the solstice is here!

Whop Whop - the days are getting longer already, I can feel it!  So exciting - I'm dancing!

Onwards and upwards to summertime!! Yee haw!!!

Perfect!

If we were Celts we'd have a huge bonfire and do a lot of dancing! And drinking.

Time to get the turkeys and geese in their breeding pens....

Hmmm...I like the idea of bonfire and dancing...I have to work tonight, but maybe a big bonfire in the mid-day in the middle of my yard and me dancing where everyone can see...  

yep, I like that too islandgal99. when we lived in Terrace we used to walk around a park type place called Ferry Island - people could go camping there in the summer and have fires. Was a parking lot for day visits or fishermen to park up, was sort of cut off and nearly an island with the mighty Skeena river on both sides. One year we were feeling especially pagan and in the middle of winter it was maybe -15 but there was a nasty windchill. We built a fire, hurriedly and got warm then cooked some sausages and drank a bottle of white wine (sweet, our fav at the time) - toasted the solstice and scootled home to thaw out our faces! It was wild, we smelled like bbq and sausages with alcohol on our breath. Probably the swiftest walk back to our apartment ever   .

I celebrate the Solstice more (in my mind, my body) than I do Christmas. I start to feel those couple of minutes of light per day in a few weeks. Right now it's like something quietly revving a motor deep down in the ground/my belly and the air feels a bit charged. Yes, that is what I can feel. It makes me giddy with joy! Probably that's how I get through this season. That, and the fact that CynthiaM's family has adopted me and I'm only alone when I want to be. <3

Happy Solstice everyone! I'm certain that we on forums such as this one are much more in tune to it than the average person who doesn't keep livestock or a garden. xo

I've been noticing the past few nights, with the moon out in strength, the days already seem long, as the night doesn't seem so bright -- lovely illusion that. Pretty soon, we'll be back to watching the sunrise in the morning on our drive in, working in the gardenuntil 9 or 10 o'clock.

Woo Hoo! Longer days are always awesome.

farmchiq wrote: That, and the fact that CynthiaM's family has adopted me and I'm only alone when I want to be. Happy Solstice everyone!  I'm certain that we on forums such as this one are much more in tune to it than the average person who doesn't keep livestock or a garden.

We love you Farmchiq and family is all about sharing, everything, especially love. That is so.

The solstice to me means that the readying for the holiday celebrations will soon come to a close. The hours and days spent making the dinner preparations, the carefully purchased gifts to give, those days of Christmas and the solstice. I am as you Farmchiq, I know full well by the middle of January, the days are already showing that they are longer. Soon that sun will warm the earth and our souls, as it too becomes more warm. I love January, as I can see week by week small amounts of longer daylight hours by the end of each week. The winter solistice to me is one of the most looked forward to days of the year. It is celebrated by so many as the change of the season. Winter. Yes, still winter, but things change. I remember back on the coast, not often was there snow covering the ground at January beginning, and I could always see the first greens of the year, the chives, which began to poke their beautiful little heads out of the earth. That is not present here, in the Okanagan, as the chives are generally buried deep in snow until at least March, but when the snow melts, they grow so fast, they have had long hours to be protected by snow and they glory in the sun that shines and awakens their soul. Oh, now that the celebrations are nigh to complete, the garden seed books come out and my choices of what I will put in this year are begun. Tomatoes, are high on my list, trying different varieties than last year, cause, well, I was not pleased very much with what I chose for last year    have a wonderful day, CynthiaM.

Tomatoes seed that you weren't happy with? Why

Yes on the tomatos what didn't you like? I did a heavy variety trial here this past summer. Got some good results and some not so good. I wouldn't mind comparing notes with you CynthiaM. Mind you we are quite I bit farther north than you with a cooler climate but let's compare anyways. But maybe on a new thread.

Yes yes...let's start a tomato thread!! I'm having gardening withdrawals...and in fact I am in the search for the earliest open pollinated determinate tomato I can find!! I had great luck with Stupice tomatoes last year, but I want to add determinates to the mix.