Drinking sweet mulled apple juice round a small festive fire to celebrate the solstice with friends; luxuriating in a new beach-side sauna and then running across the beach into the freezing cold sea; hiking from the front door to the top of Arthur’s Seat and enjoying the views over Edinburgh and beyond.
Arthur's Seat is my midwinter tradition too! Admittedly I don't always make it all the way up the seat... this year I sat by Dunsapie Loch and listened to the (surprisingly rapid) lapping of the waves as the sun rose. Half disappointed and half relieved that the frost didn't hold until this week!
I’m ashamed to say that I lived in Edinburgh for a year and never went up Arthur’s Seat! Not quite sure how I managed it, and whenever I’m back there’s never been time for it. I must remedy this next time!
Three things this week: the roar of the audience at Matthew Bourne’s Gothic Sleeping Beauty; the quiet dark rush of wind on the Heath at 4.30pm; the startling greenery emerging intact from under the melted snow (I’m talking about you chicory!)
Lia what you are cooking for Christmas sounds utterly amazing! I hope it all comes together as you plan it to. I am ill these past few days (the bug everyone else had has finally caught up with me) but have been battling through to squeeze all the mid-wintery things out of these December Days that I can. My three seasonal things are: A candlelit Christmas concert at St George’s, in which they played not only Vivaldi’s Winter but my favourite Carol “Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day”. I go every year and it’s very special and it’s how I know Christmas is really really here. Second, a solstice meal filled with flickering candles, exchanged gifts and a dessert of meringue, mulled pears and citrus curd - so wintery and lovely. And finally (sadly) a return to the drizzly weather I associate with Christmas in Bristol. The kind of fine mist that makes you wet even with an umbrella. It’s not my favourite weather but I often associate it with the hazy evenings of late December, where Christmas lights look extra bright in the gloom.
What beautiful things, apart from the drizzle…yes I’ve been out in it too. Come back frost. I must find out about that concert for next year. Hope you feel better very soon.
Enjoyed hot toddies with friends for the solstice, have enjoyed a dark chocolate caramel with my coffee every morning since my friend gifted me a tub of them, and now we are snowed in with -20 windchill sipping ginger carrot soup and watching the snow blow! Looking forward to 3 days stuck at home with my favorite people in front of the fire. PS Your Christmas menu sounds absolutely amazing!!
All of my winter rituals have kicked in over the past week: the last Sunday of Advent service + lots of curry afterwards; re-reading The Dark is Rising, this year accompanied by the BBC World Service adaptation; clambering around Holyrood Park at dawn. I love this time of year the most!
Randomly spotted Santa in the passenger seat of an SUV--I waved, he waved; filled the feeders for the year-round and migrating birds; welcomed home my eldest --and her cat--from university.
The last week has been a busy and tiring one: apart from work and my insomnia playing up, there has been a family party with games, music, food and gift exchanging; finishing the wrapping, my wife completing the Christmas cake; and a scaled down but still enjoyable Christmas dinner, as we'll be abroad this year for a much-needed holiday. Days of frost and cold have given way to rain and fog as the solstice came, giving us a real feel of winter darkness. Christmas films and music have been abundant.
Gah sorry about the insomnia, nothing worse. Sounds like you’re really ready for that holiday. I hope you will supply us with a dispatch from abroad next week!
I too was drawn to visiting the beautiful church this week in my town. I find the stillness, the quiet, the cool air and the musty, waxy, incense smells so nostalgic and calming. It stills the mind.
A swim in the icy Forth, the first in a while due to chest colds. It was bitter but beautiful. The sea and sky were shades of peach and pale blue. A Christmas lunch with my yoga students, the first post pandemic. A joyous slice of normality. Signing off Instagram and Facebook for the holidays. Substack is the perfect slow substitute. Thank you!
Oof I can almost feel the pain of the legs as you walked into that. Bet it felt amazing once you got used to it though. And I can see those colours. Magic.
I returned from my sojourn in Las Vegas to drizzly England and, once out of the airport building, I noticed how the cold moist air pricked uncomfortably at my face. Then I met up with a friend for a Christmassy coffee and ate a vegan brownie that was so sticky and sweet and delicious it quashed my appetite for lunch. And, in a desperate bid to ensure I can let my hair down with no guilt or stress, I am working on my PhD right up to Christmas Eve. Your festive plans sound wonderful. Have a good one.
Ah I love that very tactile description of being in England in winter. What a shock to the skin after Las Vegas! Hope you can cover enough PhD ground to allow you to really relax for a few days.
Steal a friend’s kid(s) and take them to the Christingle service! You get an excuse to go and the friend gets a couple of hours of quiet time at a hectic time of year. Everyone’s a winner.
I am grateful to find your beautiful thoughts in my email theses days, especially now that I’ve flown down to southeast Florida and am celebrating solstice, Yule, happy holidays in an equatorial fashion, with Iced, spiced, spiked apple cider to sip while marveling at gigantic and garishly lit tropical plants. Yesterday’s sunset on the gulf shone through a misty white haze, glowed apricot and then faded into a sea of towering blue black clouds. Tomorrow morning I’ll head to the farmers market for our Christmas Eve feast of crab cakes, corn, and tomatoes. All so different here. Thanks again for your thoughts on living.
An equatorial solstice! Thank you so much for joining in, I love the sense it gives us of the turning of the whole earth. Still need to snag me a Southern Hemisphere commenter… But how amazing to be equally spaced between the summer and winter solstices, and I feel like chilled spiced cider is the perfect choice!
lying in the basket swing in the park at dusk watching the alder catkins waving above me and hearing tonight's first owl; eating lunch outside with no coat on at the solstice; the top of the lime tree is glowing golden.
Thank you Lia, and to you all, I am so blessed to have found this beautiful community, thanks to Josie George.
Crows are a powerful presence in our road too - I love their confidence, the way they strut and the racket they make. Loved your picture, Lia. Our midwinter fire in the garden was this week’s highlight. Even managed to see some stars.
Waking in the early hours to howling winds so brewed some sleep tea, lit a candle & listened to the dark is rising on bbc world service -midwinter eve. A slow solstice day with more flickering candles, rowdy family board game & delighting in the low sun going down in pinks & greys. Xmas Eve Eve -Baking festive sausage rolls for the 1st time & everyone enjoying the crunch , watching my daddy & my teenage son poring over his art portfolio & enjoying chatting..
Drinking sweet mulled apple juice round a small festive fire to celebrate the solstice with friends; luxuriating in a new beach-side sauna and then running across the beach into the freezing cold sea; hiking from the front door to the top of Arthur’s Seat and enjoying the views over Edinburgh and beyond.
What an amazing week! You’ve really done it proud. Beach side sauna/Scottish sea combination is nails 💪🏼
Arthur's Seat is my midwinter tradition too! Admittedly I don't always make it all the way up the seat... this year I sat by Dunsapie Loch and listened to the (surprisingly rapid) lapping of the waves as the sun rose. Half disappointed and half relieved that the frost didn't hold until this week!
I’m ashamed to say that I lived in Edinburgh for a year and never went up Arthur’s Seat! Not quite sure how I managed it, and whenever I’m back there’s never been time for it. I must remedy this next time!
Three things this week: the roar of the audience at Matthew Bourne’s Gothic Sleeping Beauty; the quiet dark rush of wind on the Heath at 4.30pm; the startling greenery emerging intact from under the melted snow (I’m talking about you chicory!)
Ah wonderful! I didn’t manage to book any Christmas theatre and am feeling the lack! Sounds wonderful.
I saw his Nutcracker last year. Fantastic! Gets you in the mood for celebrating.
Lia what you are cooking for Christmas sounds utterly amazing! I hope it all comes together as you plan it to. I am ill these past few days (the bug everyone else had has finally caught up with me) but have been battling through to squeeze all the mid-wintery things out of these December Days that I can. My three seasonal things are: A candlelit Christmas concert at St George’s, in which they played not only Vivaldi’s Winter but my favourite Carol “Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day”. I go every year and it’s very special and it’s how I know Christmas is really really here. Second, a solstice meal filled with flickering candles, exchanged gifts and a dessert of meringue, mulled pears and citrus curd - so wintery and lovely. And finally (sadly) a return to the drizzly weather I associate with Christmas in Bristol. The kind of fine mist that makes you wet even with an umbrella. It’s not my favourite weather but I often associate it with the hazy evenings of late December, where Christmas lights look extra bright in the gloom.
What beautiful things, apart from the drizzle…yes I’ve been out in it too. Come back frost. I must find out about that concert for next year. Hope you feel better very soon.
Enjoyed hot toddies with friends for the solstice, have enjoyed a dark chocolate caramel with my coffee every morning since my friend gifted me a tub of them, and now we are snowed in with -20 windchill sipping ginger carrot soup and watching the snow blow! Looking forward to 3 days stuck at home with my favorite people in front of the fire. PS Your Christmas menu sounds absolutely amazing!!
-20! Where are you Lindsey? It sounds like you have the good supplies in for it at least…
Ohio - the Midwest is getting blasted with a flash freeze and the gusty winds have been intense!
All of my winter rituals have kicked in over the past week: the last Sunday of Advent service + lots of curry afterwards; re-reading The Dark is Rising, this year accompanied by the BBC World Service adaptation; clambering around Holyrood Park at dawn. I love this time of year the most!
Brilliant rituals, and I really need to get on this dark is rising adaptation don’t I. I don’t know the book, but I have a feeling I might like it…
Randomly spotted Santa in the passenger seat of an SUV--I waved, he waved; filled the feeders for the year-round and migrating birds; welcomed home my eldest --and her cat--from university.
Ah I bet that’s a gorgeous moment. That will be me with my boy next year, yikes.
The last week has been a busy and tiring one: apart from work and my insomnia playing up, there has been a family party with games, music, food and gift exchanging; finishing the wrapping, my wife completing the Christmas cake; and a scaled down but still enjoyable Christmas dinner, as we'll be abroad this year for a much-needed holiday. Days of frost and cold have given way to rain and fog as the solstice came, giving us a real feel of winter darkness. Christmas films and music have been abundant.
Gah sorry about the insomnia, nothing worse. Sounds like you’re really ready for that holiday. I hope you will supply us with a dispatch from abroad next week!
I too was drawn to visiting the beautiful church this week in my town. I find the stillness, the quiet, the cool air and the musty, waxy, incense smells so nostalgic and calming. It stills the mind.
It really does. I’m not at all religious but I really love churches.
A swim in the icy Forth, the first in a while due to chest colds. It was bitter but beautiful. The sea and sky were shades of peach and pale blue. A Christmas lunch with my yoga students, the first post pandemic. A joyous slice of normality. Signing off Instagram and Facebook for the holidays. Substack is the perfect slow substitute. Thank you!
Oof I can almost feel the pain of the legs as you walked into that. Bet it felt amazing once you got used to it though. And I can see those colours. Magic.
I returned from my sojourn in Las Vegas to drizzly England and, once out of the airport building, I noticed how the cold moist air pricked uncomfortably at my face. Then I met up with a friend for a Christmassy coffee and ate a vegan brownie that was so sticky and sweet and delicious it quashed my appetite for lunch. And, in a desperate bid to ensure I can let my hair down with no guilt or stress, I am working on my PhD right up to Christmas Eve. Your festive plans sound wonderful. Have a good one.
Ah I love that very tactile description of being in England in winter. What a shock to the skin after Las Vegas! Hope you can cover enough PhD ground to allow you to really relax for a few days.
A very merry and peaceful Christmas to you 💚 this is my day for catching up, and your posts and films have been the perfect start xxx
Thank you Jo! Have a wonderful rose-filled Christmas yourself xx
Steal a friend’s kid(s) and take them to the Christingle service! You get an excuse to go and the friend gets a couple of hours of quiet time at a hectic time of year. Everyone’s a winner.
I am grateful to find your beautiful thoughts in my email theses days, especially now that I’ve flown down to southeast Florida and am celebrating solstice, Yule, happy holidays in an equatorial fashion, with Iced, spiced, spiked apple cider to sip while marveling at gigantic and garishly lit tropical plants. Yesterday’s sunset on the gulf shone through a misty white haze, glowed apricot and then faded into a sea of towering blue black clouds. Tomorrow morning I’ll head to the farmers market for our Christmas Eve feast of crab cakes, corn, and tomatoes. All so different here. Thanks again for your thoughts on living.
An equatorial solstice! Thank you so much for joining in, I love the sense it gives us of the turning of the whole earth. Still need to snag me a Southern Hemisphere commenter… But how amazing to be equally spaced between the summer and winter solstices, and I feel like chilled spiced cider is the perfect choice!
lying in the basket swing in the park at dusk watching the alder catkins waving above me and hearing tonight's first owl; eating lunch outside with no coat on at the solstice; the top of the lime tree is glowing golden.
Thank you Lia, and to you all, I am so blessed to have found this beautiful community, thanks to Josie George.
Thank you! And isn’t it wonderful how quickly it has turned into a community? Really unexpected and delightful. The swing with the owl…what a moment.
Crows are a powerful presence in our road too - I love their confidence, the way they strut and the racket they make. Loved your picture, Lia. Our midwinter fire in the garden was this week’s highlight. Even managed to see some stars.
‘Powerful presence’ is a good description! Very inspired by all these midwinter fires, lovely thing to do.
Waking in the early hours to howling winds so brewed some sleep tea, lit a candle & listened to the dark is rising on bbc world service -midwinter eve. A slow solstice day with more flickering candles, rowdy family board game & delighting in the low sun going down in pinks & greys. Xmas Eve Eve -Baking festive sausage rolls for the 1st time & everyone enjoying the crunch , watching my daddy & my teenage son poring over his art portfolio & enjoying chatting..
Oh really special moments. And sausage rolls! Thank you for the reminder, Christmas isn’t Christmas without…