The sun rose triumphantly this solstice morning, a very welcome sight. We have been enjoying wet weather these past few days and the ground is pleasantly spongy. But after several dull days in a row, when we felt very fortunate to have a sunbeam or two pierce the gloom in the afternoon, we were happy to greet the sun today.

The Winter Solstice and Summer Solstice are two days celebrated as far back into human history as archeologists have been able to dig. The monuments at Gobekli Tepe in Turkey, only discovered in the 1960s, now have a tentative date back to more than 10,000 years ago. And like Stonehenge, the Great Sphinx in Giza, and other prehistoric stone monuments, they show clear alignment to the solstice sunrise at the time of their construction.

The Winter Solstice remains a time of great joy as the sun ‘returns’ and days grow gradually longer. By the Summer Solstice in late June, when our days are very, very long and hot, I usually feel relieved to know that the days will begin growing shorter once again.

December has been a wintery month for us. There hasn’t been much to photograph in the yard that I’d care to share with the very talented gardeners in this group. Even the ferns in back have been affected by the cold and windy storms that have blown through and nibbled by the deer. I was thrilled to find some beautiful ‘fungi flowers’ growing from a dying limb of an old redbud tree when we ventured out one afternoon earlier this week.

Despite our cold and windy morning, still above freezing I’m happy to report, I went out to greet this morning’s Solstice sunrise. Sunrise was supposed to be at 7:17 here this morning, but the disc of the sun was still below our horizon, though the sky was brightening. I lingered awhile, admiring the remaining Camellia flowers and glossy Magnolia trees. The birds were awakening and beginning to sing. I watched them flitting about in the shrubs and low branches of the trees, as the Cardinals began chirping to greet the rising sun.

Sunrise can be a slow affair, especially when there are hills and trees for the sun to clear as it ascends. It was nearly 8 before it was well and truly up, illuminating the tree tops, and clearing the roofs across the way. And now it is a beautiful winter day indeed. A day when the high is forecast to be less than 10 degrees Fahrenheit above this morning’s low, but a bright enough day for the sun to reach the plants sheltering inside.

I have been thinking about Winter Solstice this week, and Christmas, and all of the tangled strands of custom, myth and belief tied around our winter celebrations. I have been thinking about how we can use even these wintery months to care for our own plots of Earth and the public spaces in our communities. There are always things we can do now that will make a positive difference in the world in the year to come. None of us can do everything, be we can each do something.

So may you enjoy the blessings of this Winter Solstice, and happiness and good health during Christmas, Hanukah, and into the new year. We are still in the historic time of Saturnalia, so I hope you get to enjoy a great party or two, as well.

With appreciation to Jim Stephens of Garden Ruminations, who

hosts Six on Saturday each week.