Tag: winter solstice

My Holiday Week in Pictures

~ Crystal Sands ~ 3 Comments

I hope you are having a restful holiday season. It has been quite the year for all of us, but here we are, figuring it out somehow, aren’t we?

It has been terribly, terribly cold here. We lost one of our young chickens, one of our two roosters, so that was a blow. I think it was mostly just unlucky genetics, but truly, it has been unusually cold unusually early here. I don’t think we have seen a December this cold since we started homesteading, so when we got baby chickens in August, we thought they would be plenty big before the bad cold hit. Of course, we thought wrong, and the cold has been hard on our little ones. They are fully feathered, but still.

The cold is hard on the young ones and the old ones. We mostly have the young ones and the old ones now, so Ron has been running the ceramic heater in the coop on the worst nights. I know you are not supposed to heat your coop, but we try to make careful exceptions to the rule.

On the bright side, it has been amazing for making ice lanterns, and I have made several. I have been using candle light both inside and outside to keep me in good spirits, and it has worked. I decided to take a lesson from the Nordic folk and just lean into the candlelight this year. It has been so helpful that I want to see if there is any science behind it.

I hope you are staying warm and cozy. It’s -1 here right now in our part of Maine, so I am doing my best. I hope you are doing your best wherever you are. I hope these photos make you smile. They are presented in random order with some random thoughts. I would love to see some of your holiday photos or at least hear some of your stories. Please share as well if you can!

I’ll start with Boudica. Here, she is asking me to come out to play in the snow, and I am telling her there is no way I am going out in that cold. I am telling her to come in the house and sit on the couch with me. She eventually came inside and slept next to me on the couch. She has been doing that a lot lately. Her tiredness worries me, but I am trying to treasure our snuggle time. She will be 10 this coming year.
I found out this year that I have a Jewish ancestor on my mom’s side, and I have always been so fascinated with Judaism and have studied a bit over the years. This year, I decided to try to learn how to celebrate Hanukkah officially, and my dear friend brought a menorah for me. I learned after this photo that you aren’t supposed to put all the candles in at once and that you burn the candles all the way down each night. I have much to learn, but this year, we celebrated Hanukkah, Yule, and Christmas, and it felt right to me. It seemed important to have all that focus on the light.
I was worried we were not going to have a Christmas tree this year. It was just a few days before Christmas, and I hoped a little tree from our property. It seems wrong to just cut down a tree for my own enjoyment, so I told Ron my idea of taking a tree from a patch of trees because they won’t all make it when they are too close. This tree has zero on the backside, but this side was perfect. I love her! We could not find a single tree stand for a live tree here in our part of Maine, so Ron bought a small bucket, filled it with rocks and water, and it worked! I was grateful.
The only perk I can see to this hard cold we have had this December is that I get to make ice lanterns. Aren’t they magnificent? If you live where it is cold you can make them too. I created directions for making them in the Winter Solstice issue of the journal.
I spent a good bit of this week making gifts for friends. This is one of the tiny Solstice cakes I made to share with others.
The tiny cake was inspired by this big cake. I make one every year and use the same snowmen candle holders every year.
I did my best at making a witch bowl candle, and it’s pretty good. However, I have much to learn. Hopefully, I will have them perfected by next year. They include oranges I dried plus cinnamon sticks, star anise, and whole cloves.
I also make these light balls made from Christmas lights and Solo cups. I gave this one to a dear friend to brighten her spirits. These balls of light are just lovely. I had hoped to make a bunch for our yard but rest took priority. Hopefully, next year, I can make more!
I made cranberry and popcorn strings for the turkeys on Christmas Eve. They loved them but not as much as they love Craisins (that’s a whole other story). The chickens LOVED theirs though, and that made my heart happy. The baby chickens were like, oh, we like popcorn!
This is my favorite stocking and favorite candle, so I felt they deserved a picture. Ron calls this candle my Ebenezer Scrooge candle. : )
It seemed proper to close my photos with one of Bairre on the couch on Christmas. He’s so happy when he’s on the pillows. Happy winter holidays, no matter what you celebrate, from all of us and Bairre. I hope you get some good rest like Bairre. He’s an expert at taking it easy.

The Shortest Day

~ Crystal Sands ~ 1 Comment

I have been so busy this week with all the work that goes into Christmas-ing and all the work that goes into parenting and all the work that goes into homesteading and all the work that goes into, well, work, that I haven’t been able to write, though I have started two blog posts that will remain unfinished.

However, despite today being the shortest day of the year, I can the light–and it’s coming, isn’t it?

The holiday season is a lot of work for so many of us. I can’t help but think I am definitely doing this wrong. As a professor, my work picks up greatly in December, and as a cello mom, I get extra busy in December because that’s when all the music things happen. It’s joyful, of course, but between my long COVID and my son’s long COVID, it’s just extra hard to keep up this year. My son, the cellist, has been in a borderline crash state for at least a week, but his whole semester of work has been bearing fruit this week. I had to keep him going with good food, lots of support, and lots of nagging about the importance of rest (something that is harder for a teenage boy that one might think). Dear readers, I am happy to report he made it–and he played so beautifully.

Last night, he played a gorgeous piece of music with a violinist partner, and it was breathtaking, but honestly, the whole night was breathtaking. It was a winter concert featuring Swedish folk songs, Vivaldi, Bach, poetry, and warm, wonderful people. The night ended with some Swedish hot cider that was so perfect on a snowy night that I am determined to find out what it was and get the recipe. I’ll keep you posted on that because I think it was elderberry, and elderberry is so good for you in the winter. It was definitely spicy.

I talked to a violin mom before the concert, and she expressed her desire for rest. We talked about how hard the holiday season can be on moms, and she told me a story about the years she lived in Sweden. She said, when she got there, she was given a book with instructions on how to prepare in November for rest in December. “Rest in December,” I said out loud with longing. We agreed that there must be some way to get some of that here in the states, but we agreed that we didn’t know how. Still, I need that book because, well, maybe one day…

In the meantime, I have much work tonight, but after I finish grading some essays, I am getting a bit of a break. I am also treasuring a lovely day I have had.

I woke up this morning still hanging onto the beautiful concert from last night. I shoveled snow before breakfast and then finished the Solstice cake you see pictured here. It came out perfectly! I was super thankful because, when you make something just once per year, you forget some of the strategies. I took my son to a cello recording, took a gift to a loved one, and then came home to find one egg when I put up the chickens for the evening. Ron made dinner and cooked up some of his purple cauliflower. It was so pretty.

Tomorrow, the light begins its, but tonight, I am going to finish grading my students’ essays and enjoy this warm fire in the wood stove and reflect on a lovely evening last night and day today.

The cycles continue, and I am reminded that I am a very fortunate human. I am tired in my bones, but rest is coming. I hope you all have a lovely Solstice.

I’m sharing my recipe for my Solstice cake below. It’s from Volume II of the Farmer-ish annual.

Ingredients

Cake

¾ cup unsalted butter, slightly melted
1 ½ cup sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
2 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cardamom
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup buttermilk

*Please note that my version of this recipe is a much milder spice cake. The recipes I adapted this from use more ginger, cardamom, and nutmeg. Some also add a small amount of black pepper. Our family, especially our youngest, prefers a milder spice cake. You can adjust if you like spice cake a little more spicy.

Frosting

8 ounces cream cheese, softened
¼ cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
1 to 2 cups powdered sugar (just add until your frosting is the thickness you want)

Decorations/Toppings

For the toppings, you can use anything you want. I sometimes use plain gingerbread cookies (to match the ginger-colored cake) with the berries. I have added golden candied ginger in the past as well, but the berries are everyone’s favorites. I use raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries, and the colors are lovely.

I also have these two little handmade snowmen candleholders that make an appearance every winter Solstice, and I adore them.

Directions

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 8-inch round cake pans thoroughly and set aside. 

With a mixer, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and continue mixing. Add in your vanilla. In a separate bowl, add all of your dry ingredients, whisk them together. Then, in little bits at a time, add your dry ingredients and buttermilk to your egg, butter, and sugar mixture. Pour your batter evenly into your two pans and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Be sure to check early and often on your cake. You do not want this cake to be dry. 

Allow your cakes to cool a bit. When they are cool enough, remove them and let them sit on wire racks to cool further. During that time, mix your frosting ingredients with your mixer. Just make sure to add enough powdered sugar that your frosting is the right texture to work with. Tasting is encouraged. 

For decorating, I followed the method of leaving the sides of the cake exposed to show the pretty ginger color. Add your frosting and colorful toppings in whatever way makes you happy.

Enjoy on the Solstice with some warm tea or cold milk. 

A Poetry Collection

~ Crystal Sands ~ Leave a comment

We have spent the day continuing our efforts to process the last of the garden (because some things taste better after the freeze and the freeze came very late this year) and button up the homestead for the winter. It’s a lot of work, but it’s extra this year because we are also having to make updates to the chicken coop.

Still, I have also been working on something extra special on the side–a poetry collection in honor of the Winter Solstice. The collection is an idea I have had for three years. I love reading poetry in the winter. It’s my hygge and healing, and I had the idea that it would be the most beautiful to have a collection that was nothing but Farmer-ish poetry–all focused on nature, farming, the cycles of nature and our connections to it all. I am so proud to say that we have some fantastic poetry in this book.

In this collection, we have a poem from the Poet Laureate of Maine, who is also a homesteader, from the Poet Laureate of Waffle House because she is truly awesome, from many award-winning poets, and from some poets who will be published in this collection for the first time. The poems are all just little treats. They will make you think, make you smile, make you remember your connection to the seasons and how winter can be so beautiful.

I know times are so hard all over. Not everyone is going to have $20 to spend on a book of poems, but if you can, please support this project. I don’t think you will be disappointed. It is a labor of love from the idea in my mind, to my brilliant friend who is co-editing with me, to my talented friend who created the art for the cover, to my dear husband who spent the day processing carrots with me and is the kitchen right now finishing up a poem.

Here is a link to the pre-order from our Farmer-ish Etsy shop. The collection will ship out the first week of December, arriving in plenty of time for the Winter Solstice. Thank you for reading. Thank you for following. Please share if you can.