Advent Calendar 22nd December

Winter Solstice (it’s not always December 21st!) and the traditional beginning of winter. Many authorities believe it was more important to our ancestors than the summer solstice. Even today churches and Christian graves are still aligned with the position of the rising sun in mind.

Several thousand people made their way to Stonehenge this morning, and to Maeshowe in the Orkney Islands for both sunrise and sunset. Unlike those pictures from the Orkneys sunrise in my neck of the woods was distinctly uninspiring but undetered, as the afternoon was somewhat improved, I made my way to a local hill at dusk, where I looked towards London while humming a particular Jethro Tull song. 

If nothing else I felt better for the fresh air and exercise.