Monday...

First, our performance as Dwygelli at the fundraised Saturday night went well. I've set up a new website for us under that name here - take a look and tell us what you think.

While I was at it, I finally got the .com domain name for Tregwernin and set that up. the old blogspot address will continue to work, but you can also get to this page now by simply typing "tregwernin.com".

Yesterday we spent recovering from the fundraiser. The garden is still in full flood, and I snuck a few early new potatoes out of the raised bed yesterday. The last two nights have been quite cool - 42 F by my back door, so probably a little lower in the vegetable garden - and the end of the squash / tomato season is in sight. We'll probably have our first frost in two or three weeks. Squash production is already tapering off with the change in the light, and the only tomatoes still setting are the Sweet 100's, but it's certainly been a good year.

Today's picture is of a huge caterpillar I saw in the driveway Saturday. We think it might be the kind which turns into a big moth - anyone have a better idea?



Hoping to get back to writing today or tomorrow.

-GRG

...and Friday - well, Saturday!

OK, I admit I missed Friday, though I doubt many people noticed this time of year. It was partly because, with my changing work schedule and all the holidays, I am finding it difficult to remember what day I'm in. It was also because I was - well, not writing, but preparing to write: tinkering with the outline for The Druid's Son, and rereading parts of the previous book. Now that my full-time writing opportunity is almost here, I'm excited.

And also, of course, preparing for Christmas, which is now here: a Happy Christmas to all who celebrate it!

-GRG

Monday...

Lots of seasonal chores today - wrapping presents, going to the post office, and so forth. Saturday night we celebrated Yule with ADF in a rather low-key ceremony; so, feeling the need of more ritual, I will be celebrating the Solstice again myself tonight - and hopefully observing the Lunar Eclipse as well. So far the weather looks good...

After the first of the year I'll have a couple of public appearances: a book reading/signing (date still to be arranged) with a local venue, and on January 22nd some storytelling as part of the Colorado Welsh Society's St. Dwynwyn's Day. More on both of these later.

Still looking like a brown Christmas in Denver, although the mountains have been getting heavy snow.

Picture later...

-GRG

...and Wednesday...

Some winter weather moving in today, with snow forecast for tonight and tomorrow. It's more than time, I suppose, but I'm not eager to drive in it tomorrow. Think I'll take the laptop home with me tonight so I can work from home tomorrow if necessary.

We'll be celebrating the Winter Solstice this weekend, even though it's not actually until Tuesday 21st. The length of the day doesn't change much at this point - here in Denver, for example, tomorrow's "length of visible light" will be only 22 seconds shorter than today, and in mid Wales (where Gwernin spent his winters) about 40 seconds shorter. So a couple of days early or late is no big thing. What I'm excited about, though, is the total lunar eclipse the night before - hope it stays clear!

Today's picture: Drom Beg again. If I remember right, the sunset now would be just about in the notch on the ridge line...



-GRG

... and Friday

Another mild, dry day, but windy: more weather coming in soon. We had been planning on going to an SCA event in Cheyenne tomorrow, but have pretty much decided not to after all, for various reasons. I had just as soon have the day off instead, as the next few weekends will be busy, and I am at bottom not really a very social person. This is good from the point of view of writing, which is generally a very solitary occupation. Book promotion, however, is another story.

Another Irish photo today, more reflective of the season than what I see outside my window: the entrance to Grange Stone Circle in the rain.



-GRG

...and Wednesday...

Mixed rain and snow yesterday evening; nice today but cold. No chance for writing, and there won't be for a while. With daylight savings time having gone, there's no light after work now to garden. The dark half of the year, indeed.



-GRG

Monday...

One more fine weekend before winter weather arrives, and I got a few pictures of the rowan tree:



Forecast for the next few days is for much colder weather and a chance of snow. Very overdue, but happily most of the leaves are off the trees now, so not much danger of breaking branches. The rowan is an exception, but she's flexible, which is one reason yesterday found me on a ladder trimming branches on the power line side...

Thursday is Veteran's Day and a federal holiday, so I hope to get back to writing at last. Cold nasty weather is just what I need now!

eta: I just realized I didn't have any Irish links on the Resource page, so I've added a selection of my favorites.

-GRG

Calan Gaeaf

Happy (Celtic) New Year - today is the First Day of Winter in the old Celtic calendar. It's not particularly wintery today - warmer than the middle of last week - but the cold will come. I spent part of yesterday clearing stuff out of the garage to make a winter home for the rosemary bush. This is more complicated than it used to be, because it (the rosemary) is now so large that it requires the use of the garden cart to move it easily, and this in turn takes up more room. However, the clearance was long overdue and beneficial, involving boxes that hadn't been touched since I moved here in 1997. I found some photo collections which I need to scan this winter, which I hope will include some British landscape photos I took in the eighties and nineties - more stone circles.

Another picture on the Samhain theme:



It's the eastern interior passage in the mound of Knowth - a gateway to - where?

-GRG

... and Friday

The garden's finished: 18 degrees yesterday morning; no more roses. One more weekend to clean up the remains; then perhaps I can get some writing done.

We'll be celebrating Samhain this weekend; in the meantime, an appropriate picture from last year's Irish trip:



It's Oweynagat, the Cave of the Cat: a good place to stay away from this weekend!

-GRG

...and Wednesday...

Mid-twenties in my garden this morning, with ice on all the standing water. Anything left outside will have had it. Yesterday the wind was so strong that it blew my hat off as I set out on my morning walk. Still cold and very windy today, but tomorrow should be a bit better. Time to clean up the remains of the vegetable garden and make it ready for winter. One more view of summer in the coldframe:



No writing over the weekend due to garden prep, but that cold indoor time is coming.

Monday...

A busy day at home, which unfortunately didn't include any writing. Autumn came down like a hammer this morning with a cold front which dropped the temperature 15 degrees in less than an hour. I spent a lot of the day getting the plants into the cold frame and the rosemary into the garage. Also made another batch of plum jam... autumn's here tonight.



The geraniums will come indoors in about three weeks, before the serious cold hits. In the meantime, summer's in the cold frame...

-GRG

Autumn weekend

Another beautiful Colorado fall day. Here's a touch of local color: the big ash tree across the street is putting on its usual display. In another week it will be mostly bare, but pure gold while it lasts.



No writing so far this weekend, but plenty of garden cleanup. We'll see how this afternoon goes.

Wednesday...

Snow on the mountaintops this morning, and the first touch of frost in my garden. The temperature will rebound into the low 70's by the weekend, but the nights are getting colder -- and longer. I picked the last green tomatoes yesterday before the frost, and the squash and pumpkin vines have finished. Two and a half more weeks until Samhain, and Calan Gaeaf - Winter's beginning in the Celtic year.



I got a little more writing done Monday afternoon, sitting in the back yard with my laptop, watching the Blackcapped Chickadees at the feeder and enjoying the orange and purple of the marigolds and asters. Interesting developments in the story, with more to come.

-GRG

... and Friday

One more shot from the Poulnabrone series before I go on to other things:



Weather is finally cooling off a bit here, though still above seasonal normal. More garden cleanup this weekend, which is good for thinking. It also helps to keep one connected with the seasonal rhythms of the world, which were more important to people in Gwernin's time than to many of us today. An article in the Guardian a couple of weeks ago about the early introduction of pigs into the New Forest to deal with a bumper crop of acorns is an example in point. Traditionally pigs were allowed to graze on acorns this time of year to fatten them for November slaughter. In the Triads of Ireland, "the death of a fat pig" is given as one of the "three deaths that are better than life", and in another Irish text a young man's early death is mourned as that of "a pig who dies before the mast [i.e., acorn crop]". Just an example of the things most of us don't know or think about, but which are relevant to my storytelling.

-GRG

More equinox

Weather's finally cooling off a bit. Appropriate - autumn equinox at 6:10 pm Denver time (MDT). We've losing two and a half minutes of daylight every day - nothing compared to the five minutes a day in Juneau, Alaska, where I used to live, but still quite noticeable over the course of a week. Still no frost, and not likely to be for at least the next week. I need to put up some garden photos, but I'll have to wait until this weekend to take them.

In the meantime, another stone circle picture - this one is Drom Beg, from our Irish trip last year.

Progress...

Another page written yesterday, and three more today. Not much momentum yet, but better than I have done in some while. I stayed at home today, gardened, read, and wrote. The weather was a bit cooler than yesterday, which helped: hard to imagine a cool, wet day in Ireland when it's this hot and dry.

Lots of squash and tomatoes, and the apples are getting ripe: time to make chutney, as soon as I get a cool enough evening. Summer's passing: almost September, and the days are visibly shorter since Lammas. Maybe a month left for the garden, if I'm lucky, before the first frost.

-GRG

Signs of spring

These are blooming in a sheltered bed by a building near where I work. Click on them for a gorgeous close-up.

The last week has been mostly mild - expected now that I have a new furnace.

-GRG

Imbolc

We celebrated Imbolc last night with a fire on the patio. Firelight and a full moon - wonderful. A clear dark sky with only wisps of high cloud catching the moonlight, Orion and his dog star bright before the moon rose, then fading in response to her light. A cold north wind at sunset gradually dropped. A fire mostly of white birch and maple trimmings from a friend's trees, two years old at least and dry. A bed of glowing red coals with flickering blue halos below the higher flames. A few twigs from my trees, again old prunings, rowen and oak and cherry. Pale golden mead - the best - and fresh bread, shared around and with the fire. Then when the flames died down and the moon rose high, indoors for warmth and more food. And so home.

Imbolc is one of the four cross-quarter festivals in the pagan year, along with Beltane, Lammas, and Samhain, and marks the beginning of spring. It's a fire festival, and is associated with Bridged, Celtic Saint/Goddess, and with the beginning of the lambing season and the ewe's milk that goes with it. Not much sign of spring last night, but it will come.

May you have a good Imbolc.

-GRG

Autumn is here / Mae'r hydref yma

We took a trip up into the mountains last weekend to ride the Georgetown Loop. Mountain fall color is well advanced.

Heavy frost this morning after rain. The garden's over for the year; time to clean it up and think about next year. Time for more writing, too.
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Cawson ni tro i fyny i'r mynyddoedd i reid y Georgetown Loop. Mae'r lliwiau hydref mynyddoedd yn ardderchog.

Rhew trwm y bore'ma wedi glaw. Mae'r ardd llysiau wedi dod i ben am y flwydden; amser ei llanhau a meddwl am y flwydden nesaf. Amser ysgrifennu hefyd.

-GRG

Summer's end / Diwedd yr haf

It's been a mild summer here in Denver; parts of August have felt more like September. The tomatoes are in full spate, but for how much longer? Usually we have the first killing frost before the end of September, and September starts tomorrow. (Picture: view toward Golden and Boulder from the office window last Wednesday.)
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Mae hi'n wedi bod haf mwyn yma yn Denver; mae rhannau'r Mis Awst wedi teimlo fel Mis Medi. Mae'r tomatoes yn dod yn gyflym, ond am faint o amser? Yn arferol, mi gawn ni rhew galed cyn bo diwedd Mis Medi, a mae'r Mis Medi yn dechrau yfory. (Llun: golygfa tuag at Golden a Boulder o'r ffenestr y swyddfa Dydd Mercher diwedda.)