Light & darkness meet evenly at the Autumn Equinox

Yesterday was our Autumn Equinox, the time when day & night shared equal lengths & from now, the night takes over & the light retreats each day, bringing with it shorter days & longer nights.

The equinox is a barely discernible difference in light but it soon will be noticeable. The air is cooler, you suddenly notice your breath in the morning air & scarves come of of the cupboard to wrap around the neck. 

The light is softer, more gentle, especially when seen against the vibrant colours of the changing leaves. 

After our hot summer, we will have impressive autumn colours of russet, chocolate brown, oxblood red, rich gold, burnt orange, soft plum, fern green, golden honey, buttery tones, muted earth, and rich jewel tones in the hedgerows - they all sit quite happily together. 

I love raking up the maple leaves from our tree. They are raked under the hedge where they breakdown to rich leaf mould but they also give homes to many over wintering creatures. Blackbirds love scattering them for bugs to eat & the visiting hedgehogs will gather them for nests.

I love walking the local woods in autumn, picking up pine cones, noticing the wonderful light through the tree canopy, finding a few conkers from horse chestnut trees. 

Spiders are supposed to avoid conkers.  I pop some in  corners at home but our spiders seem to happily ignore this & appear anyhow which is not welcome.  

I wish the spiders would find someone else to ambush & terrify. 

It is the time when cobwebs are persistent in corners of the house & garden, most evident outside with morning dew shining on them. 

My long duster is never far away in autumn, clearing the cobwebs so the house doesn't look like a Halloween  prop ... 

I notice that the shortening days brings a settling too when you want to be more cosy, have candles & books about, a fleece at hand on the sofa to tuck your feet under. Hot chocolate becomes more welcome, a warm mug to wrap your hands around while reading. 

We are busy in the garden, tidying up, final moving of any plants while the ground is still warm, cutting back & staking plants before the winds pick up and of course cutting the long stems of our honesty plants before the winds damage the much prized seed pods. More on that in another post ... 

It is also the time my thoughts turn to some crafts & indoor activities. I like to do some little sewn gifts to go in my Christmas cards & this is the time to start because they are labour intensive. 

Autumn also brings a subtle change in foods - richer foods, more root vegetables, hearty soups & generous baked puddings start making the menu. 

It is a different rhythm of life that we settle in to, preserving energy to appreciate nature more so we can tune in to the changing season. 

We hold on to the summer but gently give way to autumn to enjoy the change, the coolness, the different pace of life. 

Autumn invites us to gather our thoughts too, to be aware of what has changed - relationships, friendships, situations, experiences. We can gently release the ones that no longer serve us or match our energy. 

The change is part of life & we are part of the rhythm of nature, we just need to follow its lead. Have a blessed start to Autumn, 

Dee 🥮🍂🍁🪾🌲

Marking the Winter Solstice

 

Our days are much shorter with dawn coming later & night coming earlier. 

It is the time to 'nest' when you can, to take stock as the year winds down to Christmas. 

I like to bring in fresh greenery in to the home - fir, holly, ivy, pine cones & my garland is up on the front door to welcome in visitors too. 

I went in to the woods last weekend to forage & came out with a handful of gorgeous fallen branches. 

I have tied them up in to a swag & put them on the patio chimnea that faces the house so they can be seen from the windows. 

The taller branches are in the funnel of the chimnea, along with the autumn ones I picked up some weeks before from the same woods. 

They are a visual link to nature & my love of forests & woods. 

There is something very therapeutic about spending time in woods or forests, the smell of pines, of gentle sounds of nature & being able to pick up some branches - it is an important connection. 

The Winter Solstice marks the shortest day & the longest night of the year, when darkness abounds & the light will slowly start to return again.  

This is how I have marked the Winter Solstice previously 

It is a good time to reconnect with nature & the natural rhythm of the season. Bringing in natural greenery is important too - less faux, more real. 

This time is also known as Yule, or Modranight (Mother Night), or Midwinter - it is the gentle pause in the seasons.

Norse & some Anglo Saxon cultures celebrate the influence of Mothers on this night, their wisdom & lineage remembered, their stories told so they are not forgotten. It is a lovely tradition. 

This is some of my female ancestors who had a big influence on my life. I am so fortunate to have several generational photos of my maternal line ... 

I like to do a simmer pot of winter scents at Solstice to fill the home with fresh fragrance & light candles to mark the return of the light. A dark cycle completing ... 

These are the herbs associated with the Winter Solstice. 

 I look forward to the light slowly returning but I also love the dark nights when homes are lit by gentle lights over the festive season. 

Thank you for stopping by & visiting with me, 

Dee 🕯️🌲🍁🪾🔥

Signs of Autumn at home & in the woods ...

 Somehow, the year is galloping by & the misty mornings remind us that Autumn is here. 

The nights are drawing in & the morning light takes its time to arrive now. 

Early morning mists drew us out to some local woods to enjoy the changing seasons & have a walk in the woods. 

I love misty mornings when things seem mysterious, when the woods are more silent & half hidden, when you hear voices long before figures appear in the misty light. 

The dampness highlighted the many cobwebs on the trees - somehow they really like the prickly holly bushes. 

The woodland floor is spongy with decades of fallen leaves & more drifted down all the time, along with the sound of little branches falling. 

I picked up some spindly branches with little pinecones & carefully places their curving branches in my bag where they flapped around with each step. 

I picked up some conkers & one of the pricky outer shells/ They are freshly fallen & very prickly still so had to be content with just 1. 

The cool, moist woods are the perfect growing conditions for a multitude of fungi, nestled in the fallen leaves & twigs. 

I do not know one from another & do not actually like mushrooms so am content to just photograph them. 

I added 2 little branches with red berries & my woodland collection looks rather good. I prefer it to a fake, commercial one & it reminds me of time in nature.

Once home, I carefully put the foraged twigs, leaves & berries in this vintage vase (bought from a charity shop some years back).

The spindly pine bracts I picked up survived their journey around the forest in a shopping bag I grabbed from the car as we stopped. 

The H.J. Woods Indian Tree vase is generous & sturdy enough to hold an assortment of twigs & leaves. It also has similar colours to the Spode plates that I had in mind. 

The conservatory sideboard is long overdue a change. The woodland vase nudged me to fetch the few Spode Woodland plates I have - 6 - from their retail shop in Stoke on Trent a few years ago. 

The 2 yellow deer plates were from Next a few years ago. They sometimes appear at Christmas with their pretty flower adorned antlers but fit in well with the Spode plates so they are out too. They are a good match to the vase too - I must bring them out more often. 

The beautiful ruby glass decanter was a gift from Ms M a few years ago, along with the vintage custard cups with their little handles. They are the perfect size for sherry on dark days ... 

A little jig around & I think it is looking perfect for Autumn. What do you think? 

Do you also come back from a walk with a pocket (or bag) of things you foraged or picked up? 

The Autumn sideboard has things I have had for a long time but they are greatly enjoyed & make a welcome appearance from time to time. 

Thank you for stopping by & visiting. It is always appreciated. 

Dee 🪾🪵🌳🍁🍂

The light returns on our Winter Solstice ...

Today marks our shortest day & longest night - the Winter Solstice marks the turning point when our light will slowly return from our deep midwinter. 

I like to celebrate this change & this was previous years ...

2011 

2012

2013 

2014

2017

2018

2020

2022

2023 

It is the time when greenery is welcomed in the home - holly, ivy, mistletoe, logs all signify the connection to nature in the deepest winter nights. 

It is a time to hang garlands on the door & bring greenery & light in to the home, a time for log fires, candles, comfort & joy. 

In times long gone, winter was a time to reflect & be thankful after a busy summer & harvest. The short days signalled to animals to conserve their energy by hibernating & it felt as if time is suspended. A bad harvest for our agrarian ancestors would have been disastrous so they gave thanks for any blessings that came their way, acknowledging their dependency on nature & its fickle ways. 

Our busy lives have little time to rest, reset, restore so this is time to do just that in the lead up to the busy festive season with all the expectations & emotions that brings. Embrace the sleeping, glistening landscape, the pure snows, the quieter times, the warmth of steaming bowls of soup or indulgent hot chocolate wrapped in gloved hands, with steaming breaths in the cold air.  Take in the smells of woods or forests that bring a natural stillness & calming when things start to overwhelm you, when memories become raw ... 

             

Some Anglo Saxon & Norse cultures celebrate Modraniht, Mother's night, the long line of Mothers who came before us & their influence on us. They are the wise & benevolent women ancestors whose wisdom guide us. Stories of grandmothers, great-grandmothers & other women in the family are shared & passed on so their spirit lives on. It is both a solemn & joyous time honoring them. 

My winter simmer pot is ready to give the home a wonderful natural scent of cloves, cinnamon (for success, wealth & abundance), star anise (for healing, luck & clarity),  juniper berries,  rosemary (for protection), sage, lemon grass, lemon & orange (happiness & prosperity & symbolises the return of the sun)

May you welcome in the light again with candles & positive thoughts; in the dark of winter, we make  the light

Dee🕯️🌲🕯️🎄🕯️

Winter Mindfulness

Darker days can bring about low seratin levels, especially for those of us who grew up in bright climates. 

How to raise your positive levels in winter as the days shorten?  

These are some of the things I do to keep positive - 

Get out in nature - I love the changing seasons & how different it all looks as the leaves cloak themselves in their autumn colours, the sound of the crunchy leaves underfoot. I collect a few conkers, acorns, twigs & leaves for a vase at home.  

I love looking at tree shapes once they have shed their leaves - the structures are so interesting, I need to spend more time learning how to draw a proper tree. Perhaps that is something for this winter. Any tips? 

I love it when snow changes the look & sound of the familiar - the quietness that comes with it - the pureness, the crisp air. The same is true for Autumn mists that swirl around us, making everything mysterious, half hidden from sight, discombobulated images ... 

With colder days, I find myself at home more & it is a wonderful opportunity to spend time sewing or crafting. Last year, I made some Xmas decorations from fabrics I already had & had a lovely time just adding hand stitching details. They were well received as gifts & I think I will do something similar again to pop in to the Xmas cards I send. 

I am minded to make some little Xmas bunting for the conservatory sideboard. I made some mini coronation bunting & am inspired to do some festive ones.  It has to compliment the china that goes up each year so I am already jotting down some ideas which brings me to the next one .... 

Writing, journaling, arranging thoughts - I always keep a travel journal on my trips because it focuses the mind on what you have seen, experienced, eaten, heard,  enjoyed or even found challenging.  I love returning to the journals much later on & reading through it with fresh eyes, away from that moment en route when I penned those thoughts. It is a bit of hindsight but it means you return to that moment again .... 

I always have several notebooks at hand - one for creative ideas that I jot down with fabrics & drawings I might try out.  I also do a Zen Creative retreat online several times a year when artists generously share their time & skills. I keep these as notes to refer to the techniques again. It has helped my creative process no end ... 

These creative challenges are so important to our brains - it keeps it sharp, it keeps it busy, it gives it new skills to get to grips with.  I still find I have to refer to the internet or my many books for some of the sewing stitches because they are not second nature but that is how we learn.  

I also spend a lot of my time reading, researching things I want to know more about. I came back from my Spanish Civil War trip with a list of names I found interesting; artists whose work I encountered in the Reina Sofia art gallery in Madrid that I did not know, photographers who were out in the thick of things documenting the war - people like Robert Capa, Gerda Taro, Chim (David Seymour) & the story of their negatives being told in The Mexican Suitcase 

Looking out at the bare bones of the winter garden helps me to plan some changes for Spring & Summer. I love our hedges & layers of green shrubs but there are gaps too that need addressing. It is an opportunity to see which plants can be reshaped too - planning through photos …

What things do you do over the long Winter months to keep yourself going with the days are short & the nights long? 

Thank you for your company, it is always appreciated, 

Dee  ☔️🪡🕯️