Reading Miss Read

I have been re-reading this lovely book this week, A Country Christmas, by Miss Read, which always makes me feel all warm inside at any time of the year.

Here are a few words from the introduction:

     "Winter may not be everyone's favourite season, but of all the year's festivals Christmas takes pride of place, and has lost none of its magic.....partly because we hark back to the excitements of childhood Christmases but also because we look forward to renewing friendships and to taking part in the foremost of the church's festivals.

     But the fact that Christmas Day falls in the dreariest time of the year also highlights its impact.  We are usually in the grip of the winter's cold, early darkness, frost and snow, and all the ills that they bring.  Doubly precious therefore are our domestic comforts - a blazing fire, sustaining food, the comfort of friends and, at the end of the day, a warm bed.

(Google images)

     Outside, the winter landscape has a beauty of its own: bare branches against a clear sky, brilliant stars on a frosty night and perhaps a swathe of untouched snow.  

But these beauties are best when seen from the comfort of one's home, with a good fire crackling and the smell of crumpets toasting for tea.

(Google images)

     That is the charm of the winter season, the contrast between the cold and the warmth, the light and the dark.  I hope that you will enjoy Christmas and the wintertime in the book before you.      Miss Read, 1991. 

Doesn't that make you feel all warm and cosy inside?!

Enjoy these wintery days, with their own special beauty.

A Childlike Christmas

Christmas is coming!  Lucy and Tom are helping to stir the Christmas pudding.  As they stir they each make a wish.

Stockings are hung before a roaring log fire, while we warm our toes.

The children are too excited to sleep!

Let's peep and see if Father Christmas is on his way.

Parents and grandparents take a well-deserved rest.

At last Father Christmas comes, with sacks full of gifts for everyone.

Happy Christmas everybody!

If you are enjoying these Childlike Christmas posts, go over to Pom Pom's blog where you will find lots of us together enjoying a childlike Christmas party.  Come and join in the fun.  We've saved a Christmas cracker for you and lots of sweeties!

Christmas is saved

I have a Cannon cooker, similar to the one in the picture above.  I have noticed for a while that the oven doesn't get as hot as it used to, and I put it down to the fact that the cooker is 12 years old.  Anyway, yesterday the knob for the oven broke, so I couldn't use the oven at all.  I had visions of trying to cook Christmas dinner in my combination microwave and two slow cookers. The thought of that didn't exactly thrill me!

So today I have bought a replacement knob in a specialist electrical store, and I bought a spare knob for the hob, just in case.  These two tiny lumps of plastic cost me the princely sum of over £26!  At least now my oven seems to be working absolutely fine, so the Christmas dinner has been saved.

Why do these things happen at Christmas?  A couple of years ago, our dishwasher died just before Christmas, so we had to order a new one and get it installed quickly.  There was also the year that we got up on the Saturday morning before Christmas and found that someone had removed the wheels from my husband's car.  As if Christmas wasn't stressful enough!

So hopefully that's it now, no more annoying problems, at least until after Christmas!

Birmingham Christmas Market

Today, we went to the Birmingham Christmas Market.  It was really magical. We ate 18" long bratwurst sausages, and stollen cake.  We had the sausages cut in half, and ate two between four of us, as they were very big and very expensive!  The stollen cake was a free sample!  We also drank two cups of Gluwein between four of us, very spicy and very nicey!

We also went in the Birmingham Art Gallery and Museum and saw part of the Staffordshire hoard.  This is the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold ever found.

It was found in a field near Tamworth in Staffordshire on 5th July, 2009, and consists of 3,500 items.  Only some of these are currently in Birmingham.  The hoard was valued at £3.285 million, which was shared between the man with the metal detector who found it and the owner of the field where it was buried.  Hmmm.....  I am thinking of putting a metal detector on my Christmas wish list!

The Simple Woman's Daybook

Thank you so much for all your wonderful comments yesterday.  The combination of York and teddy bears brings out the best in people!  As promised, below you will see some pictures of me with my granddaughter Poppy!


I have always admired the blog  A Life of Grace,  especially when written in the format of a daybook. So today I have decided to follow the same pattern and tell you about my day.


For today: Thursday, 15th December, 2011


Outside my window:  We have filled the bird feeders with seed, peanuts, fat-balls and dried worms.  We have blue-tits, robins, sparrows and blackbirds coming to say hello.


I am thinking: about my family, seeing youngest son at the weekend when he arrives for the holiday, seeing our daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter just after Christmas, and wonderful eldest son, who keeps the house clean and hoovered for me when I am at work, without being asked.


I am thankful:  that today I break up from work for three weeks.  As much as I love my work, I need a break!


In the kitchen:  today is a work day, so it will be spaghetti bolognese when I get home, some mince and onion, tomato puree, mixed herbs, etc.


I am wearing: my usual work clothes of jeans - so I mingle with the students! - and a warm jumper, with a thermal vest underneath, as it is so cold.


I am going:  to post the rest of my Christmas cards today, which I have written bit by bit.


I am reading:  A book about 'Low maintenance vegetable growing', to help me to plan what I am going to grow in the new season.  Last year I grew veggies for the first time, and everything was a success, including salad veg, tomatoes, courgettes, beans and carrots.  I just grew them in pots and they turned out fine.


I am hearing:  the TV, about the Queen's plans for next year, her 60th year.  Her Majesty is planning to visit our neck of the woods.  I would love to see her.  Youngest son was in the crowds at the Royal Wedding in April.  Did you see him?!


Around the house:  I am feeling very smug that I have defrosted my two freezers!


One of my favourite things:  my wonderful family.


A few plans for the rest of the week:  Enjoying not going to work!  Also, I am knitting clothes for a rag doll I have bought for my granddaughter, and crocheting a little blanket for the dolly, so I want to get these finished.  (Pictures to follow!)


From my picture album:  As I received such lovely comments yesterday, thank you so much, here are the promised pictures of yours truly with the best Christmas present anybody could wish for, my almost three month old granddaughter, Poppy Pickle!  She looks like she is saying:             
Sssshhhhh!  It's a secret!

Hmmm......not quite so happy here, but still very cute!

A Childlike Christmas

I have been really enjoying the 'Childlike Christmas' posts at The Quiet Home and at Pom Pom's Ponderings so much that I have decided to join in the fun!  Here is another picture that we took on our recent visit to York.  Don't the lights look pretty?  In the background is the Teddy Bear Tea Rooms, and this road is Stonegate, one of the oldest streets in York.  The tea rooms are above a teddy bear shop, and here is their website.

Don't you just love teddy bears?

This little chap looks dressed ready for Christmas!

And this is Teddy Bear Christmas, a painting in oils by Janet Kruskamp, aren't they lovely!  Do go and visit the other blogs I have mentioned and join in the fun!

PS If I receive 5 comments, I just might treat you to a picture of yours truly with my beautiful baby granddaughter!