Winter Solstice

Saturday December 20-Sunday December 21, 2014
Oscar Scherer State Park
Osprey, Florida

 

Winter Solstice Eve

It is the day before Solstice and we’re getting ready to pick up Carrie at the Tampa Airport this evening.   I head out to the Venice Farmer’s Market to pick up some local citrus, strawberries and tomatoes among other things.

 

 

 

Plant City Strawberries are available here too.

 

Then I hustled up to Whole Foods to complete my grocery shopping for the visit.   Then it’s time to fill Ruby up with gas and get back and started on the traditional Solstice Cake.   No pictures until it is “unveiled” but many of you have seen it in years past.  Or maybe even this past summer.

Sadly we just do not have time to get over to the drum circle for the drumming down of the sun on Solstice Eve.  That’s the only part of my plan that didn’t go well.  I wanted at least an hour to party and participate in a Solstice Celebration. 

But it didn’t happen.  Our last stop is to get Carrie a Subway sandwich since she won’t have eaten since 2:00 this afternoon.   Then we are on our way up I75.   It’s 75 miles to the Tampa Airport.  Unfortunately she couldn’t get a flight at the closer Sarasota Airport.

It’s the longest darkest night of the year.  Not only is this Winter Solstice Eve but it is also the New Moon.  Dark, dark, dark even on the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay it looks very dark.  But the bridge looks almost magical.

 

 

 

 

We arrive at the airport and after reading all the signs for this airline and that airline and which terminal to go to, we do not see Southwest so we have to drive by the terminals to see which one we need to be at.  Around and around we go.  Finally we see it, around once more to short term parking and we’re inside.  Luckily we are early enough to get parked and at the gate in time.

And then, here she comes.

 

 

As the Winter Solstice as been approaching we have noticed the days getting shorter and shorter, the darkness is longer and longer.  This happens no matter where you are in this hemisphere even in the south.  But here in Florida we don’t have the other aspects of the darkening days – the cold weather, the bare trees and sometimes the snow.  While I don’t mind missing those things so much, I do miss the quiet, the firelight, and knowing the seeds in the garden are tucked away and waiting fro the spring.  Here on the road the shortened days, the black darkness, the bright stars and the ease with which we can be up for sunrise and also see sunset are now our reminders that the wheel is turning and things are changing.

Though I have always appreciated the changing of the seasons, I also have always struggled with the desire to hurry from autumn to spring to avoid the months of cold and days and days of endless gray skies and dimmed light.  Each day seems shorter and shorter and yet winter has its positive aspects too.  It reminds us to slow down, to look inside, to take the measure of our lives.  These things are easier to be mindful of if I haven’t “escaped the winter”.

Winter Solstice is the return of hope as the Earth begins the first slow turn to greater daylight.   On this dark Winter Solstice Eve is a pretty joyful occasion for us. A bright light has come to visit.

 

 

WINTER SOLSTICE  DAY

Today is the reason for the season!  If you are a purist, the Solstice occurs at 6:03PM EST.  Today is the day when the sun stands still (the literal meaning of solstice). Today the north pole is angled farthest from the sun.  Every where north of the equator receives fewer hours of sunlight from a sun lower in the sky. 

I like to do our family gift exchange on Solstice day but this year we decide to do a triple birthday celebration instead.  My birthday was December 7, the new year begins December 21 and David’s birthday is January 8th.  Carrie has brought birthday presents.  So we’ll save the family love fest for an indoor day when it is raining or the temperatures are lower than the high 70’s predicted for today.

 

We start off our celebration with a bright cheery breakfast of pancakes and fruit.

 

 

Then it’s on to the beach where the sun has decided to hardly show its face on the Winter Solstice Day.  NO FAIR!

 

The gulf is warm enough to walk in but not to swim in, for us.  There are some kids splashing around though.

 

The temperature is great but the 14 mph winds make it feel a bit chilly. It’s still a fine day for reading and taking walks on the beach.  The high of 77 is a far cry from the 39 degrees Carrie is missing at her home in Laurel Maryland. 

 

 

We are serenaded most of the afternoon by the royal tern kids.  Or that’s my assumption as these only slightly smaller terns follow a parent around constantly squawking for food.

 

 

The water glistens as the sun tries valiantly to break through the clouds.

 

 

Back at the house dinner is soup, salad and rosemary garlic bread.

 

 

 

And then comes the cake.  This is what we were hoping the sky would look like today.

 

Carrie says I should cut us some small pieces, so I do.  But it turns out she didn’t really mean it.

It was determined we needed another piece and David cut this one.

 

 

Look at how fast this cake is disappearing in the first round.  HA!   But it must be good, they are licking their fingers.

 

 

Then it’s time for presents.  This is great!   I get to do my birthday again.  Actually this date is my mother’s birthday and I sure wish she was here to celebrate her 91st with all of us.   Isn’t it a pretty package?

 

Have to read the sweet card first.  Pretty Package!

 

 

And look at this.  It’s PERFECT!   Can you read the quote on the front of this blank book?  I can hardly wait to begin using it.  THANK YOU CARRIE!   You’re the BEST!!

 

 

 

And then it’s David’s turn.  He gets an early birthday present.   He reads his card first too.  But where is the present?

 

 

Well inside the card of course.   And they both know what it is before he even opens the little red envelope.

 

His daughter has bought him a gift card for that store which sells the evil brew.  Makes him happy!!

 

 

We finish off our night with some vintage Christmas cartoons. Many of them weren’t actually the short cartoons that we were expecting but more like 30 minute specials in the vein of A Charlie Brown Christmas.   Can’t say I’d recommend them.  They are just a little too dated but it was fun for David and I to see Howdy Doody, Buffalo Bob and Clarabelle again in Howdy Doody’s Christmas.  The 3 take a rocket to the North Pole to rescue Santa Claus.  Pretty funny.   Anybody else old enough to remember Howdy Doody?   I think I was 4 or 5 when he was on.

And that’s a wrap for Day One of our Holiday Party!