The season of limited light is also a season of ritual brightening. We string lights and hang shining ornaments on a Christmas evergreen standing tall in the living room; we reverently light the Hanukkah menorah, singing the blessing of the festival of miracles; we light the seven representational candles for Kwanzaa; or we sit by a backyard fire as it crackles and glows.
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The humble snowdrop, our region's earliest flowering bulb, may offer inspiration to anyone who spies it rise up against the frozen earth's surface later this winter.
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