Autumn over Narnia

Before the freeze

The spell of cold silence has not always held Narnia captive. Before the freeze, the wood has seen Spring. And Summer. And a most glorious Autumn.

Narnia in autumn Autumn settles over Narnia
Narnia before the freeze Picture of the lamppost of Narnia


Our first winter in Germany was a delight with a good amount of snow. We often strolled around the garden, admiring the beauty of the trees dressed in white. On days without wind and nothing but the sounds of silence, it made us think this is how the stilled atmosphere of Narnia would be.

Stored in the workshop was an extra cast-iron lamppost we had not set up at Rodono at the time and Jolanda came up with the idea of putting it up right there between the trees. Our version of the Narnia lamppost, so to speak. Exactly on the spot where the lamppost would be best visible from the house we noticed an old tree stump. I cut the stump level and to just a few inches above ground, then screwed the base of the lamppost straight onto the wood. The Narnia lamppost is now exactly as we had envisioned: a most peculiar solitarily lamppost planted in a sort of clearing amidst the trees. We are eagerly awaiting the next snowfall.

Then last month (I'm writing this on the 30th of October 2005) I learned about the first Narnia film shortly to be released. When checking out some websites, I was surprised to notice that the film's treatment of the Narnia wood with its lamppost more or less resembled the way our own lamppost has worked out. The major differences being the kind of trees, and the source of light behind its small glass panels: not some flickering candles, but the subdued, golden glow of an early model electric light-bulb.

As this Autumn is a most glorious affair, I thought it might be fun to make a few photographs of our Narnia lamppost and publish them on this website. So I took my camera out and just then God caused a truly spectacular sunrise. Look at those sunrays! The early morning is painting ribbons of light in the morning mists. I then worked the pictures through Photoshop to slightly posterize the leaves of the trees and here are the results.

I am using a non-altered version of the photograph on page 4 as desktop picture (Narnia wallpaper) and on my 20" screen, the effect is truly staggering. If you like, there is an option to download that picture as desktop wallpaper for your computer as well. Just click the link below corrresponding to your screen resolution. This will load the requested image in your browser. Then right-click your mouse on the image and choose the option "Set as wallpaper" to make it your default wallpaper (Windows users). Mac users click the image and choose "Download Image" or "Save Image", then drag the downloaded file to the desktop pictures folder. Set the new picture in your System Prefs.

1024x768 (248 kB) / 1280x1024 (352 kB) / Widescreen (408 kB)

Enjoy!