Longer Days, Shorter Nights
Here
in the mountains, the winter sun peeks over the hill later and later
every day until by the solstice it is barely hitting the trailer at
noon. Although I know I won't be able to notice the longer days
for a couple of weeks, I can already feel the relief of knowing that
we're on the upward swing of daylight.
Mark and I went to a solstice party at our neighbors' yesterday
afternoon --- 2 pm to 5 pm, the perfect time of day to haul me out of
my shell. I succumbed to the impulse to show off, making chicken
potstickers and cheese crackers as our potluck items. We came
home with three gift bags of homemade goodies --- jams and jellies,
wound ointment, biscotti, dried apples. That's the kind of gift I
can reciprocate with joy.
At home, I put together gift bags for my family out of extra things I
had around the house plus food items Mark and I won't eat but think
they will. (I become more like my mother every day....)
Then I decorated our plant shelf with homemade ornaments ---
gingerbread cookies from my family, elves I made out of candy wrappers
ten years ago, little figures Mark made out of clothes pins when he was
in the cub scouts. When it doesn't spiral out of control, I have
to admit that I like the decorations and hidden gifts of Christmas.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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