It is the shortest day of the year down here in the south tomorrow.
We'll be celebrating with mulled wine non-alcoholic grape juice, hearty soup with fresh sourdough and a rich, decadent apple cake for dessert. If the rain ever stops we may have a bonfire but I feel we shall be burning our Yule log in the wood burner indoors instead. There will be candles galore and a ritual where we write out what we'd like to let go of or release on scraps of paper and then feed them to the fire. It's very therapeutic, letting it all go and starting afresh as the year begins again.
While winter comes under the 'hardship' category for me ;o) I do love the Solstice because it is literally the beginning of a new year. The days may not be getting noticeably longer but I know that they are lengthening day by day - until we return again to the halcyon days of warmth and light and sunshine.
I wish all of my southern friends a wonderful warm Yule Fest - may your days grow ever brighter!
And to my northern friends I wish you all the very best that Midsummer can bring!
Blessed Be.
It's going to be a coolish short day for us where we are in Melbourne. Being near the hills is great in the summer a fraction on the chilly side during the winter tho'
ReplyDeleteOh Evi those days of warmth and light and sunshine can't come soon enough ! I must try the handwritten note ritual, I'm in a bit of a trough at the moment and need to look at things differently.
In hope you did get to try the ritual Cathy. There is something very healing about physically writing and then burning our words with the intention of removing them from our life. I do understand the 'trough' and unfortunately winter brings them on more than summer. Sending you a warm hug xx
DeleteSolstice blessings, Evi. Today is our longest day and I will be raising a glass of sparlking elderflower. Xx
ReplyDeleteOoh Jules, I saluted you with a mug of Glühwein!!! ;o)
DeleteIt's a beautiful day here, Evi. The sky is a high blue and the air is warm but it will cool quickly this afternoon well before the night time arrives. I've been cutting lemongrass for mulch this morning, two wheelbarrow loads full, and it was such fragrant, happy work. There's a buttercake in the oven now; it will be a birthday cake tomorrow. I love June days! MegXx
ReplyDeleteYes Meg, It would be quite different I imagine, being in the 'tropics' for Solstice! Your lemon grass cutting sounds divinely scented - I'm sure it wouldn't have been an onerous task to do at all! I hope you had a beautiful day xx
DeleteSuch a good feeling when the days get longer. :-)
ReplyDeleteOh Regula, it most definitely is! I know today will hardly be any longer but it's just the thought that makes the grey so much easier to bear!
DeleteIt is wonderful when the days get longer isn't it. I love the resting that comes with Winter, doing less and hibernating as best you can. I do like the balance of that with the busyness that comes with the Summer. And yes letting go is a good ritual to have.
ReplyDeleteYes thats true too...winter does bring the resting and the drawing in towards home and hearth. I quite like that too - I just miss the sun and light so terribly :o( I really am working on enjoying this time more and more and am getting better at living in the moment.
DeleteWe had our outside fire (although not bonfire size) on top of the hill here and watched the sun set and threw our bits of paper in the fire. It was lovely!
All best wishes for your climb back to light and warmth. (It's all downhill here from now on . . . ) What sort of winters do you get in Tasmania? Do you get snow or just lots of wind and rain like here?
ReplyDeleteThankyou M.E.! Well our winters in Tassie depend on where one lives ;o) Right here we get a lot of wind and rain and many foggy cloudy days. We do get some snow but it usually doesn't settle and if it does (maybe once per winter) it's gone by lunchtime. We had a great lot of snow a couple of years ago which gave us about 10cm/4" for most of the day - it was very pretty and quite exciting!
DeleteThe east coast of Tas is drier and slightly warmer, while the middle which has a higher altitude gets quite few snowfalls each winter (and spring). And the west coast gets an average of 2.5m of rainfall each year, which makes it very wet with a lot of cool temperate rainforest.
I'm not sure how big Tas is compared to Britain but I do know we only have just over 500,000 people living here - not many I know!!
It sounds like your winters (in your part of the island - do you call it an island? - ) are much like ours - but I can't believe how few people live in Tas compared to here. 67 million people in UK in 95,000 sq miles. Tas is 26,000 sq miles. (I've just looked it up!) Sounds wonderful. Were you born and brought up there?
ReplyDelete