For the solstice

So the Shortest Day came,

And the year died,

And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world

Came people singing, dancing,

To drive the dark away.

They lighted candles in the winter trees;

They hung their homes with evergreen;

They burned beseeching fires all night long

To keep the year alive,

And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake

They shouted, revelling.

Through all the frosty ages you can hear them

Echoing behind us -- Listen!!

All the long echoes sing the same delight,

This shortest day,

As promise wakens in the sleeping land:

They carol, feast, give thanks,

And dearly love their friends,

And hope for peace.

And so do we, here, now,

This year and every year.

Welcome Yule!!

--Susan Cooper

If you've never read The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper, I highly recommend it at winter solstice and over the Christmas holidays. Although it's a children's book, it's full of midwinter magic.

Solstice Great Conjunction

 

That's a terrible photo of last night's Great Conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn. It was taken with my cell phone camera in "night mode" which is why the color is kind of weird. Sigh. One day I hope to be able to afford a nice camera capable of taking these kinds of shots. Still, I wanted a picture to remember the event by. People have called the conjunction a "Christmas Star" which seems kind of silly to me. It's obviously two planets that appear kind of close together and not a single bright star at all. For my money, sparkling Sirius rising in the East is prettier and much more deserving of the name. 

Whenever the sky is clear we enjoy looking up at all the stars when we're out walking at night. We made sure to go out early enough last night to see the conjunction and then took a second walk later, around 9pm. As often happens, we encountered a deer standing in someone's front yard. We always stop and look at each other for a few minutes, then continue on our respective ways. Seeing one on the solstice night seemed extra special!

Three days left until Christmas...

Solstice

Happy Winter Solstice to all my friends here in the blogoverse. In honor of the day, here is an essay I wanted to share with you from my favorite nature writer, Hal Borland. The return of the light is a miracle everyone can appreciate.

December 20th and 21st

Winter Solstice

"The year achieves another Solstice as the great wheel of time turns with the Earth and the seasons. Winter, by the calendar, begins in mid-morning today, though the year's shortest days have been upon us for almost a week. The Solstice is a marker on the charts, but Winter abides by its own schedule of wind and weather.

Since man was first aware of the changing seasons, the Winter Solstice has been occasion for awe and wonder and a challenge of faith. Hope and belief are easy in a warm, green world, but when the cold days come and the sun edges farther and farther South, cutting a constantly smaller arc across the sky, the imminence of utter darkness and oblivion seems at hand. Then the sun stands still. The turn comes. The crisis passes and the sun slowly climbs the sky once more, reaching toward another Spring, another Summer.

It was, and still is, an annual miracle. Hope and belief were, and still are, once more justified.

There is order in the Universe. The seasons still march in their eternal sequence, and Winter is neither pause nor punishment, but a part of the year's whole. Ice and stormy wind are inevitabilities, but they pass even as the leaf and the blossom, equally inevitable in their own season, ripen and are gone.

The year has its own fourfold truth, indelibly marked on the turning Earth. Now we know it whole for another turn of the great wheel. The cold verity of Winter completes the cycle."

Hal Borland
"Twelve Moons of the Year"
December 1963



*Winter solstice 2017 in Northern Hemisphere will be at 11:28 AM on Thursday, December 21st (Eastern Time)

Solstice

 

Wishing everyone peace, hope, and joy today as we await the return of the light.



Winter solstice sunrise at Stonehenge, 2012

Full Cold Moon

There is a beautiful full moon outside tonight. In the wee hours of the morning there was a lunar eclipse, which wasn't visible to those of us here on the east coast. The rest of the country should have had a good view of it, though. With or without an eclipse, each full moon of the year is special and worth honoring.

December's full moon is traditionally called the Full Cold Moon, or Long Nights Moon. Hal Borland, one of my favorite nature writers, wrote about the many hours this full moon has "to rule in cold splendor". It's really winter now; the trees are bare as bones, the cold air stings, the night seems endless. The human instinct is to draw closer to hearth and home and loved ones, to keep the dark at bay.

I like to give my own names to full moons, to reflect what is happening in my part of the world. In addition to Moon of Long Nights and Cold Nights Moon, I like: Solstice Moon, Storytelling Moon, Moon of Short Days, and Midwinter Moon.

Whatever you call it, tonight's full moon marks another turning point on the great wheel of time. A short walk outside after dark was my way to do a bit of midwinter moon gazing. Tonight's full moon is cold, distant, and absolutely majestic.

Here is a link to a beautiful picture of a midwinter moon I found:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/greg_foster/6486368867/

Holiday lights on a winter night

Tonight after dinner I took a quick walk around the neighborhood and snapped a few pictures of holiday decorations.  It's really cold tonight, with an icy wind blowing, so I didn't stay out long. Some of the people with really wildly decorated houses weren't at home, so the best lights weren't even on. I also had trouble getting good shots since it was so dark out.  I think I'll try again tomorrow, just before sunset, and see if the photos turn out better. 


That being said, here are a few of the pictures I took tonight. It's a very small sample of what's out there:

This is the porch and front driveway of a house two doors down from me. The glowing orb "gifts" are hanging from two bare crepe myrtle trees. This is also the house that has the racing green and red lights winding up and around the basketball goal. Unfortunately, my cheapo digital camera wouldn't take even a passable picture of that.

close up

Next up: Mickey Santa! Note the size of it in relation to the front door and the second story! There is also a smaller penguin to Mickey's left, and the obligatory lighted deer on the other side of the yard (this is the South).  And yes, children live at this house.  Ginger occasionally stops and visits with the toddler that lives there:

Look! It's the holy family! (And right behind them is a fence with blinking blue lights. Again, I  couldn't get a decent shot of it, but trust me, it looks like a disco. And what is it with random blue lights this year, anyway?!)

Most of the neighbors go for a more conservative, traditional look. Approximately 60% of the houses within a mile of us look something like this:

And finally, nothing says "too much time on my hands" quite like a decorated tree under the carport.

More tomorrow.

Solstice Day

It is finally here-solstice, or the point of the year when the darkness reaches it's pinnacle, and the longest night arrives. After this week the light will slowly begin to return, but for now the sun seems to "stand still" in the sky, and the darkness holds sway.

Today I am doing the last bit of shopping for the holiday (mostly food items) and some last minute house cleaning. Then I plan take Ginger for a quiet winter walk late in the afternoon. It's a cold, cloudy day here that feels right for the season. Almost everyone in our neighborhood has decorated their yards and porches. Despite the cold I love walking around and looking at all the lights as the sun goes down. After it gets dark, I plan to mark the longest night by lighting candles all over the house and keeping a warm fire burning in the fireplace. It's a night to gather around the hearth with loved ones and enjoy the warmth and light we can create for each other.

Happy Winter Solstice to all! May the returning light bring you hope, joy, health, and happiness in the upcoming new year!