Winter Solstice Reading

 

Today is the Winter Solstice in the Southern Hemisphere. The shortest day, and therefore, the longest night of our year.

We have had a delightful time of it in Sydney this past week. Brisk mornings, clearing up into lovely sunny, almost warm days. Great for long walks, sitting in the sun with the family over a long lunch and even longer evenings for curling up on the lounge with a glass of wine and a good book. But today, the solstice, is grey, rainy and miserable.

I'm always thrilled to reach the winter solstice every year. From here on in, the days will slowly lengthen again, even though the worst of winter is yet to hit us, the promise of brighter, sunnier days is on the horizon.

As I write this on Sunday morning it is 10℃ outside with a predicted top of only 18. A cold day but not terribly so. However we're about to head up to our house in the mountains where it is currently 3℃ with a predicted high of 12. Brrrrr!

I do not enjoy being cold and wearing layers and layers of clothing. I do not enjoy waking up in the dark and then walking home from work in the dark. The day always seems to disappear before it has even started. As an introvert, I should be revelling in the hibernating aspects of this solstice, instead I find myself counting down the days until spring and summer return once again!

These long, dark nights of the soul should give me more time to read, but somehow that never seems to happen. And this year, two winter solstice events will make that even less likely to occur.

Firstly, Radio National is hosting their Big Weekend of Books, with great names like Bernadine Evaristo, Hilary Mantel, Bruce Pascoe, Tara June Winch and Tony Birch on offer.

And secondly, a friend of mine who writes for Croakey.com - a blog that offers up an independent, in-depth look at social journalism for health - alerted me to their solstice reading event. This is their third annual #CroakeyReads, although this year's offering is truncated thanks to Covid. Join in from 7-9 pm at their website or on twitter using the hashtag. You may even find a book or two recommended by me!

If I find time to read today, I will be falling back into Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar. It has been my lunchtime read at work for a week or so, but I'm now at that point where I no longer want to wait to read it in short bursts. I had hoped to spend more time with it this weekend, but so far that has not happened.

What will you be reading during your Winter/Summer Solstice weekend? 

Winter is Coming...!

You know how it is. 

Some days you just wake up in one of those moods! 

For no apparent reason everything feels wrong, out of sorts and prickly.

After grumping my way through another wet, dreary, Sydney morning, I slunk off to the Art Gallery of NSW for one last peek at The Lady and the Unicorn exhibition.

Beauty always helps.

As does a walk.

Especially if that walk includes the sun finally breaking through the grey clouds, making the leaves sparkle and glisten like little green diamonds.

It was then that I realised that today was the Winter Solstice.

The shortest day of the year.

The beginning of the astronomical winter.

Oh woe is me!

The six coldest weeks of the year still lie ahead of us.

The solstice officially occurs in Sydney at 8:07pm.

Our day will only be 9:53:50 hrs long - a whole 4hr 31mins shorter than the Summer Solstice.

I've been thinking that we need to reinstate or establish some kind of warming ritual to make this short day/long night more enjoyable.

The Japanese celebrate by soaking in a hot bath with yuzu fruit, the English gather at Stonehenge to watch the sunrise, the Koreans eat red bean porridge and the Irish gather at Newgrange to see a shaft of sun light up an ancient burial chamber. At Casey Station, in the Australian Antarctic Division, they cut a hole in the ice and leap in briefly before retiring into a mobile hot spa. In Hobart, for Dark Mofo, the brave and foolish go for a nude solstice swim!

Maybe we could start National Doona Day - when we go to bed early and snuggle up with the ones we love under the covers?

Or we could bring back firecracker night - light a huge bonfire and let off catherine wheels?

Or perhaps we could simply speak a word of kindness.

Where and how will you be celebrating today's solstice?

A Wintry A to Z

Jane over @Eden Rock Beyond hosts a semi-regular, when the mood takes her, A-Z of all things bookish and bloggish.

After an unseasonal, glorious run of spring-like days, another bout of wintry weather has just blown into Sydney town. So I thought I'd stay inside by the fire and have a go at finding 26 bookish things to list.

• A is for ABOUT ME. A little while back there was a flurry of blogging activity around what we book bloggers actually do on our blogs. Is it reviewing or is it book journalling or something in between? At the time it seemed important that I work it out. The problem was, all that reflecting and navel gazing put me off my game! I may never get around to writing an ABOUT ME page. But for the record, I consider myself to be a book journaller. I write about how a book makes me feel, what connections I made whilst reading it and any research I may have felt compelled to do to understand the book or the author at a deeper level. I don't write straight book reviews. I don't read book reviews either. I always skip over any book synopsis to get to the bit where the reader tells me what they thought of the book or what they discovered while they were reading the book. I usually select my next read based on a mix of mood, gut feeling and zeitgeist. Therefore what you think about a book and how it made you feel influences me more than anything else.

• B is for BALI. Our next holiday destination. Wahoo! I can't wait to wear my summer dresses, laze by the pool and drink cocktails! Binge reading, massages and eating out for every meal may also be on the cards!

• C is for CUBA. I've been asked to put together a photographic exhibition at our local library of my Cuba pics. The only problem is that I took all my photos on my smartphone and every time I've tried to print so far, I hit resolution issues. HELP! One friend suggested that I just do a postcard size exhibition - an up close and personal approach perhaps?

• D is for DRINKY-POO. It's 6 pm on Friday evening in Sydney town. I've had a busy week at work and a nice cold beer is lubricating this post quite nicely!

• E is for ERDRICH. I'm very excited to have an ARC of Louise Erdrich's new book. Future Home of the Living God is due for November publication in Australia by Hachette Australia.

• F is for FOOTBALL. The soccer season is finished for the year once again. B20's team made it to the first final round while B16 (about to turn 17) got through to the second round of finals. Mr Books is heavily involved in the local football committee so he will still have things to do, but for the next few months at least, we have no major demands on our weekend time. What will we do with all this free time I hear you ask? A week in Bali is one, a trip to the Blue Mountains another. I'm also hoping for some bush walking and city exploring adventures.

• G is for GRACE. My One Word has been a real battle all year. I'm struggling to feel good about it right now.

• H is for HONOURING Jessica Anderson. For the past few years a friend of mine has organised an honouring event at the State Library of NSW where like-minded souls gather to celebrate the life and work of an Australian author who may have been forgotten or fallen off the radar.

• I is for INSTAGRAM. I'm hooked. I take pics of our holidays, out walking around my local area, of books, flowers and art exhibitions. There are occasional food shots! My tag is brona68.

• J is for JAPAN. When Mr Books turned 50 he wanted to go to Cuba. For my 50th I want to go to Japan. Let the planning begin!

• K is for KIDS. Not sure if I can still call them kids now that they're B20 and almost B17. Living with adults in the making is very different to living with kids. Still adjusting. I miss the primary school years.

• L is for LOVE. Despite issues with grace and change and periods of adjustment and perimenopause, love still abounds in our home.

• M is for MILLER, Alex. His new book, The Passage of Love is due out in October, published by Allen & Unwin. Yet another ARC by my bed calling out 'pick me, pick me!'

• N is for NOVEMBER and AusReadingMonth. This will be my fifth year of hosting AusReadingMonth and I'm trying to work out how to take it on a road trip around all the states and territories of Australia....I'll keep you posted.

• O is for ORWELL. I have this fascinating new release on my TBR pile called The Last Man in Europe by Dennis Glover. It's a fictionalised account of the last days of George Orwell as he wrote 1984 on a remote Scottish island. Mr Books and I recently saw a brilliant production of 1984 at the STC. It has been on my mind a lot.

• P is for POKEMON. My guilty secret! I started pokemoning with B16, when he was B15. It started off as a bonding thing. He quickly moved on, as teenagers do, but I was hooked. Okay obsessed. I love walking. It's my main form of exercise. Walking also allows me to indulge in my other obsession - photography & Instagramming. Before Pokemon go, I used to use a WalkMe app to track how far I walked and for how long. Now it's how many km's I need to walk to hatch an egg. Sad but true.

• Q is for QUEENS (and kings and thrones). Yes, I am one of those hanging out for each episode of Game of Thrones. Who will be the one to rule them all? Who are Jon's parents? Why on earth do they need to catch a white walker for f*#k sake?! When will Little Finger get his comeuppance? So many loose threads: so little time!

• R is for (RE)READING. I've always been a re-reader, but working in an Indy bookshop has made this difficult to maintain.  +Deb Nance recently made a comment on one of my posts about hosting a (re)readathon...I'm thinking about it. 

• S is for SYDNEY. My home town now for 9 years. I'm a country girl at heart, but I've learnt to love the buzz of city life. The art exhibitions, the diversity in food, the opportunities for exploring new places, our history and our beautiful harbour.

• T is for TEA. My new favourite is a delicious white tea called Silver Needles or Baihao Yinzhen.

• U is for UNDER the blankets. I'm looking forward to a lazy weekend of snuggling up and reading.

• V is for VIETNAMESE food. This cooler weather has me craving beef pho and nom hua chuoi (banana flower salad). 

• W is for WEEKEND. TGIF.

• X is for XIAOLU GUO and her Orange Prize shortlisted book A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers. This a recently acquired addition to my TBR pile.

• Y is for YES! I've finally found a Book Club to join. My first meeting will be in a month and our first book together will be Steven Amsterdam's, Miles Franklin 2017 longlisted book, The Easy Way Out.

• Z is for ZADIE Smith. I like to read some of the Man Booker longlist each year. Swing Time will probably be my next read.

If you'd like to have a go at your own A-Z, make sure you pop over to Jane's blog to leave a link to your post.

Winter Solstice

Today, 21st June 2017, is the June Solstice. 

In the Southern Hemisphere it is the shortest day of the year; in the Northern it is the longest (in terms of daylight hours).

In Sydney, the solstice officially happens at 2:24 pm.

At 2:24 EST the sun is at its zenith over the Tropic of Cancer.

For a brief period of time, the sun appears to stand still at its northernmost position.

It then reverses and begins its journey south to the Tropic of Capricorn and the December Solstice, once again.

Scientists and astronomers consider today to be the beginning of winter (or summer).

Because they use the solstices to mark the seasons, each year the length and time of the seasons can be a little different.

Meteorologists, however, use the beginning of the month to mark the season.

This makes for consistent and predictable periods of time that help them with weather forecasting.

The winter solstice doesn't also mean that we will experience the coldest day of the year.
The earth still contains some heat from our summer and autumn.
The coldest day of the year is still a month or so away.
*sigh*

Hope, 2015, Ian Friend Gallerysmith

The sun has come out in Sydney this morning...and that always helps...but it doesn't look like it will last for very long.

The Winter Solstice Book

You’ll age and weaken one day 

When you have a solitary walk in the garden, wearing the 

Dark-green coat.

Apart from it, there is no other green

You’ll take a rest, leaning against the gigantic tree, plunging into deep thoughts 

In its heavy shade 

As if seeking asylum

The freshest parts of the fruit, hanging on the branches, in our memory 

The beings on the petals, gone missing in the spring

Our fragrant hearts, once filled with honey

Are now scars and holes 

Like a wintry honeycomb, an abandoned building

My dear, that is a fact of life

Solitary, dark, but not as bad as despair 

Gao Pengcheng (translated by Ouyang Yu) 

SMH 25 July 2014

Theosophie Alchemie Autore, 1687, Michael Maier


After a long blogging absence my good friend, The Girl Booker posted the post I needed to read last night.
Two years ago she read Elizabeth Gilbert's book Big Magic.
She finally posted her thoughts on it yesterday, fully aware of the irony in waiting two years to publish.

I really like the way she talks about creative living as being work. Sometimes it is hard, sometimes it is even boring, and only sometimes is it wondrously inspiring. But if it is something you feel compelled to do, and it makes you feel better at the end of each day, then it is important. She also affirms that it is important even if you are the only person to see the finished product. It's about the process for the creator, not about the intended or eventual audience.

Amen!

This morning I picked up an ARC teetering on the top of my pile.
It's title caught my eye -
Solitude: In Pursuit of a Singular Life in a Crowded Life by Michael Harris.



First up, the cover matches the top I'm wearing today (it's always a bonus when you can colour coordinate your book with your outfit!)

Secondly, the book discusses the rhythms of life:

'there's a time for resting, a time for hunting, a time for courting, a time for hiding.'

In our modern society we have changed the rhythms of life so much that we have lost the experience of true solitude. We never find ourselves alone anymore - we're always on our phones; we're connected and busy.

This struck a chord with me.

I think my words have got lost in the busyness of modern life.
My motivation and my passion got attached to external constructs.
I need to, I WANT to, get back in touch with what's important to me.
I am compelled to write - I always return to words.
I just need some quiet time, some solitude, to rediscover my inspiration.