Sunday 21 December 2014

Advent calendar 21 - Yule fox...

I was up early this morning. Well, I think it was early, it's so hard to tell with the dark mornings and too short, short days. Anyway it was early enough for me to catch a fox sneaking around in our front garden. I have no idea what he was doing, but he barely stopped to wish me a happy Yuletide before he shot off across the road and disappeared up a driveway.

Back to the country house I expect.

So here is another Winter Solstice and Yuletide begins. From here-on-in the days should begin to lengthen, at least in theory with today being the shortest day. It won't seem like it for weeks though.

That's the thing with the winter darkness. It's cumulative. It builds up in your mind until you think that it is never going to be light again and that the sunshine was just a trick played on you by some goddamned awful god. The god of winter, the King of Yule.

Time to fetch the Yule Log to keep his darkness away.

Of course I can't fit an entire tree into my fireplace like they did in the old days. But I have picked my Yule log from the stack of logs in the cellar and it will be burning on Christmas Day to keep the dark spirits at bay. Actually I have picked four or five, well it really isn't that big a hearth, and I will keep them burning all day long on the day of days.

As for the fox. Well he's welcome to come in and lie by the fire, but I think he'll have to fight Luna for it first.

10 comments:

  1. Carmel Payne on FB
    Beautiful, very Victorian.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Andrew Height
      Bah humbug!

      Delete
    2. Carmel Payne
      Miserable sod!

      Delete
    3. Andrew Height
      Are you the spirit of Christmas past?

      Delete
    4. Carmel Payne
      Yes Andrew, I have my white robe at the ready.

      Delete
    5. Andrew Height
      Take pity on me good spirit. Have I really lead such a bad life?

      Delete
  2. Kevin Burke on FB
    Very festive Andy!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Kathryn Salthouse on FB
    Gorgeous

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Andrew Height
      Whole house is like Santa's Victorian grotto.

      Delete
    2. Carmel Payne
      Nothing wrong with that!

      Delete