2024

 

Happy New Year to you all, to my friends here and abroad, who have visited me, supported me in a hard year and have given so much pleasure in their own writings.

''Twixmas"

 I don't know if Twixmas is a new word or if it has older origins. It seems to pop up every day on my screen with advice on how to make the most of the period 'betwixt Christmas and NewYear'.

The suggestions range from  booking a holiday, getting out in the fresh air, to taking your new Teddy for a tour of the house. We do have lots of very fresh air here but it is also extremely wet. The rain never stops and the most I do is to rush out to the bird table with daily feed.

The Teddies that live here are quite happy to continue hibernating, which seems like a good idea. For me, it's a week to continue to recover from the very unpleasant virus.  I'm reading so much, and once again realising what an elegant writer Rosamund Pilcher is. 

It's a time to slowly read through the lovely Christmas cards and letters. No social events, family phone calls only, a little letter writing to thank people  for gifts.

A time to re charge and just enjoy the present moment.

Happy Christmas!

'Oh Holy Night

The stars are brightly shining

It is the night

of our dear Saviour's birth'.

I'm wishing all my friends, near and far, a very peaceful and happy Christmas.
 

Not nice.

So, a week before Christmas, I have succumbed to a horrid virus which is, according to the newspapers 'sweeping the nation'.

Constant coughing, razor blades in my throat, temperature and all the rest. No it's not Covid, I have tested.

Going quietly back to bed for a few days.

A few Christmassy bits

So many people are showing their lovely Christmas decorations. I have done one or two things, but to be honest, I'm finding it hard without my lovely husband's input. 

However, brought up not to sit around feeling sorry for myself, I went foraging (in my garden) to find greenery. A friend and I spent a morning making wreaths together, with much muttering, ripping out, starting again etc. When you finally hang it you realise how many gaps there are!

Mine has tiny twinkle lights that come on at night and look quite jolly.

Then I did one or two things in the sitting room.

A Scandi type throw over a chair. I found the throw at The Range, not somewhere that I often go.

More foraging from the garden. My tiny Austrian angel comes out every year.

Finally, old faithful quilt comes out. I made this years ago when we were living in Brittany.

The candle ring was bought about 40 years ago when we were in London for a few days, and went shopping in Liberty. Bits have fallen off over the years, but it still lovely.

I think that is all I shall do this year. I enjoyed making the house a little Christmassy.

Christmas markets

 I have just spent a weekend in beautiful Bath, with a friend, to see the Christmas markets. 

Bath has always been a favourite place of mine. It's a very gracious city, and we were fortunate to find a lovely boutique hotel about 10 minutes walk from the centre. My friend took her new puppy as the hotel was dog-friendly.

The little chalets were all over the centre of the city, selling so many different things, candles, wreaths, woolly socks, mulled wine and many hand made goods. It was bitterly cold and we wrapped up well.

By the time two or three hours had passed, the crowds were getting too much for us, thousands of people thronged the markets and it was time, with a little dog, to move on.

I'm in charge for a moment!

The Abbey looked very beautiful, but again there were just too many people. It was a reviving weekend, somewhere and something different.

The unexpected.

This is a rare sighting in the South West. 

It will go quite quickly, but it's pretty while it lasts.

So pretty.

 

Each year I wonder if this lovely cactus will flower, and each year she suddenly bursts forth with a swathe of pinkness.

She sits in this window all year round, never being moved as she would probably object.

She is pampered with a feed every now and then, and a quick wipe down of her leaves.

Hopefully she will continue to flower for many weeks now.

So pretty.

 Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends in the USA.

We don't have Thanksgiving in UK, but it would be lovely to have a Thankful day of gratitude for all the wonderful things we have around us.

I discovered that, should you be in London, there are various restaurants serving Thanksgiving menus.

This meal will be available at The Shard......

......................and will cost you £97.00. Per person.

I think it's more fun dining at home, don't you?

A day for making soup

 I like making soup, and this is the time of year when the days are colder and a pan of soup bubbling away makes everything feel warmer. I think if I had an Aga I would have a constant soup pan cooking gently all day.

This week it has been Leek and potato soup. My vegetables come from a local farm where everything is produced within a couple of miles, and is so fresh.

Just over a litre of this lovely greeny liquid will go into small boxes in the freezer. Just enough for my lunch, accompanied by a slice of fresh bread. or a cheese scone. Yum.

Auguste Escoffier, a renowned chef, said;

Soup puts the heart at ease, calms down the violence of hunger, eliminates the tensions of the day, and awakens and refines the appetite.

A steaming bowl of soup certainly puts my heart at ease....not sure about the 'violence' of hunger!

Rainy day.

It's becoming 'Ark building' weather here. The rain has never stopped and this morning was so heavy that cars pulled in along the road to wait till it had calmed down a little. I would not normally have driven on a day like this, but had an appointment that I didn't want to cancel.

I'm looking forward to opening the Edwardian calendar in December,  the room looks cosy and warm and I would rather like to be there now!

It's a bit too early to think about Christmas trees and decorations, but I have got most of the little family gifts bought.

 I have been making an 'Operation Christmas Child Shoebox' for the Samaritans purse collection arranged by our Church. Apparently there have been 209 million boxes packed in the last twenty years. So far it contains little gifts which I hope will bring joy to a child who might otherwise have nothing.....a furry toy, a notebook and pen, a box of felt pens, some stickers, socks and so on.

I always enjoy hunting out things to put in the box.

 Now, time for a cup of tea. It's 4pm and so dark you would think it was night!

The last rose.

I think this really has to be the last rose of the year. The flowers are only half the size of Summer flowering, but there is still a beautiful scent from them.

I picked the last few buds to save them from the terrible winds and rain we have been having here.

Her name is Dr Jo. She is named for Dr Jo Taylor, head of the renal unit at Dorchester hospital.

And here's a photo of the damage caused by Storm Ciaron, (no one was in the car, thankfully)

And another.

Today there have been brief patches of pale sun amongst cloudbursts. It gave me time to run down to Trelissick gardens for a quick look at the lovely shop.
 

I'm disappointed. (WITH UPDATE)

 This is the time of year when many of our large supermarkets produce Christmas advertisements, full of photos of food, parties, food, presents, shopping and more food. They are very commercial and there is rarely any mention of what many of us believe is the true meaning of Christmas.

Some years ago John Lewis, an old and very reputable store , produced their Christmas offering, 'The Hare and the Bear'. It was a truly lovely production, full of wild animals being kind to each other, snow, tiny presents, Christmas tree etc. 

This year the theme of their film is 'Dementia' and is very sad.

The advertisement which has made me both angry and disappointed is by one of our favourite stores, who advocate family values. I'm not going to give the name in case I'm accused of libel/slander whatever. It is a truly appalling, cynical and unpleasant offering and has already caused lots of negative comments.

The theme seems to be 'I'm going to be as nasty as possible this 'Thismas'. It focuses on 'celebrities' (no, don't know any of them)

We have a woman browning the marshmallows, who with a glint in her eye turns the torch on the unwritten Christmas cards and burns the lot. We have a bored man who can hardly bear to put his child's decoration on the tree, (shrug, well if I really have to..') And worst of all we have a woman standing on a roof (why?) belting the poor much loved Christmas elf into the stratosphere. She then trips down and dumps the decorations into a wood chipper, always so handy to have around. Finally she picks up the rather battered Elf and with a steely smile looks towards the woodchipper. Children will cry.

There are so many beautiful images of Christmas, even if purely commercial. Why this?

Obviously this is all my personal opinion, others may disagree. That's fine.

UPDATE, THIS MORNING!

M&S apologises and pulls Christmas ad after it's branded 'disgusting'©Provided by Metro

Marks & Spencer has apologised for an advert in which Christmas party hats in the colour of the Palestine flag were thrown into the fire. The company’s Christmas Clothing and Home advert, starring Hannah Waddingham of Ted Lasso fame, urged people to do away with Christmas traditions they no longer love (Picture

Finally......

Our Parish church is, like so many other buildings, about two miles outside the village. Set in a small hamlet, surrounded by fields and trees, it's very pretty. It was built in 1895, so is relatively modern. Although it isnt in a centre, it is very well attended and has a lot going on.

Now for something a little different, actually lying within the village.

 These are the Almshouses, built in the early 20th century to house 'needy' parishioners. There are four tiny houses, each with one room up and one down, together with kitchen and bathroom. The gardens are delightful both in front and behind, where there is a small vegetable garden. I've been in one of the houses and it was charming...though very tiny.

 Originally the building housed men on the ground floor and women on the first floor. The inhabitants , even today, must be a member of the local church and have longstanding connections with Cornwall.

We think that maybe this was on the original 'old road'. All the surrounding houses were  built during this century. There is, however, a huge amount of medieval history pertaining to the village, as even the name  'Playing Place' is connected to its origins.

Much research has been done into the history of the 'Playing Rounds', two of which exist in the village, where the travelling players would present their plays and songs.

So there we are, at the end of the village tour. I hope it's shown you a bit of Cornish life.

(Yes, this is one of our Post Boxes , set on the side of a road)

A bit further....

We'll go a bit further today, and find some of the local places of interest on the edge of the village. 

Kea Primary school lies about half a mile from the village centre. This photo shows the part built in 1879, and the large window on the front was 'my room' in the days when I taught at the school. Over the years a much more modern complex of buildings has grown behind this older part. There is now a pre-school taking much younger children. The school lies in beautiful grounds surrounded by fields and trees.

The Pre-school has a Forest school where all sorts of exciting things happen.

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About a mile out of the village is the local pub, known as The Punch Bowl and Ladle. It dates from around the 15th century and is such a pretty building with its thatched roof and little doorways. It's a very popular place to have a meal. It's what people think of as a typical village inn....but it isn't in a village!

A little further next time.

Let's take a village walk.

 Following on from my post about our old church, I thought I would tell you a bit about this village. It's a bit of an odd village as it has neither a central church nor a pub (inn). There is a population of about 800 people, according to the last census in 2021. So there are probably a few more by now.

It's made up of cul de sacs and small groupings of houses in tree lined roads. It's a village with many older people, and in the Close where I live there seem to be quite a few single or widowed people, many living in single storey houses. We all have pretty front gardens  created about 1970, I think. I have a feeling that when the houses were built there might have been a job lot of certain shrubs as we all seem to have a forsythia/pieris/hydrangea in our gardens.

Although everyone is very friendly there is not a huge community spirit here, no Coronation tea, no other jollities, but we did all clap for the NHS. Doesn't that seem a long time ago? We tend to get to know our nearby neighbours and there is always a happy 'Good morning'' to be had from the many dog walkers.

Village hall in Winter.

The Village Hall is where community things happen. Clubs and groups meet here. We have a flourishing Garden Society, Indoor Bowls, Pilates, Beavers and Cubs, Yoga, Folk Dance, Old Cornwall Society and more. There's a Skateboard park right next door and we often see teens whizzing up and down the bowl.

We've walked as far as the one and only Shop, which also has a Post office. It's what is known as a 'Convenience store' which means it has a fair amount of everyday items, a bit more expensive than supermarkets, but one saves on petrol.

That's far enough for today. We'll explore further next time.

Harvest flowers.

 

Harvest service at our little church set at the head of the creek, with only a farm nearby. It is said that St Kea floated on a granite stone from Ireland to Kea, where he set up a small monastery in the late 5th century.

This church is known as 'Old Kea' church as there is a newer one much nearer the villages. We have an afternoon service once a month here.

It's a very peaceful place to come, with only the sound of the wind in the trees and the rooks calling.

I found some bits from the garden to do a basket for one of the Church windows. My hydrangeas are now a deep crimson, having been a beautiful blue in the Summer!

The year is flying by. Do you find that also?

Books and bulbs

Autumn is an odd season. 

I feel I should be getting ready to hibernate, with all the requisite woolly blankets, furry cushions and scented candles. However, the sun is shining here, and we are apparently heading for an Indian Summer. I have planted some tulip bulbs outdoors, and some Hyacinth bulbs for indoors.

And then I settle down to read.

This is a fascinating book that I have just finished, a countryside book, written with gentle humour. Rosamund Young runs a farm, Kite's Nest,  on the edge of the Cotswolds. Nature is left as much to itself as possible, and the animals are treated like family members. She knows her sheep by name, and by their sometimes funny habits.

Her descriptions of the wildflower meadows are particularly lovely, as also the tales of other animals found on the farm both wild and tame.

Here's a tiny excerpt on seeing a squirrel decimating the bird food;

I'm watching the bird table from the kitchen window, holding a basket for some reason, and I keep it over my arm as I walk outside and tell the squirrel to go away from the bird table. I place the basket on the ground and before I can take a step, the squirrel walks towards me, looks up appealingly and jumps in. I am suitably amazed but feel there is no point in saying so. I pick the basket up and take the squirrel for a short walk round part of the garden. I return to the same spot and place the basket on the ground. The squirrel jumps out.

The author has also written 'The Secret Lives of Cows', which I haven't read.

Here are my hyacinth bulbs, snuggling down for a few weeks until the little green shoots appear.

 

September roses.

 

Roses at the end of September? 

I thought they had all finished, but here is The Shepherdess with her last few blooms.

Orient Express has a final flower.

She has produced very beautiful flowers through the season.

Zephirine Drouhin is often the first and last to flower. Her flowers are now small but the  scent is still strong and very lovely.

"Do not watch the petals fall from the rose with sadness, know that, like life, things sometimes must fade, before they can bloom again"

Unknown.

Wind and rain.

 It's really Autumnal here. in fact veering towards Wintry. The rain hasn't stopped for days, and it's not just light rain but proper pouring from the sky rain. We have high winds and the trees and what's left of my Cosmos are being blown sideways.

The paths are wet and slippery.

I made my way up the garden to my 'shed', where I am trying to remember how to sew a nightdress for myself. It's a long time since I worked from a pattern. In fact I was quite surprised to find that one can still buy patterns.

I found some pretty fabric on Etsy and am looking forward to starting.

I'm so glad that I had the 'shed' remodelled. This morning I put the heater on, and enjoyed being out of the rain and wind, in my own little workshop.

'I wish I lived in a caravan'......

 That's the title of a poem that my mother used to read to me, and it came into my mind today. A couple of miles away from my village is a Caravan Park, with a little cafe open to all locals, where you can get a very good  cup of coffee. 

Today the Park was about half full, many of the holiday makers having returned home now.

There are grassy spaces for all the vans, some big, some small, and some even having an extra 'room' with a tent attached. I remember the huge RVs we saw in Canada, but nothing was similar here.

This is the poem ,written by W.B. Rands, 1823-1882. He was often called 'The Laureate of the Nursery' and wrote many verses for children, as well as 'Chaucer's England'. Coming from a devout but poor family, he was largely self educated, and managed to find employment in a solicitor's office. Later he became a Foreign correspondent, speaking both Greek and Latin.

I wish I lived in a caravan,
With a horse to drive, like the pedlar man!
Where he comes from nobody knows,
Or where he goes to, but on he goes!

His caravan has windows, two,
And a chimney of tin, that the smoke comes through;
He has a wife, with a baby brown,
And they go riding from town to town!

"Chairs to mend and delf to sell!"
He clashes the basins like a bell;
Tea-trays, baskets, ranged in order,
Plates with the alphabet round the border!

The roads are brown and the sea is green,
But his house is just like a bathing machine;
The world is round and he can ride,
Rumble and splash to the other side!

With the pedlar-man I should like to roam,
And write a book when I came home;
All the people would read my book,
Just like the Travels of Captain Cook!

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Maybe the second verse would be deemed politically incorrect now, but that was then.

I don't think I would really like to live in a caravan!

Back on track.

The wanderer has returned! Thank you for many helpful suggestions. I fiddled around with my laptop having not the slightest idea what I was doing, but must have done something right. Will it stay? It's all to do with Javascript (no, no idea)

So here is the last rose of Summer for you. Good old Graham Thomas, who looked as though he had finished for the season, has suddenly produced a new crop of flowers.

Disappeared

Missing!

For years I have had a short verse from the Bible on the side of my Blog. It changes daily. Where is it?

It has simply disappeared, and I cant remember the website that it came from. I would like to find it and encourage it to come back, as it is an encouragement to me each day.

So if you see a lost Bible verse please send it home.

Petals

 A single Cosmos. 

How delicate those petals are with the little trim of deep pink around the edge. I sometimes forget to look closely at my flowers, and am always rewarded when I take that extra time.

Geraniums (Pelargoniums) often surprise me with their random colour arrangements. This pinky one will sometimes have striped petals and has even been known to have a solid colour flower amongst the stripy ones.

These French marigolds all came from the same seed pack, and they all have different gradations of colour and pattern. Some are double, some single. I grow them at random in the greenhouse, as they are said to ward greenfly off the tomatoes It does seem to work.

Cosmos make a cheerful little display.

My garden is beginning to look Autumnal now, with only a few roses flowering, some Dahlias doing their best, and the ever present Cosmos, which have taken over!