Here we are in the final month of this tumultuous year. When I started creating these monthly photo blogs at the beginning of the year I imagined it filled with photos of summer camp fun and natural dye workshops. It was to be partly a record of the animals and seasonal changes in the forest, and part celebration of our relationships and shared experiences with the community. Instead, it’s been a record of our mostly solo journey through the seasons and I’m ever-so-grateful for the myriad ways we have to connect with you virtually.

December began clear and bright, looking more like autumn than winter but by the end of the month we were definitely feeling the winter season.

We moved some fencing around and gave our boys some forested spots to graze. Even our biggest, woolliest sheep look dwarfed by the forest. The love maple leaves and I though they’d eat the leaves from the ground but they were more interested in the other plants.

Wood, chopped and stacked for winter heat is a big deal around here. It felt great to fill the woodshed up but I really just want to take a minute to admire this old structure that we inherited and it's "living roof" of mosses and licorice ferns. I think the roof is more plants than wood at this point! Last year we said it was the last winter we'd have it but here it is, still hanging on. I love it so much and will be so sad to see it go but it really is falling down. The wood leaning up against the front is helping hold it together!

A blessing of the pandemic was the slowing down of our usually frantic December schedule. With no events, holiday festivals, or travel, we put up our Christmas tree remarkably early, at least for us. This felt symbolic of so many things and I’m sharing it here as a reminder for myself in future years that having slow days at home and taking the time to enjoy holiday decorating (instead of our usual mad dash to decorate the tree the week before Christmas) is important and necessary. Kids and cat approved of the tree!

Despite the gray and brown colors that dominate the winter landscape, there is still bright green to be found, both outside and in. Look at how closely this silk thread, dyed with goldenrod and indigo, matches the bright grass! I love that even the brightest colors that I create in my natural dye work has a counterpart in nature. These beautiful colors of embroidery floss were dyed using madder root (the first two), dyer’s polypore mushroom, goldenrod + indigo, indigo, myrobalan, dyer’s polypore mushroom + indigo.

Other color to be found in December are the calendula flowers. I am so surprised that they are still blooming! I’ve been told by others that in the right weather, they bloom year round but I’ve never experienced that until this year.

The little flowers on the blue fabric are Japanese indigo flowers. If you look closely you can see shiny brown seeds inside some of the dry flowers. The plants don’t survive frost so they are done growing and blooming but I saved many of the flower stalks and will collect the seeds soon. I am excited to grow indigo from my own plant’s seeds next spring!

We welcomed in the winter solstice with a sunshiney garland made from dried orange slices and cranberries. We strung it up across the deck where the sun coming though the trees made it glow like dozens of bright, shining suns. With the stark, winter forest behind, they served as a beautiful reminder of the lengthening days that are to come.

The kids got these fabulous “Fleece Navidad” shirts for Christmas and we attempted a photo shoot with our lamb, Coral. As you can see, she was not very cooperative because putting a harness on her causes her to forget how to walk. She needs some more practice in the spring! We did get a few cute pictures and let’s take a minute to look at how pretty her wool is! It’s just a few months until we’ll shear them and I can’t wait to see what her soft lambswool looks like when it’s washed clean.

A new bunny joined us this month! This is Inky, named for her cute black splotches. Something about the spots on her face make her look like she has a bit of a grumpy expression but she’s actually a doll. She loves to sit snuggled up on blankets, getting petted, and eating carrots. She’s a Holland Lop and joins Squid, the male we got last summer. It’s possible that there will be Holland Lop babies in the future!

A beautiful, bright, full moon guided our exit of this crazy year. My most liked posts on instagram from 2020 also look different than past years (no pictures of kids in the forest or workshops here!) but they are reflective of a year that included more handstitched, naturally dyed little things, nature's beautiful colors, and our fluffy sheep. It was a quieter, more introspective year of forced change that we are still all in the midst of. Whatever happens there's goodness in making things, imperfect as they may be, and Nature has so many gifts that we only need to hold out our hands to receive. Thanks for being here.