the story of a midwinter.

it's midwinter ... season of short days, a low sun, scorpio riding high in the night sky, raw winds.

it's midwinter and last weekend i spent a couple of hours pruning the grapevine in john's back garden. this is the result:



i had no idea what i was doing, as i'd never before pruned a grape vine. this part of the vine had not been pruned for many years and it was a mighty, overgrown tangle which did not fruit this year. the fruit we got from the vine this year was from our neighbour's section of the vine; he does prune, so i looked at what he had done and hoped i was doing some thing similar.

worse case scenario is that we get no fruit again next year. best case scenario is that we get double the fruit next year. i'm thinking positively!

john and i decided to make an event out of midwinter, with a view to establishing a little household ritual to celebrate each season as it arrives. we had to do our midwinter celebration in the weekend, as we were both at work today and didn't have time. we invited sona to participate but she scornfully declined. i guess celebrating the seasons isn't so cool when you're almost 14.

we went to kowhai park, on the eastern bank of the whanganui river. we took our cameras and captured  images of winter with them. here are a few of mine:

i love seeing sky through bare branches.

the bark of a giant totara tree.

this leaf caught our eye.

i'm sure john looks like he's up to no good in this photo. "i probably was," said he casually when i pointed this out to him. those are some glorious gingko trees in the background.

it may be midwinter but it has been a freakish autumn and early winter this year. it's cold, yes, but not the really biting cold that we expect for late june. some days i can go outside with out a coat on, and that is unusual.

at kowhai park there are already signs of spring:

the magnolias are in bud - some are even flowering, about three months early.

these daffodils [or possibly jonquils] are at least a month early.

we collected a few pretty leaves, berries and twigs and brought them home with us. we sat down in front of john's shrine, lit a candle, and placed these treasures in the singing bowl. silently we thought of our hopes and dreams for the next three months, and spent some time meditating.

our little midwinter ritual ended with me reading a poem about winter.

the afternoon was for me a very satisfying way of marking the season, and my connection to it. i hope we'll do it again, in september, to welcome spring.