Our usual Solstice celebration was a bit off this year. We did manage to go to our usual spot to watch the sunrise on Solstice morn. We even sang the sun up! However, the usual decorating of our trees outside with edible ornaments for the woodland creatures had to be pushed back. Steve had to work late and there was just too much going on. We finally got around to it last week.

There is a large window one each floor at the back of our new house that looks out into the woods towards the creek that runs through our property. Steve and Iain each made a bird feeder for back there and we also have a suet feeder and a couple of other feeders. That spot gets a lot of action. It’s kind of the equivalent of TV for my kids. All three of them love to sit and watch all of the animals. They get to know them. Sometimes they name them. Our usual cast of characters includes several gray and red squirrels, a couple of chipmunks, chickadees, blue jays, cardinals, tufted titmice, house sparrows, downy woodpeckers, and cardinals. Along with one type of bird that we have yet to identify. We’ve even seen the occasional field mouse or vole scampering by. We choose a hemlock behind the feeders to decorate this year. I think our strings of peanuts were the most popular treat! The apple slices dipped in peanut butter and birdseed were also well loved.

This was taken Solstice morning at our usual spot in the center of town. Try to ignore the brim of Steve’s coffee cup which he was obviously holding as he took the picture!

We had some company this year…. Usually the horses are in the back field, but the owners seem to have many more horses this year and both fields were full. At one point around ten of them came over to check us out.

We found this spot a couple of years back and it’s become a tradition to watch the sun from here. The sun doesn’t break the tree line until much later in the morning at our little house in the woods.

This is the boys taking a break from decorating the trees. For some reason they wanted to climb under the branches and have me take a picture. I’m not sure why, but here they are: