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| Calm Seas |
The weather has been settled for the last few days, the sea has been
calm and the wind scarcely a breeze.
These
are the halcyon days, the time of temperate climate around the winter
solstice.
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| Fishing in the quiet dawn |
Ovid in his Metamorphoses recorded the myth that Alcyone
daughter of Aeolus, god of the winds, married to the mortal Cyex,
king of Thessaly, upset Zeus and he caused a storm to drown her
husband. Grief stricken, Alcyone, threw herself into the waves to
join him. The gods, in compassion, changed them both into blue
halcyon birds which flash over the waters. Now we commonly
associate the story with the kingfisher, Alcedo atthis named
after Alcyone.
But
Zeus was not to be thwarted. He decreed that the birds should build
their floating nests and lay their eggs in midwinter. Aeolus, master
of the winds, ensured a period of gentle zephyrs at this time to help
his daughter.
Thus,
we have the halcyon days and, indeed it has been so for this week.
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| Sunrise at the Duddo Stones |
The sky was overcast on the solstice day so the sunrise at 0836
hrs.was not spectacular but the setting at the Duddo stones made up
for it.
Tonight, we have a full moon and the Ursid meteor
shower from the region of Ursa Minor, the Little Bear. The sky is
overcast so not much will be visible but the Moon appears between the
clouds. We call it the Moon before Yule. The North American peoples
call it the Moon of the Long Night, a much more evocative title.
The year is on the turn. The old year is gone.
The tree of the month is the Yew. Green and resilient.
The days
will lengthen. Even the cold blast of January cannot stop the feeling
that winter is past.
