The Shortest Day

Hello again, and thank you all for your kind comments - it's very nice to be back. Now that we have broken up for the holidays a sense of comparative calm has descended, and already we have reached the shortest day. I love the winter solstice, with it's cold, clear skies and promise of longer, warmer days to come. You can read about why I enjoy this time of year so much here and here.

It's all about light and the celebration of its return at this dark time of year, and I do love to light candles, making the house cosy and warm.

Returning home on a dark afternoon, putting the heating on and switching on the Christmas lights is such a pleasure. I love to make things look twinkly and welcoming when the light levels are so low outside.

There's some greenery and foliage too, to brighten our home with growing things. The hyacinth smells wonderful.

This week I've had time to concentrate on home life and have been busy with our Christmas preparations. At the weekend we went shopping in Wells, and I felt the usual sense of peacefulness that this beautiful place induces. It's medieval architecture is just right for me at Christmas time.

I imagine centuries of people sitting on this worn window seat.

Above our heads starlings were chattering and roosting in the trees as light levels fell.

I hosted a little get-together earlier in the week with four of my best friends who I've now known for over two decades; a festive craft session in which we made some table decorations and clove-studded oranges. I gathered lots of greenery from the garden, having already bought some mistletoe and crab apples. Here it all is ready for my guests. 

I added heather from the garden this year, as well as purple callicarpa berries, cranberries and some bright red and white candles.

We drank mulled wine and ate mince pies and snacks, and it was all very jolly and convivial. 

So jolly and convivial, in fact, that I completely forgot to take any photos of the event itself! Here instead is my finished table centrepiece, with some added feathers brought by one of my lovely guests. We made clove-studded oranges too. Their fragrant, spicy scent is the smell of Christmas for me.  And with the left-over foliage I'm going to make a wreath for the front door.

Hope you're finding some time to relax during your festive preparations too x

Eastertime

'Loveliest of trees,the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.'
A. E. Housman



Well, these cherry trees are wearing pink and were in Queen Square in Bath yesterday, rather than a woodland ride, but the poem seemed to fit, nevertheless. They made me smile, and I just had to stop and take several photos.

Easter is almost upon us and we are enjoying a long weekend here. Our school holidays don't start until next weekend, so Easter is quite separate from them this year. Yesterday P and I had some last minute shopping to do as we have family coming for lunch on Easter Sunday, so we headed off to Bath as it was a lovely sunny spring day. By lunchtime I'd discarded my coat for the first time this year, and on the way home a yellow brimstone butterfly flew past the car, my first butterfly-spotting of the year. When we'd finished our shopping we went to our our current favourite place, Waterstones cafe, and treated ourselves to a book each and a coffee. I love the calm interior and pretty fresh flowers on each table.

We also stopped at a garden centre and I bought some seeds. Traditionally the Easter weekend is the first weekend of proper gardening that most people do in the year, but I've already been out pruning, weeding and tidying a few times. However seed-planting is more exciting than those jobs. I always grow sweet peas, nasturtiums and calendulas, but I also picked up some mixed sunflowers for cutting. We never seem to have much late-summer colour in the garden so I'm remedying it with these, and some dahlia plug plants which I've never grown before. Hopefully there will be lots of flowers for me to cut and bring indoors. I'm looking forward to these 'high scent' frilly sweet peas too.

I put out the Easter decorations this week - candles, chicks and pretty eggs now adorn the dining room.

I've bought some artificial blossom branches this year to hang the eggs from, and will use them every year. The sight of flowery branches drooping under the weight of decorated eggs is such a pretty one that it makes me very happy indeed. The little mat that the jug's standing on was embroidered with flowers by my mum as a present to us when we were first married.

And the crocheted wreath which I made two years ago has made an appearance. I like the pale, creamy yellows which remind me of primroses, and fresh pastel colours of spring.

Once again I took out the decorated eggs which I've collected over the years and store in an egg-box. It took me a couple of years to realise that this was the perfect container.

Here are the little 'spring garden' polystyrene eggs which I painted when my children were little.

And the many fluffy chicks have reappeared, some of them a little worse for wear over the years, but all still sweet and fluffy.

There are also lots of mini chocolate eggs, ready for an Easter egg hunt.

Happy Easter to you all! 

Hope you have a lovely one x

************
Edited to add:

I have just made a little Easter wreath for the front door, something I've often planned to do, and thought I'd show you it, since it's part of our celebrations. I used the hazel wreath base I made last Christmas and tucked into it little sprigs of rosemary flowers, hyacinths and tete-a-tete daffodils. They're not securely tied on and, given the high winds and driving rain that we have today, I may well keep it indoors tomorrow!

Happy Easter! x

Christmas Round-Up and a Happy New Year!

Hello again! Thank you all for your Christmas good wishes - I hope you've had a lovely Christmas holiday! Our Christmas here at The House With The Blue Door has been a very good one indeed, full of festivity and lots of nothing in particular which has been very restorative. With J back from university, P and B off work for a few days and D and I in the school holidays, our time has consisted of getting up late (bliss), reading, watching TV, chatting, eating treats, going out and generally being rather lazy. The character of our Christmasses has changed over the years as our children have grown up. Of course we no longer read them 'The Night before Christmas' on Christmas Eve (although we do all still have stockings), and they've all gone off the pantomine. However, these traditions have been replaced with new enjoyable pastimes. I have loved the fact that we have all had the time to catch up with each other again, and all three of our youngsters have enjoyed being reunited for the holidays. There has been much laughter and companionable chatting, along with pleasant shopping trips and our annual big family Christmas meal at a lovely country pub in which three generations of us gather together.

In the few days in between my last day of work and Christmas I managed to squeeze in some creativity. I made this wreath with foliage from the garden and berries which I'd bought from a florist.

I love the bright orangey-red ilex berries against the blue-green eucalyptus leaves.

I also crocheted mistletoe brooches as presents from a pattern in Lesley Stanfield's '100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet'. They were really quick to make and, after spray-starching them and sewing brooch-pins on the backs, I added pearly beads for berries. 

I had a glitter-tastic experience covering these cones in the sparkly stuff. I was confident I could keep the glitter under control - how wrong I was! It went everywhere. Reminded me of when I was a primary school TA and we made a giant glittery star for the nativity play - such a sparkly mess.

I also decorated a bough of blue spruce for my shed and hung it with tiny baubles and bells, as I've been looking forward to decorating my shed.

Even Miss Blossom dressed up in her festive finery. She does like a bit of sparkle.

Today P and I went to Weston Super Mare which isn't far from here. Our youngsters were all otherwise engaged and we felt the need to blow away the cobwebs by the Bristol Channel. Weston has a large beach which is perfect for long walks either on the promenade or the sandy beach, and the sea is always a long way out, even when the tide is in. When we arrived the sun was shining and there were lots of people with the same idea as us out walking and enjoying the fresh sea air. After several days of being lazy and eating chocolate and crisps, it felt wonderful to feel the cold wind (my, it was cold!) on our faces, smell the salty air and stretch our legs.

 

It was very blowy indeed, and seagulls hung suspended in the air above us.

As we walked gradually the sunshine disappeared and the sky became very grey.

We ate toasted sandwiches in a sweet little beach cafe as raindrops started to fall, and afterwards we walked to the end of the pier, by which time the rain was lashing at us horizontally. Luckily you can walk the length of it undercover.

We took refuge on the pier and in the shops of Weston for a while and, when the rain had stopped, we discovered a shining sunset over the beach.

The low, glowing light reflected off the puddles on the sand and lit up the horizon.

It was a beautiful end to our visit, and as we drove home we felt very happy to have had such a brisk and breezy walk at the coast. Perfect.

I wish all of you a very Happy and Healthy New Year, and I hope that 2016 brings you much peace and joy
xxx