Did you know that you can listen to many of your favourite podcasts first on BBC Sounds?

Like Desert Island Discs, where you can hear castaways like Cher, Gareth Southgate and Nick Cave,

and enjoy longer versions of the music they've picked.

Good things come to those who don't wait.

Listen to your favourite podcasts first on BBC Sounds. Hello and a warm welcome

to the Scotland Outdoors podcast. My name is Mark Stephen. He's you and Macquarie. Thank you very

much for downloading this. I tell you, we've got a right old rag bag of stuff here this week. A really

interesting mix. There's a guy who walks Scotland's mountains by the lights of the moon.

Yeah, and I've got a real insight in one of Scotland's top musicians.

Which, I mean, I actually know Phil reasonably well.

This is Phil Cunningham.

And I had no idea that he did this behind the scenes.

I opened a whole new side to his personality, which was absolutely

fascinating. And the threat of Brussels sprout ice cream. It is a thread. I don't like real

Brussels sprouts, never mind sticking it in ice cream. It's just wrong. Anyway, there's lots of good

things on at this time of year. Christmas is just in the horizon, the fire festivals, New

years, the list goes on, but there's one event that can go completely unnoticed by the majority

of us, but it affects us all. An event that's been celebrated since man first looked to the skies.

Today is a day of celebration. At 1023 yesterday, the sun paused in the sky and hung in a moment of suspension.

Just for a second, time stopped. In Latin, solstitium, the solstice. The very moment the sun stumbles in its southern journey,

a moment when on contemplation she decides to check her path

and return to those who wait with bated breath

...