This year seems to have flown by and the solstices are almost upon us. Here in Australia, it will be Winter Solstice and some of the northern hemisphere immigrants like to have a little Christmas celebration around now or in July, as it feels more like the Christmas they know. This weekend we might do a little bit of winter solstice celebrating. Does anyone else like to celebrate the solstices?

This week's community feature

@crosheille on @needleworkmonday

NeedleWorkMonday is a community of needle artists from all around the world that share our love and passion for the needle arts. We are a supportive group that encourages one another and supports each other’s work through upvotes, comments and positive feedback.

We get together every week to share our work, ideas, tips, patterns, shortcuts and to inspire the Steemit blockchain. Our hopes are to encourage crafters to dust off their needles and get crafting again as well as encouraging others to give it a try for the first time. On Monday’s we use the #needleworkmonday tag and on all other days we use the #needlework tag.

We are all learning and growing together. We have worked hard to set an atmosphere that is both supportive and encouraging. We hope that if you choose to join you would not only share your creations but stay to engage with the community, interacting and providing your feedback for other’s work as well. We ask that you at least support two other needleworkers on the Monday’s you share a post!

We do weekly upvotes, Monday curation and resteems, contests and challenges with prizes! If you love doing needlework come join us and help spread this passion across the Steemit blockchain! This is our home for the needle arts!

For more information on our community and specifics on posting guidelines please visit our FAQs!

Join us on Discord!

Things happening in the community.

It's time for @simplymike's monthly, community, garden journal challenge again. What's been growing in your garden this month?

For more chances to win on those gardening articles drop your link in at @wildhomesteading's weekly homesteading and gardening contest.

Then for a chance to win a delegation of 200 SP for a month simply drop a comment about communities and/or recommend a redfish at the For the Love of Comments contest. You don't even have to be a gardener for this one.

@eco-alex has published a mission statement for @ecotrain and tells us about his hopes and plans to extend into the real world in an off-grid community.

Welcoming Newcomers

New on Steem this month is @porcheberry. She may be new on Steem, but isn't new to writing informative articles.

Some highlights of the week

Matchstick fertiliser anyone? Strange, right? Yet @romeskie tells us about a strange discovery he made.

@wildhomesteading has been writing a series on food forests and this week he talks about food forest layers.

There is sad news over at @nateonsteemit's chicken coop as a predator takes the last of his chickens. Yet he is figuring out the best way to move forward and finding solutions for the problem before he gets some new chickens in.

If you have a glut of green mangoes, then you might enjoy this digestive, probiotic ferment from @artemislives.

Thank you for stopping by. This week's newsletter was brought to you by @minismallholding.

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