Hey, now that's a good birthday present!
Satt--
Thanks for bumping up this thread and adding some wholesome enthusiasm.
I have a new candle for a New Year, nestled in bits of spruce and pine and holly from our town tress and surrounded with a selection of meaningful odds and ends.
This year the odds and ends are heavy on purple heather--not my favorite color, but an omen of Highland skies and cleansing winds.
Littlek--
Happy Birthday. You should start celebrating now because Christmas Babies always get a little short-changed over the years.
Soz, JPB & All--
Longer days and shorter nights
More light, less dread
And always a star or a candle to light the way.
I've just got back from Stonehenge, where I've been druiding the solstice all afternoon without much success.
The ceremony requires the participation of a virgin, but after a frantic local search, none were to be found.
Long distance phone calls finally located one in Berwick upon Tweed, but with the country being fogbound at the moment, and Heathrow closed, she couldn't be flown down in time.
Maybe you people in the USA could send over a few of your unmarried 5% (female) ready for next year, as it would save a packet on phone bills.
does anyone want an equation to compute sunrise and sunset for your very own lat/long?
(tap tap)
In another 22 minutes or so we get naked and dance around playing the psaltry and sackbutt. We drink goats blood and slaughter a peacock. Really good times.
<grin> A little 7 year old I used to know asked me in the grocery store today what I was doing for the solstice. She asked it as if it was a challenge - as if to say, the solstice waas the only true holiday right now. Very funny. I told her I'd light a candle at 7:22 (I didn't tell her that I'd also toast the dark days of winter).
just checked the temperature "history" on the weather channel .
last year we had a low of about minus 20 C , today our overnight low will be around freezing .
have to go back to 2002 to find a similarly mild pre-christmas .
should we get ready to dance around the maypole soon ?
hbg
The Solstice Sun observed here (09:22JST; 0022GMT).
8ºC or 46.4ºF
I brought greenery into the house and I lit a candle.
I understand on the best authority that the sun is now ambling slowly north.
Thank all of your who helped to bring about this miracle.
