Gratitude Monday -- Bunny Solstice Edition

Where to begin?
I'm still buzzing over finding out my heart's pumping properly. The world is an even better place now.

It's Christmas season, which means baking. It's cold, which means baking. And my husband's work has slowed down, which means he's the one doing the baking.
He's made cake, cookies, lebkuchen (honey cakes) and the above- pictured lemon meringue pie. All are made from scratch and yes, he stood at the stove stirring the cornstarch mix for the body of the pie, and he sifted the flour for the crust. When I say scratch, I mean it.
He had a dollop of meringue left over so he put it on the top for a bunny's tail and then carved a bunny in the meringue. It was tasty.

Today is the Solstice. It's the shortest day of the year and winter is upon us. This is good, because we can't get shed of winter until it starts and now, with the solstice, we are looking toward the light.
Happy Solstice everyone.

Gratitude Monday - Winter's Here

Yes, I am grateful that winter is finally here.
It's a good season. The land rests. The rivers are slow. The world itself is calmer and cleaner and perhaps prettier.
We in the colder climes turn inside ourselves for a bit. It's a time of thinking and creating and staying close to home, if we can.
We are past the Solstice. The days will lengthen. We are returning to the light.

Happy Solstice

The crows and pine siskins were singing louder and happier this early this morning, lifting their beaks in song to celebrate the solstice. It was a wonderful sound and I swear more of them joined the chorus this morning than usual.

In the past I’ve celebrated Litha in some form. Two years ago we were camping with friends and had cake and ale to observe the day.

Ten years ago my husband and I were in Inuvik, NWT, and wound up at a feast at the Native Friendship Centre. What a glorious way to bring in summer.
It’s odd celebrating the longest day in a place so far north the sun does not set. It added a dimension to the observance I may never have again.

We had all kinds of food like caribou, assorted type of freshwater fish, musk ox, and even muktuk (raw whale blubber.)
I wasn’t sure if I wanted any of the muktuk, but it might be my only chance to taste it.
I’m glad I did. If you’re curious, imagine chewing on the sole of a running shoe that’s flavoured with sea water.

Taste aside, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was eating an intelligent creature. I could see it in the ocean. I felt myself within it.

I don’t get that sense eating cow, deer, or steelhead trout. I wonder if it was due to being raw and having such limited contact with humans? Store food goes though many hands and much processing before we buy it and cook it. Any lingering sense of its life is long gone.
The whale was raw and had hardly any human contact from water to table. Its life force hadn’t been drained away.

Today I’ll spend some time in the sun and perhaps have some de-alcoholized beer and a piece of cake to honor the solstice. But I’ll also have in mind that as of now the days become shorter and we’re looking toward the dark.

Happy Solstice.