This is Saturday morning, the last before December. Outside the sky is beginning to brighten, a slow morning waiting for the light. It is the light we seek in these darkening days of descent towards Midwinter and the Solstice.
Mist hangs in the valley. Dragon’s Breath, drifting slowly below the mountain, towards Lough Allen. Often the mountain looks cut off by a misty sea. This is the west of Ireland where optical illusions are manifest. No wonder it is referred to as “The land of mist and magic.”
Preparations for Yule are underway, there is a slow build-up to Midwinter, nothing is rushed as decorations are added here and there and the scents inside the cottage are a rising evergreen.
These are the days before the return of the light, the slow rising towards Imbolc and the wonderful early Spring that happens in the west of Ireland. Yes, Spring is noted on the Bealtaine Cottage calendar as the first day of February. This marks the day observed by the ancestors as the new beginning, the rising, the beautiful brightening! It can be seen in the air of morning and the silvery hues of sunset.
These are the days before…to be savoured in each little promise of the light to come.