Happy Winter Solstice / Merry Christmas

Well, Christmas is here again. It seems to come around quicker every year, along with the dreaded shopping and crowds. 

I love this time of year. It might sometimes be dark and grey, but I love the lights, the colours and the twinkling tinsel. I think that's the lovely thing about Christmas ~ bringing light to the darkest part of the year. That's why there's been a mid~winter/winter solstice celebration for thousands of years of course, celebrating the days getting longer from here on, the sun regaining its strength. Or, to quote a line from a certain time~travel programme with a blue police box, being "half~way through the dark".

So, here's a picture I made for the Winter Solstice:

This is one of my favourite Christmas cards. I bought a pack of them a few years ago to send to people, but had to keep one for myself! It's called 'Cats on Christmas Eve' and it's designed by Claire Commerford. 

Not quite "two turtle doves", but here's a photo I took of two woodpigeons. I like hearing their coo when I'm out in the garden and I think the pair I regularly see had at least one chick this year. 

I love snow. I know it can disrupt travel but as it's white and glistening, it lightens up the world on a cloudy day. Everything seems much quieter too, with less traffic on the roads. There's also the fact that if it snowed when I was in school, we usually had the day off. Maybe that's why I like it!

I don't know if you like poetry (I like some, it depends what it is), but this is a poem about snow that I really love:

Snowing

Snowing, snowing;
Oh, between earth and sky
A wintry wind is blowing,
Scattering with its sigh
Petals from trees of silver that shine
Like invisible glass, when the moon 
In the void of night on high
Paces her orchards divine.

Snowing; snowing;
Ah me, how still, and how fair
The air with flakes interflowing,
The fields crystal and bare,
When the brawling brooks are dumb
And the parched trees matted with frost,
And the birds in this wilderness stare
Dazzled and num'd!

Snowing...snowing...snowing:
Moments of time through space
Into hours, centuries growing,
Till the world's marred lovely face,
Wearied of change and chance,
Radiant in innocent dream ~
Lulled by an infinite grace
To rest in eternal trance.

           by Walter de la Mare

What about another one? I'm going to indulge myself!

When all the world is full of snow

I never know
just where to go,
when all the world
is full of snow.

I do not want
to make a track,
not even
to the shed and back.

I only want 
to watch and wait,
while snow moths settle
on the gate,

and swarming frost flakes
fill the trees
with billions
of albino bees.

I want to watch 
the snow swarms thin,
'til all my bees
have settled in,

and on the ice
the boulders ride,
like sleeping snow geese
on the tide.

I only want 
myself to be
as silent as
a winter tree,

to hear the swirling 
stillness grow,
when all the world
is full of snow.

             by N.M. Bodecker

I love the images those poems create: the whiteness, the stillness, silvery scenes, snowflakes falling softly to the ground.

In the absence of snow here at the moment, I made these snowmen from a kit I bought using needle felting. They were easier to make than I thought and look so cute. (The only problem I have is getting them to stand up. Maybe they've had too much to drink!)

So, I hope everyone has a wonderful, peaceful and Happy Christmas.

Lots of love,
Sarah.