My English cottage garden – December 2014

 

Hello everybody, I hope you enjoyed your Christmas. New Year still to come!

I am loving my Christmas present – a new shed! I’m so delighted with it, I could almost eat it, if you see what I mean.  It has been invaluable for putting the excess Christmas food in during the last week or so and the extra milk which I ordered over the Christmas period. The shed was put up a few weeks ago, but I wasn’t supposed to go inside it. I cheated! Still never mind, it didn’t spoil anything and now, every morning, I go up the path and peek inside to check on my geraniums, which are over-wintering in there. The baby ones, you’ve seen before, I keep indoors on the window sill but I don’t have enough window sills for all the others. At the last count there were over twenty of them!

The shed is going to look grand when the lilac bush comes into flower in the Spring and I will be popping back to show you when the buds are evident.

This is the view from the inside, from the door. Geraniums on the right and at the back?

Here’s a closer look:

Four chicken nest boxes! Yes, I’m going to get some more chickens in the Spring. I kept chickens before, for ten years from 1990 to 2000 when their housey fell to bits! Now it’s time to have another go, I feel. I miss my hens a lot and can’t wait to get some more.

Here are some more pics around the garden this week:

View from the inside of the shed looking out, south:

The woodpile:

The holly:

Pots of herbs by the back door. In the large pot are bluebells. I had to move them to make room for the new shed.

I think you can tell how excited I am, can’t you?

Have a lovely Sunday.

Oma

Merry Christmas everyone.

My turkey is defrosting in the shed; my mince pies are ready and waiting to be eaten and some of the other jobs have been done. Others are still waiting (mops brow). So it just remains for me to wish all my followers a very Happy Christmas. I appreciate your visits day by day throughout the past year. It means a lot to me to see your comments and I hope you will continue to dip into my life, here in England, during 2015.

Tale care!

Oma x

Christmas Cards

We have received some lovely Christmas cards this year. Even now they are still coming, one or two a day. I don’t think the custom is quite so popular as it used to be but in this house at least, they are all most welcome.

The question is, ‘what to do with them?’ I have some pretty hang-ups and I clip my cards onto those. Here is one of them..

I slot the cards in and secure with a paperclip, otherwise they sometimes fall on to the floor. How do you display your cards?

The cards I like best are the ones of the three kings. I’m not sure why but I love those. They are mysterious. It’s all about following a star wherever it leads and having trust and faith that the star will lead us to the right place at the right time and of course in the case of the birth of Jesus, it does. Maybe it’s the anticipation of what will be found at the end of the journey. Christmas is a lot about journeys. So many people are on the move, trying to get to their loved ones at Christmas or just escaping from the place where they usually live. Mary and Joseph were making a very long and arduous journey on a donkey – not the best way to travel when you’re pregnant, is it!

The three kings are on camels, again not a very comfortable way to travel. We in this day and age travel mostly by car or bus or train. Aeroplanes too are buzzing about in the sky. We all pray for good weather so that we can make our journeys safely. We watch the weather forecasts at every opportunity to see if snow is forecast or ice or whatever we dread the most.

For myself, I am not travelling this year. I am staying by my own hearth. Here it is:

You are virtually invited to join me in front of the fire as I and my family prepare to enjoy the Christmas season. As you can see, we have chomped our way through most of the chocolates in the advent calendar already! There are just a few left.

Oma

The Post Office is bulging!

Well, we braved it and went into town today. It was frosty when we got up, but the frost soon cleared and the sun came out.  That always makes you want to move yourself, doesn’t it. I had two more parcels to deliver, but one can’t go yet because I’m not sure where to send it, but the other one was ready and anxious to be off.

The bus was full but not as full as last week but when we got to the Post Office in town, it was pumping. I took a ticket and discovered there were 55 people before me. I’ve never found it that busy before. To start with there wasn’t a seat wherein to wait but soon the queue started getting smaller and I found a seat, which was a relief.  There was also a queue for the self-service where people can send their post using a machine like in the supermarket.  I looked at the clock, 10.25 a.m. I wondered how long it would take for me to get seen to?  There is a machine with an automated voice in there so your number is called out when it’s your turn. It usually works extremely well. All the stations were manned. Then three tellers went off on their coffee break and the queue slowed right down.  One man had a duffle bag with about a 100 parcels in it. OMG I thought, that will take ages. I timed him. It took 15 minutes but stuffed up the queue for the rest of us. All in all it took half an hour before I was seen, but considering the circumstances, I thought that was good and at least I was sitting down.

From there we went to the wool shop. I wanted a pattern for Aran wool because that is how my spinning comes out when I spin with merino. I couldn’t quite reach the pattern book because someone was standing in the way. The next thing I knew, the pattern book was on the floor and all the patterns had fallen out of it. Blow! now I had to put them all back in again. Meanwhile, Larry was choosing his yarn and getting on very well. I eventually put the patterns back in and chose one I liked. I’ll show it to you soon. We went to the till to pay, only to be told that the card machine wasn’t working. A new one was promised some time today but they didn’t know when so could we please pay in cash? We didn’t have enough cash so we had to go downstairs in the Mall and find a cash machine. That done, we returned to the shop to pay for the goods.  It was definitely going to be one of those days!

Getting my thoughts together, a bit of a rant.

I don’t know about you, but I find this time of the year very emotional. With all the excitement of Christmas, planning, buying gifts, extra cooking and greeting guests, there is an awful lot to do. However, in addition to all of that, there are the advertisements for help with charities. I like to give as much as possible but with the best will in the world, it isn’t possible to do what is needed and I get a feeling of inadequacy. This year in particular I feel the need to help animals because they get a very raw deal, in my opinion.

I am on Facebook and I enjoy it, particularly keeping in touch with all my Australian cousins. In the past, postage was too expensive to be in regular touch with them all and my Uncle and Auntie, who emigrated in the 60’s, but now I can tap in to their lives almost every day and it’s wonderful. However, underneath their posts are the ones about animal suffering and I find it almost impossible to comprehend. How can people be so cruel to animals? There are some horrendous stories to see. I won’t repeat them here, but you know what I mean. What can I do about it? Recently I got posts about the Soi Dog Foundation, which helps dogs in Thailand, on the other side of the world to me. They are asking us to buy a banner to let the people over there know that dogs are being taken off the streets for farming purposes. Again, I won’t go into detail but it is a horrid practice and could be stopped if people come together and stop it. A lot of the trouble is not knowing what goes on over there, I presume. If you’re feeling brave, click on the link above and see what I mean.

I considered that: buying a banner, but then I thought about all the animals over here that are being ill treated and I wondered if perhaps I should do something about that first. It is a dilemma and one not easily solved. It bothers me that there are still so many dangerous dogs on our streets even after the governments Dangerous Dogs Act, which was supposed to protect the public from these animals. In most cases it isn’t the animals that are at fault, but their owners who either deliberately train them to be vicious and/or fight or just don’t know how they should be treated. There are so many more suitable breeds of dog for keeping as pets. I can only think that people buy the dangerous kind as status symbols. It should be stopped and soon.

Do you feel inadequate at this time of the year? Do you go to bed and think about all the poor donkeys that are mistreated and abused? or is it just me?

Oma

Book Review: Snowfall in Burracombe by Lilian Harry

This is a delightful book and just right for this time of the year. As you know, I love all things ‘village’ so this book was perfect for me.

‘In the village of Burracombe, nothing stays secret for long and behind the peaceful, rural charm, there’s always a scandal to uncover, a newcomer to the village to set tongues wagging, a happy occasion to celebrate or friends to help their neighbours through the tough times.

It’s December 1953. As the village prepares for the festivities, for many people a happy Christmas is by no means certain. For Stella Simmons, recovering from a car crash, the winter wedding that she and her sweetheart had planned seems impossible.

Elsewhere in the village, Jackie Tozer is dreaming of America and Hilary Napier, who thought the war had robbed her of her chance of happiness, has to ask herself if she could ever imagine leaving her life at the big house for the sake of love and adventure.  The darkest time of the year finds everyone asking questions with no easy answer.

As snow falls softly on the village, and everyone wishes for peace and joy, Burracombe proves once again that there’s a always a surprise around the corner.’

so say the jacket cover! Lilian Harry has written numerous books, but this is the first one of hers that I have read! I enjoyed it very much and would recommend it to you. I counted 60 characters in all. Far too many for me to remember so after reading the first chapter, I started making a list.  I wrote down the character’s name, who they were and who they were married to or in a relationship with. Perhaps if I had read other books in the series, I would know by now, who is who, but I didn’t. I found this book in a charity shop and pounced on it! Do you make lists of characters when you are reading?

+++

I have just completed two more doggie blankets for the Battersea Dogs and Cats home. I hope I can get them off in the post in time. I expect they won’t mind if they’re late arriving. There is a blue one and a purple one. I’m using up my stash nicely!

+++

Have you noticed how busy the delivery men are? It must be a very stressful time of the year for them. I hope they all get a bonus like the bankers!!! This year, here in England, we adopted the Black Friday nonsense. I say nonsense, not because it is a waste of time. If you can buy a TV at a very reduced price, then good for you, but I don’t like what I see on the television with regard to the behaviour of many of the shoppers. Frankly, it was disgusting. I would much rather we adopted the Thanksgiving Day that you have over in America. Following on from Black Friday is Cyber Monday and yes, we have that too now. Those two days of sales have caused havoc with UPS etc.

Tomorrow is the 12th so I’ll be posting my Christmas cards and putting up the Christmas Tree. I’m looking forward to doing that.

What will you be doing tomorrow?

Preparing for Christmas

It’s time to start the preparations for Christmas, isn’t it! Time to find or remember where you put the decorations, the Christmas cards, ribbons and bows and of course the Christmas tree. Time to make that all important cake and start the shopping… I’ve noticed that my branch of Sainsbury’s is getting busier by the day. There were very few free spaces in the car park this morning. On the shelves there is change!  Familiar items have disappeared for the time being to make room for all those special treats we come to expect at this time of the year.

One of the places I love to visit is Poplars, the garden centre, which is a short drive from where we live.  They always put on a good display for Christmas and each year there is a different theme.  This year’s theme is The Snow Queen and you can see her in the picture below, sitting on her sleigh with the reindeer in front.  There is a Santa hut for the children. It gets more spectacular each year.  The restaurant does good business with mince pies galore and a view of the Christmas trees for sale just outside the window.

 

Garden centres do big business over here these days.  They have changed enormously since the days when they were just nurseries. Now they are grand and full of all sorts of delights and it is possible to spend the whole day in them.

We bought a new Christmas tree for this year. I think it’s a little bigger than the previous one but we are restricted by space so it is still small. I may need to buy some new baubles for it (yeah) but must wait and see. First I need to assess the situation and where we’re going to put it etc.

Will you be having a Christmas tree in your home this year? Have you decorated it yet?

Oma

Little hats for little heads.

In nine weeks time I shall be a grandma (Oma) again. Larry’ s son and daughter-in-law are expecting their first child, a boy, in February so the knittting needles are out and a little hat and bootees have appeared in the last few days.

It’s fun being a grandma and making lots of small things…

 

Book Review – The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier

‘Honor Bright is a sheltered Quaker, who has rarely ventured out of 1850’s Dorset (England) when she impulsively emigrates to America.  Opposed to the slavery that defines and divides the country, she finds her principles tested to the limit when a runaway slave appears at the farm of her new family.  In this tough, unsentimental place, where whisky bottles sit alongside quilts, Honor befriends two spirited women who will teach her how to turn ideas into actions.’

My friend bought this book for me for my birthday, back in October and I loved it. It is the third book by Tracy Chevalier that I have read. The first was ‘The Girl with the Pearl Earring’ and the second was ‘Burning Bright’.

My friend thought I would like the book because it deals with an English girl’s journey to America to begin a new life. She knew that I had that same experience back in 2006 when I left my life in England to go and live in Tennessee. From then until 2013 I was back and forth from England to America, spending approximately six months of the year in each country. Finally, Larry and I decided that England was the best choice for a permanent home given that we are both getting older! The distances are not so great, there is not so much the need for private transport and the health service is better. Those were the three main criteria which influenced our choice plus the fact that I already owned half a house over here.

In the story, Honor’s choice was different, but in many ways she found the same differences over there that I did.

I encourage you to read this book. It is a good read and very enlightening.

Oma