[Penninehillbilly]

Back at the millennium,  we talked about, and i was promised, 2 chunky uprights, so the low sun would shine through between them at midday, sadly like all promises it never happened.  .
But a few years ago  I started putting a few 'christmas' lights out, and switch on as near as I can to the actual time, as i see it, welcoming the new year. Just seems the right thing to do.
Never thought about feasting though, by the time hubs gets home, it's too late to bother (he works late most nights)

[Fleecewife]

Back at the millennium,  we talked about, and i was promised, 2 chunky uprights, so the low sun would shine through between them at midday, sadly like all promises it never happened.  .
But a few years ago  I started putting a few 'christmas' lights out, and switch on as near as I can to the actual time, as i see it, welcoming the new year. Just seems the right thing to do.
Never thought about feasting though, by the time hubs gets home, it's too late to bother (he works late most nights)

Shame    The feasting (well just a normal meal in fact) is more of a harvest festival to celebrate what's been grown on the holding that year.  The Yule log I suppose is just a bit of daftness        We're just very conscious of how our lives turn with the seasons and depend on the weather 

[Penninehillbilly]

I agree FW, we are only over a hill from the village, about 10-15mins walk by the track, but in many ways a bit isolated, prefering my own and my animals company than the gossip, and tend to notice more, night sky, clouds, the snow line, I love the quiet and occasional  stillness of the night, I just stand taking it in, I often suddenly feel the spring in the air, a very strange but exciting and uplifting feeling, makes me want to dance round LOL. But there will be a couple of months of rough before we get there yet this year  .
No doubt March will be bad because I've got the goats kidding early this year.

[Fleecewife]

There are a lot of predictions of a hard winter to come.  We've had them here a couple of times over the years and it's just heads down and get through it, enjoying the best days and hoping my scoot gets me through the snow on the bad ones  .  I've been in virtual isolation here since covid was first reported in China.  Luckily my husband can get out to collect food for us and for the livestock, but that's it.  I don't miss company, but he does, so a festive season alone will affect him more than me. He found a wonderful Gaelic word: Greannach, which means Grumpy, to describe himself during the pandemic.  I shall be happily planning what to grow this summer, and looking forward to lambing, which we didn't do last year.
Next job is to clean out all 35 of our bird nest boxes - each one requires Mr F to climb up a ladder to reach the box before chucking out the occasional dead chick and loads of bedding.  It's the only time I wish we didn't have quite so many nest boxes 


Good luck with your kidding Penninehillbilly - I hope all goes well.

[naturelovingfarmer]

Unfortunately I was in the hospital on solstice. My family is Norwegian-American so we had to have our Jul celebration late.

[Fleecewife]

Unfortunately I was in the hospital on solstice. My family is Norwegian-American so we had to have our Jul celebration late.

That was a shame for you.  The Solstice we were discussing here though is the Winter Solstice on Dec 21st or thereabouts.  For us it's a big event as it marks the change from the nights being so long and the days ridiculously short, to the days beginning to get longer quite quickly.  For example in Scotland where I live, just before the Solstice, it was almost dark by 1530, and didn't get light until after 0900, so a very short day for getting everything done outside.  In contrast by the Summer Solstice it's only truly dark for an hour or so in the middle of the night.  I wonder how the birds get enough sleep?

[naturelovingfarmer]

Unfortunately I was in the hospital on solstice. My family is Norwegian-American so we had to have our Jul celebration late.

That was a shame for you.  The Solstice we were discussing here though is the Winter Solstice on Dec 21st or thereabouts.  For us it's a big event as it marks the change from the nights being so long and the days ridiculously short, to the days beginning to get longer quite quickly.  For example in Scotland where I live, just before the Solstice, it was almost dark by 1530, and didn't get light until after 0900, so a very short day for getting everything done outside.  In contrast by the Summer Solstice it's only truly dark for an hour or so in the middle of the night.  I wonder how the birds get enough sleep?

Oh, because you're close to the arctic circle?

I'm much further south, so for us it's just the beginning of a 9 day holiday. I'm also responsible for calculating our calendar each year. The first new moon after the first full moon after the solstice is the first day of the year in the stave calendar. There are 13 stava, one for each monad (month). We tell when it's okay to plant certain things based on a combination of this lunar calendar and the buds on the trees. Lunar calendars are better for telling when to plant crops. It's on a 19 year metonic cycle. The picture shows a historic stave calendar but in the modern day it's arranged in a grid form like the regular calendar.

[Fleecewife]

I've never tried sowing according to the moon, but I have a feeling I really should look into that. It gets towards biodynamics though and I'm not into stirring bits of manure in a clockwise or antoclockwise direction, although I am strictly organic in my growing methods.  I love the stave calendar.  Do you have some links I can follow to find out more?


Yes, I do live fairly far north so we have very definite winter and summer seasons, but at least not the total winter dark of truly arctic lands.  There is enough of an effect though to make a lot of us quite down in the dark days, so the winter solstice is really significant. Our growing season is short, with late 'spring' frost in summer and early 'autumn' frosts, sometimes also in summer 

[naturelovingfarmer]

Well the planting times you have to work out based on observation while using the calendar. It's different from place to place.

But the calendar goes like this:

19 year cycles
13 months in a year
28 nights in a month
7 nights in a week
4 weeks in a month
Weeks always start with moon day and end with sun day.
The first new moon after the first full moon after the solstice is the first day of the year.

From this you can do your own calculations for the calendar. I doubt the holidays will be of much interest but there are 4 of them. Ostarablot in the spring equinox, Midsommar in the summer solstice, Midwintar in the fall equinox, and Jul in the Winter solstice.