Winter Solstice 2018: Far and Near

Today is Winter Solstice in the northern hemisphere (see Season of Darkness, Season of Light). This year’s shortest day/longest night is significant to our homestead, both for what happened this last year on the property, and off.

Off property, we visited Ireland earlier this year (see Every Sign a Song Cue) and, as I’ve mentioned before, one of the highlights, for us, was a visit to Brú na Bóinne, the palace of the Boyne, particularly its most famous site, Síd in Broga, also known as Newgrange (see Sacred Space).

Bru na Boinne, Newgrange

Síd in Broga in October (Photo: Sarah A. Zeiger).

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Celebrating a Survivor

At this time of year, many people in the northern hemisphere enjoy blooming Christmas cacti. Observing that our Christmas cactus is budding once again caused me to think about its interesting story.

Small Christmas cactus
Our Christmas cactus (Photo: Mark A. Zeiger).

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