Yuletide by the sea

~ finfolkandoak

Although, we didn’t even visit the sea.  At the highest point of our walk up the hill, you can see the Bay.  Along the drive, you follow the strait East.  At my family’s home, you are so close to the Atlantic Ocean, the sea birds fly overhead and you can smell the salt in the air.

We drove down on Christmas Eve from the Island, a 5 hour drive now that the ferry is closed for the season. We spend our Christmas at my family’s home in Nova Scotia with my family and animals. It goes by so quickly, but leaves me feeling so happy and full of love, even after the 5 hour drive home.  I find it such a beautiful drive that it doesn’t really seem like long.

Christmas at our house is full of treats, homemade meals, walks in nature and just sitting around, talking.  I didn’t even knit the whole time I was there, although others were knitting.  We ventured into the woods on Christmas afternoon to make some tea and have a fire.  My mom and I walked the dogs on boxing day to the fairy tree.  A massive maple tree that is alive but essentially hollow.  It has a door and you can stand in it.  I feel like it’s a gateway. I don’t really know how we discovered it, but have been paying it a visit at this time of year for 8 years now.

I could have included so many photographs.  Jamie gifted me with a new camera and I took MANY pictures.  However, it takes so long to upload them into WordPress so I chose ones that really spoke to me in some way.  I hope you enjoy them.

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Passenger
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Christmas in Nova Scotia
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Henry checking going to check out the barn
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My Favourite lamb from the Creche
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We asked the birch for just a little bit of bark – the rest we foraged from the snow clad earth
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My Dad saved our fire from going out, isn’t it beautiful?
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Druid
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Company has made the trek up to the woods
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Woodland Tea Preparations
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A very lopi Christmas
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Usnea everywhere, one of my favourite types of moss
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My great Grandmother’s kettle put to good use in the outdoors
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Before the storm, the walk back gnome from the woods
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The handmade greenhouse looks nice in all kinds of weather ❤
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Still green in the glass house
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The deceiving Lapin
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Beautiful illustrated book by Elsa Beskow from 1960
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Christmas Carols…

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Visit the fairy tree
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gift from my mom
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Henry of Wyeth
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Spot the beaming light
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Countryside
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The Strait
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My Favourite house in the East.  They have small bales of hay around the foundation of their home.  I wish I knew when it was built ❤
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Driving Home

14 thoughts on “Yuletide by the sea”

  2. Hi Julia, Wonderful story telling. You bring the story to light! Incidentally, the kettle is even older than you think. It is your great-great grandmother’s kettle that she used in Nova Scotia. It then travelled to New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario and back to Nova Scotia!

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  3. Your family’s home is beautiful Julia and is it your Mum who is the patchworker? The cathedral window quilt is stunning and all that wonderful knitting ❤ As for your Dad’s barn, well I could happily move in! Thank you for sharing these photos with us.

    All the very best for 2017 from a cold but not yet snowy Derbyshire, England.

    Jane x

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  5. A Merry Christmas to you! By chance is your family’s home close to Cow Bay? A friend that I worked with has just moved there. Love the sweaters. Is your sister’s her own pattern? It’s absolutely stunning. What kind of camera did you get? Thanks for getting back to me regarding my Grimms book. Thanks for sharing your family’s Christmas. 😊

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  7. Sounds like a nice Christmas celebration 🙂 I like that you include so many pictures, I think it is really exciting to see what it looks like where you grew up, but also in other posts, to see what it looks like where you live. I think it is so much fun seeing what nature looks like, and how some things are so similar, and other things are totally different from where I live. 🙂

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  8. My heart has always felt an unusual strange yet beautiful connection to PEI. I’ve promised myself to someday visit there. Your photos and words express the magic and love that await me. Thank you for sharing Julia!

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    1. Thanks so much! The Greenhouse is a really special place on my parents property. My Dad built it one summer using foraged windows and cement he made hauling sand from the nearby beach!

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  10. You so beautifully captured that cold cosy Christmas with the real family togetherness often envisaged and craved by many. Thank you

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