Christmas activities

It was the day before Christmas, and to be honest, I was feeling a bit 'Bah Humbug!' I said to myself "Come on Chris! This isn't how you should feel. Do something about it!" So on went Smooth Radio, with all the familiar Christmas songs belting out (at quite a volume too), and a mug of strong coffee on hand, and it wasn't long before I was singing along as I prepared the dining table for the following day. Out came the Christmas table cloth, the silver cutlery was given a dip and wash to remove any tarnish, and after a quick trip around the garden, a rather pretty centrepiece of white, spidery chrysanths, goldheart ivy, silvery foliage, and little silver balls on wires. The theme was - silver and gold. There were no table mats to match, but once I'd covered each one with a paper napkin, stuck down at the back, they looked just right. The surprise was, that the crackers (bought separately) actually matched the patterns on the mats. Down the middle of the table a line of silvery, blue lights. There was something missing - just a dash of colour. It's amazing what you find when you rummage around in the back of a sideboard. I didn't even know I had a packet of tiny, red stars, but that was all it took to make all the difference. If I say so myself, it looked very effective. From then on, things were on the up.

Our youngest son arrived on Christmas Eve, to stay over for a couple of days. Before Mike set off for church on Christmas morning, the three of us exchanged presents, then A and me began the meal preparations. My sous chef prepared the turkey crown, ready to go in the oven, and when Mike returned the bird (or part-bird) went into the hot oven, just as we set off to our eldest son's house, not far away. More present exchanging and fun watching the children, before we left them all to enjoy a well-deserved Christmas meal on their own, and we returned home to continue preparing ours. The verdict, from A, was that it was one of the best Christmas dinners ever. This was followed by snoozing. Perfect.

The following morning, we were all up and about fairly early. I set off at 10.30am to walk to Shenstone as usual, this year on my own. How mild the weather was. There was quite a bit of gorse in flower, and flocks of redwings, tits and goldfinches swooping in and out of the hedges and trees. Strangely, this year, not so many people out and about, but a few cyclists, and a couple of horse-riders said 'hello'. As I reached Little Hay, I expected to meet the usual group of people who walk towards me each year, telling me that I am going in the wrong direction. And every year my response is, that they are walking in the wrong direction, and should be heading for Shenstone to watch the morris dancing and mummers' play. Then we all laugh and walk away from each other. This year, no walkers. On Park Lane I sat on a log to enjoy a couple of clemantines, and soon to be caught up by Mike and A, in A's car. They left me to continue up to the village, via St John's Hill and when I arrived outside the Fox and Hounds, the dancing was in full swing, with the largest crowd I think I have ever seen there on Boxing Day. The mild weather probably played a part. Then the annual reunions with long-standing friends and, after the entertainment, off down the road to The Railway for more dancing, and a bit of audience participation. Back home (no - I don't walk back!) I changed into something more suitable, and we were off again - this time to R & S's, where there was a full house and a lovely fun time with games, excited children, lovely food and some quite impressive sax playing by our d-in-law.

Wednesday evening Mike and I attended the carol service at Sacred Heart, along with members of the other churches in and about Mere Green. Although it wasn't as packed as usual, there was some good singing and harmonising (possibly from the Methodists?) as we stood holding our candles and juggling our hymn books. This was followed by mulled wine (or tea and coffee) and Christmas cake in the church hall.

Last night we were at the Presbytery for our Parish Priest's 'at home' for more mulled wine and cake, and lots more chatter.

Today, my sister and husband, en route from Derbyshire (for the traditional carols at Hathersage, held at The Little John there) are coming down to stay for a couple of nights. So it's more wining, dining and talking.

I can't end without saying how good my home-grown parsnips were, roasted alongside the potatoes (not mine) in goose fat, on Christmas day. There will be more of them, to accompany the roast beef tonight. Pity about my sprouts. I pulled them up some months ago, as they were completely infested with aphids. And what would I do without all those raspberries from the plot? They even went into the trifle.

(The photos, from the top, are 'Christmas Gorse, Shenstone from Park Lane, My first view of the dancers at The Fox and Hounds, Mike in his role as The Doctor (who?), The Musicians, Green Mans' Table, and The Volunteers join in at The Railway)

A HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

..........and why a jug of sweet peas? Well, I have just read Hazels Blog and as I am having difficulties coming to terms with what this year has thrown at us, it did me so much good to know that things can only get better once the dark days are behind us. Thanks Hazel! (sorry I can't reply to your Blog as I seem to be having problems - perhaps you can help me out one day). It's good to see the snowdrops are on their way up, and some hellebores already have flower buds too.

We enjoyed a family outing to the Lichfield Garrick yesterday afternoon, to see 'A Christmas Carol'. An excellent production, although I think our little grandson was a bit disappointed that there was no audience participation in this production, unlike the pantomime at Sutton Town Hall where he ended up volunteering to join the cast on the stage and, according to the rest of the family, stole the limelight with his antics. At the Garrick, he kept asking Mike "When's the monster coming on?" He was a bit miffed too when, at the end of the performance, snow only fell on the people in the stalls, and not on us in the circle, but at least in our seats on the front row, we could lean over and see everyone disappearing under a coating of white (and the miserable ones frantically brushing it off as it fell).

Boxing Day - 12 noon onwards at Shenstone (Fox and Hounds first, followed by The Railway) Green Man's Morris perform their annual Mummers Play and dance.

A few days away

Just returned from three days in Bristol - a thoroughly enjoyable and much needed (after our pretty grim year, so far) Christmas break. We took advantage of the Thistle winter-warmer offer of half price accommodation, staying at The Grand, on Broad Street, in the heart of the older and more interesting part of the city. Having travelled there by train, we soon settled into our comfortable room, and it wasn't long before we began to explore the surroundings. Just around the corner was the excellent St Nicholas Market (in the old Corn Exchange building), and named as one of the ten best independent markets in the country. At the entrance to the building, on Corn Street, are the nails where deals were settled, and put to use for a display of squashes on Wednesday, when it was the Farmers' Market.

At the rear of the market is a whole lane of ethnic food stalls, with indoor seating and a few tables and chairs outside most of them. We settled down inside an Italian one (it was a bit cold outside at the time), watching life go by, and taking in all the different aromas - African, Moroccan, Indian, Spanish etc, not forgetting good old English pies. The first evening we continued with the Italian theme for our evening meal in a local restaurant.

Each morning we enjoyed a full English breakfast at The Commercial Rooms (Weatherspoons), a former gentlemen's club and meeting place, built in 1811, with an amazing, brightly painted, domed room, and once the haunt of such eminent people as Brunel.
The hearty (and cheap) breakfast set us up for our days of exploring the harbour area, visiting the SS Great Britain, the M Shed (a free museum), the City Museum and Art Gallery, and the Cathedral where pupils of the Cathedral School were rehearsing for their Christmas concert. As we wandered around the magnificent building, we listened to them singing
everything, from an Adele song, Bohemian Rhapsody, carols, and a Scottish love song. We just wished we could have been around to hear the actual concert, as their singing was wonderful. I knew there just had to be at least one Green Man in the Cathedral!

Everything was a great success - the hotel, the interesting city of Bristol (well worth a return visit, but perhaps when it is a bit warmer) and our train journeys .......that is, until, after a return journey to Birmingham, we tried to board a train from New Street to Four Oaks! All trains to our part of the world had been cancelled due to some problem or other, and chaos ruled on Platform 8. Eventually we were told to go to 7, but on reaching that platform we were all turned back. Fortunately we met up with a friend who offered to share a taxi home with us.

I spent some time in the garden yesterday, cutting back, tidying up and trying to keep busy so that I didn't get too cold. There's still plenty to do, but as there is quite a lot of green foliage I am leaving it for a bit. Nature has become rather confused. Things are flowering and shooting when they shouldn't be. At the bottom of the garden, the snowdrops are an inch or so up already. Before I went away I visited the plot, and thanked John for burning my rubbish, before the end of the month deadline. After he had left his plot I continued to cut down the remaining raspberry canes, so now I have another pile to burn - when we are allowed to do so. It will be roast chicken, this evening, so if I feel inclined later (I don't at the moment) I might go down to the plot for some parsnips to go with it.