As the days grow shorter and the evenings longer there is a quietness in the gardens and around the cottage that is rather haunting.
Much of what I do now is centred around preparing for the Midwinter Feast and the continuing festivities of Yule.
Family and friends will be arriving from as far away as Canada.
A house has been rented for the days that are in it, for Bealtaine Cottage is small!
Baking is underway in the kitchen, making full use of the hot oven in the even hotter Stanley stove that is burning constant to keep the cottage warm.
Cakes and bread are then being moved to the freezer in the barn and will be ready to assuage the hunger of visitors and guests alike. 
The cake stand has been dusted off for the festivities.
I am transforming the Lodge into a big dining room, moving beds and other furniture out and a huge extending dining table in.
This was brought over from the tunnel where it had been in use for years as a potting table, but a good clean down and polish, followed by the adornment of a starched table cloth, has lent the old table an air of noble gentility.
Candlelight will soften the decrepitness of the piece and even add a touch of shabby chic!
In the event it isn’t really about grandeur or showing off, but about coming together to celebrate…something we have almost forgotten how to do.
The remembering that less is more…that a pot of well made soup and home baked bread is unique to that day and all who partake of the feast.
It is not about shop bought, ready-made food, or flashy decorations that will still be intact in the landfill when you are long gone from this sacred Earth. 
My little bathroom has had a coat of paint applied and a polish-up!
Remembering the importance of gathering and celebrating…this is real civilisation!
The Other Website… https://bealtainecottage.com/bealtaine-cottage-good-life/
My blessed thanks to those of you who sent me good wishes and gifts.
Friends like Heather, who made me this beautiful brooch, stitched with love.
As I write this journal, the radio informs me of another storm on the way.
The placing of a lighted candle in the window of a house on Christmas Eve is still practised today.
Hope is what Bealtaine Cottage is all about…hope and renewal.
Despite the wars of man, the fear of climate upheaval, the greed of those in power and the relentless drum-banging of the corporate consumer world, life, in all it’s imperfections, is sacred and beautiful.
On this blessed Christmas Eve, I will step out with my spade and wheelbarrow, to plant the future, in the form of five trees.
