Scenes from the Solstice

 "The winter solstice has always been special to me as a barren darkness that gives birth to a verdant future beyond imagination, a time of pain and withdrawal that produces something joyfully inconceivable, like a monarch butterfly masterfully extracting itself from the confines of its cocoon."

- Gary Zukav.

Cheers to the first day of winter, here in the Pacific Northwest it can feel like winter starts sometime around the first rains in October with it's perpetual greyness and damp. This past week was the dampest it has been in a long time. The old farmhouse at illahe is practically underwater with high water everywhere. But it is a happy time to find a warm blanket and be thankful for a dry roof over my head, with heat and a Christmas tree providing a warm light on the darkest, longest nights. I know many aren't so lucky, having fallen prey to the ravages of out of control capitalist greed, illness, or the scourge of the opiods poured down throats by doctors lining pockets for big pharmas gain. Or maybe they just didn't make it in the rat race of humanity's incessant need to accumulate and control. I see them sleeping on the sidewalk, or if they are lucky tucked into a wooded lot in a tent. This week with it's three inches of rain and highs in the 30's should make anyone feel compassion and empathy for someone living in tent, no matter what the reason that put them there. 

Hammamelis 'Jelena' adding some color to the winter landscape.

The birds found a brief respite in the weather to make me poorer for there feeding. I've been enjoying watching them flit about the feeders in the Sea Buckthorn outside the carport. I have a good view of it from my office desk. 

Cornus 'Midwinter Fire' is one of my favorites I think it's a dynamite shrub year around, it's tough, drought tolerant in the summer, has great fall color, and lights up the winter landscape like no other. 

I know spring will come, and I can revel in a warm place to spend the darkest night. I can go for fun to the snow and ski and put myself in the path of cold and return to a warm place to go and do it all again for fun. I can say I worked hard to get to this middle class existence, I stayed in school, I kept a clean head clean enough to graduated. I put in long hours, worked overtime and in government service for low pay to get my warm place with a roof over my head. But I know I'm lucky, we are all one slip and fall, a mistake at work or car wreck away from existing in a tent in the local natural area. The razers edge is a pretty narrow catwalk even for the fleet of foot.  The Build Back Better Plan being derailed by a greedy,  Oil tycoon that could care less about the future of the next generation maybe has me reflecting a bit deeper on the meaning of life, the longest night, the beginning of winter and what spring and another summer of heat and drought could look like. If magnified by the intensity that all storms raging through the valley now seem carry and exceedance of "typical" it makes you wonder what year 3, 5, and 10 from now will actually look like. America loves a crime story, because America is a crime story. 

But post haste bid adieu to the doom and gloom, I hope you are all thankful for the warm place in which you read this, the glow of electricity which lights your device, I took a little walk around the farmstead today and saw a few things that lit the day. 

It may snow over Christmas, which is rare, after a week of flooding. I'll be off of here for a bit to enjoy the holidays and go enjoy the snow. Searching for some cross country ski adventures over christmas break and if I don't get back to this blog before then I wish you and yours a Happy Holiday season and the merriest of new years. 

Mark 

Narcissus cantabricus ssp.cantabricus var. foliosus

"What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness."

John Steinbeck

Happy Solstice and cheers to the first day of winter! So I hear there is the Ursid meteor shower is about to rain down tonight, a full moon on the solstice known as the Cold Moon will rise, on the darkest and longest night of the year. The federal government is about to shut down and Christmas is right around the corner. What a time it is. I've always appreciated the solstice events, and the equinox and the markings of the changing of the seasons. The first day of winter has always been an interesting one, lots of times we are so busy with the hustle and bustle of Christmas that it barely get's noticed. But without winter starting we couldn't get to spring. I must admit the darkest, longest nights of winter, where you leave for work in the dark and you return home in the dark can be real downer. But starting tomorrow we begin to gain ever so many precious seconds of daylight. So raise a glass to tonight and toast to the Winter Solstice, the sky may be falling and the country may be imploding under bad leadership, but tomorrow will seem just a little bit brighter. Happy Solstice!

Narcissus cantabricus ssp. cantabricus var. foliosus

I thought I'd feature this little gem of a hoop petticoat Narcissus since it's been blooming for a week or more now. If you have followed this blog much you probably already know that it's usually always the last flower of the year and the first of the new one. It doesn't need forcing to bloom right on Christmas. It's been known to science since 1601 when Clusius, received a drawing from a traveler stating the bulbs had been dug up on his journey's through the Cantabrian Mountains. Augustin Pyramus de Candolle, the genius of a swiss botanist, who gave us the concepts of "natures war" and influenced Charles Darwin subsequent works,  was the one who gave it the name Narcissus cantabricus however he too was wrong about the location of origin. This one with it's creamy white flowers and 3 to 8 leaves per bulb actually comes from Morocco. It's an easy grower, the only caveat for cultivation in the temperate rain forest winter's of Western Oregon is keeping the buds dry and slug free for the winter bloom. Cultivation in a cool greenhouse is ideal, as moisture can be controlled and a better eye kept on the slugs who will quickly ravage the tender buds which must come as a delicious treat at such a lean time of year for flowers.

This is probably the last post of 2018, I must admit I was thinking back on this year and the Counting Crows song a Long December came to mind

 " there's reason to believe
Maybe this year will be better than the last"

I said too many last goodbyes in 2018, I saw too many bad things happen to good people in 2018, I felt the hurt and the sorrow of immigrants escaping war and famine, I felt the coldness as America turned it's back on the pale and downtrodden. I felt the cold apathetic hand of "leadership" in the work place slap across my face. I looked on as the feeble minded continue to rule without a thought for the betterment of society. I watched as "Christians" turned hate into "Conservatism" and served it spoon fed to the gullible and weak minded. 

 I'll see you in 2019 with more flowers and a hope that:

 " there's reason to believe
Maybe this year will be better than the last"

Cheers to a better one ahead, 

Mark