December 21 - Wreaths

I saw some nice wreaths outside a florist's shop.

December 20 - Snow surfaces

 Some days there is only little snow.

It covers all surfaces and creates nice patterns for quilt blocks or quilting lines.

Some days there is more snow and the squirrel must dive deep to find the sunflower seeds that fall from the bird feeder.

And sometimes there are lumps of older snow left when new snow gives a light dusting on the yew needles.

December 19 - Poinsettia

Of all Christmas flowers, white poinsettia is one of my favourites.

December 18 - Light into the darkness

One of the advantages of dark nights and snow is that we can use living fire outdoors to make the evening look festive. Instead of the giant size tea lights in tins we had a home made, traditional light called jätkänkynttilä, lumberjack's candle. It is a piece of tarry log, old wood, sawn crosswise almost  through the length. Chips of wood are used for making the fire that can last up to 4 hours.

That was our Independence Day outdoor decoration, and this is what was left of it next morning. It burned on a concrete tile without falling in the wind.

December 17 - Stop for a moment

The Winter Solstice is so near that for a week already the sun has stopped setting earlier and earlier and settled to set at 3.12 pm. From the Solstice day on the 21st the days start getting longer again in the afternoons. The sun still rises one minute later every morning until December 25th, then stops there and rises at that minute until December 30th.

Time to sit by the fire with my knitting and a cup of hot tea.

December 16 - Once more Villa Cooper

 When I made the camera tour in Villa Cooper about a week ago, we didn't have much snow and it was early afternoon, so the lights in the garden didn't look like much to see either.

Now we have snow, and this Wednesday when we had our Christmas coffee and glögi party for the members, the place looked magic:

A last glimpse before saying goodbye for now!

December 15 - Splash of colour

My needles have not been idle. I have used rest yarns to make small socks and mittens. This is a new pattern where I used my mother's idea of sufficiently long cuffs for mittens, and tamed the rainbow coloured yarn with a dark blue.

The same mitten in red. This was taken in poor light in our kitchen a couple of days ago.

Here is the same yarn in daylight on fresh snow, this is the true colour. I added my Grandmother's mitten stitch pattern to the long cuffs from my mother's knitting and think this is the perfect, warmer than usual mitten.