I felt the light return this morning, rather than witnessed it. I would’ve normally raced up an eastwards facing hill and jumped up and down, willing that firey ball to rise. Not so this morning, in the white stillness. Something quieter stirred…

So I padded down the path in my slippers with two candles, and there they glowed, prettily, in the snow. Then from the warm, I picked up my drum, and slowly, like a quiet hearbeat in the earth, began to dream and drum a little song, spiralling gently from me out into the world. A sweet song that I learned recently, “I will sleep in the darkness, like a seed in the Earth…I will sleep, I will dream, of whats to come”

Blessings on all your dreamings, may they take you on beautiful journeys in 2011.

P.S. Darkness has come again, and my candles are still alight, through the quietness of the day, and even a small snow storm this afternoon.

And so this witching time is upon us….how delicious…..my favourite festival of the year. A group of us gathered to honour our Ancestors beneath a beautiful  Beech tree, turning from its dark leaves to coppery brown. We spoke names of loved friends and family into the circle, which was lit by candles in jam jars….simple but moving, as dusk fell around us, ushering in the winter.

Today, a quieter walk through Slad woods, catching spiralling leaves,  our footsteps winding slowly up the very steep Swifts Hill. At the top, looking out over the gently misted five valleys that I call home, sharing spiced apple juice (thank you Barbara for the apples!) and homemade chocolate biscuits, soft and crumbly.

The time of roots, and of resting. It begins.