New paintings and regular art updates.
Having photos appear on WhatsApp can be odd. I get the pictures loaded into my gallery. I appreciate them all but I don’t always remember who sent them, that means I don’t always remember to reply!
So.. If you sent me this santa Christmas card, thank you! I’ll try and remember to send my cards out before it’s too late! X
No I’m not waiting for Santa, that’s tomorrow night. I’m just tired out, too tired to sleep, the bedding on my bed is too heavy and presses on my feet. These old legs ache at the knees, so when I turn over they hurt. My hips are starting to hurt too. If I had the money I might treat myself to a reclining chair? But then I worry the cats would get in the mechanism. Oh dear, possibly squashed kitty! I struggle to get up from the bed, I think my arms are not as strong and it pulls on my back as I try to fling my legs out to combat my upper body weight. I’m currently exposing myself to decaffeinated coffee to restore my fluid levels but attempting not to take a stimulant (but as you can see from my writing I’m fully awake). Why do brains do this (keep you awake with plans, worries, anxieties, also hearing my heartbeat and the traffic noise outside, even the cats snore!).
Tonight will soon be this morning, 7am, maybe I should tire myself out with a bit of housework? My coffee is getting cold. Good morning.
Crashed UFO at the play I went to yesterday. It wasn’t actually on the stage but in a seperate room on the way in.
In a strange way it reminded me of a Santa’s sledge I saw once outside Santa’s grotto as a child. You then got into another sled inside a large screened of area and the landscape on the sides seemed to move. It was actually a painted backdrop on rollers that ran round so the landscape seemed to scroll past. At the end of your “journey” you got off to see Santa and get your present…. Oops rambling there
..
I could imagine doing the same thing with the UFO so it would look like it was flying through the sky with stars and clouds.
❄
We hear snow is coming
It’s wet outside
Falling on frozen ground
One large fluffy snowflake
Fluttered past the kitchen window
A fleet footed hexagonal marvel
Precursor to a flurry?
Who knows
White Christmas?
Too soon to know
Flitting across the sky?
Santa’s sleigh gliding through
White whimseys of snow…
Dawn is a coming
The sleigh is halfway
On its route around
The world.
Up and down continents
North and South
From East to west
He flies.
Pulled by reindeer
Under radar
Over phone lines.
Past startled cats.
Waking birds too
For an early
Dawn chorus.
Santa’s sleigh
Is on its way!
‘Nah’ he said, ‘it’s not going to snow on Christmas day!’
His daughter looked upset, but her mum said ‘Dad is always right about the weather.’
She went upstairs to bed, it was Christmas Eve and she was 7. She believed her Dad but really truly wished for the snow to come. She wanted to get up and see if Santa had been yet, but it was only ten o’clock and Santa didn’t arrive till midnight. The stairs light was on and she tried to stare at it to keep awake. But she couldn’t keep her eyes open…
Suddenly she woke. The stairs light was off and she didn’t know the time, but there was a strange silence outside except for.. A scrabbling sound on the roof. A slithering sound, a tap and a rattle. What was it? And the sky was a funny orange colour. She had never seen it like that before? Soft noises tickled her ears again. She had a chimney in her room but the hole where there used to be a fire was boarded up. But she could hear something..
She looked out of the window, moving the net curtain to one side. The sky was still orangey grey and what looked like feathers were floating down… Was it? Snow? She put on her slippers and silently went downstairs. She saw it was five o’clock in the morning. Still dark and far too early for her parents to be up. Instead of looking in the lounge to find out if she had presents she walked through the kitchen and stepped out of the back door. Snow! Yes!
Suddenly a trickle of snow fell from the roof above her. Then a little avalanche. She heard scrabbling again so she looked up…. Just as the reindeer and sleigh leapt up from the roof and flew into the sky!
Before and after, the local Christmas lights switch on at the top of our hill. Everyone counted down and then… The gentle lights came up on the Christmas tree. Not overwhelming but restrained and pretty. We ate a mince pie that were being handed out. The local brass band played the carols and people sang along. As the Carol service continued children took their places as characters in the nativity. Two tiny. Little girls were the angels and there was a flock of shepherd’s. Well done to the organisers who created a warm welcome despite covid. X
Short crust pastry pies, filled with minced fruit with rains, currants, possibly orange or lemon peel, a bit of fat (originally suet, but now a bit of vegetable sauce). The fruit mixture can be soaked or souced in brandy or rum.
My favourites were the ones mum used to make. The pastry was rich and buttery, but it crumbled as you bit into it. Not to much filling, so there was a good balance to the flavour. Not to sweet. Then served cold with a cup of tea, or when we got a bit older, warmed through in the oven and served with a little glass of sherry.
In our house we would leave a sherry and a mince pie out for Santa, and carrots for the reindeer.
Now there are a plethora of boxes of six mince pies in the supermarket, with a choice of rich butter pastry, or with added alcohol, normal, or with pastry lattice tops. Jars of various types of mincemeat (the original pies apparently had some meat in them, now it’s a fruit mix) are for sale so you can back your own batches of them. We used to give them to Carol singers. Which was OK because we only used to get a few who called. Nice memories. I might make a big pie for my hubby.
Mallaband-Brown