December 21: Greeting winter

There was a rare Solstice full moon last night. We had intermittent viewing here, with thin clouds moving fast and covering the sky more often than not; it was quite moody and beautiful.

Blessed Yule and happy Winter! I love winter. I love its austere aesthetic, its quiet, the way it gives us leave to curl up in small, warm spaces and hide away for awhile. I love frost on the dead heads of the summer flowers.



I think it's best to let winter be winter and summer be summer, and not look longingly from one to the other. When I was searching for summer sunflower photos to compare with my winter ones, it was quite a shock of brilliant color. It was gorgeous and made winter seem dull. But that's just because the timing wasn't right.