from the arctic tundra .... this is my religion!

Jack Frost

'jack frost's window ...' ©virginiafitzgerald 2018

The door was shut, as doors should be,

Before you went to bed last night;

Yet Jack Frost has got in, you see,

And left your window silver white.

He must have waited till you slept;

And not a single word he spoke,

But pencilled o’er the panes and crept

Away again before you woke.

And now you cannot see the hills

Nor fields that stretch beyond the lane;

But there are fairer things than these

His fingers traced on every pane.

Rocks and castles towering high;

Hills and dales, and streams and fields;

And knights in armor riding by,

With nodding plumes and shining shields.

And here are little boats, and there

Big ships with sails spread to the breeze;

And yonder, palm trees waving fair

On islands set in silver seas,

And butterflies with gauzy wings;

And herds of cows and flocks of sheep;

And fruit and flowers and all the things

You see when you are sound asleep.

For, creeping softly underneath

The door when all the lights are out,

Jack Frost takes every breath you breathe,

And knows the things you think about.

He paints them on the window-pane

In fairy lines with frozen steam;

And when you wake you see again

The lovely things you saw in dream.

Gabriel Setoun 

1861-1930

if you have received this post as an email

click below to visit the entire blog, blog link

or click below to join the book of motherlove group on FB https://www.facebook.com/groups/bookofmotherlove/

may this dress remind us of the wonders of winter . . . . (and there are some!)

'prints . . . ' #decemberdressseries

How beautiful the white field is in its blur of falling snow,

with the delicate black pencil strokes of 

trees and bushes seen through it! 

And, of course,the silence,

 the snow silence, 

becomes hypnotic if one stops to listen.  

  May Sarton 

if you have received this post as an email

click below to visit the entire blog, blog link

or click below to visit FB daily dress inspiration group FB link

Today may we welcome back the light!!

this is my holiday decor . . .  light and peace

 "In winter we lead a more inward life. 

Our hearts are warm and cheery, like cottages under drifts, whose windows and doors are half concealed, 

but from whose chimneys the smoke cheerfully ascends." 

Henry David Thoreau 

For anyone who knows me or has been following me in the cyber-sphere, it will be of no surprise that today, December 21, is one of my favorite holidays/celebrations . . .the winter solstice!! the shortest day/longest night for us northern hemisphere folks. It is when the light begins its return and faith in something larger is renewed . . 

My dear friend, Willa DeVoti Worsfold, shared a wonderful description of the history of this special day and an ideal quote from Henry David Thoreau which I in turn wish to share with you!

In the Northern Hemisphere, today is the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year and the longest night. It's officially the first day of winter and one of the oldest-known holidays in human history. Anthropologists believe that solstice celebrations go back at least 30,000 years, before humans even began farming on a large scale. Many of the most ancient stone structures made by human beings were designed to pinpoint the precise date of the solstice. The stone circles of Stonehenge were arranged to receive the first rays of midwinter sun.

Some ancient peoples believed that because daylight was waning, it might go away forever, so they lit huge bonfires to tempt the sun to come back. The tradition of decorating our houses and our trees with lights at this time of year is passed down from those ancient bonfires. In ancient Egypt and Syria, people celebrated the winter solstice as the sun's birthday. In ancient Rome, the winter solstice was celebrated with the festival of Saturnalia, during which all business transactions and even wars were suspended, and slaves were waited upon by their masters.

(Thank you The Writer's Almanac & Willa DeVoti Worsfold <3)

art blog post from2010 about the Winter Solstice: return of the light

blessed be!! xxx

if you have received this post as an email

click below to visit the entire blog, blog link

or click below to visit FB daily dress inspiration group FB link