I’m feeling the magic of the holiday tickle softly, like a snowflake flurrying down and landing on my nose. The contemplative spirit of Winter Solstice coming soon is always a cheerful time for me.
After sending off the last of the Christmas packages in the tiny post office in the back, I spent a pleasant half hour at my favorite social spot, while the sky darkened and the rain began to fall. In my opinion this place really does have the best brew in the valley . . .
In the warmth of a bustling cafe, watching through the window the door opening and closing and opening again while I knit several rounds of lace. Then without so much as a blink I’ll be heading up the mountain homeward in low gear up the Oakville Grade.
I am just knitting through a flurry of last minute gifts . . .
what are you up to?
Jenjoyce Design 
Is it raining in Oakville?! Its not reached Napa yet, darnit. It would be so lovely to have a rainy weekend. xoxo
Yup and rained here up on the mountain too!
It was just a quick sprinkle, but more is coming, you will have your rainy weekend!
Oh Yay! Its supposed to really come down on Sunday. Perfect for sitting by the fire with the knitting project.
As of 1:25, its raining again. Hurry home! 🙂 xx
Been a marvelous drizzly day today. Knowing fireside and contemplating bringing in some ivy and Holly for Yule Dec’s.
That sounds beautiful! xx
Just gorgeous! So happy to hear you radiating such optimism. I was there in that cafe with you. After near 20years of very isolated life I now have a town in which to enjoy a “scene”. A window, a coffee, some knitting and some people to watch is a blissful rediscovery!
Happy Solstice. Like the wheel, the world also turns.
And I have cast myself off across the Golden Fields of Summer…
(although I do have to return to a steek and a 500+stitch i-cord bind off.
Worlds apart Karin, but we are sharing a cuppa side by side! I’m so excited to hear about you casting on your Golden Fields, for you have a tribute to summer coming up, there in the Southern Hemisphere, I send you a cool snowflake to land on your nose too!
Oh lovely! That snowflake just found its target!
XX
Hey, Jen, glad to see you still enjoying life as only you can. Can’t say I’m a rain lover since it curtails my running and makes walking reel messy LOL. But as we Californians always remind each other, We Need the Rain yada yada lol.
I’m not big on Dec 25th, but I am big on Dec. 21st… the pagan in me, the connection always to the living, breathing planet. Never asked you… you love starlight? I’m so into the stars, running under them, no, floating like a spirit. I’m always happiest when the moon planetoid is down, lol not watching me.
Christmas time represents renewal and the preview to a new year beginning; no resolutions, but being open to new adventures, new ways of loving, welcoming all things different into my inner life. And yet the old times, old memories, old friends, remain essential to my life.
Always wishing you and Jeff good health and happiness.
Thank you for your words in the little box, they brings texture & dimension to the place. For me holidays have become more of a knee-jerk to sentiments of life and community, the scents and familiar decorations which come out near the Winter Solstice. I think Autumnal equinox use to be my favorite, but now too many fires around that time, so my new favorite is Winter Solstice! It is a lovely clearing of the slate for me. This year I feel a refreshing lack of pull into society (this post sharing the one place I do enjoy stopping in to), and I seem to be settling from the big wildfire shake-up, craving quiet solitary days of my hermitage, and being okay with that! Who doesn’t love starlight? I do not like the fuller moon either, as it stirs up hormones which awash me with anxiety, preferring the stillest and darkest of nights, when I tend to sleep deeper.
Living in the Tiny House has made me more sedentary than ever in my life, and for that reason, I don’t recommend one as the best living space, I crave a few rooms to move between!
“The contemplative spirit of the winter solstice” – I love it, too. Lucky you, to have rain as well.
Thanks Gretchen. The rain is really coming down now too. The sunset was surreal this morning, the bright sun was a neon light strip against a black sky. Its been hovering there, the rain cloud layer, for hours, now is letting loose!