“Walking amid the snows of Winter, or sitting entranced in a darkened room gazing at the firelight, usually evokes in me a mood of reflection, a mood that can be at times philosophical, at others widely wildly irrational; I find myself haunted by memories. For Winter is the season of ghosts; and ghosts, if they can be said to reside anywhere, reside here in this season of frosts and in these long hours of darkness. We must treat with them calmly and civilly, before the snows melt and the cycle of the seasons begins once more.”

— Sting
from the liner notes for “If On a Winter’s Night”

I put on my hiking boots, cleaned nearly 2 feet of snow from my car (which will be parked for a few days), then dried off, re-booted and inched my way down to Dupont Circle to do some holiday shopping and picked up this CD today. It’s not a Solstice or Christmas album for everyone, but I tend to like Renaissance and folk music.