All Purls. No Swine.
Every year, for almost more years than I can count whether we're together or apart, my family has raised a glass each Christmas season to those we love but won’t see again in this world, and to those we love who are still with us, but who are not able to share our celebration, because… Continue reading …To Absent Friends and Loved Ones, 2024…
Thursday, December 21 is the first day of astronomical winter in the Northern Hemisphere. Astronomy notwithstanding, the day of the Winter Solstice is historically recognized in the UK as "Midwinter's Day," just as the Summer Solstice occurs at the time of "Midsummer," never mind that the United States thinks that Summer's just begun. This… Continue reading Ave Atque Vale, Bleak Midwinter 2023!
Lord. Here we are, halfway through January already. And it's still Christmas in my house, although I've started to take the decorations down. Won't be long until I'm regretting doing so. Especially the tree. Because, soon enough, it'll be time to start all over again. And if I'd just left everything up, I wouldn't have… Continue reading January 15
Every year, for almost more years than I can count whether we're together or apart, my family has raised a glass each Christmas season to those we love but won’t see again in this world, and to those we love who are still with us, but who are not able to share our celebration, because… Continue reading …To Absent Friends and Loved Ones, 2022…
The word "for" is not a pronoun. That's a fruitcake. Herewith, my dad's much-loved recipe for mince pies--one which I have shared many times, both online and in-person--from the Farmhouse Fare cookbook: Plum Mincemeat 4 lbs plums 2 lemons 1 cup water 8 large cooking apples 4 oz currants 4 oz raisins 4 oz sultanas… Continue reading Post #582
As some of you know, I’m British. And as such, I generally try to keep a pretty stiff upper lip about things. Not to whine unduly. And when I do whine, I try to whine directly at the person or people who are at the root of my dissatisfaction or unhappiness, or in the case… Continue reading Ave Atque Vale, Thou Bleak Midwinter of My Discontent!
Merry and Blessed Christmas to all from Chateau Right! Xena leads off with a welcome: I've been known to go a bit overboard with the Christmas decorations, but I love them so, especially the decorations on and under the tree, many of whose provenance extends back forty years to the time when Mr. Right's and… Continue reading Bringing the Light
I offer you another seasonal post, this one of which was first published on Ricochet eight Decembers ago. In fact, it was one of my first posts on the site, after I'd worked up the nerve--having been there for a couple of years, lurking and making the occasional tentative comment--to start writing my heart out. … Continue reading Putting Up the Christmas Tree
The film is dark and grainy, and the room is poorly lit. None of the cast is wearing the proper sort of clothes or makeup. And all of them, particularly the father of the little moppet with the starring role, are bursting with their pride in the first member of a new generation in the… Continue reading Pictures of Perfection: Christmas 1956
In the eyes of this crazy British lady (for that is what I am, all rumors to the contrary notwithstanding), I think the wearer of The Crown (The. Real. One.) outdid herself today with her annual Christmas message. Delivered perfectly–she’s 94 years old, for Pete’s sake, and puts almost any decades-younger American politician that springs readily… Continue reading Take That, Netflix!!