Our Winter Solstice celebration was wonderous, inside the house and outside the house! We had a wonderful meal as sacred thoughts and writings were shared among us in respect for the day and its meaning for us. Then we went out to the Goddess Garden, full of lights, and under a ceiling of pure white snow and brilliant quarter moon, we sat in awe of the pristine beauty and clarity of this garden.

The chiminea blazed with a warming fire and we sat in snow covered chairs and sang carols. The snow draped from the limbs and the light cords, from the fence posts and the glass houses. It blew its way into the navitivy scenes and graced the presence of the remembrance of new birth.

It was an evening of everything I could imagine would be a perfect winter solstice celebration. As we meandered back to the warmth of the house, the small pine tree in the entrance to the garden was the symbolic "blessing of the trees" with apple cider, to honor the trees and their gift to our environment. Blessed Be!

Saturday was spent mostly being elves, but I couldn't resist checking all our tarps, etc, and tapping off excesses of snow, before more came. Our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were blessed with wonderful friends and new acquaintances! Though we had no snow, after a very rainy Christmas Eve, we felt so blessed with our solstice snow, that we were able to endure the lack.

But by Wednesday, we had a surprise accumulation which is equally as beautiful, but not requiring the snow thrower! It remains still, and this weekend I hope to spend some time again under pristine snow ceilings - in an almost full moon!! What a romantic I am. The snow forcast is sparse for at least a week, but they are still asking us to be cautious about water usage, as the snow does not make up for the low water table. The temperatures are in the teens at night, and low 30's during the day. With the snow, the sunrises have been spectacular and awesome moments of bliss!

Saturday 12/29/01
I missed sunrise this morning. Slept in after a wonderful evening at the movies, The Lord of the Rings. It was great! It will stay with me much of today because of the realms it depicts. There is a facination for me of the world beyond what we see with our eyes. THat is my facination with the garden and forest, there I have glimpses of recognition and remembrances from long before.

This day is bright and sunny and cold, and offers enticing moments in the woods and a great walk that makes you breathe really deep into the very core of the lungs, forcing you to open up to what is around you, to breathe with it, aspire to it. Tonite is the full moon, she lit the snow covered lawn last nite like a beacon. The Goddess Garden will be brilliant tonite - YES!