Merry Christmas

Christmas has arrived. It is knocking on the door of my heart. I want to wish to all my friends and relatives, closer and far away the most peaceful and joyful Christmas day. May this special day fill you up with happiness to last until the next one. For my Christians friends ( as me ) this is such a very special day, in which we celebrate the birth of our very special friend and the wisest and most loving teacher, Jesus.
Here few pictures from my house, mostly the lights, colourful and so necessary in the darkness of this month.

Merry Christmas !!!

Sunrise

Only few days until the solstice. I'm litterally in love with the magic and mystic that happens during the solstices. The shorter and the longer days in the year. The sun making a leap from darkness to light and vice versa. Of course the winter solstice is the most exciting, after so much darkness, knowing that finally the light is about to shine again it is so comforting. No wonder Jesus was born around this period. He is so comforting too.
This morning I took a picture outside around noon. The sun is under the top of the trees at the horizon. It not even arrives at west to set, so short its path nowadays.

Today's details:

Sunrise at  9:17 am

Sunset at 15:06 pm

daylight 5 hours 49 minutes

Have a nice week !

The dark side of the earth

At the moment my adoptive country belongs to the dark side of the earth. Even if I live on the south, several hundred kilometres from the Arctic Circle ( where the sun never rise above the horizon in this half of the year and never sets in the next half ), the differences light-wise between summer and winter are truly dramatic. If during the summer months we enjoy countless hours of direct sunlight and we never experience the night ( the only down side : no stars ) in this period at 16:00 is already pitch dark and in the morning before 9:00 the light is so dim. The official sunrise is at 8:47 and the sunset is at 15:27, giving us 6 hours and 40 minutes of daylight ( and it's going to get shorter until the solstice ). So in this period light, or the lack of it, it's something really important to everybody living at these latitudes. Houses and towns start glowing of many white lights, most of them on the windowsill or hanging over the windows or on the front porch. Candles are lit in many gardens and on the tables and sunny days and snow (which brings a great deal of light ) are celebrates with cheers and smiles and gratefulness. This makes me think that today for my American friends is Thanksgiving, the '' giving thanks'' day. What a beautiful tradition my friends. Let me borrow this celebration for a moment . I'm so very grateful for the four seasons we enjoy every year, because each of them makes us appreciate different aspects of the glorious creation we live in. And at the moment I'm especially thankful for the gift of light in all its magical, poetical and joyous aspects.

A sunny snowy day is worth a celebration in this season.

 

My neighbour's garden. Magical.

 

A few of the lights on our windows

Spring and fairies

Hello world ! Wow it has been a long silence it feels almost strange to be back here on my apple tree posting. Very busy days in a rather demanding family with a lot of work to get ready for summer's markets and events in which hopefully I will sell some of my creations. My creativity has the tendency to roam very wide in very different fields, so I have busied myself with jewelry, mixed media, crocheting, painting\drawing and photography. Little by little I will show here some of my things and maybe I might consider to start selling also online (maybe on Etsy ? I need to check it out, prices and stuff ... ).
So as the title says it seems that spring is slowly showing up here in Finland too. It is still quite cold ( only we reached +9C only after hours in the sun - a cold sun it seems ) but we already have very long days with the sun rising around 6 am and setting past 8 pm so lovely ! I've always been an early bird, but the winter darkness basically switches me off and that is something that I really dislike, but the light of spring\summer !! It's my thing totally, I also welcomed spring with a two weeks detox\cleanse with no gluten, dairies, meat and filled with raw vegetables and fruit and boiled eggs. It's not much far away from the way I usually eat, but in normal 'days' I enjoy some cheese or latte and ocasionally some chicken meat. During my detox I also started every day with meditation and prayers and Bible reading, which usually helps me a lot to go through the day. Well this depends a lot on James, if he wakes up earlier I usually have to give up meditation or Bible reading, but accepting this season of my life I'm sure it's a big step in the direction of mindfulness and awareness and acceptance of the will of God.
Anyways, as I said today we had some sun, so with the precious help of two of my children I went outside to take some pictures. Well .... you won't believe what I found ! ...our garden was filled with fairies ....
(spoiler alert : it's part of a nice little project I'm carrying on ... ) so .... welcome in my garden  !

... As I was getting ready to shot some pics of the wild crocuses I realized that little friends had gathered around the flowers as well. I'm sure the fairies have missed flowers and sun as much as I did during the winter. I wonder where do they hide in the dark and cold months ...

 ... And look ! I'm not the only one who is excited about rhubarb season .... this little one is probably rhubarb fairy !!

Hopefully you're life have been filled with sun and joy and a little kind of magic as well.
Have a great week !

Love&Light

When my little one was about to arrive we bought for him a little bed, you know the usual 'fenced' ones, even if i already thought to co-sleep with him. Well the little bed has been just an additional closet for the last 2 years and half. Then few weeks ago he started asking about this odd and messy piece of furniture near mom and dad's bed and we told him it was his own bed that he could use whenever he wanted. So to sweetly encourage him my handy husband modified the little bed to be more suitable for the needs of a indipendent young boy. He took away one of the sides and lowered the bed at about 30cm from the floor so that Jimmy could go in and out at his own will. Jimmy seemed quite excited but he never even wanted to try to sit over it. Well no problem for us, we are enjoying our co-sleeping journey and we are ready and willing to give hime all the time he needs for this big stap ahead. Today we went in the nearby town in a departement store and as usual Jimmy was overly fascinated and attracted by Christmas lights. he asked us to buy a strand of colourful ( and unexpensive) led lights.We agreed and he came home proudly holding in his hand the box with the lights. When we arrived home he asked daddy to help him putting the lights around his bed. When we switched on the lights he Ohoooed with his blue eyes wide open and declared ' Now I can sleep in my bed' and laid in there under the blanket. It has been such a sweet moment. Well, no he is not sleeping in there now, but I can see a big step ahead in his journey and the just the way I wished it to happen, at his pace, in sweetness and acceptance.

 Jimmy for the first time in his bed

 We had to take away all the store bought dolls and teddy bears because james is afraid of them, he only likes this woolen dolls I make for him and loves them dearly

Wonderful isn't it ?

Just out from a fairy tale.