width and 100kb to 150kb max in file size and take a look at Wednesday Photography Blog No.2 for the technical bits on how to post.

Otherwise this is a blank page for the posting of photographs but, exceptionally, this week, anything that comes to mind, in any medium.

Where? Yes, Mold, a charming town in North Wales.

I promised to post photos of this beautiful region for Lychee in the photoblog, but as thematic and voluminous as my selection of photos became, I thought it needed a diary.

So on we go with a lazy photo diary.

I had the unique opportunity to sniff around and discover parts of North Wales in 2003, from Mold, to Abergele, to Snowdonia, to Barmouth, Llangollen and back to Mold, over the course of several outings.

Map of the general route :

A few images of the creeks and fields between Mold and Porthmadog:

Blending in.

Further along, the beautiful expanses of fields.

Then there was an extraordinary hike to the summit of Cadair Idris, with views of the lake, which goes by the same name.

It isn't apparent in the photo, but the path was virtually straight up, no switchbacks.

I took the opportunity to rest for a moment along the climb down to photograph a beautiful tree.

Back at sea level, a few images from the northern coastline.

And a sweet, gaff-rig sloop:

Back inland towards Llangollen and Mold, a stop at the ruins of the Abbey Valle Crucis:

North Wales is a unique and very beautiful bit of country. I instructed my driver to stop immediately so that I could take following picture:

What I find so seductive about North Wales is its quiet yet riotous colorfulness.

For you, Lychee. May you and others have the pleasure to visit North Wales, one day.

Well, we made it! December 21 has arrived, and not a moment too soon. Time to celebrate in the Northern hemisphere.

This is a Solstice edition of the regular ET Friday photoblog which, because this is an exceptional day, I suggest, exceptionally, should be open to anything that may come to mind, photos, videos, stories, drawings ...

rg did a lot of the heavy lifting I had planned to do by way of preamble, here, in his excellent Lo the Darkness diary.

So, I'll just hand the controls over to you.

Happy Solstice one and all!