December, to me, is twinkling. The day’s light is pale, fragile and translucent – and there is always twinkling. Twinkling of the indoor lights that peep from windows, determinately warm against the outdoor winter light, twinkling of streetlights that come on in the afternoon and of Christmas lights. I find some of them pretty and some of them tacky and garish.
Last year’s Solstice Branches
The pretty ones give me an inner twinkle. It’s the twinkle of anticipation as the festive season – and deeper winter – draws near. I love winter: the beauty of bare trees and of frost, the cosying up, the feeling of mystery in the darkness and in the . The anticipation that I feel is similar to that of my son as he opens his advent calendar each day. It’s in our excitement in this month of preparation for the solstice and for Christmas. It’s a child-like feeling and that’s probably what’s so special about it; this time of year awakens the part of me that will always be a wonder-filled, magic-believing, enthusiastic child. The busy awake feeling of my inner world is in contrast to the outer world, which speaks of sleep and inactivity.
But glitter and sparkle is where they both meet.
A beautiful, glittery heavy frost in 2012
Magical, Avalonia-like misty frost near the Forest of Dean last winter
“Snow Garden” – snow is made from soap powder and crystals, twigs, fir cones, conkers etc are added. Taken from Earthwise by Carol Petrash.
Pretty sparkles and love that you have frost on the leaves already, we’ve only had one day of frost so far. I am hoping for more! Have a wonderful Yule 🙂
Ah, I confess I cheated and used an old photo to illustrate! (I should caption my photos more to avoid misleading!) It was a beautiful morning with a heavy frost around this time 3 years ago – I do love the glitteriness of it. We’ve also only had one day of frost this year where I live, but I’ve witnessed a couple more on mornings when I’ve headed out of the city. Even some snow in the Cotswolds last month! Wishing you a very happy Yule too 🙂
Nice post. The snow garden idea is cute.
Thank you – glad you enjoyed. Yes, there’s some really lovely projects in Earthwise. We made the snow garden at the end of last winter as a substitute for the real snow that my son was hoping we would get, but didn’t (he’s got his fingers crossed for this year!)
🙂