Tuesday, December 21, 2010

The Winter Solstice

 Today we're celebrating the Winter Solstice. Although it marks the beginning of winter, I look at it as marking the beginning of Spring. There may be lots of bad weather between now and spring flowers, but today is the shortest day of the year, so starting tomorrow the days will begin getting longer. That's a good thing for me. As may of you know, I suffer from seasonal depression, sometimes referred to as SAD ( seasonal affective disorder). SAD seems to be related to a lack of light, so longer days are good for my well being.
This year for your viewing pleasure, I arranged a total lunar eclipse of the full moon to coincide with the Solstice. This is the first such event in over 400 years and won't occur again for another 400 or so. If you missed it last night, mark your calendars for the next one.

 Rob and I debated last night on whether to stay up for the eclipse, but after a long day we were tired and went to sleep. At 1:34 this morning, Samba came over to my side of the bed, whimpered and licked my hand. I thought she needed to go out, since she's on prednisone she sometimes needs to pee during the night. I got up, grabbed my robe and we tiptoed out the front door. I opened the gate for her and she walked down to the driveway and stood there looking at me. I didn't know what she wanted, but I looked up and saw the eclipse under way. Samba and I stood on the porch and watched it. It was amazing.
This year we sponsored a Winter Solstice swap and today is the day. Unfortunately, due to bad weather conditions in various parts of the world, some of the packages are late arriving, but should be at their destinations within a few days. The ones I've seen so far are really neat. Everyone did a good job and getting a special gift on the shortest day of the year feels good, doesn't it?

 Happy Winter Solstice to all our friends. Take a minute today to look around at the beauty of nature and enjoy the advance toward Spring.

19 comments:

gMarie said...

Lovely photos. We missed the eclipse because Seattle decided to bless us with warmth via heavy cloud cover. You couldn't really see anything :(

Samba is one smart girl! g

Lapdog Creations said...

Those are gorgeous photos! I didn't make it up in time to see.....

Two French Bulldogs said...

Wat great pictures. We are going to look at it as the beginning of spring too!
Benny & Lily

~Kim at Golden Pines~ said...

Great pictures!! I love how Samba woke you up to go and have a look!

When we lived in Alaska I always looked forward to the winter solstice for those same reasons--that and the great shopping that they always had!! :-0 But now we both have something to look forward too!!

Marjie said...

It was cloudy, so we missed the eclipse, too. I watched one with the boys a couple of years ago one night, from about 9PM to about midnight (so, school ran late that night; the principal didn't mind the boys sleeping in). It was wonderful.

Tomorrow will be 2 minutes longer, and there are lots of us out here who are quite fond of you, so remember that when your SAD attacks!

Tracy said...

Sue,
I'm blog hopping and found your name On Golden Pine; aka Kim's site and I laughed when I saw your comment about your dog getting you up and watching the lunar eclipse; aren't they amazing creatures?
I enjoyed my visit, I certainly will be back!

Cat said...

When I got up to let my kids out sometime in the wee hours, I looked for the moon, groggily, but couldn't find it (?), so I crawled back in bed!
I enjoyed all your photos - thank you for sharing them.
Merry Christmas to you and yours,
fondly,
Cathy

Zona said...

Great photos!!! We are cheering on the longer days here too. My papa suffers from SAD too. I do my best to boost his mood. It's better this year after a full year on Vitamin D but we also changed his diet so we're not sure if it's one of those OR a fluke! Bring on the longer days!!

Wags,
Zona

Molly the Airedale said...

Good for you for waking your mom up, Samba! We bet she's glad you did! What awesome pictures!

Love ya lots
Maggie and Mitch

Yoda_the_Dog said...

We opened our swap gifts this morning and mom loves the knit doggies (she has claimed them for herself) and I am looking forward to the dog biscuits she will make with the cut outs. We are blogging about them now ...

Bella Roxy & Macdui said...

It's our longest day of the year!

Gorgeous pictures and wasn't Samba astute to awaken you.

XXXOOO Daisy, Kendra & Bella

♥I am Holly♥ said...

What beautiful pictures! We missed it here so love seeing the pictures!! We are heading for spring...now that sounds good to us!! Lots of love, Holly and mom

The Daily Pip said...

What a beautiful way to look at things! We had a snow storm last night so we couldn't see the moon. I guess we will have to wait for the next one. BOL!

I had so much with the swap. Thanks for organizing it and including us! SADD runs in my family too so we understand ...but Spring is just around the corner!

Pip & Kristin

Rocky Creek Scotties and Rocky Creek Ramblings said...

What wonderful photos - we were unable to see it due to the clouds - and I was up early enough!!

Kristine said...

Due to a storm that has been raging in these parts for the last few days, I was unable to see the eclipse. Too many clouds in the way. So thank you so much for sharing the photos you were able to take. Now I don't feel as if I completely missed out!

Happy Spring! :-)

SissySees said...

Beautiful photos. I too suffer with SADD. Gretchen made sure I got to see a few minutes... For once, I was happy for her wee bladder!

Rose said...

Yesterday (tuesday) I heard someone on the news talking about the winter solstice and saying it was the longest day of the year! Yikes! I knew it was the shortest... but some of the news people need to go back to school!! I too am looking forward to the start of longer days! Hooray!! Did miss the eclipse since I was asleep,and not even sure if the sky was clear enough to see it, but so glad Samba woke you so you could watch it together!

soulbrush said...

Popped in to wish you and Rob and all the kiddies a very warm and happy Xmas and a healthy and wonderful 2011. Been good for me not to blog at all for nearly 4 months, may be back -not sure yet. Hugs from a freezing, snowy London. xxxx

kathy b said...

Aw Samba made sure you saw it!