Advent Calendar day 5/6/7 - following the light

Sunrise - 9:02am

Sunset- 15:10pm

 Hello everybody !

the last few days have been hectic and busy here in my dwelling. The weather went from joyfully snowing to warm rainy and wet, over and over again. Days are still getting shorter and shorter, but the solstice is getting closer and so the mood is quite good. The neighbourhood, but really the whole little town, is now alight with the traditional white lights on windows, trees and barns. Walking around in the dark looks pretty much as walking in a living fairytale. So I thought you might like to see how it is like to have a stroll around here, these days.

Beautiful isn't it ? This is my favourite time of the year, even if I like every season for their own peculiarity, the feelings arising during the Solstice/Christmas time are just so primordial, in a way. I think that when people consider this time just a merely commercial or religious matter, it is because they don't have a strong enough connection with the nature, with mother earth. Here, where seasons are dramatically different, where the light, or the lack of it, caraterize every period of the year, well the return of light is celebrated as a relief, as an amazing moment, no matter your spiritual path or you holiday traditions. The reality is, that this IS a magical, incredible moment in which our spirit get new energy to face a new beginning. 

Tomorrow Finland celebrates the Indipendence day, 103 years old, if I am not wrong. So please, my dear finnish readers, accept my best wishes for your hard earned freedom <3

Advent Calendar day 4 - Following the light

  Hello out there !

Hopefully you're all in good health and good spirit. Today started cloudy and grey to become clear and crispy by midday. It even allowed me and little boy to go in 'our' forest for a short visit before dark.

But first things first, let's follow the light ...

Sunrise - 8:56 am

Sunset - 15:12 pm

Today, I decorated our entrance room and switched to Christmas mugs and glasses ( I don't have Christmas plates tho ) and of course I kept working with my beloved wool. I can't imagine a better activity in this cold season than working soft and warm woolen fibers <3

May peace be with you all <3

Advent Calendar - Following the light

 Hello everybody out there !

Hopefully my post finds you all well. We had some snow during the night but already early this morning it has started raining and everything melted, so once again everything is muddy, wet and dark. But I am still hoping for a white Christmas...

But here we go following the light today ...

 Sunrise - 8:54 am

 Sunset - 15:13 pm

Even if the Advent started already on Sunday, traditionally we put up our Advent Calendar always the first day of December. So this morning in the very wee hours of the day I got the calendar out of the Christmas box and started filling it with all kind of junk (sic) sweets my kids love. 

When my kids were younger I used to make a new calendar each year, then around 8 years ago I made the one we're still using and everybody loved it so much that it stuck. It's 24 tiny knitted woolen socks (newborn size) of different colours and in my opinion it looks so lovely !!

Needless to say I am so in love with our Advent tradition <3

And you dear ones ? Do you have any tradition in your family that you especially love ?

Advent Calendar day 1 and 2 (following the light)

 Hello everybody out there !

The Advent has started and the Solstice/Christmas/Yule countdown is officially on !

I will try to post everyday a sort of Advent Calendar with activities/images from life here in the north and I will point out sunrise and sunset time to arrive past the solstice and welcome the light back after the darkest days of the year. I hope you will enjoy these days with me <3

Following the light :

Sunrise - 8:52 am

Sunset - 15:15 pm

Yesterday was the first Sunday of Advent, we started decoranting the house, we put the traditional lights on the windowsills and the candle holder with the four candles in the centre of the table. I baked some almond star shaped cookies. Today I went on with my woolworking, I greatly enjoyed some needle felting which is, in my opinion, one of the most relaxing and soothing activity with its rythmic pace. 

 

 

Is there anything traditional that you do in this period of the year ? Are you already decorating the house or cooking anything special ?

Have a lovely day people out there ! <3

November

Hello everybody !

Here I am once again writing down my musings. Strange how our brain works ( at least the brain of some of us ) which feel the need and enjoy the feeling to write our heart down and put it out there for everybody to read for no obvious reason other than writing itself and maybe leaving an unharming trace of our existence behind us. And yes, I'm kinda prone to rambling out loud eheheh.

I was thinking, something I am asked a lot is what it is like to live here or what I find so appealing in the far north ( from a native southern perspective). I'd say that what I love the most here is the wilderness and the contact with nature. For me it so important. I live in a very small town and even living very close to the 'town center' I still can enjoy the forest. And in this period, when the day it is actually too short to walk to the forest, even just going out in the garden or having a stroll in the neighbourhood makes you feel the strong connection with the earth. Poetry is in the details. Wonders can be as huge as the sky or as tiny as the moss. Beauty embrace me all around, all over, again and again. But here you go, let's give a look at the beauty of November <3

And yes, I like that much to be connected with the nature that if I have to go only outside in the garden I still only wear flip-flops ....

I hope you enjoyed you visit here today ! And in case I might not make it to post tomorrow, I wish you all a lovely first Sunday of Advent. Just a spoiler, from the first of December I will start an interesting series of posts about light, darkness and the upcoming Solstice/Yule/Christmas <3

Good evening to all !

 

Lover of craft

 Hello everybody,

Hopefully this letter finds you all very well. I was pleased to see that my post yesterday was welcomed despite my very long silence here in blogland.

Today the world here in the North  has not been nearly as appealing as yesterday when the frost was covering in glitter everything. Today the temperature rised around +10C, and everything looked humid and muddy under the grey sky.

I was thinking, since my bold statement under my profile picture 'lover of craft',that you might like to see in which kind of the many crafts I like I am engaged at the moment.

You will notice my pictures are kinda dark, it depends on the fact that I am an extremily early bird, so most of the time I dedicate to my favourite activities, in this dark period of the year, is way before the sunrise. Other than that, it inspires me to be in dim light, with some candles and some Yule music playing softly. But here we go to some pictures ....

As I said, one of the first things I do when I wake up (after a few chores and walking the dog) is to lit a candle and put on some music

And then here we go, cup of coffee, more candles and wool !! Lot of it !

And in many different forms. So after a little knitting, It's needle felting time.

Have you ever tried it ? I thing it is one of the most relaxing activities you could think of.

And here it is ! A little newborn elf is peacefully sleeping in a nut shell.

shhhhh

When the rest of the family gets up

 ( everybody else here is a night owl, so I have a lot of time on my own in the morning )

the table usually looks quite crowded ...

 

Well, hopefully you enjoyed your time reading me ! I wish you a lovely evening dear readers <3

Peace to all

Long time

 My last post in this dwelling dates 3 years ago. It is amazing how time flyes away. How time heals. How life keeps changing in a neverending dance.

 

 

 I'm here and as fine as I could be, and very very thanksful for this. Something shifted in me and suddently my soul has found its peace. Not that everything is always beautiful or that nothing ever disappoints me. It is something deeper. It's an inner balance for which, again, I am immensly grateful for.

Here in the north we're in the deep of the dark season. Today the sunrise was at 8:41am and the sunset at 15:22pm; until the winter solstice we will loose a couple more hours of light. 

So far no snow, just a short dusted a few days ago and tonight an incredible frost which painted the whould world in white. But now it is raining again.

 

I'm already deep in the Yule/Christmas mood, already playing wintery music and tiressly work on Yule/Christmas project sipping endless teas (I'm rather a coffee person, but hot tea is my choice when it comes to warm up.

 

It's nice to be back <3