Winter Solstice: times of danger and opportunity; times for special alertness and aliveness

Happy Winter Solstice everyone. I'm solo in the kitchen at Tune Farm while everyone runs errands before the weather takes a possible drastic turn. We rescheduled our celebration for this evening until next week due to possible tornado's in the area but I am still cooking up a storm for a cozy night in.

I'm fond of this quote I found today while reading up on ceremony and the history of the day- "Throughout history, celebrating the solstice has been a way to renew our connection with each other and with the numinous through acts of goodwill, special rituals, and heightened awareness."

There are numerous pecan trees that produce SO MANY NUTS surrounding the house at Tune Farm and I've spent time collecting many pounds of them while here (keep an eye on the mail Milwaukee friends.) There are also two medlar trees out front of the house that Lindsay harvested from last week. A new fruit to me I learned you let the fruit mature on the bush (a process called bletting) before you eat it. It tastes like fall, almost a pre-made appleish butter type paste. If your into weird edible plants read more about the really amazing history of the medlar in this article I found here.

During my many walks around the property I have found feathers, turtle shells, Lindsay and Benford found one last persimmon fruit they shook down from a tree we all got to taste. My time here is the perfect lead up to this winter solstice. Tonight we set our intentions for the year to come, hopefully not from the basement with tornado's outside.....

Wishing my amazing mom a very happy birthday! Love from Alabama to Washington xoxo