#Old Year

[dabiconcordia]

"The Darkling Thrush"

I leant upon a coppice gate     When Frost was spectre-gray, And Winter's dregs made desolate     The weakening eye of day. The tangled bine-stems scored the sky     Like strings of broken lyres, And all mankind that haunted nigh     Had sought their household fires.

The land's sharp features seemed to be     The Century's corpse outleant, His crypt the cloudy canopy,     The wind his death-lament. The ancient pulse of germ and birth     Was shrunken hard and dry, And every spirit upon earth     Seemed fervorless as I.

At once a voice arose among     The bleak twigs overhead In a full-hearted evensong     Of joy illimited; An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small     In blast-beruffled plume, Had chosen thus to fling his soul     Upon the growing gloom.

So little cause for carolings     Of such ecstatic sound Was written on terrestrial things     Afar or nigh around, That I could think there trembled through     His happy good-night air Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew     And I was unaware. By Thomas Hardy

[danskjavlarna]

Source details and larger version.

From pet umbrellas to magical umbrellas to weird giant ones, here's my umbrellas gallery.

[nonameart28]

[princeofsayan]

Goodbye 2023!

By Prince of Sayan

[aud-chron-images]

New morning, old year "Cock-a-doodle-doo!" said the rooster.

[eversea143]

December

It's the 31st of December, 23:58pm. You're at your place with friends and family, happily celbrating the end of the year and the arrival of next year. The air is abuzz with festive music and people chattering away merrily.

You're talking animatly with your sort-of crush from college, having a good time. Because of size constraint and the sheer turn up of part goers, you had to move into the kitchen in order to still be audible over the general din of the full apartment.

You have a glass in hand, the flute kind, topped up with the best champagne you could afford. You'd felt a little aghast at the price when you went to buy it, but for the holidays you're never averse to splurge a little. You'll make do with some warm up meals for a little while. Perhaps a nice thing to aim at for next year: saving up money.

Anyways, you're perhaps a little buzzed. Not full-on drunk, as the (only) responsible person at the party you're not about to start downing beers like some of the other guys. A couple actually already tapped out, snoring away on your couch with empty cans scattered about the floor. You at least hope they'll remember to clean up after themselves tomorrow.

A loud cheer rises up and your head snaps up before focusing on the digital clock of the kitchen oven. You look towards your friend and she seems to agree with your on-the-spot plan.

You both start counting down with everyone else.

It was a rough year, all the ups and downs making it not particularily difficult or easy. You remember the good memories fondly whilst hoping for better times conserning the bad ones.

On your little flat screen TV (a gift from your father after he saw the big box that came with the place) there's a livestream of some kind of public event, the calls of hundreds of thousands of people joining yours as you reach the end.

You aim to raise your glass right as you hit 1.

Then you pass out.

...

You awaken on the kitchen floor, eyes groggy and mind clouded. You aren't sure why you're on the floor, your memories of what had happened haven't yet cleared up. With some difficulty you get up, noticing shattered glass next to you and the pool of, presumably your drink, around it.

Your friend is almost right next to you, blessedly without a broken glass so close to her face. She's still out, like many others you notice when you begin to look around. You're the first to wake up from whatever affliction caused everyone to pass out.

You aren't terribly worried or concerned, strange as it is there doesn't seem to be anything else wrong. No one's dead, as far as you can tell, which is even better.

You check the time, not about to let this strange event faze you. Classes don't start until after winter break, but you have a part-time job that is rather stern about working hours.

It's only 8:05am, there's plenty of time to wake everyone up and send them on home.

Just as you look away, your head snaps back when you realize what else the digital clock is displaying.

32/12.

That can't be right, you think, frowning at the date. Dismissing it as an error, weird as it seems, you start rousing people in the living room.

But something in you has doubt, that oven clock never had the time wrong before after all. Against your better judgement you check the calender you bought for the new year and had hung up yesterday afternoon.

You blink and stare in utter befuddlement at the first page of the calender.

December.

Starting from 32 and going on until 62. It doesn't even say what proper day of the week any of them are, although you remember it being a Sunday yesterday, which makes today a Monday.

You reach out and start going through the pages, at first hoping and then silently begging for it to be a prank. Every one is similar, the month of December and numbers going up and up into the hundreds and beyond.

You pause when a part of you realizes how many pages you're holding up. You must have gone through over a dozen by now.

When you try to get a look at how many pages this cursed calander has, you find to your shock that they're a blur. You can't see how many, your vision there literally blurs into nothingness!

With a desperation for answers you turn to the TV, hoping there's some kind of news report on right now or something. This can't actually be happening, there's no way-

When you turn on the TV, which for some reason had turned off somewhere during the night, you find only one channel available to watch. And it shows only one message.

'December is here to stay. This year will never end. The worst is yet to come.'

You swallow nervously, then proceed to freak out.

The rest of the worlds is soon to follow.

[joneoyvilde03]

🩵Airy chan is baby girl a memory🩵

Airy chan is my big brother friendly memories childhood of older years. Thanks for made joneoyvilde03

By joneoyvilde03

[karlailustra]

Este fue mi ✨ 2 0 2 3 ✨ fue súper bonito, pude exponer, vender ilustraciones hechas con amor ❤️ 😍, se abrieron puertas y se cerraron otras, encontré un nuevo hogar precioso para mis ilustraciones, conocí bonitas personas y por fin me animé a impartir un taller (bueno dos) jaja. Ya estoy lista para iniciar con mi agenda el 2024!! 🌿🖤

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[waste-it-on-something-useful]

Il posto (Ermanno Olmi, 1961)

[mired-in-halloween]

Happy New Year, from the New Years 1890 series Issued by Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company

[raffaellopalandri]

End of the year

Embrace the lessons learned in this year, leave behind the burdens carried, and step into the new year, ready to craft a future shaped by our choices.

[dabiconcordia]

“Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true.” ― Alfred Tennyson, In Memoriam

[mielocibina]

Space time travel machine

Urban glitch

Photography by: @mielocibina

[nonnienautskie]

❤️💋🍾HAPPY 2023🥂💐🎉

For many years we didn’t know each other...until now. For all my friends here, I wish you all a Happy New Year. I hope we can have many more New Years together.

For the last day of this year, I decided to post a photo from the last photoshoot of each year we’ve been taking photos. 20 years, 20 photos, where you can see how I've aged during 20 years👵!

nonnie.bio.link

[neosplayer]

Изолятор.

[eversea143]

Last post of the year...

Not much to say that likely other already have.

Besides perhaps, here's wishing for a modest 2024

Let's not make it a year to rant and rave about, m'kay?