The golden hour

It's my favorite time of day. I think it has been ever since I can remember -- and not just because I am in no way a morning person. The "golden hour" -- that hour before the sun goes down when everything glows with a luminescent, pinkish-gold light -- is my favorite time of day. There is a magical quality to the air and the light that is like nothing else. Everything is beautiful and anything seems possible during the golden hour. Dreams come true and I could fly if I wanted....

St. Stephen's Church spire with the High Caucasus Mountains behind

I am in a beautiful place right now -- even when it's not the golden hour, it's beautiful. The town of Sighnaghi in Eastern Georgia is a place that is fast-becoming a tourist hot-spot, and for a very good reason. The natural beauty of the setting rivals any Tuscan villa -- the cobblestone streets, the quaint churches, the walled-in properties, the vineyards and wineries, even cyprus trees growing up on the hillside -- I've been in Tuscany, and Sighnaghi is just about as beautiful (but there's no Italian food.... that's a minus).

It is still winter, and the town is still beautiful -- that takes a really lovely place to retain its visual quality amid the snow and slush and icicles and general bleakness of the late winter season. Painting the buildings in warm shades of yellow and gold helps -- especially when the low sunlight hits the facades, lighting them up as if the paint were infused with actual gold flecks causing it to glow from the inside-out. The contrast of the blue shadows in the snow highlights the golden hues to an even more fiery radiance. Everywhere I look is picturesque. The next two days are going to be inspiring and visually stimulating.

Now if only my hands weren't so cold, I could take more pictures.....

Sighnaghi, Kakheti, Georgia