All secrets are out

“and that’s it for another year”, as Mummy would say as we went to bed on Christmas Day.  Well, in our case, a few secrets still remain, for just like HM The Queen, a heavy cold left m-i-l Bettine feeling low yesterday and she decided to take the sensible option of staying home rather than join us for our Christmas celebrations.  She’s feeling better today, so we’ll enjoy her company for Boxing Day lunch and will exchange a few more presents with her then.

I hope you had as lovely a day as we did, for in spite of one empty seat at the table, five of us enjoyed a jolly lunch, noting as we did that the birds had “cherry picked” all the red berries from our outdoor table.  Fine with me – we had plenty of our own good things to eat!

We had all been good this year, for Father Christmas filled our stockings with good things, though one small sugar mouse came a cropper somewhere on the journey :-0

Amongst other treasures I had a box of pencils: Specially chosen for me, do you think?

My family are the best present givers, extraordinarily generous and very clever at choosing the perfect surprise.  Of course, Mummy Christmas makes a similar effort and keeps an eye open for similarly well-chosen ideas, so from time to time, the inevitable happens*.

Two Amazon Echos were unwrapped yesterday morning!  We had identified it as a great idea for Edward and Amy and my Hero had liked the look of it so much, he bought one for me (us).

No sooner had we plugged it in than we said Hello to Alexa, the new member of our family!  She began by telling us a joke…and then another and another.  But soon we were finding out about her other tricks: “Alexa, play BBC Radio 4….louder….quieter….volume 6” 

Ooo!

We asked her questions, she told us another joke, we turned the radio on and off and then, before going to bed, we linked the Echo to our Spotify account and played some music.  Like small children, we were giggling at the magic!

“Alexa, play Fix You” (she did)

So this morning, we’ve said goodbye to the old Bose kitchen radio/CD player after many years sterling service and plugged Alexa in the same corner.  My Hero asked her to play our favourite internet radio station, Swiss Radio Classic and I interrupted the programme for a few seconds to ask her to remind me to put the ham on to cook at 10.10am.

“OK.  Reminder set”

Love it!

We hope you too had a happy day and some wonderful surprises, filled with love and and just a little magic.  Perhaps, like me, you cried a little at some point (watching We’re Going on a Bear Hunt when Grandma says “There’s nothing wrong with being sad.  It’s just a way of remembering the happy times.”)  I hope you also laughed, too.  I mean, when we are given at least one pair of White Company slippers, then we will have warm feet and cosy toes.

Excuse me, though, I have to go.  Alexa is calling me

Merry and Bright

We are at home.

We’ve been having fun with friends, enjoying the season.

Admiring the elegant bridesmaids arriving for a wedding in the church opposite the pub where we were having lunch last Saturday.

Preparing to welcome our neighbours for a little get together last Sunday.

Planning to steal this idea for a grand Advent calendar, spotted a Daylesford on Monday morning.

Actually, we were admiring most of the grand things at Daylesford.  It’s a grand sort of place.

£75 for a door wreath?  Beautiful but a little OTT.

The Welsh Rarebit brunch was grand in a different way, thank you!

We’ve made lots of Froebel stars.  Small fingers make light work of them.

when fuelled by Smarties, of course.

My WI entertained a group of 20 guests from the Macular Society to lunch, cooking them a full Christmas dinner and enjoying their company as much as (I hope) they enjoyed their visit.

We all agreed that the fun never stops when we are with friends.

Did I mention that Mary has been here this last week?

Update on Friday, December 23, 2016 at 12:00PM by Gill Thomas

now with links for you, Lesley!!   ;-) 

It’s the season

We’d become used to the chill.  I enjoyed wearing my new warm coat and wrapping up warm with my scarf and mittens, even if I hadn’t quite got my hat out yet.  So I was disappointed when the temperature rose to unseasonably high levels and found myself more in need of an umbrella than a pair of gloves.

I mean, is this the weather in which to go Christmas shopping?

Well, yes, if you are in a dry shopping mall and can get away with wearing a T shirt.  No, of course we didn’t – though I’d given it thought and left my coat at home, I was still uncomfortably warm and glad to be out in the fresh air again.

I rather liked the red, white and blue Christmas variation in John Lewis, by the way.

Clearly, I still had that colour palette in mind whilst passing the flowers in Marks and Spencer and chose this “Luxury Ilex” bunch.  It looked lovely when I put it in the vase but within hours the blue “thistly bits” had drooped and the following morning, I was emailing M&S for their comments.

(I had their reply today: “Thanks for getting in touch, Gillian. I'm so, so sorry to hear about the Autograph flowers you bought from us, especially as they never lasted as long as you, and we expect. I can certainly understand why you wanted to let us know, Gillian - I would too”  It was followed with notice that I will receive a gift voucher in the post for a full refund…

The main challenge of the weekend was to trim the tree, however.  By Sunday morning, the rain had passed through and the sun had put in an appearance.  Now, that made getting the lights arranged evenly a bit tricky!  By mid morning, we were both feeling a little over-heated though and for the first time I can remember, we spent the whole day with the garden room door wide open.

December weather?  Very strange.

By the time darkness fell, it was finished and the house is in holiday mode.  I really love finding all the old favourites and sat down for five minutes to read Lucy and Tom’s Christmas, one of the books we have around for small visitors to read.  The little bit about Tom being “excited and a little bit cross” in the afternoon, and going out for a walk with his Grandad is so touching.

Speaking of old favourites, there they all were with the tree looking pretty.  The bear in the velvet Christmas stocking,

the polar bear with the fish he caught

the little bear which used to hang on Grandma’s tree

and because our tree is not completely covered in bears, the little ice-skates we spotted and couldn’t resist in Boston Anthropologie some years ago.

It might not be cold outside, but those icy-white lights make me feel very chilly inside!  I still prefer the warm white lights we had a couple of years ago, but perhaps these lights are in keeping with our white and silver decorations.

At least, the polar bears are happy!

Around here

By the time I thought about going for a walk yesterday afternoon, it was already 4.30pm and the moon was up!  Oh my, doesn’t that hour’s time change make a difference?

So I didn’t hang around too long this morning, but put my coat on and grabbed my camera as soon as I’d finished my porridge.  The light was especially pretty I thought.

I noticed a few extraordinary things as I went.  Just down the lane, I came across a little corner of treasures.  I wondered whose collection it is and how long it’s been there – I’ve not noticed it before.

I was impressed by the sticking quality of this pair of hollyhocks., just opposite.  We had the first proper frost this morning and yet they were still standing tall and looking great.

Just as I was wondering whether to take one of the many short cuts, my eye fell on something familiar.

Someone else has batik-patterned cotinus leaves!  Lesley, I hope your diagnosis of some disease or other isn’t so: at least I’m not the only one to notice and appreciate it.

Anyway, I decided to continue on the lane, which at this point is not much wider or more accessible than the bridle path!

I was rewarded with a seasonal view at the top of the hill and a short downhill walk to our garden gate.

As I opened it, I noticed the abundance of sycamore seeds hanging on the tree by the gate.  No wonder we are always pulling up rogue sycamore seedlings!

Our pond is a sorry sight right now, as we continue to try to work out where it’s leaking.  Hopefully though, the cold weather – and ice – will deal with some of the blanket weed that’s accumulated more successfully than we do.

It’s strange to see ice on the pond and the last of the roses still blooming alongside.

Looks like I might have reached home just in time too?

Leaf Peeping

The other day, the subject of leaf peeping was discussed on the radio.  Specifically, the colours of Autumn as witnessed in Vermont, USA.  But later on, we learned in our local TV news that this year had seen some of the best Autumn colours in the trees on this side of the ocean too and that our local arboretum was enjoying the most spectacular season for quite some time.

Whilst in Cheltenham the other morning, I made a mental note, then, to make sure we got ourselves up there to the Arboretum in the next few days.  Better not go at the weekend, though – maybe we might make it early next week, I thought.

At home this morning, I went out into the garden for a look around, really in search of a few buds or branches to put on the lunch table.  No roses left now and the sedums were a bit heavy, I thought.  There were a few hydrangea heads left but I wasn’t sure I wanted to chop those off.  Instead, I picked a few small branches of cotinus which was looking particularly colourful.

As you can see it was a glorious morning.  (It didn’t last)

As I put them on the table, I spotted some interesting markings, though.  It looked as though someone had been batiking the leaves!  Perhaps I’d take my camera outside and go and take a closer look (and a photo or two).

Did I say that the cotinus was putting on a pretty show right now?  I promise you that none of these photographs have been enhanced in any way!

Looking down at my feet, I spotted some of the patterns I’d been hoping for.  Wow!  How fascinating!

I’ve not noticed this previously – though have I ever gone out and looked closely before?  Possibly not!

Even the undersides are rather special.

I wonder why some are patterned like this and others remain a solid colour?

Though really, I’m not complaining, for even those leaves without any markings are rather splendid right now.

It wasn’t until I came inside and uploaded my pictures that I got to take a closer look.  What an amazing range of colours on that one, fairly small shrub.  I thought I’d run this photograph through one of those colour palette generators…

What do you think?