Fully supported by a pot of tea and suitable music playing, I persuaded myself to make a start on the Christmas Cards. This is an old box, one ones inside are a mish-mash of cards left over from previous years, and quite a few salvaged from my father's flat. Waste not want not...
I've discovered it's not going to be as much of a task as I feared; four pages of names and addresses, means about 80 cards, around 10 to be emails, about 15 to be hand delivered locally. I cracked on and gor halfway down the second page. So far so good; the target is to get them done ready to post on Monday. More tea, more music, and possibly more cards required!
I am grateful to 'Fat Dormouse' for sharing this link with me in the comments to yesterday's post;
It's a clip from 'Song of Praise', where Kate Rusby talks about the tradition of Pub Carols in the North, and sings one of the carols.
It reminds me of a Christmas a long time ago now when our Canadian friends were over in the weeks leading up to Christmas. We went for a celebratory meal at a local traditional pub in a very old building near to where we live. To our great joy, the carol singers came in, and started singing all the old favourites, including, of course, The Sussex Carol. Everyone in the pub joined in, even visitors like ourselves were welcome at this village event. It was such a joyous end to the evening.
I remember my friend and I had a solo line in the Twelve Days of Christmas - we had to keep our wits about us to remember to come in!
I've chosen a Maddy Prior/Carnival Band recording again - like the Kate Rusby 'While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night' above these carols are meant for dancing. The choirs of Kings College etc just don't have that feel!
But not for Christmas... for my latest quick knit...!
I've been wearing a favourite jumper, knitted up in this wild and wacky yarn called Bamboozle. I don't know if that yarn is around any more; it's a while since I made it.
This is a picture of my tummy! The problem is that the jumper has a rather low neckline, which is a bit chilly in this weather. What I need is a(nother) cowl or scarf. However it is really difficult to match the jumper another yarn.
I tried this;
Which sort of works, but really needs to be on bigger needle to get a looser fabric. It's going to shade through to oranges and yellows soon which could look good.
And now I'm I'm experimenting with this;
It's a chunky soft acrylic yarn, which I'm knitting on 8mm (instead of 6.5mm) needles over about 21 stitches. Every time the blue colour appears, I cut that length out, hence the couple of small balls sitting on top waiting for another knitting adventure. This is dead quick to make; I only started today and I'm already about halfway.
The pattern goes something along the lines of
knit a few rows of garter stitch to start
For the rest of the cowl, starting on the right side; knit 3, invent some kind of pearl and plain pattern for the centre stitches, until last three stitches, knit 3
Adjust number of stitches in the centre as you go along to make the pattern work out.
When you are bored with a pattern, knit a few rows of garter stitch and try something else.
If a pattern isn't going well, abandon it, knit a few rows of garter stitch and try something else.
Stop when you have reached the required length, and join the two ends somehow.
I've done 12 inches today and I reckon another 12 or a few more should do it.
Writing cards? Wrapping presents? Buying/Ordering presents? Tomorrow is another day...
........
Look after yourselves; the news here was full of the current flu, a particularly unpleasant version, which appears to be spreading around the country. I will probably be avoiding shops and other places full of people for a while.
.......
Here are the Fisherman's Friends from Port Isaac in Cornwall singing a traditional Cornish Carol.
When we went to stay with my parents in Falmouth over Christmas, we would go into the town on Christmas Eve to hear the local fishermen singing the traditional carols through the town. We always left at lunchtime though; they sang outside and inside every pub; things could get rowdy as the day went on!
Tra-la-la - I've got my fingers in my ears and I'm not listening - what's that? Only two weeks until Christmas? Why that's a WHOLE FORTNIGHT - plenty of time....
We were out and about this morning; off to my father's flat to meet someone who was coming to to the energy survey thingy certificate we need as part of the wadge of paperwork for selling property. As I was about to get into the car I stopped to take a photograph of this moth;
The markings are so intricate and pretty. Although not much use as camouflage against the window! I hoped it would fly away as we moved off.
The survey didn't take long, it was a lovely morning and so we went off for a little drive to charge up the car battery and visited a Country Store - oh joy! It was the sort of shop where you could by pet food, horse food, chicken food, hunting shooting fishing farming clothes, and all sorts of strange things to do with small farming machinery and bits of hardware.
Near the front were several aisles full of farm foods, and several aisles full of Christmas jams, biscuits, chutneys, sweets - my eyes were on stalks!
We came away with biscuits, eggs, chocolates, and what I really wanted to buy; a beanie hat with a torch.
It's for a Christmas present for Vicky, my gardener (she doesn't read this blog). An elderly friend put me on to them; she said her son and grandsons had them for working with the sheep, and she bought one for herself for when she goes out at night. The number of times I've watched Vicky carry on digging and delving long past dusk...
RandonThoughts commented about the Maddy Prior recording of 'the Angel Gabriel' carol; as a contrast to Voces8, here it is.
I used to have a lot of fun with the infant classes with this CD; we used to make up circle dances and the like in the last few weeks of the Autumn Term.
I played their Gaudate to one very difficult class. Well, it was an easy class really, except for one 6-going-on-16 boy, let's call him Chas. He was the youngest of five boys but several years. The teachers had endured the previous four and their verdict was none of the men in that family had any respect for women!
We listened to the music, and I asked for their impressions and comments. To add some movement, I suggested the children choose whether to stand still when the men sang and stand still when Maddy sang, or vice versa.
We did that once, and then Chas took charge. He had organised all the boys 'you're the army', lining them up in pairs and instructing them to march round the room when the men sang, and then told the girls to dance when the woman sings. 'Right, let's be having the music, Miss'.
And that as one happy class, content to be slotted into their stereotypes, which I watched fascinated. And relieved; call me a chicken if you like, but one had to be feeling strong to deal with Chas at the end of the school day, if Chas wasn't in the mood. Strength is something most teachers are fast running out of at the end of December!
Hard to think this track was released 50 years ago....
Scanning through my blog feeds this morning I came across this fabulous flashmob Christmas carol, thanks to ThatBritishWoman
Be ready for an overdose of cute, and maybe have a tissue ready? There's something about a flashmob that always makes me cry...
What a lovely way to start the day.
In the afternoon we met an agent for a local auction house at my father’s house. I had really contacted them for advice on a painting of my mother, which is ENORMOUS. I really don't wantvto part with it, but we can't fit it into our house, it's over 1.5m long and tall!
I didn't expect them to send someone round, because I didn't think there was anything valuable or worth his attention. (And I was right!). He didn't seem to mind coming out, had a quick look round, and made some helpful suggestions regarding trimming the portrait. I think we might be able to find somewhere in our house for the reduced portrait. It's sad to chop it about but we live in a small semi. To borrow a phrase, we need to cut our pictures to fit our walls!
As I was getting out of the car, I noticed a tangle of old man's beard, leaves and berries against the wall nearby. It seemed to glow through the dullness of the afternoon light.
