Today, November 1st, is a cluttered black square of type in my calendar… It’s the first day of the month, with all of the financial deadlines and chores that accompany a fresh month…it’s the day after Hallow’een, so we are all just a little groggy from sugar overload and a sleep punctuated with fireworks and firecrackers. It’s also All Saints Day in the Christian calendar, or Samhain in the Celtic Pagan calendar. No matter what your cultural background, here in the Northern Hemishphere there is no questioning the shift in light that accompanies the beginning of November.
Gone are the memories of Summer – we are well and truly into the dark months of the year!
The beginning of November feels like a shift. Suddenly we expect the nights to be long, we expect the days to be cold and we look to the days of Winter ahead. I awake in surreal darkness, convincing my skeptical body that it really is time to get up… and on rainy days it sometimes feels as though it never really gets fully light. Curls of slate coloured clouds catch on the curves of our local mountains and lazily hang there waiting for a breath of wind to push them along. No wonder, then, that just now the veil feels thin between the world of the living and the world of those who have gone before.
So what are we to do? Shiver here in our dim, grey existence? Hardly! We North Westerners have perfected our strategies for warmth and light. We celebrate the contrast of light and dark in thousands of tiny ways. Some examples… You’ll find brilliantly uplit, spectacular trees in most gardens in my neighborhood. That pop of green light is even more beautiful for being embraced by darkness. we light our houses more and more as the very darkest time of year approaches, and by Christmas the entire city is aglow. Inside you’ll find candles and fireplaces are de rigueur to banish the November chill and in the very darkest months I’ll even light candles at the breakfast table!
In the same way, I seem to gravitate to warmth and light in my personal objects and jewellery… a little more warm metal: a touch of bronze, copper and gold just feel wonderful at this time of year. Amber has a natural golden glow that is irresistible, particularly when blended with warm metals and some black or grey for contrast. This leather bracelet is just the thing to have a touch of sunshine that can be carried with me through my day!
C.
To begin, the hours of daylight are very slightly different. For those of you who live closer to the waist of the earth, that may not sound like headline news, but for those of us who are farther North, light, or more properly, the lack of it, is a daily conversation. Through the darkest weeks of the year, the sun doesn’t rise until eight in the morning, and has disappeared again by four-thirty in the afternoon. Here it is, only a month past the Winter solstice and already the sun has relented just enough to light the way to school for the kids. It’s a happy thing!
We’re not the only ones that have noticed that the light is starting to come back to our side of the Earth… It’ll sound funny, but the squirrels about the neighborhood are showing the first signs of Spring Fever! I watched out the kitchen window last weekend, laughing out loud, as what seemed like wild herds of Squirrels scurried back and forth across the front veranda. I’m not sure what they were doing, (what happens in the front yard, stays in the front yard) … but whatever it was, it involved a lot of frantic chasing, fluffing of tails and chattering.
Meanwhile, Our elderly cat, Cookie was keeping a close eye on their dodgy proceedings, hustling determinedly along behind them each time they crossed the porch. I would be concerned for the squirrels safety, but fortunately Cookie no longer poses any real threat to the garden creatures.
showy, looking for all the world like microscopic displays of fireworks. Everywhere that I look I see the promise of flowers to come. In the case of the snowdrops, promise is perhaps the wrong word – they are already up, out and in full bloom. The Crocus won’t be far behind, though they seem to pop out of the ground already in bloom, as if they think they’re running late. The Tulips are pushing their lush green leaves out the soil, as are the daffodils, hyacinths and even daylilies! I expected to see the Spring bulbs up and around, but I was surprised to see the Summer ones too.
tartooful 