Christmas 2022 - Dominated by Crime!

I have been reading rather a lot of whodunnits recently, so the purchase of a reading lamp was clearly indicated.  Since travelling and merry making is strictly limited this year, I decided to make this a holiday full of books and sybaritic reading.

Lashings of hot tea as always make a strong apperance

The Crime Corner

These are the Christmas Crime books I have excavated all over the house.

And last but not least, here is my favourite Christmas present!

A Restful Christmas and a Better 2021!!!!

 

What a year this has been!

Where to start?

Let's leave it until the New Year's Eve, or even next year!

I am glad I am alive and healthy, and haven't gone crazy - no mean feat, considering all the insanity and tomfoolery we have had to deal with this year.

I wish you all as happy a Christmas as you can contrive.

If you expect a present you will probably get it sometime in March, when it is possible to visit the post office again, and /or I can hand it over in person.

Ditto for cards.

I have focussed my Christmas cheer on my neighbours and anyone who makes it to my front door to deliver parcels.  

Usually I decorate the parlour with a few Christmassy oddments for myself, but this year I decided to take out a leaf from the Erzgebirge and decorate my parlour window looking outwards, rather than inwards, to cheer up anyone who might pass by.  Since my street is tucked away and there are few people who come by this was an exercise in futility, but I did what I could.

I also wrapped a large number of  boxes of chocolate, and gave one to every parcel delivery person, and attached one to the door handle of every neighbour, who all correctly guessed that it had come from me, on the strength of remembering that I had distributed Easter eggs last April.

Oh well - I guess my type just doesn't get unnoticed!

Love & Stuff

DB

Merry Christmas and a happy 2020!

Hello all my friends & relations!

I know I haven't been writing recently, and am sorry if I disappointed.  After I came down with shingles in the Summer I had very little energy, and the little I had I spent on working and keeping myself and the house ship shape - there was little strength left to do other things, and writing the blog had to be put on the back burner.

Things continued to go on in the background, of course.  There were visits to Paris, meetings of the book-club, and several intrepid adventures with the Triplets.  I may get around to uploading a few photos, and detail some of the adventures.

Anyway, I am feeling much better and hope to be a more conscientious poster in the next year.

In the meantime, take good care of yourself, don't do anything I would do, and if you are one of those misguided people who rather choke on their overabundance of love than share it out, let me tell you I know who you are!

Love & Christmas Cheer

DB

Christmas Eve ....

The star in action

Photos, we want photos, rang out the cry of the uproarious crowds .....

Well, who am I to argue?  I thought it might be a bit boring, seeing as I stick to my old Christmas decorations like a conscientious leach, and my parlour looks pretty much the same every Christmas, but there it is, the masses have spoken, nay commanded, and I am nothing if not obliging, towards my reading public.

I can report, happily, that two new decorations have been added to my stockpile this year, to wit, the hanging pyramid, propelled by candles, going around fast enough to make one quite dizzy, if all six of them are kindled, and the aforementioned Herrnhuter Star, spreading a warm glow for the neighbourhood, in the hour of dusk, before the lamps are lit.

Also, the Christmas Tree, usually positioned in front of the window, has this time been placed onto the table in the middle of the room - it was newly purchased a week ago and still is rather tiny, and I thought that looking down, rather than up, at it, might create the visual illusion of it being larger than it actually is. 

[Regular readers of this blog know that I buy little trees in pots, which I re-pot and keep thusly in the garden for several seasons in a row, until they indicate by their dropping of needles and increasingly unmanageable size that the time for planting them in the garden's welcoming soil has finally arrived.]

So I can offer you at least these few changes to my Christmas routine.

Enjoy the resulting still-lives, if you can!

 

 

Merry Christmas!

Well, it was another momentous year ....

Never mind, today is Christmas and we will be happy!

I have finished the decorating of the Parlour, and am currently listening to A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols on Radio 4.

Before I was able to assemble my Christmas, I had to do some work.  Firstly, I had to fix a revolving pyramid I had purchased on Ebay - it came with a few pieces broken off.  I complained to the seller, who sent me some spare parts and instructions on how to repair it.  I had to drill out the broken off piece, and glue the new pieces into place, and also add all the leaves on top of the pyramid that make it turn.  It seems to be working OK now.

My sister had gifted me a Herrnhuter Stern, which required self assembly, but that, too, was successfully attempted last night.  It looks really rather splendid hanging in front of the window now!

More photos to follow, of course.

In the meantime, pip pip, tally ho, and all the very best for the festive season.

Remember you are loved.

Repairing the pyramid

That's the bit that was broken

Star got assembled

Parlour at the start of decorating