It the Winter Solstice on this side of the world and it is just starting to get properly cold. It has been a very long Autumn, some trees still have leaves to drop and others have shown Spring blossoms…it is all very confusing.

We spent a lovely Winter’s morning at Heide Museum of Modern Art. Heide was established in the grounds of a former artists’ community set up by John and Sunday Reid in the 1930s.  They supported significant Australian artists such as Sidney Nolan, Joy Hester and Albert Tucker.

Before I had children, I would visit exhibitions inside the Museum and now with my children, we visit the sculpture gardens, Sunday’s old kitchen garden and the wilderness that leads down to the banks of our beautiful Yarra river.

This is Our Dear Boy’s favourite sculpture.

And this is Our Dear Girl’s favourite.

But this is the best place of all. A giant oak tree which fell over years ago but continues to grow.  It is beloved of all children and is simply known by all as That Tree At Heide.

Whilst my children scramble, climb, slide and collect acorns in beanies, I knit in the sunshine.  Everyone who walks past marvels at the tree. We talk about the tree. People remember trees they climbed as children.

Knitting in the sunlight, next to this massive creature of sunlight is probably a pretty good place to contemplate the Winter Solstice and the return of the sun.  Happy Solstice.