
Yuletide started off on a good footing this year with this creation from my good lady.
All these leaves and stems were from the garden. There’s a surprising amount of colour around at this time of year.
Last and First, as you may recall, is an opportunity to mark the end of one solar year and the start of the next. We do this by taking a photograph of the Last Sunset of one year and the First Sunrise of the next.
I invited people to join in and send me their photos from around the world. And there were some spectacular shots!
Here in the UK the weather was overcast for the Last Sunset. It gave not so much a sunset as a cloudscape!
Still, here is the shot I took of the moment of sunset on the last day:

In the time between sunset and sunrise the sky cleared and gave a magnificent view of the sky.
Both Venus and Jupiter were easy objects. Saturn was between the two but did not show up well on the photo although it was quite visible to the naked eye. (You might need to open the image in a new tab for higher resolution.)

Sunrise the following day was wonderful!
The sky had a covering of clouds which the soon to rise sun painted with brilliant colour:

At the site:

This is the first ray of sunlight of the New Solar Year:

… and here is the sun starting to rise:

Astrogemanti from around the world sent in their shots, too.
This was the sunset and sunrise from New Mexico:


Thank you, Mary Alice G. for those shots.
Ruth C-R in Swindon, UK managed to capture the First Sunrise there:

One of our number also managed to get a few shots of the Long Moon, the full moon closest to the solstice:


Thanks to Ed P. for those.
So there we have it, the end of one year and the start of the next.
Thank you so much to all those who shared in the moments and particular thanks to those who sent in photos.
I wish you all a very happy New Year… and good geomancing!