happy winter solstice my dear friend!
a day to dance and welcome the light ...
and to send 'warm winter wishes' ~ your winter image is so lovely calm ...
it's pretty late for this cinderella to be up so will add more to this posting in the morning ...
and now for my late addition ... but i just wanted to say a few things ... first off, how much i really love the images you took on your sunday drive with john ... and as i said to you, i think we need a day in the country exploring abandoned farm sites (with our cameras, of course!), and i know the perfect one ... and they say there is a central spiral staircase that leads to the widows peak ... seriously ... on the canadian prairies ...
i also have a little story to tell about winter solstice and my harp ...
it all began, i believe 11 years ago when we attended a solstice gathering where our friends brought their instruments ... there were guitars, mandolins, violins ... and a harp ... you can only imagine how magical the whole evening was ... and to top it off there was sliding down the river bank to a cleared area on the river where we skated under the stars ... it was there, gliding along that i struck up a conversation with the harpist, asking her how difficult was it to play a harp? she said ... if you can play piano, you can play harp. well, i definitely had a number of year of piano ... i was awestruck in every way and merely mused aloud to my hb on the ride home ~ 'someday, i would like to play the harp' ...
one year later, as christmas festivities were in full swing, there was my husband out in his woodworking shop all hours ... he would be out there some mornings at 5 ... some nights he would be out there til 2 ... and i nearly BEGGED him to stay in and enjoy some christmas tree coziness with me and the kids ... i told him that the kitchen cupboard he was building me would be nice, but all he needed to give me was a drawer for christmas ...
christmas morning came at our house with ALL of my family there and the gift giving was wrapping up when hb said i ought to close my eyes ... and when i opened them, he presented me with this beautiful, magnificent harp that he had handcrafted in his shop ~ oh, i gasped and cried and gasped and cried ... he is quite the character and said that all our neighbours were holding their breath in anticipation that the strings would arrive on time for this surprise harp ... can you believe that our whole community knew except me? it was, without a doubt, the most exceptional surprise ever ... and the best part is that his gift to me keeps giving and giving, as every time i perform, there is always one person who is particularly touched and it makes it all so much more worthwhile ...
anyways, it was just a year after receiving my initial harp (hb went on to craft a few more ...) that we had the great fortune of taking our boys and seeing loreena mckennitt in concert ... she was breathtaking in every way ...
so, that's my story about winter solstice and harping and seriously i could just dance at the coming of the light again ... it all brings such hope ... and life ...
nighty night night ~ sweet 2bbb dreams,
prairiegirl xo
:::
2bbb twelve days of christmas
on this, the eighth day of christmas, my friend i give to you ...
more music ...
part of the origin of the winter solstice traditions relates to the holly and the ivy ... and i thought it appropriate to offer you loreena mckennitt's the holly and the ivy from her midwinter night's dream recording ... unfortunately i was not able to locate a video of her actually performing ... this artist from down the road, in morden, manitoba has moved the world with her harp and vocal performances ...
