WINTER IS HERE
and Enchanted Conversation is celebrating
with some quotes, art, and folklore!
Winter is the time of year when we're inspired to read more, enjoy meals with family and friends on a cold night, walk in the snow, and dream by the fire.
To inspire you, we've collected some of EC's favorite things about winter...so please enjoy the quotes, art, tales, music, and folklore below that highlight this magical season!
"Brew me a cup for a winter's night.
For the wind howls loud and the furies fight:
Spice it with love and stir it with care,
And I'll toast our bright eyes,
my sweetheart fair."
~ Minna Thomas Antrim
no spring without sunshine,
and no happiness without companions."
~ Korean Proverb
WINTER FOLKLORE
& ANIMALS
10 Strange Signs Predicting a Hard Winter
- Woodpeckers sharing a tree
- Pigs gathering sticks
- Ants marching in a line rather than meandering
- "See how high the hornets nest, 'twill tell how high the snow will rest"
- Early arrival of crickets on the hearth
- Thick hair on the back of a cow's neck
- Raccoons with thick tails and bright bands
- Muskrats burrowing holes high on the river bank
- Spiders spinning larger than usual webs and entering the house in great numbers
- 3 snowy owls flying overhead together during daylight hours
"The twelve months...
Snowy, Flowy, Blowy,
Showery, Flowery, Bowery,
Hoppy, Croppy, Droppy,
Breezy, Sneezy, Freezy."
~ George Ellis
Snowy, Flowy, Blowy,
Showery, Flowery, Bowery,
Hoppy, Croppy, Droppy,
Breezy, Sneezy, Freezy."
~ George Ellis
"I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, 'Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.'"
~ Lewis Carroll
STORY INSPIRATION:
Neuschwanstein Castle in Winter
This 19th-century palace, located in southwest Bavaria, Germany, has inspired many authors and artists with its fairy tale-style appearance. It has appeared prominently in several films through the years, as well as serving as the visual inspiration for Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle.
5 Soups to Warm the Winter Soul
Watch the recipe below:
"In January
it's so nice
while slipping
on the sliding ice
to sip hot chicken soup with rice.
Sipping once
Sipping twice."
~ Maurice Sendak, In January
Stopping by Woods
on a Snowy Evening
Robert Frost
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
"Antisthenes says that in a certain faraway land the cold is so intense that words freeze as soon as they are uttered, and after some time then thaw and become audible, so that words spoken in winter go unheard until the next summer.
~ Plutarch, Moralia
Winter Reading Nook Goals
because it's a valid excuse to stay home when it's snowing
just to spend the day reading in a cozy nook...
"In the winter she curls up around a good book
and dreams away the cold."
~ Ben Aaronovitch, "Broken Homes"
"There’s just something beautiful about walking on snow that nobody else has walked on. It makes you believe you’re special."
~ Carol Rifka Brunt, "Tell the Wolves I'm Home"
WINTER ART GALLERY
Gerda and the Reindeer, Arthur Rackham
Winter Bullfinches, Bruno Liljefors
Winter Landscape, Iványi Grünwald Béla
Fairies Dancing in Snowy Starlight, Ida Rentoul Outhwaite
The Snow Queen, Charles Robinson
The Dreamer of Dreams, Edmund Dulac
Storal Park, Julian Onderdonk
The Snow Queen, Margaret Tarrant
THE FULL MOONS
OF WINTER
THE COLD MOON
December 18, 2021
This first full moon of winter is named the Cold Moon because of the frigid conditions in December, when cold weather starts to reign in the Northern Hemisphere.
THE WOLF MOON
January 17, 2022
It was Native Americans who named the second full moon of winter the Wolf Moon due to seeing packs of wolves in the wintertime howling at night.
THE SNOW MOON
February 16, 2022
The full moon for February is named the Snow Moon for the simple reason that it's cold and snowy at this time of year.
HAPPY WINTER TO ALL!
Share what you love about this season
in the comments section below
Enchanted Conversation's contributing editor, Amanda Bergloff, writes modern fairy tales, folktales, and speculative fiction. Her work has appeared in various anthologies, including Frozen Fairy Tales, After the Happily Ever After, and Uncommon Pet Tales.
Follow her on Twitter @AmandaBergloff
Check out her Amazon Author page HERE
Join her every Tuesday on Twitter for #FairyTaleTuesday to share what you love about fairy tales, folktales, and myths.
Also, if you like sharing your #vss fairy tales on Twitter, follow @fairytaleflash and use #fairytaleflash so we can retweet!
Cover Painting: Artus Scheiner
Cover Layout & Quotes/Various Graphic Design: Amanda Bergloff
1 comment:
Thanks, Amanda! I love the castle, but the cozy nooks are my favorite! I think being cozy is my favorite part of winter is being cozy inside when it's cold outside. Warm food, followed by a cup of tea and something sweet, a fire, and a good book! (All this is even better after a walk in the cold.:)
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