snowdrops, festivals, and beautiful music

As January comes to a close, I can't help but become a little bit eager for Springtime...especially since we have finished Winter celebrations and festivals. What fun we have had, and so much we have learned!

One of my most favorite books for discovering seasonal celebrations and festivals is All Year Round...I highly recommend it! We are looking ahead to the coming week as we spiritually prepare for Candlemas; another learning experience for us!

As I sit and watch more snowflakes fall from the sky, I begin to think of the dutiful work that is going on below the ground; underneath the ice and snow. We will soon be 'hunting' for these sure signs of spring and rebirth...such as the Snowdrop flower.

These beautiful flowers of the amaryllis family blossom mostly in the winter time, making them our first glimpse of the springtime to come.

Flowers almost always remind me of fairies, in some way...

I needlefelted this snowdrop fairy last night, as the final days of January slip away..

I have many springtime songs that I long to sing, and the time will come soon!

Do you have an all time, hands-down favorite song?

A song with incredible lyrics that take you "somewhere"?

I do! This beautiful song brings me to a luscious spring day in a forest among friends, music, animals, and the shadows of the past.

Loreena McKennit, "The Mummer's Dance",

my favorite song since high school! (ahem, 1998)

This song has meant so much to me over the years...and it still does today. Perhaps even more!

'A garland gay we bring you here,

and at your door we stand..

it is a sprout well budded out,

the work of Our Lord's hands...'

Music to my ears...

My little boy is growing so fast before my eyes...we are closing in on one year in less than a month. I take such pride and pleasure in watching him discover his surroundings...last night at a family dinner, it was the piano.
Creating music is an activity that engages mind, body, and feelings acting in harmony from an impulse of the will. There is much learning to be done while at the keys, mouth to a reed, eyes on a libretto...

My wee one at the piano with Grandma and Auntie Vicky, giving us his rendition of "Camelot"

"Oldies" are "Goodies"

I can't remember the last time I heard a good song on the radio. Or a song that didn't sample a catchy and familiar tune from the past. Voices have been taken over by technology...sometimes I have to ask myself, "is this really a person singing?" I search for songs with meaningful and inspirational lyrics, only to come back empty-handed. Until this past weekend...
While working on some crafts, I flipped to the "solid gold oldies" music channel on our television. Needless to say, I haven't picked up the remote since and songs have been stuck in my head for days! I'm refreshed by this music; the simplicity, the honesty, the pure sweetness. I imagine myself back forty years ago...in an ice cream shop, listening to a juke box... dancing with a crush at a school dance...writing letters to boyfriends. I wonder, when did "oldies" become "oldies"?? Just this past weekend, I heard a Smashmouth song on the classic rock station...are we really almost thirty??
There's something so charming about the forties and fifties...the hairstyles, the clothing, the demeanor...don't you think?