Tuesday, August 17, 2010

In The Gloaming

Someone used this expression last week in a comment on Kate McKinnon's blog (alas, I can't find said comment now, so apologies to that individual who shall have to remain nameless at this point in time).

I have always loved this expression. According to a CCN link I found on Google, "The gloaming is the hour when dawn or dusk works its spell, making all the world as purple as the Scottish highlands on a summer night." If you can imagine, there is even a blog called "Scotland in the Gloaming,"( http://scotlandinthegloaming.blogspot.com/) where I found this fabulous photo taken by Jim Downie:


CNN used the above description when writing about a story by the same name written by Alice Elliott Dark, which was a 1997 movie starring Glenn Close and directed by Christopher Reeve, about a son with AIDS who comes home to die. I had never heard of the book or the movie before I Googled the phrase today but having now read the first chapter, thanks to a spot on the CNN website called, obviously enough, "First Chapters", where they post, natch, the first chapters of various books, I shall have to seek it out at the library. Here's where you can find that first chapter: http://archives.cnn.com/2000/books/beginnings/02/03/gloaming/.

When I hear this expression, I always think of a song I learned at summer camp more than 30 years ago, "Fire's burning, fire's burning, draw nearer, draw nearer, in the gloaming, in the gloaming, come sing and be merry..." Of course, most Girl Guides these days sing "in the glowing" instead, but I prefer the more magical original lyric.

Although I have to admit that these days, it also makes me think of this "Twilight":


as I have just started reading the first of the series of novels written by Stephenie Meyer, after resisting the hype of the books and the movies for many months now. I am only about 107 pages in but I have to admit, the book is well written and catches your attention from the very first page. Although so far, there has been no mention of vampires, so I'm not sure if I'll feel the same way if the fangs come out and people start getting bitten. I'm still not recovered from Stephen King's "Salem's Lot" all these years later!

1 comment:

debi said...

Cynthia I didn't even know it was gloaming, thanks. For me as the sun arrives and as it leaves are the best part of the day. I can believe in magic as I experience it. Now I have a name for half of it. debi