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moss wrote:
TJJ your news is good, and rejoice for soon the turning of the year will bring the natural world alive again.
Thank you Moss, good to read your reminiscences on 2013. Set me thinking about reflections ...
I didn’t get anywhere ancient for the winter solstice this year as it has been wet and windy and yes, I have been busy doing Xmas shopping too. As the year draws to a close the solstice is a time of reflection in more ways than one. A time to look back over the year and take stock; a time for gratitude; a time to be with family and friends; a time to recharge and take a tentative look to the coming unwritten year.
For those of us who are town bound as I was, it is also a time of physical reflections. On Saturday, 21st December I went down to the rail station to buy a ticket to London the next day. It was 4.00pm-ish when I noticed the reddening cloud-strewn sky of sunset against the aquamarine sky. I knew the sun was setting and was desperate to see it but no chance as surrounded by tall office buildings near the station. Ticket bought and hurrying back when low and behold though, there was the setting sun reflecting in the glass windows of the offices as I walked from the station. The next day dawned, bright, cold and windy as I headed out early to catch the train to London for the day – as the train headed east the sun had risen over Uffington Hill with startling winter brightness. At Didcot the sun’s reflection lit up the now defunct Didcot Power Station – couldn’t help thinking, now it is silent and still, there was beauty to be seen in what once had been perceived as a man-made monstrosity.
This in turn had me wondering about ancient monuments where shadows and reflections cast by the sun are perhaps the reason for their existence (Newgrange and Maeshowe not withstanding). The one that came to mind was Boscawan-un stone circle in Cornwall with its slanting central stone.
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