Midwinter spring is its own season
Sempiternal though sodden towards sundown,
Suspended in time, between pole and tropic.
When the short day is brightest, with frost and fire,
The brief sun flames the ice, on pond and ditches,
In windless cold that is the heart’s heat,
Reflecting in a watery mirror
A glare that is blindness in the early afternoon.
And glow more intense than blaze of branch, or brazier,
Stirs the dumb spirit: no wind, but pentecostal fire
In the dark time of the year.
- T.S. Eliot, Little Gidding
Montol, Brumalia, Lohri, Yalda, Koliada, Dongzhi, Mid-winter's Day, whatever you call it, the Winter Solstice - the longest night - is today.
Roll on Spring...
I love the graphic and the poem sweet cheeks. Happy Winter's Solstice!
ReplyDeleteIt's cold as hell here today, the coldest it's been yet. It's been very mild here. Seems it changed overnight quite literally. Bring on the hot toddy's. Drinks or men.
Or both.
Erté is my favourite artist of the Art Deco genre - we have three full-size prints of his on the wall in the front parlour.
DeleteSorry to hear you're now having the cold snap we just went through - as you're aware, it cut a swathe through the plants in the back garden. Keep warm and get the plant catalogues out for the New Year, methinks.
I'll have my drinks cold, and my men hot, ta. Clink, clink, sweetie! Jx
Annie Lennox... In The Bleak Midwinter. Beautiful illustration. You have such lovely taste, darling. Kizzes.
ReplyDeleteBless. Jx
DeleteI'm with Maddie and you on the poem, the decor and the sentiment. Of course, we are the absolute flip side. Mid summer now and dark by 7pm.
ReplyDeleteBut I raise my glass to you all!
It always tickles me when the tabloids over here inevitably show Aussies barbecuing turkey on a beach on Xmas Day! Jx
DeleteLove the Erté and the poem but not this 'dark time of the year.'
ReplyDeleteOnly six weeks, and we'll be in Spain! Yay! Jx
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