Today is the Winter Solstice and I wish I had a lovely snow dusted Winter landscape to share with you. Or perhaps candles flickering warm light in a cozy indoor scene. Alas, the temps are above freezing, the ground is muddy instead of frozen, and since I apparently have a compression fracture in my spine, I cannot bend down to take any artistic photos. So this is what I've got.
A little bit of sunshine captured in the morning before the clouds rolled in. (And I just love how there is even pet hair on my evergreen display. Darn cats knock it over at night.)
Sugar cookies made with my grandma's recipe. The original Sour Cream Sugar Cookie recipe calls for oleo and margarine, neither of which are things I use, so butter it was. They did not have quite the texture of Gram's, but the sprinkles were the important part for the little babe. For me, it is the memory of making them with my grandma, putting green and red sprinkles on some of them and cinnamon/sugar/walnuts on the others. She kept them safely sandwiched between layers of wax paper in a plastic Tupperware container.
And since we have a new baby in the extended family, I had to make something to keep her warm. I had yarn leftover from the sweater I just completed for the little babe and it was just enough for a tiny little cardigan.
The toddler sweater is the Anders Kids pattern knitted in Wool of the Andes from Knit Picks. The little sweater is the Baby Owl Yoke Cardigan, but instead of doing the owl cable pattern, I did fair isle hearts.
This whole compression fracture occurred when I fell off my horse on Sunday. My last horseback riding fall was twenty years ago and apparently I am not as soft and flexible as I was back then. It was a very uneventful fall - I wasn't cantering through the woods or jumping over something impressive. Frank just spooked at a loud noise and jumped back to the left; I flew forwards to the right. After clinging to his neck for several long seconds, I went splat. The embarrassed gentleman did not run away, but stood there looking very much concerned. (No anthropomorphizing here of course.)
So Happy Solstice everyone! Let there be light in your life today, whether it be a flickering candle, twinkling fairy lights, a dinner with friends, or the smiling face of a loved one. Light shines in many forms.