>What better way to spend time in a winter garden than to make a snow lantern? There’s a certain childish pleasure in making things out of snow; it’s one of those things – like building dams in a small stream or making sand castles – that I don’t think I will ever completely outgrow.
Snow lantern made the “proper” way, with snowballs piled more or less neatly into a cairn
My only vivid childhood memory of snow lanterns is one Christmas when my grandparents were coming to spend Christmas eve with us and we three kids had studded the lawn outside the sitting room windows with snow lanterns, turning the garden into a magical place where the darkness was broken up by little pools of light around each lantern.
I love these little cairns of light; I find them pretty in themselves, and when correctly position vis-à-vis the sitting room windows they can also help “breaking through”the windows that would otherwise just be a black wall when it’s completely dark outside and there’s a comfortable glow of candles and a warm fire inside. Just having those little splashes of light means that you become aware that there really is something outside other than a non-place of darkness.
Snow lantern made in a more rustic manner with crusts of semi-thawed snow
The difference in colour is because I make them with tea lights and to avoid the tea light melting itself into the snow and drowning itself I tend to put the little tea lights in glass jars.
I love the way the second lantern made of icy snow crusts looks almost like a heap of glowing coals; if it had been colder I might also have thought of making one out of sheets of ice or icicles, but as it was above freezing even during the night there really wasn’t much clear ice to use. I’ve done that as a child, though, and they can look almost like miniature glass castles, with icicle spires and windows of sheer, transparent ice.
This might not be a “real” garden blog post, but at least it’s about something garden-related. And quite frankly, day-time pictures of the garden in the thaw are just depressing to look at; it looks a mess with blotches of snow on a soggy lawn and a few straggly perennials that haven’t been cut down yet. I think you will agree that the lanterns are prettier to look at…
>Hi Soren,never heard of snow lanterns before, lovely pictures. I agree garden photos at this time of year can look dismal.
>I know a lot of UK people who are not familiar with snow lanterns, but apparently they are also made in Ireland, as I've recently spotted one at String Revolution…
>Hi, thanks for calling by my blog. I'm glad to have visited yours – like Alistair, I'd never heard of snow lanterns before, even though we lived for four years in snowy Massachusetts. Sadly there's never going to be enough snow here in Paris to make them, but hubby's off to Helsinki next week, so maybe I should encourage him to try?!
>When I lived in Paris 97-98 there was a brief period with snow – chaos! The metro was running irregularly, buses were even worse and people generally didn't know how to react. There was ALMOST enough snow to cover the grass straws on the lawn in front of Sacre Coeur…They're dead-simple to make, though; a circle of snowballs (with one ball missing so you can get the candle in) with a smaller circle of snowballs on top etc. until you can cap it with a single snowball at the top.
>Snow lanterns are a new concept to me; what a lovely idea! -Jean
>Soren, Thank you for the introduction to snow lanterns!! I have had wonderful snow caves but never thought of doing this. I think your post perfect for a garden blog! Very inspirational!
>Jeans and Carol: It's just a lovely way of brightening up a garden after night-fall (which in Denmark is around 4pm in winter), and to me it's also a sort of celebration of the returning light. I strongly recommend it when the garden is just a sheet of white snow…