Amazon exiles discussion
Don't Kill Snails with Salt ... Creme Eggs & Toasted Teacakes ... Biscuits & Bench Stories, Life, the Universe, & Everything!
P wrote: "Grach (Granny): Series 4 of Peaky Blinders started explosively last night. When do you get that available?I can't help but try to see if I can spot some of the outdoor locations they use. I'm sur..."
Heyla Paul! I haven't watched Peaky Blinders at all. It has good reviews but I haven't taken the dive yet. I've just started Season 5 of Ripper Street.
November weather has set in. We have no snow accumulated here yet, but the northern part of the state does. The smaller lakes and ponds are starting to develop some ice at the edges. The ice fishermen are testing their augers and readying the tip-ups and shanties. I've been rereading the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series by Tad Williams. My 20 year-old paperbacks are holding up well.
Gordon: no shots of Selfridges last week, although they could definitely use Moor St Station as a backdrop. Grach: you've missed a treat so far. Think it would be right up your street, although some of the Brummie accents are certainly questionable. You'd need to start from series 1 though.
Weather here has gone from nippy to unseasonably mild again. No ice fishermen on the local cut whatsoever.
Suzy: hope all went well.
P wrote: "Gordon: no shots of Selfridges last week, although they could definitely use Moor St Station as a backdrop. "I love the retro styling of Moor Street Station. I'm sure that footbridge is going to fall down before long, though.
Gordon wrote: "P wrote: "Gordon: no shots of Selfridges last week, although they could definitely use Moor St Station as a backdrop. "I love the retro styling of Moor Street Station. I'm sure that footbridge is..."
It certainly needs the odd steam loco chugging through to round it off nicely, though. Wonder where all the smoke and steam went as they puffed through the tunnel under the city centre twixt Snow Hill and Moor Street?
P wrote: "Gordon wrote: "P wrote: "Gordon: no shots of Selfridges last week, although they could definitely use Moor St Station as a backdrop. "I love the retro styling of Moor Street Station. I'm sure tha..."
If anysnail manages to ride the 'Hogwarts Express' choochoo please post photos. It's got such lovely views. I'd like to visit Oxford and see where Morse used to trod.
I always fancied doing a walking tour of Shardlake's London but I don't know if they're still doing them.http://footprintsoflondon.com/2015/10...
If you haven't read the six Shardlake books by C.J. Sansom, I highly recommend them. Fascinating crime in the time of Henry VIII.
P wrote: "Suzy: hope all went well"Well? - General Anaesthetic and me had our usual bit of a fallout that led to a full-on fight afterwards in Recovery but the Surgery went extremely well - YAYYY!!! - and I'm back home and now back online once again, thank you, P ;o>
Thank you, Poppet ... x x x ... it actually feels like I've really come home now in coming back on here - LOL! ;o>
Please stop posting pictures of snails! Not quite as bad as slugs but I really don’t want to see pics of them!! Thanks! 😟😀
suzysunshine7 wrote: "P wrote: "Suzy: hope all went well"Well? - General Anaesthetic and me had our usual bit of a fallout that led to a full-on fight afterwards in Recovery but the Surgery went extremely well - YAYYY..."
I'm glad your recovery is swift. Now you can enjoy good books.
Thank you very much, Granny ... x x x It's been rather a rough fortnight and I'll be glad to soon have it as little more than a distant memory. It's been my first day out today and we have been to a lovely Christmas Tree Festival that is held every year in one of my favourite Churches in Stockport.
Sadly almost everyone that I know on the Amazon Forums has told me that they really hate Christmas - and so I try not to post about my childlike love of it anymore because I feel like I am in such a very small minority nowadays. Nevertheless whenever I start to see Fairy Lights everywhere I just get such a huge thrill and heartfelt pleasure from their tiny bright and cheery twinkles.
My most favourite time of the year is here and so I'm absolutely determined that I'm going to make the very most of it all. In a couple of hours we are going off to see our favourite local Brass Band who have got several Christmas Concerts coming up, and so as I am now feeling up to it, we are off to the first one tonight. It is one of the biggest highlights of this festive season for my M&D and me - and really gets me in the mood for Christmas every year ;o>
suzysunshine7 wrote: "Thank you very much, Granny ... x x x It's been rather a rough fortnight and I'll be glad to soon have it as little more than a distant memory. It's been my first day out today and we have been t..."
I like the lights and food, but the folks who are determined to force everyone into the "right" way to celebrate annoy me. I have a few at work who can't just relax and see the humor. So many winter holidays, so little time. I don't do church so they grind their teeth. I just roll with the marshmallows and chocolate and Solstice and drinks.
SS7: add me to your side. Of course Christmas is a magical time. Yes, it has long since become over commercialised, but it arrives as the clocks have gone back and the nights are long and the weather turns cold. The cheery lights help give us a lift.I am a Churchgoer, and it is my job to erect the Christmas crib. What a lovely job doing that which I was in awe of as a child, and knowing the final result gives others so much pleasure.
My wife had an operation herself yesterday, so this year I made a huge effort to get all our cards written well in advance and posted as in helping her recovery I didn't wish to sidetracked with a massive and lingering job. Now we can try to enjoy the month-long build up to the season.
This afternoon we watched 'Arthur Christmas' - luvverly jubbly.
I always prefer the preparations and run up to Christmas. The worst bit is the taking down of decs and lights, leaving a cold, barren feeling to the coldest months.
I was brought up as an Irish Roman Catholic but have, over the years, come to create my own more personal and private kind of Religion based entirely on believing in love and in kindness far more than in the believing of an actual God - however I absolutely adore the sight of a Church all dressed in beautiful fresh Christmas greenery and seeing the Nativity Cribs that are so carefully got out and put on display every year. I love to visit some of the really beautiful old Churches and tiny Chapels that we have around Stockport - to say my own kind of prayers and to light Candles at certain times of the year but am not a regular Churchgoer.
Like P says though, I find Christmas to be rather magical, and I also choose to want to still believe in the childlike wonder of a Father Christmas and of goodwill to everyone everywhere. We all play 'Father Christmas' to each other in our house - I make up Stockings for my Mum and Dad just like they always used to for me as a child and they still make one up every year for me too.
We, as a family, have had year after year of some truly terrible Christmases and have rather a lot of really sad and extremely painful anniversaries around Christmas and New Year that are never very far from our Hearts and Minds - so it is very important to us that we celebrate who, and what, we still have ... and that is pretty much now just my Mum, my Dad, our two little hairy woofers and me. I also have a best friend who I try and make a special Christmas for as well even though he doesn't really get into, or do, Christmas himself.
I also don't like that almost desperate kind of party-hard and drink lots or else 'jollity' that some folk do often try to enforce on others at this particular time of year either. My family have thankfully never bought into or been in any way influenced by the over-commercialism of Christmas ... we just simply do our own thing and we love doing what we do ;o>
I enjoy listening to one of our local Choirs singing some of the far lesser-known and much more ancient Carols - many of which have been passed down through several centuries of generations simply singing them to each other. They are often so beautiful that they bring me to tears and fill me with such a sense of joy and awe.
I also love both the gentle mellow and also the full-on loud and proud sound of a traditional Brass Band - and our local VBS (Poynton) Brass Band is one that I love to support and to get to see and hear in concert as often as I possibly can. They are such an exceptional Band and again the Music really touches me deep inside and often brings more than the odd tear of sheer pleasure to my eyes.
Fairy Lights, family traditions, precious though quite worthless heirloom decorations, the smell of Pine Needles and Spices, the lighting of Candles, seasonal Music that nourishes the soul and all of my favourite kinds of festive foods to nourish the body(!) plus curling up on the Sofa with a big box of Tissues to hand to watch things like 'The Snowman' and The Snowman & The Snowdog', the giving of special Gifts to bring pleasure and also some just to bring laughter as well, and the counting of all of my blessings as one more year ends and another brand new one is just around the corner and about to begin ... these are some of the things that are, and make, Christmases for me ;o>
P wrote: "My wife had an operation herself yesterday, so this year I made a huge effort to get all our cards written well in advance and posted as in helping her recovery I didn't wish to sidetracked with a massive and lingering job. Now we can try to enjoy the month-long build up to the season"Sending you both all of my best wishes that your Wife makes a really swift and an easy Recovery, P ... x x x
The Brass Band Concert tonight was simply fantastic as always! The Band played us several of their most recent competition pieces and there were two - one called the 'Lake Of Tenderness by Ben Hollings' that brought tears to my eyes, and another 'The Year Of The Dragon - Movement One by Philip Sparke' that quite blew me away ;o>Sitting for almost 3 hours was pretty hard-going on me, even though I had made sure that I was dosed up to the eyeballs with Painkillers beforehand - and so I am currently in far too much pain to be able to lie flat and go to sleep yet - LOL! However it was just SO worth it! - and I am now feeling all festive and more than ready to help to start on the Christmas Card List with my Mum tomorrow ;o>
I too am a fan of Christmas and relate to many of the things that you enjoy Suzy. Even the triggers that bring on the tears. Does anyone else think that "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" is just the saddest song ever? It always makes me think of all the families torn apart in WWII. Our family usually opts for a DVD between the main meal and our traditional family v partners games (starting with the rather physical Kubb and tailing off to Celebrity Heads). We can usually agree on "Love Actually" although there will always be that lone voice (son-in-law) moaning "But "Die Hard" IS a Christmas movie!" I will always make time to watch "White Christmas" even if it's by myself and we always read Keith Waterhouse's story "Albert's Christmas Ship" even if it also brings on the waterworks. My younger daughter will insist on hearing Michael Bublé's "Christmas" and I'll agree as long as we also have Renata Tebaldi's "Christmas Festival" and Joan Baez's "Noël". And all three offspring (who are nearer 30 than 20) will moan if there's no chocolate money in their stockings! And great competition to see who got the "worst" Oxfam gift - a pile of manure, a toilet, a goat. Well, it wouldn't be Christmas, would it?
"Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" is definitely one of those incredibly sad songs that often makes me cry when I hear it. But, then again, I've always been an over-sensitive soul ;o>And I have always thought that it was intended to be sung much more as a form of gentle prayer, Val - as it seems to echo the last few flickers of hope that are still desperately hanging on to and holding out against all of the overwhelming and rather hopeless odds of the Second World War when it was written.
As such, it is a song that, to me, always feels out of time and place whenever it is sung alongside with all of the more usual festive, celebratory, cheery and often cheesey kind of Christmas songs.
I believe it has been rewritten a few times for different singers over the years so as to come across as being far less depressing? - but I still love it for the very unique and extremely beautiful song that it is all the same.
Our family's Christmas Stockings always have amongst any other little gifts that can also be squeezed in ... a shiny new Penny, a bag of Chocolate Coins, a Mandarin or Satsuma, a Walnut or Brazil Nut, a Terrys Chocolate Orange, a Lindt chocolate Character (a Bear or Deer), a Candle to be added to our Angel Chimes and a large Brussel Sprout which is an extra-special Gift from Rudolph to be added to those being cooked for Christmas Lunch ;o>
I agree Suzy - "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" is definitely not meant for community singing. It's a song you listen to by yourself for a quiet weep. Especially remembering all the loved ones who are no longer with us. Your Christmas stockings sound fun! Ours also have the Terry's Chocolate Orange (a cunning plan by yours truly because no one else likes the mix of chocolate and orange) and also a Whittaker's Peanut Slab, a Whittaker's Almond Gold Slab and a Fry's Turkish Delight Bar.
Your holidays sound lovely. My family has usually been working or on call or gone for Christmas so the traditional festivities never fell into place. The extended family has some strife so it's better for all not to meet. My daughter's boyfriend's family are lovely folks so we have little gift exchanges for fun. My son and daughter are chalk and cheese and do not speak so that's a no-go. We just muddle along and admire the twinkly lights and pretty colors. My mum is devoted to her church and is decorations queen. She can't do the heavy lifting since her elbow replacement so now she commands a crew. They finally realized the 80+ year old should have help. We definitely aren't the Hallmark card kind of family. We just look at them. My favorite songs are White Christmas, Chestnuts Roasting, Silver Bells, Have a Holly Jolly Christmas. I agree that Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas is wistful. Happy/sad gentle and kind. It brings the sideways smile with a tear or two. I remember watching some of the Bob Hope USO Christmas specials. He is truly a legend. Biggest heart and a bottomless well of kindness to the armed forces everywhere.
Love Actually is a great film. 😊
I've not come across Whittaker's Bars here, Val - but on Googling them it seems that they might be a brand more exclusive to New Zealand and Australia? They do look rather yummy, I must say! ;o>I still like but I'm not quite so keen on Terry's Chocolate Oranges as I once was - they don't taste very much like the ones of my childhood to me anymore? The Orange flavour is not as full-on as I remember and our 'English' Chocolate has been replaced with an International form of rather waxy almost greasy over-sweet Chocolate that tends to just sit like a brick in the Mouth and doesn't melt in that lovely smooth luscious way that I remember that it used to.
However, tradition is tradition, and we never got Selection Boxes or were bought many Sweets when I was a child, and so finding a Terry's Chocolate Orange in the very bottom of our Christmas Stocking every Christmas really was such a huge deal and thrill for us.
Over the years I have used mine grated over my Mum's Infamous Sherry Trifle, made Chocolate Cakes and Breads with it, and poured it melted over Ice Cream Desserts. And my Mum, the undisputed Chocaholic of the family, will always eat up any unwanted (and also sneak off with any wanted) Chocolate leftovers as well!!! ;o>
My Mum is also a completely lost cause around any Walnut Whips, Turkish Delight and After Eights - and has even helped herself to my Easter Eggs in the past and then actually tried to kid me that it must have been the Easter Bunny?!! ... Yeah?! - right! - HA HA HA HA HA!!! - LOL!!!
Despite my general distaste for all things Christmas and all things animation, I was always very impressed by the windows in Fenwicks, Newcastle. They did and still do, a story sequence spread across 6 windows, very clever indeed. They’re probably a lot more sophisticated now!https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug1--aQ...
You might want to mute the sound!
suzysunshine7 wrote: "My Mum is also a completely lost cause around any Walnut Whips, Turkish Delight and After Eights"Does she still eat "Whips" now the walnuts have been removed?
Among other things I remember childhood Christmases for are Walnut Whips, Matchmakers, After Eights, chocolate oranges, nuts, dates and proper Turkish delight, none of which we ever had at any other time of the year. And yes, we had tangerines in our Christmas stockings.
My mum used to send a box of chocolate Brazils to her aunt in Durham every Christmas. When the aunt died there were about thirty years' worth of unopened boxes of chocolate Brazils (as well as loads of other chocolates she'd been sent as gifts) in her front room.
Re chocolates. Remember when they used to come in really luxurious and extravagant boxes. I always thought the Terry's boxes were the best - a sort of padded shantung effect with a tassel to open them with. I have a feeling I may still have one tucked away with all my sewing and craft stuff. You could keep the boxes for years to house jewellery, etc. There was always a tier to lift out. I have another box in the very top of the wardrobe - no idea what the brand was but it must have measured about 18" square, a huge thing! I have old letters (from my primary school days) in it.And another thing! I'm seriously thinking of writing to the Lindt people. I'm not a fan of Ferrero Rocher or Raffaello chocolates, but we always have bowls of Lindt chocolate balls at Christmas. Now traditional Christmas colours are red, green and gold, but for some reason, Lindt seem to have forsaken the gold ones in favour of a pale yellow one that is mango-flavoured. That is just plain wrong! There's also a pale blue flavour - coconut I think. And a turquoise one - salted caramel. No! - I want red (milk chocolate), green (mint) and gold (white chocolate). I actually met someone last Christmas who had the same concern - so there are at least two disgruntled Lindt fans here.
Lez wrote: "Despite my general distaste for all things Christmas and all things animation, I was always very impressed by the windows in Fenwicks, Newcastle. They did and still do, a story sequence spread acro..."Our biggest department store, Myer, has animated windows every year. There are always queues waiting to see them. This is 2017's:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MZ99...
Granny wrote: "Your holidays sound lovely. My family has usually been working or on call or gone for Christmas so the traditional festivities never fell into place. The extended family has some strife so it's bet..."Hiyah Granny ... x x x ... I was a Pallative Care Nurse, in another life before I became disabled, and so I got to spend quite a few Christmases on call or working. Sometimes it was working busy Wards Shifts and other times it was in keeping end of care vigils with my Patients - either on the Wards or in their own homes, and often all by myself, as the person that I was with sadly had no family or any friends to sit with them. And I would always stay to the end regardless of whether I was on or off-duty at the time.
It can make for quite an out of place and time surreal feeling at Christmas time - dedicating your time and care to keeping someone pain-free and comfortable and watching over them while you can also hear Carols being sung by other Hospital Staff and laughter going on all around you. It always made my family and our Christmases feel all the more precious to me in those moments. Those years I would get together with M&D and we would celebrate our own Christmas Day on another day instead.
We are definitely not an idealised Disney kind of a family either, Granny - my Grandparents on my Dad's side were sadly not nice people at all. They managed to cause a Hell of a lot of pain to just about everyone in their lives before they finally passed on and their legacy of hurt is still remembered with so much sadness.
I also often talk on these Forums, and always lovingly too, of my only other sibling my baby Brother - but almost no-one knows of how it is with my family now. That my Brother suddenly, and without any warning at all, heartbreakingly chose just after he got married to walk out on our family and of our lives and refuse any further contact with us from that day onwards. I last had any contact with him at 1.45am on New Years Day of 2000 - and it has left me with an endlessly raw grief that, even now, I simply just have no words for.
My M&D are not exactly the easiest people to get to know or to love - they were emotionally damaged by having difficult and deprived childhoods of their own and we didn't have any fairy-story kind of a childhood with them as our parents. However, they genuinely are good people who would give you their very last penny should you ever need it and they never ever deserved such an incredibly calculated, cruel and callous betrayal of their love. Now I have been left as being their only child and so I feel very much like I always have to be all that I ever can be to them.
This is also why I consciously choose to celebrate such special times and have come to believe that Christmas is what you make of it - and that it is not just for children either but is also for all of us big Kids as well ;o>
Lez wrote: "Despite my general distaste for all things Christmas and all things animation, I was always very impressed by the windows in Fenwicks, Newcastle. They did and still do, a story sequence..."I was in Newcastle last Wednesday but didn't think to go and look in any shop windows. It was a lovely day, though but...
Lez wrote: "Despite my general distaste for all things Christmas and all things animation, I was always very impressed by the windows in Fenwicks, Newcastle. They did and still do, a story sequence spread acro..."Ohhh WoW, Lez Lee!!! ;o>
M&D used to take me and my Brother to Kendals in Manchester every Christmas just to look at their Shop Windows. Then we would get to share a bag of Chips between us on the way home in the back seat of Car - while my Dad took the long way home just so that we could get to see all of the Lights and Decorations on the Shops and Houses ;o>
suzysunshine7 wrote: "M&D used to take me and my Brother to Kendals in Manchester every Christmas just to look at their Shop Windows..."I remember being dragged around the shops in Birmingham while my increasingly furious mother tried to complete her Christmas shopping. The only bright spot for me was the toy department of one of the department stores - I think it was Lewis's, because I can't imagine that my mum could have afforded to buy anything in Rackhams in the seventies - where there was a huge train set with buildings, scenery, etc. I longed for a train set throughout my childhood but never came close to getting one, not that there was anywhere in the house to put it...
Gordon wrote: "Does she still eat "Whips" now the walnuts have been removed?"She certainly wasn't impressed by them, Gordon - and so I also buy her a small bag of Walnuts Halves to go with them now.
I had a Great Aunt who was utterly obsessed with binge-eating gooey Sweets. She always ate them all though and would never willingly share them out with anyone who visited her, and especially not with any children as she was not very fond of anyone under, at least, 20!
In fact, she would even hide them if she knew anyone was coming to see her, but with her being Blind, everyone else could still see them only ever just barely hidden away! ... HA HA HA!!! ;o>
Every year I had to search the Shops for her Christmas and Birthday favourites - Meltis Fruits with the Liquid Centres and Orange & Lemon Jelly Slices. It used to be easy at first but then it got to be quite a challenge in the late 80's when they suddenly seemed to disappear from all of the Shops.
Now, with all of the Pound Shops that now exist, they seem to have made a comeback - and every time that I see them now I am immediately reminded of my Great Aunt Florrie ;o>
Val wrote: "Re chocolates. Remember when they used to come in really luxurious and extravagant boxes. I always thought the Terry's boxes were the best - a sort of padded shantung effect with a tassel to open t..."I'll definitely sign your Lindt Petition, Val ;o>
i live in kilmarnock, we don't have any shops! mind you some of the windows in the closed ones are merrily decorated with dried vomit and chilli sauce! lindt? they could produce a turd flavoured lindor ball and i'd be in favour of it! :)
Gordon wrote: "suzysunshine7 wrote: "M&D used to take me and my Brother to Kendals in Manchester every Christmas just to look at their Shop Windows..."I remember being dragged around the shops in Birmingham whi..."
We would be taken as a special treat on a tour of the Toys and the Food Halls at Kendals but I never remember us ever buying anything? It genuinely never occurred to us Kids at the time and I'm pretty sure my M&D would have been very upset if we had ever dared to ask for anything.
I don't actually ever even remember anyone telling us that we had no money to spend on such things and in such an expensive and exclusive Store as well - we just instinctively knew that the real treat was just to go and to marvel open-mouthed at everything ;o>
Tech wrote: "i live in kilmarnock, we don't have any shops! mind you some of the windows in the closed ones are merrily decorated with dried vomit and chilli sauce! lindt? they could produce a turd flavoured ..."
We have quite a few areas of Stockport exactly like that too, tech, but are very fortunate in that we live over on the other side where there are still lovely Villages that border the beautiful rural areas of Cheshire and Derbyshire.
I must be a country Girl at heart as I find myself starting to get panicky and depressed if I have to spend too long in any inner City areas where I can't get to see any green Grass and Trees ;o>
Is Kilmarnock really all that bad? - there just must be something special about it as well - to make you still want to call it your home?
I’ve been to Kilmarnock but didn’t get out of the car....
Lez wrote: "I’ve been to Kilmarnock but didn’t get out of the car...."Ohhh Squirrels!!! - we MUST form a Rescue Party and save our Tech!!! ;oO
no, it really hasn't much in the way of redeeming qualities. the town centre is a hotbed of junkies, jakeys and alkies amidst the empty shops, the home of the grey marl jogging trousers and the nasal whine!...........but it's home! :)
It sounds just like Adswood and Brinnington here in Stockport ;o<But it IS still home to you - and home is where the Heart is ;o>
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Just watched the last of 'our' redwings leave. Every year, around this time, a flock appears on our hawthorn and proceed to fly across to the cotoneaster and strip it of berries. It takes them about a week to do and this morning they mopped up most of what had fallen to the ground, before disappearing for the year. We're thinking of moving on from here but I'll be so sorry to lose this annual spectacle and it worries me that new owners might remove the tree. When a few years ago our 90 year old neighbour died nearly the first thing the new owner did was cut down the cherry tree which had been there for years. It upset all the neighbours. People seem to divide into tree lovers and tree haters round here and newcomers have so far proved ruthless in clearing out the trees, however old or beautiful.
Hopefully there's a special corner of hell for people like that Isabella! I'm not a huge fan of gardening and our current home is more concrete and brick, small tenements with even smaller back yards and hardly any sky. I do however miss the sight and sounds of a thriving garden replete with birds and plants and a good size lawn bordered with hedges and bushes like my mum had. Unfortunately our current situation and circumstances are against us moving at the moment so we are stuck in our concrete jungle!
Sorry to hear you're stuck, it must be frustrating. Our little corner is just a suburban patch but over the years we've tried to make it as wildlife friendly as possible with climbers and a small pond as well as the usual shrubs and flowers. There are lots of birds, frogs and insects that seem to enjoy our efforts but I guess if we move there's no guarantee that our successors will keep up our style of gardening. One of our old neighbours must be turning in his grave. He was a real green enthusiast and the people who bought his house just ripped out every vestige of planting and paved the whole garden, back and front. They have a pot of fake flowers by the gate...
Lovely to read of some of your family Christmas traditions. It can be good to cast your mind back to 'innocent' days of childhood and the Christmas memories that are indelibly stamped on the brain. My father would recount of his working class Christmases in Birmingham back to backs where a large family of kids would sleep head to tail in the same bed. With little money their Christmas would consist of a stocking with a tangerine or similar and some nuts and just one small gift. That was pre WWII, and the scrimping of those times and the experiences of my father and mother were inevitably carried on to my and my brother's Christmases, although we certainly had more than one present. I remember making garlands of gummed paper to hang around the lounge and we had the same artificial tree in our front room for years. Dad insisted on a box of dates and nuts which we never had at any other time, and Christmas was the only time in the year (other than for birthday parties) when the table extension was used so we could all sit down together for Christmas dinner. Some years we would stay on our own, other years one uncle who actually had a CAR would collect us and take us back to his house for a family 'get together'. In later years we would make our way over to another uncle for the same as a sort of tradition.Main memories? Waking in the very small hours just after my parents had retired for the night to discover Santa had been. Then either dragging a pillowcase into their room to wake them up or using a torch to read my new Beano annual under the bedclothes!
Who doesn't like the lovely smell of turkey cooking to accompany excited noises of present unwrapping?
This year, no 1 son wants to stay at home as they were married in May. Our daughter, the Doc, ditto as she bought her first house this year. No 2 son now sings at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral and we feared they would want him to sing Christmas Eve and day so were prepared to face our first Christmas alone for 30 years. However, I think no 2 will be with us.
Favourite carols?Ii have always liked In the Deep MidWinter, but last year we persuaded no 2 son to sing 'Oh Holy Night' to the congregation at Christmas Eve Mass. Now THAT is powerful! He also sang the Huron Carol, which I had never heard before.
Gordon, I used to love going to look round the toy section of Rackhams, and I emphasise 'look'. Yes, Lewis's would have a Christmas grotto quite lavishly done, culminating in a visit to Santa with Mr Holly.
Well, Storm Caroline has paid us a visit today, dumping several cms of snow on us, with more forecast this afternoon. Have yourselves a merry little Christmas, everyone.
I think that my Mum loves our Garden far more than she has ever loved our House! She is, unfortunately, finding it all to be much harder to manage these days but it is still her main passion and she can always be found outside when the Weather is dry. Both M&D virtually live outside all through the Summer months.We live in a small Road opposite Farmland and, until recently, we have had the same Neighbours for almost 35 years. Sadly though we have now lost 6 of them (all a very good age - five died and one went to live near to her Son in Christchurch) in the last seven years. And all of the young families who moved in to their Houses almost immediately decided to rip up the beautiful mature and once so much-loved Gardens (both front and back) and to put Paving Slabs and Decking over every last inch of Grass that they could find to cover.
It has been so painful for the remaining residents to get to see such gorgeous Trees that once lined the entire length of the Road being uprooted, well-established Hedges being destroyed and all the Flowerbeds stripped back and paved over to make way instead for the 2 to 3 Cars that each new family owns. We have lost so much of the seasonal colours that gave the Road such a lovely look to it in favour of horrible cold grey concrete and just a couple of artistically-placed small Troughs with only odd token bits of Greenery in them ;o<
P wrote: "Christmas was the only time in the year (other than for birthday parties) when the table extension was used so we could all sit down together for Christmas dinner"Ohhh, the memories of the Dining Room Table being extended and another much smaller (and lower!) Wallpaper Pasting Table being added to the end of it for all of the Kids to get to eat at.
We have only ever had just the four Dining Room Chairs so we always had to borrow from the Neighbours, who were going out rather than entertaining at Home - plus I invariably always got to sit on the Kitchen Stool that was, for several years, much too high for the Table!
Guests automatically got the best Chairs and the Kids got all the worse - because it was all about respect, care and concern for your Elders and about pretending that you really didn't mind at all about sitting in an uncomfortable Chair or at a completely different height to the Table and to everyone else - LOL!!!
My Dad cut the Legs off the Stool to make it much shorter so that that he could use it in the Workshop that he still has in the Garage - and so that particular year I got to sit on it only to then discover that it was so low now that I could only just about get to rest my Chin on the Table!!! ... HA HA HA HA HA!!! ;o>
So Christmas Day Lunch for me, as a child, was all about never ever getting to sit at the same height as everyone else!
I don't understand the mindset of the pavers-over. They have families and we are constantly told that pollution is dangerous to children but the cars go on increasing and the plants are removed. People don't seem to grasp that they are damaging the place for their own offspring. No-one takes notice of the evidence that green surroundings are good for our minds and bodies. There are days when I'm relieved that we have no grandchildren...
Amazon exiles
Books mentioned in this topic
Ten Poems about Snow (other topics)And So This is Christmas: 51 Seasonally Adjusted Poems (other topics)
The Tiger Who Came to Tea (other topics)
The Quangle Wangle's Hat (other topics)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Christina Rossetti (other topics)John Keats (other topics)
Joan Aiken (other topics)
Oooh funny!!! ... ;o> ... ;o> ... ;o>
I'll hopefully be back online again on Monday - so be good and don't do anything that I wouldn't do!!! ... x x x Suzy x x x