Winter Solstice 2012

This year I finally marked the Winter Solstice; it has been some years since I have do anything bigger than maybe light a candle or maybe making a nice meal. This time of year seems to be such a rush with daylight hours being in such short supply and Christmas being just days away everything else seems to get pushed aside, wrongly really.

“Merry Midwinter” tin can lantern – December 2012

This year I met with friends and their children in the woods. We set up camp with candles and fairy lights, made tin can lanterns, ate party nibbles and homemade cake, drank hot chocolate and tested out my bucket BBQ and made popcorn.

Making popcorn over the fire – December 2012

The light was magical and by the time we had finished a mist had fallen that hung around until half way through the day today.

Thank you Vicky for the use of your photos from the evening. The lantern only stayed up for a short time and didn’t last long enough for me to take any.

Summer Solstice

Lettuce plantlets - 22nd June 2011

I can’t believe yesterday was the longest day of the year and from now on we are heading back towards winter… I am sure I say this every year but this year is going too fast.

So much has happened; and that is possibly an understatement. And lots is still happening and changing and will be for a while to come yet.

I always mean to mark the solstices in some way but never quite organise myself to do so and yesterday was sadly the same. At the winter Solstice I had thought about a trip to Avebury to see the stone circle for this one but that plan hasn’t happened. Oh well, another year maybe.

When I was little the winter Solstice use to be our Christmas so as my half brother and sister could spent our ‘Christmas’ with us and Christmas with their mum. It was special and I wish there was more time to mark these occasions instead of getting swept along with one big event a year.

This evening I have sown a first batch of Florence Fennel, something new to try growing, pricked out a tray of lettuce and sown another tray in the mission to grow enough salad for Rhys lunch each day.

Winter Solstice

The lane back from the cows field - 20th December 2009

 

It snowed during the night on Thursday, when I collected Rhys from work the gritting lorries were out in force along the main roads and by midnight the un-gritted side roads and lanes were cover in a thin dusting of snow.  

The road in and out of the village hardly ever gets gritted, and only ever gets ploughed if the JCB business that are in the village have a delivery. By morning the light dusting of snow had been compacted and made the road very slippery in places. Me and mother went out early to drop Rhys at work and then collect extra hay and straw and visit all the animals in fields. 

We didn’t get back from our rounds until mid-morning and by mid-afternoon the road in and out of the village wasn’t passable as the snow was partly frozen and very compacted. Rhys caught the bus to the next village home and walked back, and then walked into the next village to caught the bus into work this morning. 

Over night more snow fall but for some reason we had a gritter come up the road just before lunch and so were able to get out of the village to visit everyone in fields and top-up their hay again. If we know that there is going to be a cold spell or snow we leave extra hay and have friends near the field that can go and check them and top hay up if we can’t get out of the village, but it is always best if we can go and check them. 

I booked the day off work today, I had planned to spend the winter Solstice planting out garlic, plant on the shortest day to harvest on the longest day, but the ground is frozen. My back-up plan was to spend some of the day spinning or knitting, or possibly even mending my gloves, and watching TV while eating yummy things but I only got round to the watching TV and eating yummy things parts after all the animal and outside jobs had been done.

Winter Solstice

Today was the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. From now on days will be getting longer and everything with start to wake up.

As a sort of celebration I have spent this evening making paper pots and sowing peas, carrots (to be grown in buckets until the warmer weather when they can go outside) and a few leeks. I’ve been reading a little bit about how leeks can be started off now in polystyrene boxes  so thought I would try it.

The carrots and leeks were also to do my second bit of moon planting, so far I’ve only managed root crops on the right day, last weekend I planted some onion sets and garlic.

Rhys has spent this evening making chocolates for Christmas presents, and when I first got home from work we tried to ‘candle’ the quail eggs. It didn’t work but I’m hopefully, the weight has changed in them from how it feels when they are first laid. It will be time to stop turning them in the next day or two ready for hatching.