“On the first day of winter,
the earth awakens to the cold touch of itself.
Snow knows no other recourse except
this falling, this sudden letting go
over the small gnomed bushes, all the emptying trees.
Snow puts beauty back into the withered and malnourished,
into the death-wish of nature and the deliberate way
winter insists on nothing less than deference.
waiting all its life, snow says, “Let me cover you.”
– Laura Lush, The First Day of Winter
On the first day of the winter solstice we are celebrating a new season and so much more. According to many reports the world was to end this day. Of course if you are reading this, then those reports were wrong. I was of the belief that the Mayans did not predict the end of the world, but a change in the world for the better. A kind of spiritual awakening. Let’s hope that is true. And what better time to celebrate a new beginning than at the solstice.
I have been connecting with the elements of Feng Shui recently. I find Feng Shui fascinating, and hope to incorporate these elements in some posts this winter. The winter solstice, according to Feng Shui, is a time when we are entering the most yin time of year. It is a time to become quiet and reflective with more meditation, prayer, and listening to your inner voice or intuition. Yin emphasizes a space for this reflection that is small, quiet, naturally lit and organized with plants and art work.
This yin time fits with my winter mantra: I plan to explore my inner self more this winter and take stock of habits and changes that need to be made both in myself and my environment.
But it is equally important to balance all this reflection with play. So make sure you get out and play this winter…..This time of year lends itself to some unique playful activities. Do you ski, snowshoe, make snowmen or snow angels, have a snowball fight? Do you take nature walks as the snow falls silently? It is important to laugh, be silly, fire up your imagination and escape into play if you want to continue to nourish your soul.
“Every year at just this time,
In cold and dark December,
Families around the world
All gather to remember,
With presents and with parties,
With feasting and with fun,
Customs and traditions
for people old and young.”
– Helen H. Moore
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Bloggers and gardeners in the northern hemisphere are celebrating the winter solstice:
The United States
Holley@Roses and Other Gardening Dreams is celebrating the Little Black Dress in her garden, the evergreen. In winter evergreens of every kind dress up the garden with elegance especially when they have a coat of snow.
Beth@PlantPostings is enjoying the holly and the persistent ivy in her garden as she decorates and sings carols for the season. What a lovely way to celebrate the season then to take part of the garden and use it for special decorations.
A wonderful celebration of the seasons is with lights. Karin@Southern Meadows takes us on a grand tour of The Garden Lights, Holiday Nights at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. I love light shows and this is one spectacular show. What’s even more spectacular about this holiday light show is it has ‘gone green’ by using more than 1 million energy-efficient LED lights.
Susan@Life-Change-Compost is contributing for the first time in Seasonal Celebrations. Her tribute to her cousin Jenny and dedication of her garden this solstice is truly moving. Wishing Susan a wonderful garden with the spirit of Jenny bringing her a lovely spring.
I am pleased to have Loredana@Blogging Away join us as she visits NYC at Christmas to show us the gorgeous decorations and sights. I have visited NYC at Christmas and it is a feast for the eyes and stomach. I haven’t visited in a number of years so thanks for bringing it back to me Loredana.
Another newcomer is Tammy@Casa Mariposa who delights us with her words about her winter garden. Her wisdom of winter in her garden is beautiful articulated:
My garden lies like the bleached bones of a whale, exposed and naked, stark branches and limbs jutting at odd angles against a pewter sky. But my garden doesn’t care and neither do I.
I can just visualize this garden in my own winter garden on a dry day. I love the picture she is painting of her garden as it is ready for slumber.
Europe
Flâneur Gardener who gardens in Copenhagen and surrounding area is also celebrating this season of winter white with lights. I was delighted to learn about a Scandinavian tradition of snow lanterns. As this gardener says:
The Americans might have high-jacked the Jack-o-lantern, but here in Scandinavia we still have our snow lanterns. They are not tied to a specific festival of any kind; merely something you build in the midst of winter to bring some light into the darkness.
I plan to build some snow lanterns when we get some snow again here in NY. What a fabulous way to lighten up the dark winter.
Cathy@Words and Herbs is celebrating the season in Bavaria. The sights are amazing, and if I was there the smells would be overwhelmingly wonderful too. The many holidays or Saints’ feasts and the special traditions around these feasts leading up to the solstice are amazing. I would love to visit Bavaria for the solstice and the Christmas holiday to see the snowy woodland hills and villages. It is what I imagine an old fashioned Christmas should be.
B-A-G@Experiments With Plants finishes observing the London Plane Tree for our celebration. This wonderful series has taken us through all 4 seasons with these precious trees. B-A-G has suggested I plant a Plane Tree in my garden as I replace my soon to be infected ash trees. I had not thought of it, but the American Plane Tree is the Sycamore which is a native tree here in NY. I think I will consider it as I have fallen in love with the Plane Trees across the pond.
Canada
Up in Canada, Susan@As Long As You Have A Garden shared a lovely memoir of the Carol Service. This is also Susan’s first time contributing. She tells of a lovely Christmas when her family walked to church:
The fields and hedgerows were overlayed by snow and the trees glowed with frost. The sky was a star speckled cloak of deepest indigo.
She goes on the describe the service with boys watching the candles on the trees to avoid a fire, and how each person got up to read the lessons each followed by a carol her favorite being, “O Little Town of Bethlehem”. I was fascinated by her story as I had never heard of this type of Christmas service. Certainly sounds like a peaceful place for Christmas.
Our friends in the southern hemisphere are also celebrating this solstice, but theirs is quite a bit hotter as summer blows in:
South Africa
Diana@Elephants Eye is counting down Christmas with a beautiful Advent Wreath. Diana’s wreath uses grey foliage from her garden:
Olive sprigs for peace. Dusty Miller for structure. Santolina to fill in. A few wild jasmine flowers Jasminum annulare for perfume.
This is one of the most beautiful Advent wreaths I have ever seen, and I love the meanings of the flowers she used.
And Christine@The Gardening Blog is celebrating her summer season with an incredible burst of blooms right outside her door. Her roses are especially lovely, and a wonderful way to celebrate her newly arrived season. Oh to have roses right now would be divine. Thanks Christine for bringing these blooms into my winter.
Christine’s blogmate Barbie@The Gardening Blog is also celebrating the season. The favorite part of her garden that gives her the greatest pleasure is her Grass Feature:
I celebrate this part of my garden this summer. Summer is a time for giving back to yourself. All the months of hard work and dedicating your time to others should be celebrated in summer, when the weather is warm and the sun is out.
Please visit all these wonderful bloggers and their posts. I am honored that they participated and shared their beautiful stories.
As this special season of peace and hope opens up before us, I hope you are enjoying the solstice and all it brings. Be sure to jot down our next seasonal celebration which will be on March 1st. The Vernal Equinox will be here sooner than we think. Please remember to visit Beth@Plant Postings as she reveals the Garden Lessons Learned from this past season.
“I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December
A magical thing
And sweet to remember.
‘We are nearer to Spring
Than we were in September,’
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December.”
– Oliver Herford, I Heard a Bird Sing
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Next up on the blog: Next Monday is Christmas Eve, and I will have a special Christmas themed post. My last installment of Simply The Best and Dozen for Diana@ Elephant’s Eye will be on the 26th. On the 31st I will post my next journey and what lies ahead in the New Year. I hope you will join me.
I am also writing a post once a month at Beautiful Wildlife Garden. I hope you will stop over and check it out. You can see my most current post now.
As always, I’ll be joining Tootsie Time’s Fertilizer Friday.
Please remember, to comment click on the title of the post and the page will reload with the comments section.
I hadn’t even thought of my snow lanterns in terms of your Seasonal Celebrations, so I’m very pleased to be included. Sadly all snow has now vanished, but tonight as we enter the longest night of the year there WILL be candles in my garden. And maybe even a small bonfire, just because.
(There will also be a warm fire in the woodburner, and maybe a hot toddy to ensure I can sleep through the longest night.)
Happy Solstice to you, and a Merry Christmas and a Joyful New Year! The Spring Equinox is just 3 months away, so I guess it’s time to start thinking about what should be different in the garden next year…
I really enjoyed all your posts around the solstice and you have really brightened my holiday with all the celebration of light…we finally have snow and if I can kick this cold I will be building snow lanterns!! Happy Solstice and a very Merry Christmas!!
The winter storm hitting the midwest passed us by. It looks like the garden is covered in powdered sugar rather than whipped cream. I’m hoping for some snow so we can get out and play.
Finally got more snow here so it will be play time!! Merry Christmas Mary!
The weather has warmed a little here for the Solstice, we have rain today. Thank you for sharing all the poems and thoughts about this, the shortest day. A very Happy Christimas to you. Christina
So happy you enjoyed the post Christina and wishing you a lovely holiday season. Happy Christmas!!
I really enjoyed your post Donna, and all the other contributors’ blogs too – thanks for all the links! We had snow again today, which cheered up the darkest day, but a very mild Christmas has been forecast… We’ll have to wait for new snow before we can play…. snowballs and sledging are our favourite snowy games!
Oh Cathy it sounds like fun…I am so glad for all the participants and their wonderful posts! We have snow with really cold temps and lots of wind. Should last through Christmas with the cold forecast. Happy Christmas!
No snow here on the south coast of England – just an exceptional amount of rain. However, if any snow comes . . . will certainly delight in it!
Best wishes for Christmas!
Lucy
Happy Christmas Lucy. Looking forward to doing some more tree following this year.
Your thoughts on winter are inspiring. Now that the new season has officially arrived I am going to slow down and do some inner soul searching.
Oh Karin you are too kind…this year it seems a good time for all of us to do some soul searching…the world needs a bit more soul right now! Merry Christmas.
Very nice, Donna. Love the Laura Lush quote. Happy solstice!
Thanks Beth…I was happy when I ran across the quote…I knew it would be perfect. Happy Solstice and here’s to the next season…it will be here before we know it…
What a beautiful, inspirational post, Donna. I love feng shui and use some of the concepts in my home. So true, it’s important to balance work and play with some introspection this winter. Thank you for featuring my NYC post. I’ll be sure to visit the other participants this weekend. Merry Christmas! 🙂
So glad you enjoyed the post and you will enjoy all the others too…I am grateful you could participate Loredana!! Merry Christmas!!
We get into the routine of making new year’s resolutions and then breaking them (at least I do). Hopefully, this one-off new awakening will be more successful.
Looking forward to reading your interpretation of FengShui.
Thanks for including my post (even though I sent it in at the last minute)
Happy Christmas Donna!
I am fast at putting the post together now so last minute posts don’t bother me…and after all I am grateful that folks were able to participate so I am happy to take posts even the day of the post 🙂 I have a special holiday post on the 24th and a New Year post on the 31st. Getting back to my roots of the contemplative posts. Happy Christmas B-A-G!!
Donna, This yin enjoyed all you had to say on the Winter solstice, feng shui and spiritual awakening. Oh (this yin) is simply Scottish for (me) For someone like myself who has been so active with garden blogging I am not feeling so very happy with myself not taking part in any of these (memes) is that what you call them? I guess I just didn’t get it. Well anyway I hope to find myself participating next year. Have a wonderful Christmas, thanks for your support and I will look forward to seeing what’s going on in gardens eye view next year. Alistair
Oh Alistair I would love to have you participate in my Seasonal Celebrations meme…next one starts March 1st. There are lots of other fun memes to participate in…they are a great way to connect to more bloggers. I look forward to having you in the garden next year! Happy Christmas to you and your family!!
hello Donna, I found your words on the solstice interesting and I love your snowy photos, though I had to smile at the thought of getting out to play, wish I had wonderful snow to crunch through but here it is squelch, squelch, with the on going rain, rain, rain.
wishing you a very Happy Christmas, Frances x
Oh Frances it isn’t fun playing in the pouring rain…Wishing you the Happiest Christmas and New Year!
Donna I’m just grateful I’m not in a flood area, there are terrible news reports coming in this morning of very, very bad flooding in Cornwall and other parts of the UK, cars being swept away and people needing to be evacuated, and it doesn’t look like it is stopping raining any time soon,
keep warm, Frances
How awful Frances especially at the holiday time…my Christmas wish will be for an end to the UK’s awful weather!!
thanks Donna, Frances
It will be interesting to see what you have learned on Feng Shui. It was very popular in design about six to eight years ago and I had a number of clients requesting it, both interior and exterior. It is a complex discipline that requires years of study. I hired a Feng Shui artist to aid in the designs I was doing to do right by my clients. I told the client I did not have the extensive knowledge and experience to do the design in the manner necessary. There are some basic principles that can be followed, but an awful lot to learn in this 3000 year old Chinese art.
Oh Donna I fear you may be greatly disappointed as I am no expert and will still be learning about it for years…I thought it would be nice to pass along what I am learning as it is very interesting. I hope to apply it more to a native plant garden and how some of the principles may be in direct contradiction to its principles…see interesting!
It will be fun learning. It is a deep discipline. Merry Christmas, Donna. Hope you have a happy New Year too!
I have been dabbling in it for years especially indoors so I wanted to bring more of it outdoors. Wishing you a wonderful Christmas and New Year Donna!!
Hi Donna. You always have such great poetry here, where do you find all this stuff? Here in the UK we are being lashed with wind, rain and half the nation is battling with floods. We don’t get that much snow here, perhaps once in a season so there is a bit of excitement when it comes.
Oh thank you Claire. I subscribe to a few websites and am always reading and searching the internet for just the right quote or poem. If I can’t find one, I write one. I just heard about the awful weather and flooding which just adds to the wet summer you had too there. Wishing you better weather for 2013 and maybe a bit of snow for the season! 🙂
Happy to have all the links…enjoy your reflective and peaceful time during the winter. Most of all enjoy your Christmas with friends and family.
Thanks Karen. Unfortunately I am under the weather and we will not be traveling…I need the rest but will see family in a few months. Merry Christmas.
Then please take extra care of yourself…God Bless.
Thanks for the links to some great posts! Your snow scenes are idyllic. I hope we may get a dusting or two this winter. Our temps are dropping over the next two days, and with rain in the forecast snow could happen, but probably won’t! Wishing you the very best in this season and the coming New Year, Deborah
Deborah the snow right now is lovely and I wish a bit for you too on Christmas. Happy New Year and a very Merry Christmas.
I had planned to do a lot of garden planning and learn to use a photography editing software program this winter…I will be doing other things too, but hope to keep to some of these more fun goals too….Michelle
I have no doubt you will do some planning and learning in the garden this year. It does keep us going. You know I am happy to help Michelle.
What a lovely post, Donna, and a wonderful way to share how others are celebrating the season. Wishing you and yours a wonderful holiday season, and a beautiful, and productive New Year in the garden!
Thank you Clare…hoping your Christmas is filled with joy as we embark on this wonderful New Year!
I always love your introspections. I had forgotten about play being so important. It’s especially important as we gather with our families this holiday season. I had lunch with an old friend the other day, and laughed until my cheeks hurt. It felt wonderful!
Oh Holley I do enjoy those times we can play…I am so happy you enjoyed the post and I hope you enjoy the holidays too with lots of play!!
going to explore As Long as You Have a Garden, a new to me blog …
Good choice Diana as the post was wonderful and I am enjoying her blog as well…Merry Christmas!
I like your winter mantra. Good way to take time for inner reflection. Good thoughts on the Mayans.
I am impressed with all the areas of the world that have offered winter solstice blog posts. Very nice.
Thank you Janet. I was so happy to have so many wonderful bloggers participate. It was a special winter celebration because of all their wonderful posts!