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in winter’s embrace
to gently unwrap cold claws
and reach for the sun
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My sweet friend and writer Marian Allen – author of Eel’s Reverence – nominated me for participation in My 7 Links. THANKS Marian! We met online last year and have been in touch ever since.
Here are the rules, and here is list of the already nominated bloggers. At least most of them.
Are you ready? If not, I’ll continue anyway 😛 Here are my seven links:
Now enough about me! We came here through Marian Allen, and it is time to move on to other blogs. My five choices:
Thank you all for broadening my horizon. And please pass on the torch!
~Mar
Six Word Saturday:
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It’s Christmas Eve. Christmas movies!
But watching TV isn’t about watching a movie anymore. It’s about watching bits and pieces, only to be bothered by commercials. Repeatedly.
And though I love to see George Clooney, the Nespresso ‘Swamp’ commercial turned up about six time in one evening. Too much Volluto, and not enough Decommercialato!
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Want to play along? All that’s necessary to participate is to describe your life (or something) in a phrase using just six words. For more information, read this. Feel free to explain or not explain. Add an image, a video, a song, nothing.
Click for more Six Word Saturday.
Happy Holidays 😀
Though there’s no snow on winter’s night
Still unseen stars are twinkling bright
And when the grayish days set in
You wonder how it should have been
Where is the whiteness that we need
The frosty coldness we must heed
Go sleighing, skating, taking walks
In comfort of thick cuddly socks
And curl up by the fire place
Joyously stuck at your home base
But none of this is happening here
This Christmas it is just Rain Dear
~Marion
Would you believe me if I told you today is the shortest day of the year? YES! This dark cold freezing wet day is our ticket into spring my friends. SPRING. I can’t wait for the sun to grow stronger, to warm and caress us.
From Wikipedia:
The seasonal significance of the winter solstice is in the reversal of the gradual lengthening of nights and shortening of days. Depending on the shift of the calendar, the winter solstice usually occurs on December 21 to 23 each year in the Northern Hemisphere, and June 20 to 23 in the Southern Hemisphere.
Worldwide, interpretation of the event has varied from culture to culture, but most cultures have held a recognition of rebirth, involving holidays, festivals, gatherings, rituals or other celebrations around that time.
Right, it is time for celebrations.
I would like to introduce you to Katie Johnson, who is also celebrating Winter Solstice today. She does that in a very special way. Each day Katie publishes a photo she shoots herself. And each and every photo is a beauty, whether architecture, abstract, flowers, nature or animal. Of course I prefer nature and animals 😉
Let me show you an example:
Special huh?
Today’s photo is titled Happy Winter Solstice.
Katie Johnson is a professional photographer in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her website: Katie’s Camera Blog.
Happy Winter Solstice! Let’s celebrate this special day, made for us by nature. For free.
~Mar
This is cracking me up, SO TRUE. It’s sad actually. Anyway, do yourself a favor and watch this! Comedian Charlie Brooker uses a mix of sketches and jaw-dropping archive footage to explore the gulf between reality and television.
What is it about animals, that we love so very much?
For me they are a balm to the soul. How about you?
Again you visited
sneaking in
and delivering the first blow
only to hit even harder
moments later
tattering the foundations
of our existence
—
You have done enough
for now, Death
take this departed soul
and keep him close
be gentle
—
‘Thank you’
for this reminder
of our mortality
the need
to make each day
precious and special
—
‘Thank you’
for showing the necessity
to tell our loved ones
once again
they are treasured
infinite, unconditionally
—
Thank you
and damn you
heartless and cruel
Death
—
Harsh master
have mercy
please
—
It was all over the news yesterday evening: the first reindeer sighting of the year in Holland. This is the one and only reliable sign that King Winter will soon move into his Dutch residence, bringing loads of frost and snow with him.
But don’t worry, little fluffy feather friends, relax. Your banquet has been served and will stay that way all through the cold and dark days.