today marks the Winter Solstice

It is the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.

The South Pole is leaning as far towards the sun as it will until this time next year.

It is also considered officially as the first day of northern winter. Even though the days will now start getting longer, the cooling of our portion of the Earth’s surface has just begun.

Take a look at sunrise and sunset for the next few days. Note where they strike your house, where they shine in the windows, what areas of your yard get the most southern warming exposure. From now to June, those points will gradually move north before the Summer Solstice marks the next turnaround.

As long as people have paid attention to their physical world in an organized fashion, there have been many ways of demarcating and celebrating the Winter Solstice. It is noteworthy in many ways and helps tie the seasons together.

This is one day of the year that no political or religious calendar can change.

It simply and irrefutably just IS.

It’s kind of nice to have something that solid come along every now and then.

Worth celebrating, don’t you think?

I am going to shovel some snow that came down overnight…

watch as the school bus is extricated from the ditch…

transplant baby lettuce in my greenhouse…

build a nice toasty fire in the woodstove…