Winter Solstice at CERES 2024

On the weekend we went to a Winter Solstice event at CERES in Brunswick.  There was good food, music and crowds around the fire.  It was a pleasure to celebrate the shortest day of the year in a little oasis of green land in the city.  CERES is a community garden, farm and environmental education centre.

When we arrived it was still light.  It would have been lovely to see the sunset but it was cloudy and I don't think we were in a good location to see it.  Nevertheless it is lovely to watch the darkness fall so early in the evening and know that longer days are ahead.

We wandered around the open spaces and admired the lighting displays.  The neon flowers looked impressive, even in the light.

We admired more flowers by this stone ring of mosaic seats.

Then we checked  out the catering offerings.  We ended up ordering from the Woking Amazing food truck.  It was woking amazing that all the food was vegan - burgers, hotdogs and nuggets with chips.  We placed our order and were given a buzzer to take with us so we didn't need to stand by for 15 minutes until it was ready.

I bought some mulled wine from the open air Merri Cafe Bar.  I had been tempted by the kombucha but it was a cold night and I don't get many opportunities to enjoy mulled wine.  This is the area that used to have a cafe before the regular Merri Cafe opened up towards the main entrance and car park.

Finally our orders were ready and I was challenged in finding a place with enough light to take photos!I really enjoyed my Sweet pea and mint burger with lettuce, tomato, onion and smokey aioli on a sesame seed bun.  Sylvia and I shared the Jumbo potato cakes with garlic butter and the Mini churros with chocolate sauce.  It was a lot of fried food but so freshly cooked and crisp that it was a real treat.

While we ate, we sat in the stone ring of mosaic seats.  The mosaics on the seats in stone seats were very charming but also cold.  It was so lovely to listen to the live music: Isabel Rumble.  There were more neon flowers but I was more taken with the gum leaf backdrop.

I loved this pretty gum nut lights installation that lit up the paths from the food trucks and music stage back up to the near the grocery.  They had the gossamer charm of May Gibbs gum nut babies.

We stopped for a bit to watch the hula hoop performance in the market area by the grocery.  There was a little stall selling chai and brownies.  I was surprised we did not see people queuing at a coffee  cart. Maybe it was too late for coffee.

We only stayed for the early fire.  It was described in the program as the "Mini kids fire sculpture" in the Market stage (as opposed to the "Main fire sculpture" at the Village green.  Someone in the crowd commented on the primal instinct to be drawn to fire but an overhead joke about using a fishing rod to get marshmallows to the fire shows how the safety people kept the crowd at quite some distance from it.  When we managed to get to the edge of the barriers we could feel the fierce heat of the fire.  Everyone was fascinated by its crackling dance that rose high in the air letting off puffs of sparks.  When I saw the photo I thought it looked a bit like a giraffe.

It was quite a magical feeling to be watching the fire leap into the dark night and look up at the full moon peeking out from the clouds.  I was glad we went but also happy to go home to our warm loungeroom.

More posts CERES:
When I did a search for CERES I saw how much it has been a part of my life since I started blogging.  These are a selection of posts with CERES spaces in them, even if it is not the focus of all the posts.

• 2009 - a post on the open air CERES cafe down towards the Merri Creek.  This cafe is not longer there.  It was a great place to eat and watch kids play. 
• 2013 - visited the kids playground at CERES.
• 2013 - entered the CERES baking competition.
• 2014 -  visited the CERES cafe
• 2015 - visited the Merri cafe.
• 2015 - participated in the CERES vegan bake sale.
• 2018 - My post on Vegan lunches in Melbourne included the Grocery cafe.
• 2024 - My Monthly Chronicles post included lunch at Merri Cafe at CERES.