Winter Sun

Slow Down.... pare back...

The long days of Winter are times when our lives should naturally slow down.

The bare days of Winter are time when we should be able to see the structure and bones of our existence and be better able to see what is worth our efforts when the the world warms up and the trees leaf out.

Take your time and read this Article from Mother Earth News.
The italicized quotes below are from the article.

"No matter how fast we go, no matter how many comforts we forgo in order to quicken our pace, there never seems to be enough time."

"Curiously, there has been scant public discussion about this dramatic speed-up of society. People may complain about how busy they are, how overloaded modern life has become, but speed is still viewed as generally positive — something that will help us all enrich our lives. "

This is so much like my day:
"The alarm rings and you hop out of bed. Another day is off and running. A quick shower. Wake the kid<snip>. Down a cup of coffee. <snip> Hurry out to the car, <snip>. Reaching work, <snip>. You take a couple of deep breaths, then remember that the project you didn't finish last night must be <snip>. Meanwhile, you've got five voice-mail messages and seven more e-mail messages, two of them marked urgent."
Until I got to the seven more email messages! Seven! Seven! Only Seven!
And what about Instant Messages? I stopped taking voice mails a long time ago. People ramble and you just have to call them back anyway to figure out what they really want.
And 1 project due! Please. I never have fewer than 7 project going, any 1 of which might need special handling on any given day. And then there are the walk-ins. And the meetings. The meetings you go to only so that either your time is wasted or you end up with more projects.

Americans have become more productive but I'm not sure how much more we can really take.  
“The major cause in the speed-up of life is not technology, but economics,” says Schor. “The nature of work has changed now that bosses are demanding longer hours of work.” Harvard economist Juliet Schor,Author of the 1991 best-seller The Overworked American
I too have found that without concerted effort that it is too easy for anyone "working for corporate america" to end up with a life that just gets faster and faster until it spins out of control. I can speak from experience as I work for a Fortune 500 company.

Then there is Neighborhood Organization stuff which is important and rewarding in that I now have a cadre of amazing friends who care about our city its future... but it's time consuming. Taking photos, posting photos, tracking issues: water leaks, blight (yes we are still recovering from Katrina), potholes, the grinding impracticality of some city services, crime. Tracking successes: Trees planted, streets & sidewalk repairs, Houses renovated and or sold, ....

And then there is my commitment as 3rd degree to the Tradition, the Ways, the spiritual path I walk and an obligation to ensure that it stays alive, is passed on. Which happens to be the primary reason for this blog.

In the Spring of 2012,
after being interviewed and providing documentation for review to someone who was working on his PHD at Oxford (yes the one in England),
I read the draft of his PHD and realized that,
in addition to some very interesting ideas about collaborative government,
this doctoral student had put his finger on my personal issue.
Like many of the other individuals who picked up the neighborhood recovery torch PostKatrina, I was burned out!

Everything I was doing was "Good":
Job=$ to provide for my family and there are days when I really like it,
Neighborhood work = better environment around me, great new friends
Blog = true to my spiritual path
But I couldn't continue the ever quickening pace and ever increasing responsibilities.

"Yet it seems that the faster we go, the farther we fall behind. Not only in the literal sense of not getting done what we set out to do, but at a deeper level, too."

"But it has gotten to the point where my days, crammed with all sorts of activities, feel like an Olympic endurance event: the everyday-athon."

Yes.... I needed a break. Not total abdication but a break.

So I "took a break" in 2012 from some of the responsibilities with which I had burdened myself.

I lightened up on the neighborhood work and either let others take the lead or let go of the need to "participate' as often as requested by city government leaders or non-profits. And as a result some folks stepped up and some things slid by and all in all it all worked out. And I have a better plan for how I encourage others in 2013.

I "took a break" from "StregaNola". I took vacation time with my daughter and visited with my teacher. I set some blog posts up to post intermittently throughout the year and then logged off as StregaNola in March and didn't log back on until 2013. And surprise. It's still hear. Just like I left it.

My pace at work is something I'm still working on ... but everything starts somewhere.

So while we are still in what should be the slow, dark, part of the year, ask yourself:
What can you pare back? What do you want to focus on? What do you value enough to keep and what can you let go?

The 1st step in any Magic, before you ACT, is to meditate on your intent and idea and to listen to the feedback the Universe will give you.  But to really do this you have to slow down. 
And if you are working with the Gratitude Jar and a Yearly Jar of goals take some time to slow down and pare back and before you just start filling that Jar up with things you want to accomplish this year.

2013 Gratitude Jar & the Magic of intentions.

After a bit of a hiatus..... I logged back into Facebook and reviewed the blog in preparation for setting up 2013 posts. And bumped into what I am calling the Gratitude Jar.  It's a fabulous idea and one that I'll try out myself this year.  

But it got me thinking about alignment and intent and magic. 

The wonderful thing about the Gratitude Jar is that it helps teach mindfulness.  If you have the Jar and you are thinking about what you can put in the Jar then you focus and are mindful of daily blessings, and experiences worth savoring.  You also align with the beauty of nature.  One of the things my Jar will have on it "Nature as the Great Teacher Moments".

Then there is the alternate approach to using a Yearly Jar.  One that is aligned with the secular tradition of New Year Resolutions.  It has been said by many (even non-pagans) that writing down your goals makes a difference. 

Few have said it better or to as many people as Stephen Covey:
"All things are created twice. There's a mental or first creation, and a physical or second creation of all things. You have to make sure that the blueprint, the first creation, is really what you want, that you've thought everything through. Then you put it into bricks and mortar. Each day you go to the construction shed and pull out the blueprint to get marching orders for the day. You begin with the end in mind."

The "all things are created twice" concept is the essence of all magic work.  You build the idea with your energy and mind. And then you free it on the Astral Plane (or release it into the universe if you prefer) and then you work on the physical plane until it manifests. As you write your goals down and place them in the Jar imbue them with your intent. Then release them by placing them into the Jar. 

At the end of the year (or Cornucopia) you can open the Yearly Jar, reassess or renew your goals.

I can promise you this: The more aligned you are with the ebb and flow of the universe, the more mindful and aware you are (and the Gratitude Jar helps with this) the easier it is to "make magic".

New Year's Day and January and Janus

January 1st New Year's Day.  Some say this is the only World Wide Holiday.


January is named for Janus God of 2 faces, the God that looks back and the God that looks forward.
The symbology of an Old Man representing the old year and a baby representing the New Year weaves seamlessly into the pagan Solstice and Stregheria rituals and celebrations, the ever changing, ever dying god. Janus encompasses both Lupercus the Wolf God who rules this time and Kern the Stag God whose rule begins at the Spring Equinox and ends at the Fall Equinox. Janus is the God who is present when the Child of Promise is born at Lupercus.

According to Wikipedia: "January is named after Janus (Ianuarius), the god of the doorway; the name has its beginnings in Roman mythology, coming from the Latin word for door (ianua) – January is the door to the year."
Again according to Wikipedia January has been the first month of the year for Romans since at least 153 BC, perhaps as far back as 450 BC or 713 BC depending on which account you prefer.
I prefer the 713 BC account which credits Numa Pompilius because I like his affliation with Egeria and Egeria's affliation with Lake Nemi.  But I digress.

There is a great site that talks about how the Romans tracked days based on the Moon before they settled on a Solar Calendar.  The excerpt below is taken from this site.
"January was named after Janus, a sky-god who was ancient even at the time of Rome’s founding. Ovid quoted Janus as saying "The ancients called me chaos, for a being from of old am I." After describing the world’s creation, he again quoted Janus: "It was then that I, till that time a mere ball, a shapeless lump, assumed the face and members of a god." A Lydian named Joannes identified Janus as a planet when he wrote: "Our own Philadelphia still preserves a trace of the ancient belief. On the first day of the month there goes in procession no less a personage than Janus himself, dressed up in a two-faced mask, and people call him Saturnus, identifying him with Kronos."
Early Romans believed that the beginning of each day, month and year were sacred to Janus. They thought he opened the gates of heaven at dawn to let out the morning, and that he closed them at dusk. This eventually led to his worship as the god of all doors, gates, and entrances."

Epiphany - Manifestation

"Today is the Feast of the Epiphany. The word "epiphany" comes from an ancient Greek word meaning "manifestation" or "striking appearance." Before Christianity, the word was used to record occasions when Greek gods and goddesses made appearances on earth."

I know that for many who follow an Italian path Befana's day is a big deal. But, gasp, it really isn't a big deal in my practice. Perhaps this is because I was not raised in an Italian family. It's not that this day hasn't always been important culturally for me. In New Orleanians we have our Epiphany celebrations. Today is the day we take our Christmas trees down and recycle them to help rebuild our wetlands. Today is the official start of our carnival season. Let the King Cakes begin! We'll end the carnival season with Mardi Gras. The carnival season is a pagan celebration bookended by 2 Christian Holidays Epiphany & Ash Wednesday. Perhaps it is this subliminal cultural awareness of how the pagan and Christian intermingle that has always made me thing of Befana's Day as culturally Italian and not necessarily part of my pagan practice.

But that is not to say that I do not think that this day has significance to those of us who follow the wheel of the year. We celebrate the Winter Solstice. This is when the day is shortest and the night longest. On Solstice we celebrate the fact that the sun will return even as it "stands still". The sun stands still until Epiphany when it again "makes its appearance here on earth" manifest.

Here is some science from USNO and the Royal Observatory science to help explain why it is logical that, even with out the Christian Epiphany, January 6th is an important day of mainfestation:

US Naval Observatory:
The 8 December crossover day is the date of earliest sunset. Why? In the weeks before solstice, the two effects act in opposite directions on the time of sunset: the declination effect pulling it earlier and the Equation of Time pushing it later. On 8 December the Equation of Time begins to dominate and sunset begins to move later. Meanwhile both effects are pushing sunrise later and later. After solstice, the situation reverses. Both effects push sunset later. But for sunrise, the declination effect now pulls it earlier while the Equation of Time effect continues to push it later. The Equation of Time prevails until 5 January, when the declination effect takes over and sunrises begin to move earlier. So 5 January is the date of latest sunrise.

Royal Observatory
The winter solstice is the time when the Sun reaches its southmost distance from the celestial equator and hence, in northern latitudes is the day when the Sun is lowest in the sky at noon. This is, naturally, the shortest day of the year in northern latitudes. To many people it seems odd, therefore, that the time of sunrise continues to get later in the day after the solstice.

The reason for this is that the Sun does not cross the meridian (when it is highest in the sky) at precisely noon each day. The difference between clock-defined noon and the time when the Sun is on the meridian is called the Equation of Time and represents the correction which must be applied to the time given by a sundial to make it agree with clock time.

There are two reasons why the Sun is not on the meridian at noon each day. The first is that the path of the Earth around the Sun is an ellipse, and not a circle. The second is that the Earth's equatorial plane and its orbital plane are inclined to one another. The two effects add together to yield the equation of time which can amount to some 16 minutes difference between solar and mean time.

The period when the equation of time is changing fastest in the whole year is very close to the winter solstice. It changes by 10 minutes from December 16 to January 5. This means that the time at which the Sun crosses the meridian changes by 10 minutes in this interval and also that the times of sunrise and sunset will change by the same amount.

Near the solstice the Sun's height in the sky changes very slowly and the length of the day also changes slowly. The rapid change due to the equation of time dominates the very slow change in day length and leads to the observed sunrise times.

It also leads to an Epiphany in the Greek sense of the word, Manifestation. The sun has truly returned and we can actually *see* the difference in the sunrise and sunset. The sun has stopped "standing still".

Aradia's Words on Worship indicate that we celebrate the Festival of Fana on December 19th. I have always wondered why have a festival at this time when the Winter Solstice celebration is so close. Perhaps it is to remind us to make this a season of change instead of single of a day of solar birth. Our Mythos indicate that Manea, the Crone, acts as midwife and assists with the birth of the Sun God at Solstice. Manea is said to rule this time of year. So it seems appropriate that a older lady bring gifts to the world. I have envisioned January 6th as the day that the Gods show the new Sun God to the people, with Manea, doing the work of bringing things to the physical world. I think that what we have Epiphany as hybridized cultural remnant of the recognition of the fact that this day is the day we can see the sun's return and Italy's unique capacity to retain aspects of feminine spirituality and the Christian Epiphany with its 3 kings bring gifts to the Christ child.

What is especially interesting to me is that on the Winter Solstice the belt of Orion (3 kings?) and Sirius point to where the sun will rise. These stars, like Befana and the 3 kings, help us mark and align with the Wheel of the Year.

8 Decidedly Unromantic Facts About Mistletoe

8 Decidedly Unromantic Facts About Mistletoe from Mental Floss.
The information below is not mine; it is from another blog
But as I've said before so many times I find and link to interesting data on the web only to have it disappear.  At least this way it doesn't get lost.  Think of it a bit like having to copy your own Book of Shadows.  If the links wouldn't disappear I'd be happy to JUST link.  But ... well... you know.

1. Mistletoe, not unlike some you may have smooched beneath it, is a parasite. The plant sucks water and minerals through a sinister-sounding bump called a haustorium that forms on the host tree. It might make you feel better to know that, technically, mistletoe is only partially parasitic: The plant is capable of photosynthesis, unlike true parasites that take all of their nutrients from their hosts. So while mistletoe doesn’t pay rent, it does occasionally do the laundry or whip up a nice soufflé.

2. Candle companies love to peddle holiday scents labeled “Mistletoe” –- you can even buy mistletoe-scented air fresheners for your car—but the plant, says mistletoe expert Jonathan Briggs, has no scent at all. Briggs, who hails from Gloucestershire, England, debunks all manner of mistletoe misinformation in A Little Book About Mistletoe and on his wonderful mistletoe blog.

3. Throughout the ages, mistletoe has been used to treat a battery of ailments, from leprosy, worms and labor pains to high blood pressure. In Europe, injections of mistletoe extract are often prescribed as a complementary treatment for cancer patients.

4. A time-honored southern tradition for fetching mistletoe out of a tall tree is to blast it down with a shotgun. Let’s hope no one’s kissing under it at the time.

5. In medieval times, mistletoe wasn’t just a Christmas decoration, but one perhaps better suited to Halloween: Hung over doors to homes and stables, it was thought to prevent witches and ghosts from entering.

6. According to some accounts, the name mistletoe means “dung branch,” a nod to the seeds’ ability to stick to tree branches when pooped out by birds. The viscous middle layer of the fruit is so sticky that the seeds get glued where they land post-digestion, which starts a new mistletoe plant. Mistletoe goo is so sticky that trappers used to smear it on tree branches to catch birds, which would land and then be unable to fly away.

7. The Roman historian Pliny the Elder told how druids revered mistletoe, recounting a ceremony where they gathered it with a golden sickle, then sacrificed two white bulls. The ceremony still takes place each year, minus the bull-slaying, at the Tenbury Mistletoe Festival in England.

8. In Norse mythology, mistletoe is a god-killer. Balder, the son of Odin and Frigg, was felled by an arrow made of mistletoe, the only material that could hurt him. Oddly, this may have been the origin of the kissing tradition, as some retellings say that Frigg revived Balder and was so happy, she commanded anyone who stood under the plant to kiss as a reminder of how love conquered death

Winter Soltice.... BEST MESSAGE for a new Solar Year.

Tracy Chapman's Heaven's here on Earth

And again in Italian

You can look to the stars in search of the answers
Look for God and life on distant planets
Have your faith in the ever after
While each of us holds inside the map to the labyrinth
Heaven's here on earth

We are the spirit the collective conscience
We create the pain and the suffering and the beauty in this world
Heaven's here on earth
In our faith in humankind
In our respect for what is earthly
In our unfaltering belief in peace and love and understanding

I've seen and met angels wearing the disguise
Of ordinary people leading ordinary lives
Filled with love, compassion, forgiveness and sacrifice
Heaven's in our hearts
In our faith in humankind
In our respect for what is earthly
In our unfaltering belief in peace and love and understanding

Look around
Believe in what you see
The kingdom is at hand
The promised land is at your feet
We can and will become what we aspire to be
Heaven's here on earth

If we have faith in humankind
And respect for what is earthly
And an unfaltering belief that truth is divinity
Heaven's here on earth

I've seen spirits
I've met angels
Touched creations beautiful and wondrous
I've been places where I question all I think I know
But I believe, I believe, I believe this could be heaven

We are born inside the gates with the power to create life
And to take it away
The world is our temple
The world is our church
Heaven's here on earth

If we have faith in humankind
And respect for what is earthly
And an unfaltering belief
In peace and love and understanding
This could be heaven here on earth

Why Solstice Matters

Worthwhile thoughts on solstice...

Give it a read....  I happen to know and trust the source for this one. The blog made it through Katrina and I am counting on it being around for quite some time.

"Anyhow, I am happy to remember and the solstice and celebrate it explicitly. It’s about as universal and natural a holiday as one could ask for. It’s available to everyone, people of every religion or no religion, everywhere on the planet."

Something to think about this Holiday Season

The High Price of Materialism

Henbit

I know it's just a weed but I think it's lovely.
It grows where it is moist and wild and cool and dies back in the summer heat.
Apparently lots of people take great effort to eradicate it.
I've actually started collecting clumps on my walks in a golf course that has been fallow and
wild since Katrina in the hope of getting it started in my garden.

A New Year's Kiss... or any kiss

A kiss to build a year on - if your brain's chemistry agrees
By Sheril Kirshenbaum
Thursday, December 23, 2010

Louisiana Christmas Traditions

BATON ROUGE, — Louisiana has three traditional Christmas celebrations, says State Archivist Florent Hardy.

In addition to Dec. 25, the date celebrated in Louisiana since 1718, there's St. Nicholas Day on Dec. 5 and the Trappers Christmas in late February.
In New Orleans, the original Christmas celebrations included attending midnight Mass on Christmas Eve.

"At that time, Christmas was a very religious experience," said Hardy. "After Mass was la Reveillon, a big feast that featured a menu of wild game (duck, venison and turkey), daube glace (a jellied meat), eggs, oyster dressing, chuck roast, homemade raisin bread and cakes."

While everyone was at Mass, Papa Noel paid a visit and filled the stockings of the children with a trinket and some fruit and sweets.

"On Christmas day, you visited la creche — the manger scene. Gifts were exchanged on New Year's Day," Hardy told people at the YWCA Connections luncheon in Baton Rouge.

Not everyone gave presents on Christmas. Families of German descent living in
Robert's Cove in Acadia Parish celebrated St. Nicholas Day, gathering at homes to await Kris Kringle and his threatening sidekick, Black Peter, who was said to collect bad children in his sack.

The St. Nicholas Day celebration was suspended around World War II, but has been revived in recent years. These days, a choir accompanies St. Nicholas, Black Peter and Santa Claus to homes in the cove. All the children are given treats, the choir sings German Christmas carols, and sweets and beverages are served.

The Trappers' Christmas in Barataria was late because Christmas was a very busy time of year for the fur trappers, Hardy said.

Santa had a handful of names, depending on what part of Louisiana a person called home. To those of French heritage he was Papa Noel, to those of German heritage he was Kris Kringle or St. Nicholas and to the Cajuns the gift-giving figure was a woman called La Christianne.

"Along the River Road plantations, St. Nicholas arrived on a donkey and left goodies in the shoes of the children left out on the porch," added Hardy.
The familiar Santa who arrives via a sleigh pulled by eight reindeer was created by author Washington Irving in 1819. "He couldn't figure out a way for St. Nicholas to travel around the world in one night, so he came up with this idea of him flying through the trees," said Hardy.

Howard Jacobs created a Louisiana version in "Cajun Night Before Christmas."
"Now in Louisiana, we know Santa, Papa Noel as he's called, comes in a pirogue pulled by eight alligators," Hardy said.

Another tradition in the River Parishes is the Christmas Eve bonfires on the levee, lighting the way for Papa Noel.
"The tradition of the bonfires began with the Marist priests at Jefferson College in Convent," now called Manresa, Hardy said. "It was originally celebrated on New Year's Eve."

What started as simple bonfires in the 1800s grew into such huge creations that their height had to be limited to avoid damage to the levees. Multiple generations join with friends and thousands of complete strangers for a huge celebration.

Further north in Natchitoches, the Festival of Lights has been celebrated since 1927. Begun by the city's superintendent of utilities, today's celebration runs from Nov. 20 through Jan. 6 and draws more than 100,000 visitors. It features more than 300,000 Christmas lights.

Stocking Stuffers

For all those kids who have so much... consider these as stocking stuffers.

Fonkoze (fonkoze.org) is a terrific poverty-fighting organization if Haiti is on your mind, nearly a year after the earthquake. A $20 gift will send a rural Haitian child to elementary school for a year, while $50 will buy a family a pregnant goat. Or $100 supports a family for 13 weeks while it starts a business.

Another terrific Haiti-focused organization is Partners in Health, (pih.org), founded by Dr. Paul Farmer, the Harvard Medical School professor. A $100 donation pays for enough therapeutic food (a bit like peanut butter) to treat a severely malnourished child for one month. Or $50 provides seeds, agricultural implements and training for a family to grow more food for itself.

You can donate on line and print out the confirmation and tuck it in a stocking.

Solstice Cauldron

A Solstice Cauldron with Rose Offerings

Turned into Stained Glass

Solstice Wreath & Offerings

The Fire Pit was full of water because it's been raining, a lot. This December is the wettest December on record, ever. We cut the branches off of the bottom of our "Noble Fir". When I saw the water in the pit, I put the branches into the Fire Pit to stop them from drying out. When the rain stopped and we were finally able to see the sun again I spread them out in a circle creating a large wreath. A candle in the center will be a great way to mark the Solstice outside.



Very early New Orleanians typically used Citus Trees instead of firs & pines as their Christmas Trees. The citrus trees bear golden hued fruit at this time of year and are perfect for the Solstice celebration. My kumquat tree never fails to ripen by the Winter Solstice. The Sweet Gum a block away drops its balls. They look remind me of sputnik and also of the Sun and its solar flares. I spray painted them gold and added to the Solstice Offering.

Plants Know

Plants know naturally the science of seasons
By Dan Gill

In just a few days, on Dec. 21, the 2009 winter solstice will occur.

Here in the Northern hemisphere, we are tilted farthest away from the sun on that day. That means the period between sunrise and sunset is shorter than on any other day of the year, making the night the longest of the year.

The length of our days and nights vary from season to season because the Earth’s axis of rotation is tilted in respect to its plane of orbit around the sun.

The winter solstice marks a turning point: While days have been getting shorter and shorter and the nights longer and longer since the summer solstice in June, after Monday, the days will gradually begin to lengthen and the nights shorten. From ancient times until today, humans around the world have marked this time of year with various celebrations, festivals and religious rituals.

Plant sense
What does this have to do with a column on plants?

Well, I could mention that for thousands of years certain plants have played a role in human observances of the winter solstice.

In Europe, plants that stay green during the winter often had special significance. They were a reminder of life in the midst of freezing cold and leafless, dormant trees and shrubs. Evergreen plants such as holly, English ivy, mistletoe, and conifers such as fir, spruce, cedar and pine, are still used today to decorate our homes, along with winter-flowering plants such as poinsettias.

Speaking of poinsettias, have you ever wondered why these colorful plants bloom now, rather than for the Fourth of July?

Here’s where the horticultural lesson about the winter solstice comes in. It is important for gardeners to understand that the changing length of days and nights from season to season has an effect on the way many plants grow and what they do throughout the year.

Just like us, plants living in temperate climates where major temperature changes occur during the year need to be able to tell when the seasons are changing.

Two ways that plants do this are by measuring hours of darkness that occur in a 24-hour period, and by measuring how much cold they have experienced.

Counting the hours
The fact that seasonal changes in light during a 24-hour period have an effect on plants was researched thoroughly back in the 1900s, and the term photoperiodism was created to describe the phenomenon.

In 1920, two employees of the U.S. Department of Agriculture discovered a mutation in a type of tobacco called Maryland Mammoth that prevented the plant from flowering in the summer as normal tobacco plants do. Maryland Mammoth would not bloom until late December.

Experimenting with artificial lighting in winter and artificial darkening in the summer, they found that Maryland Mammoth was affected by the relative length of light to darkness in a day. Because it would flower only when exposed to the short-day lengths that naturally occur in winter, they called it a short-day plant.

Once this behavior was discovered, it was found to take place in many kinds of plants, such as chrysanthemum, poinsettia, Christmas cactus, camellia and kalanchoe.

Other plants, such as spinach and radish, flower only after exposure to long days and short nights, and so are called long-day plants. Still others, including many annuals and vegetables (such as the tomato), are day-neutral; their flowering is not regulated by photoperiod.

As it turns out, the terms short-day and long-day are not quite accurate. It is not how long or short the period of light is, but the length of the darkness. Photoperiodic plants actually need a sufficiently short or long period of darkness to develop a response. However, once people start using a term and get familiar with it, it’s hard to get them to change, so we still use the terms short-day and long-day plant.

Ready for a change
Plants don’t only determine when to bloom by measuring the length of night. Increasing darkness also plays a large role in some plants’ ability to anticipate the coming of the winter and respond.

It’s why, for instance, shade trees drop their leaves in November and early December, even if the weather is not intensely cold. Because the nights have been getting longer, they know colder weather is on the way.

What mediates this remarkable response are various pigments, called phytochromes, which allow photoperiodic plants to measure how many hours of dark they receive in a 24-hour period. The phytochrome, in turn, can trigger the release of various hormones or growth factors that may cause the plant to bloom or to drop its leaves or to begin forming a bulb.

How do plants know when spring is arriving, so as not to be deceived by an early warm spell?

Some photoperiodic plants can perceive the shortening of nights to know spring has sprung. Many others are able to measure the amount of cold that has occurred to determine when winter is over. When a sufficient number of chilling hours accumulate, they are triggered to bloom or send out new growth.

As the winter solstice approaches, it’s interesting to note how remarkable plants are. They have abilities to sense the world around them and to respond to it.

It might not have occurred to you that it is just as important for a plant to know when it is time to bloom or drop its leaves, as it is for a farmer to know when its time to plant a crop.

And just as we have used Earth’s movement around the sun to develop calendars that allow us to do this, many plants can also determine the time of year based on similar perceptions

Winter Dress

Information below taken directly from International House in New Orleans

For generations New Orleanians have upheld the tradition of altering their homes for summer and winter in response to climactic conditions. Homes are often outfitted with formal wool rugs and furnishings in the winter which add warmth to tall, drafty rooms. As winter gives way to summer, wool gives way to sisal rugs and cotton slip covers, which allow furnishings to breath during the months of heat and humidity found in this semi-tropical climate International House continues this temporal tradition by dressing the hotel for summer each Easter and for winter each Labor Day.

From Labor Day through Easter, or the "not so hot" months in New Orleans, International House dresses the lobby for fall and winter. Exuding almost living room warmth, set in an exalting space with 23" ceilings and enlivened with activity from the candlelight only bar, intimate groupings of lobby furniture have been tailored in the most sensuous fabrics. Colors are derived from those found in New Orleans' native spices and in her verdant, semi tropical landscape. Fern greens and a gallery of earth tones, for instance, compliment a subtle reaux-like cayenne, and formal wool rugs coupled with flora, such as Vetiver and palms, complete the sartorial composition for the cooler season.

Equally important is staff dress, for in New Orleans people not only dress their homes but themselves in response to climate. In contrast to the cream colored seersucker suits worn in summer, staff members dress in a classic, tropical weight, black suit from Banana Republic and an earth tone shirt, reflective of the more autumnal palette during the winter months. As such, with seasonal change International House celebrates the rich traditions and mores of this temporal city.