I can hear the birds now

[sovay]

In accordance with the traditions of my family and the lunisolar calendar, we ate our Christmas roast beef, lit the first night's candle of Hanukkah for the children, and set brandy-fire to the plum pudding which had finished re-boiling in the meantime.



I have a short and deeply satisfying stack of gifts, including Amorina Kingdon's Sing Like Fish: How Sound Rules Life Underwater (2024) and Steve Toase's Dirt Upon My Skin (2024) from my parents, Susanna Clarke's The Wood at Midwinter (2022/24) and Douglas J. Penick's The Oceans of Cruelty: Twenty-Five Tales of a Corpse-Spirit: A Retelling (2024) from rushthatspeaks, and the huge acrostic field-grimoire of Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris' The Lost Words (2017) from nineweaving, who snapped up its shine like one of its own magpies. spatch has a new double-layered outer garment which we are referring to as his smoking jacket even though it is technically a hoodie. Hestia slayer of textiles is enchanted with the new lichen-green towels and the twirl of red ribbon incautiously tied to the paper bag we brought them home in. I have been sent a post-latke picture of my godchild and his theyfriend. This has not been what I would call a good year, but we treasure one another within it.

Comments

[gwynnega]

How wonderful! Those are some excellent gifts.

[muccamukk]

Happy holiday! May your nights be filled with light and good cheer <3

[selkie]

"They knew it would go out, and they lit it anyway" is as good as any thing to end a year on; sometimes, you get miracles and the light doesn't go. *hugs*

There are totally foxes there, by the way.

[sovay]

How wonderful! Those are some excellent gifts.

I am looking forward to reading all of them.

(Hestia has stopped looking forward to the towels and is doing her best to burrow into them.)

[sovay]

Happy holiday! May your nights be filled with light and good cheer

Thank you! The same to you!

[sovay]

"They knew it would go out, and they lit it anyway" is as good as any thing to end a year on; sometimes, you get miracles and the light doesn't go.

*hugs*

spatch and I got home and had one candle in the house and that was Hanukkah all right.

(Striking the match produced some odd flakes of fire, but no one ended up alight.)

There are totally foxes there, by the way.

Knew it!

[regshoe]

Thank you for the wrapping paper picture! I think I see what you mean about the foxes, and I like the mix of plant species—the rosehips go well alongside the holly.

I loved The Wood at Midwinter and I hope you enjoy it.

[thisbluespirit]

What a lovely collection of presents! And I do see what you mean about the wrapping paper. (And it's v nice wrapping paper anyway.)

This has not been what I would call a good year, but we treasure one another within it.

♥

[cmcmck]

Himself gave me books including the new one about the Wife of Bath which I am very much looking forward to reading.

[sovay]

Thank you for the wrapping paper picture! I think I see what you mean about the foxes, and I like the mix of plant species—the rosehips go well alongside the holly.

You're welcome! Thank you for identifying further greenery.

I loved The Wood at Midwinter and I hope you enjoy it.

I did! I will be interested to see if it becomes incorporated into some other narrative, because it does successfully feel like a saint's life from a couple of universes over. I loved the afterword about its taproots of Kate Bush.

[sovay]

What a lovely collection of presents! And I do see what you mean about the wrapping paper. (And it's v nice wrapping paper anyway.)

Thank you! We kept some pieces of its winter night forest. All the books are great-looking things.

*hugs*

[sovay]

Himself gave me books including the new one about the Wife of Bath which I am very much looking forward to reading.

Have a wonderful time with them!

[lokifan]

Haha, I'm very happy for Hestia! And that sounds lovely. I hope next year's better!

[a_reasonable_man]

This all sounds like a lovely festival of lights. As the poem says, "...points of light/ Shine out wherever the Just / Exchange their messages."

[sovay]

Haha, I'm very happy for Hestia! And that sounds lovely. I hope next year's better!

Thank you! I hope the holidays are treating you well, too.

[sovay]

This all sounds like a lovely festival of lights. As the poem says, "...points of light/ Shine out wherever the Just / Exchange their messages."

*hugs*

Thank you. I hope yours is as shining.

[de_eekhoorn]

That is indeed a beautiful paper. Perhaps the rabbit contains its own destroyer?

[sovay]

That is indeed a beautiful paper. Perhaps the rabbit contains its own destroyer?

What a wonderful way of thinking of it.

[asakiyume]

I think I had vaguely heard that there was a new collection from Susanna Clarke, but your mentioning of it re-fires my excitement! I hope/expect they'll be good.

Renaming hoodies as smoking jackets--let's do this more generally.

This has not been what I would call a good year, but we treasure one another within it. --very much so.

[sovay]

I think I had vaguely heard that there was a new collection from Susanna Clarke, but your mentioning of it re-fires my excitement! I hope/expect they'll be good.

It's a novelette illustrated almost to the point of a graphic novel and it's strange and lovely! It started life for radio and I will probably listen to that form, too.

Renaming hoodies as smoking jackets--let's do this more generally.

Amen.

--very much so.

*hugs*

[theseatheseatheopensea]

I love that wrapping paper! And, you know what, the foxes are totally there! (My myopia+presbyopia+myodesopsia combo means that I see a lot of things that are not actually there--or are they?) And I'm glad to hear about all those wonderful presents--I'm really looking forward to The Wood At Midwinter!

This has not been what I would call a good year, but we treasure one another within it.

<3 <3 <3

[sovay]

I love that wrapping paper! And, you know what, the foxes are totally there! (My myopia+presbyopia+myodesopsia combo means that I see a lot of things that are not actually there--or are they?)

I am confident in the foxes.

And I'm glad to hear about all those wonderful presents--I'm really looking forward to The Wood At Midwinter!

Thank you! It is small but beautifully eerie and I hope it is a stepping stone to whatever Clarke writes next. I hope you too are in possession of the right kind of books.