Happy Winter Solstice

December 20/21, 2024

The Shortest Day

by Susan Cooper

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, reveling.

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!

TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE YULETIDE

Twas the night before Yuletide and all through the glen

Not a creature was stirring, not a fox, not a hen.

A mantle of snow shone brightly that night

As it lay on the ground, reflecting moonlight.

The faeries were nestled all snug in their trees,

Unmindful of flurries and a chilly north breeze.

The elves and the gnomes were down in their burrows,

Sleeping like babes in their soft earthen furrows.

When low! The earth moved with a thunderous quake,

Causing chairs to fall over and dishes to break.

The Little Folk scrambled to get on their feet

Then raced to the river where they usually meet.

“What happened?” they wondered, they questioned, they probed,

As they shivered in night clothes, some bare-armed, some robed.

“What caused the earth’s shudder? What caused her to shiver?”

They all spoke at once as they stood by the river.

Then what to their wondering eyes should appear

But a shining gold light in the shape of a sphere.

It blinked and it twinkled, it winked like an eye,

Then it flew straight up and was lost in the sky.

Before they could murmur, before they could bustle,

There emerged from the crowd, with a swish and a rustle,

A stately old crone with her hand on a cane,

Resplendent in green with a flowing white mane.

As she passed by them the old crone’s perfume,

Smelling of meadows and flowers abloom,

Made each of the fey folk think of the spring

When the earth wakes from slumber and the birds start to sing.

“My name is Gaia,” the old crone proclaimed

in a voice that at once was both wild and tamed,

“I’ve come to remind you, for you seem to forget,

that Yule is the time of re-birth, and yet…”

“I see no hearth fires, hear no music, no bells,

The air isn’t filled with rich fragrant smells

Of baking and roasting, and simmering stews,

Of cider that’s mulled or other hot brews.”

“There aren’t any children at play in the snow,

Or houses lit up by candles’ glow.

Have you forgotten, my children, the fun

Of celebrating the rebirth of the sun?”

She looked at the fey folk, her eyes going round,

As they shuffled their feet and stared at the ground.

Then she smiled the smile that brings light to the day,

“Come, my children,” she said, “Let’s play.”

They gathered the mistletoe, gathered the holly,

Threw off the drab and drew on the jolly.

They lit a big bonfire, and they danced and they sang.

They brought out the bells and clapped when they rang.

They strung lights on the trees, and bows, oh so merry,

In colors of cranberry, bayberry, cherry.

They built giant snowmen and adorned them with hats,

Then surrounded them with snow birds, and snow cats and bats.

Then just before dawn, at the end of their fest,

Before they went homeward to seek out their rest,

The fey folk they gathered ‘round their favorite oak tree

And welcomed the sun ‘neath the tree’s finery.

They were just reaching home when it suddenly came,

The gold light returned like an arrow-shot flame.

It lit on the tree top where they could see from afar

The golden-like sphere turned into a star.

The old crone just smiled at the beautiful sight,

“Happy Yuletide, my children,” she whispered. “Good night.”

Poem author C.C. Williford 

December 16, 2024

 

December 13, 2024

Sunday, December 8, 2024

A whole lot of the above goes on around here 😁

Will the tunnel around the tree keep them from eating the flocking off of the tree??? 🤪 Not placing any bets on it. 😁

What Could Go Wrong 😑

Not to mention yet the other 'brilliant' thinkers headed our way.......

November 14, 2024

 

November 4, 2024

 

Tomorrow is Election Day.  I am planning to go to the lake house and stay a few days. It just feels like after so many years and so many election days there, that's where I should be tomorrow.  I also have FINALLY found a family-owned window company that will put in the windows that I've desperately needed for a number of years now.  They will meet me there tomorrow around noon.  :)  As Liz A just said to me, I bid you PEACE.

November 1, 2024

Random pictures

It's a grey, drizzly day and I'm lazy.  Lots of housework that I should be doing but only want to laze around drinking coffee, reading online, thinking about it being November already, and wishing for things and places that I haven't figured out how to make happen yet.  *sigh* 

I admit I did nothing all day-- but ride ---5 miles---for 50 minutes on the bike trainer (50 minutes)! 

Happy Halloween

Beautiful Mid-October Day

 

                                                                        Harvest Moon

Time around here is on super-speed at times, and at other times, it moves as slow as molasses.  I continue to heal and improve from the surgeries last year, with fluid retention and shortness of breath still being  issues that the doctors say I shouldn't be having since the echocardiograms show that my heart has healed beautifully.  Irregardless, I still have those problems.  I have been riding my bike on my Wahoo trainer most days.  I have done this for the last 2 months and I'm up to 43 minutes and 4 miles on it.  I rode my outside bike last Saturday and it was wonderful.  Rode 10 miles.  My friend, Joannie, came for a visit this past Monday, and we took a walk on the Greenbelt which is near my house.  We walked 2.81 miles, the longest walk I've been on since all of this heart stuff started last Spring.  I am making progress.  :)

I love October and am reveling in these beautiful days.  The skies are unbelievably blue and the leaves are slowly starting to turn. 
We had our first frost yesterday morning, and we had some this morning, but it's going to warm back up again.  I'm hoping that I will be able to get back outside on my bike while the weather is still warm.