Christmas Day 1914

Friday Five: Rod Stewart

What can I say? Rod is back BIGGER and BETTER than he's ever been.  I missed the Maggie May generation (thank goodness) and really came to know Rod via Atlantic Crossing and those big big romantic ballads.

1. Beautiful Morning
"Beautiful morning, on this beautiful morning, on this beautiful, beautiful morning here with you..."

2. She Makes Me Happy
"...She showed me loving is a wonderful thing; She makes me happy; want to sing, sing, sing!"  His joy in his relationship with Penny Lancaster just shines right through this song.  Just wonderful...

3. Its Over 
Beautiful arrangement. Lyrics choke you up. Gifted songwriter. Rod at his best. This whole album is his most autobiographical.

4. Forever Young
Perfect.

5. And pretty much everything else he's done, but at a push probably this, not least for the way his voice breaks as he sings, "I can tell by your eyes that you've probably been crying forever..."

6. And Some Guys Have All The Luck, because I just love the way one song segues into another and his blond saxophonist... classic.

Don McCullin's Desert Island Discs

My love affair with Don McCullin continues...

The following is taken from the Guardian interview with Carole Cadwalladr outlining McCullin's return to Aleppo, and the documentaty McCullin due to be screened January 1.  Catch the full article here...

 

CC:  What do you think of photojournalism these days?

 

DM:  It's had it. Nobody wants to look at spreads of dying children. They want to see higher heels. It's all gone celebrity, hasn't it? Celebrity, looks, fashion. If I see another picture of Gwyneth Paltrow, I think I'll put my head down the lavatory. Fake tans, Beckhams, Jamie Oliver. I can't take any more of it. That's why I'm going to Syria.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/castaway/c3d7aaf1#p009mhn5

On Eating Roses Whilst The Kettle Boils

You know that old Christmas joke about finding yourself standing at the kitchen sink eating roses for breakfast as the kettle boils? Except we know it's not a joke, don't we...

In my defence, at least I haven't taken to greeting the postman drink in hand; even I baulk at hard liquor before martini o'clock.  The last autumnal traipse across the Chunnel coincided with SuperU's deal on Bombay Sapphire; 70cl for 12euro and I managed to get the last 6 bottles by clambering onto the bottom shelf and stretching to the very back of the top shelf.  Clearly lesser mortals, locals and les rosbifs were too embarrassed to clamber.  Me?  I'd climb Everest for a deal like that.

 

My new favourite clients and I are planning to restock their rose beds.  I'm gently nudging them towards a themed approach, having already surrendered all hope of enticing them into a mixed border design.  It's their garden, when all's said and done.  I'm thinking Song of Songs; I'm thinking Shakespeare; I'm thinking people they actually have in their address book.  I know; they are really lovely clients.  We'll be sticking with David Austin, as his really are the best and most deliciously fragrant English roses.

 

Just have a look at this new introduction for 2013, The Lark Ascending, described thus,

 

photo source: http://www.davidaustinroses.com/english/Showrose.asp?Showr=6835

"A delightful rose that illustrates the great diversity that is now to be found among English Roses.  The flowers are cupped in shape with about twenty petals in each bloom.  They are medium in size and of a pleasing light apricot colouring, produced from the ground upwards in heads of up to fifteen, nicely spaced blooms.  They have a light fragrance that has been observed to vary form one flower to another.  Some of them are of Tea scent while others move towards the scent of myrrh.

The name is taken from Ralph Vaughan-Williams' piece of music, which was recently voted Britain's favourite by listeners to the BBC radio programme Desert Island Discs."

 

 

Christmas Eve 2012 and a Miracle at Mass

http://www.noradsanta.org/en/track.html

NORAD tracks Santa again.

Louis Smith Wins Strictly 2012

Louis owns Strictly, with THAT hold 1.25 mins in...

Cerinthe Major Purpurescens at Blakesley Hall

 

I have coveted these beauties since I saw a stall holder at Bakewell farmers' market including them in her hand-tied garden flower bouquets.  Oh wow, I thought, why haven't I thought to grow these flowers.  Growing them couldn't be simpler, you just throw the seeds into the soil sometime round about mid to late spring, cover lightly then wait until they flower in earlyish summer.  And, as these little fellows are prolific self-seeders, you'll have plenty in your borders next year.  They'll need a bit of protection over a hard winter, given that they are Mediterranean evergreens, but these glaucous leafed delights are worth even this little bit of effort, especially if you treat them as a hardy annual.

The Cerinthe here were covered in bees, even in October, so you'll be giving your local bee colony an autumn treat if you get a bush or two into your garden.

 

The only difficulty I've had with Cerinthe is getting hold of the seeds in the first place.  You'll have to shop online (no great hardship), but if we are as a nation and a global community supposed to be taking action to reverse the global decline in bee colonies, it might help to shift these seeds into the budget range at B&Q.

 

 

And don't forget, December's farmers' market is held a week early for Christmas, on Saturday 22 December.  See you there.

Helianthus Annuus: Sunflowers

 

Given the atrocious weather we've had across the UK since the spring, these were just about the most productive flowers this year.  Too wet and too cold for the roses; ditto all the vegetables except the brassicas and lettuces.  They take a beautiful picture though, don't they? 

I planted these directly into the beds early April and just left them to get on with it.  After years of planting in rows of seed variety, this year I simply opened up a few packets, mixed said seeds and threw them into the soil then pretty much abandoned them to their fate.  I have to say, from midsummer onwards I picked flower after flower; Russian Giant, Choco Sun, Vincent's Mixed, Firecracker, Sunburst, Velvet Queen.

 

Unwin's have a lovely little seed planting wheel guide, catch it here.  Or if your life really is too short to click on links, here it is!  And thank you UNWINS!

 

 

 

First Sunday of Advent 2012

It's not that I've been slackering about for the better part of this year; quite the contrary.  I've spent most of this year with clients, my new favourite clients in particular. 

 

 

Here we are at the end of the year / start of the new year and we've restored huge tracts of their walled kitchen garden.  In the next month or so I want to make a start on a new orchard.

 

 This isn't their house - theirs is Victorian, this is Tudor; Blakesley Hall, a timber-framed house built in 1590 by Richard Smalbroke, a member of one of Birmingham’s leading merchant families.  I dropped in earlier this autumn on the way to or from Birmingham airport with the Irish rellies.  I rather like the juxtaposition of perfectly preserved and restored Tudor buildings, underneath the flight path of a major international airport...  Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens is as bad! 



 

One of the lovely young graduates working at Blakesley Hall has an Etsy shop, selling lovely, lovely, gorgeous things, and when she gets the mice-shaped Christmas tree hangings on there, I'm snapping the lot up.  Click on into her shop TheLittleLandOfMe and check for yourself!

Christmas Day

Friday Five: I Gotta Feeling ooOOoo

Early evening and the parental taxi service is once more driving over the mountains through deepening mist to deliver Beloved Firstborn, Merci Beaucoup Enfant Deux and the sweethearts to ChesVegas for the New Year's Eve celebrations.  We strictly enforce the drink-drive ban to the extent that I ritually performed the "show me your car keys/give me your car keys," before we piled into my car and set off.  It's almost three years since I've done the school run over the mountains, but some things never change.  Huge amounts of laughter and chitchat from the party goers; then someone slipped in a cd and out boomed the old favourites.  Lady Gaga, the Killers,  School's Out, YMCA, and then this one by the Black Eyed Peas.  I'm almost ashamed to say I joined in, word perfect and arm waving throughout, steering with my knees with well practiced ease.  Car-Dancing about to some groovy tunes with a car full with happy, joyous grads and undergrads; some things never change.

"I gotta feeling that tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good good night

Tonight's the night, Let's live it up, I got my money, Let's spend it up
Go out and smash it, Like oh my god, Jump off that sofa,
Let's get get OFF

I know that we'll have a ball, If we get down
And go out, And just lose it all
I feel stressed out, I wanna let it go
Lets go way out spaced out, And losing all control

Fill up my cup, Mazel tov,
Look at her dancing, Just take it OFF
Let's paint the town, We'll shut it down
Let's burn the roof, And then we'll do it again

Let's do it, let's do it, Let's do it,
Let's do it, and do it, and do it,
Let's live it up
And do it, and do it, and do it, do it, do it,
Let's do it, Let's do it, Let's do it

Cause I gotta feeling (ooOOoo) that tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good good night

Tonight's the night (hey) Let's live it up (let's live it up)
I got my money (I'm paid) Let's spend it up (let's spend it up)
Go out and smash it (smash it) Like oh my god (like oh my god)
Jump off that sofa, Let's get get OFF

Fill up my cup (drank) Mazel tov (L'chaim)
Look at her dancing (move it move it)
Just take it OFF, Let's paint the town (paint the town)
We'll shut it down (shut it down) Let's burn the roof
And then we'll do it again

Let's do it, let's do it, Let's do it,
Let's do it, and do it, and do it,
Let's live it up
And do it, and do it, and do it, do it, do it,
Let's do it, Let's do it, Let's do it, do it, do it, do it

Here we come, Here we go, We gotta rock (rock,rock,rock,rock)
Easy come, Easy go, Now we on top (top,top,top,top)
Feel the shot, Body rock, Rock it don't stop (stop,stop,stop,stop)
Round and round, Up and down, Around the clock (clock,clock,clock,clock)

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday
Friday, Saturday, Saturday to Sunday
Get get get get get with us, You know what we say say
Party every day, Pa-pa-pa party every day

And I'm feelin (ooOOoo) That tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good good night"

On Why Helen Yemm Ought To Co-present Gardener's World With Monty Don

It's true; Helen Yemm really does know everything about gardening.  There are two magazines I buy each December; the Christmas edition of the Radio Times and the BBC's Gardener's World magazine (for the calendar).  I also know that a goodly portion of my witty, charming and urbane readers do exactly the same.  In the magazine is the most interesting article about feeding garden birds through the current appallingly cold winter we're enjoying across the UK.  The nub of it is to stop feeding garden birds whole sunflower seeds and start putting out sunflower hearts / kernels instead.  Birds cannot afford to waste energy chewing off the useless outer sunflower husks to get at the oil-rich kernels inside.  Makes perfect sense. 

http://www.gardenersworld.com/

Dragging myself off my flu-infested sickbed, I drove over to my favourite garden centre and bought two 5kg bags of sunflower kernels.  I dutifully drizzled a 5m line of kernels across the top terrace outside the french windows, and stood back to watch the show.  Nothing happened.  And nothing happened until a couple of days later, when I came down for brekkie, pulled back the curtains in the kitchen and revealed a scene like something out of The Birds.  The feasting feathered community has now settled down to a regular two dozen blackbirds, four thrushes, dozens of resident sparrows, 5 robins (which shows how harsh this winter is), assorted yellow tits and a few exotic waifs and strays slumming it from the exotic bird feeders across at my farming neighbours.

I occasionally chuck out some chopped up raisins, bits of finely diced jacket potatoes, and leftover brown rice (ensuring none of last night's curry sauce is attached), but it's the kernels that reassure the ground feeders.  Sometimes the 5m line is eaten completely within the hour, and most days I make three runs for my delightful, much cared about garden birds.  I know when the kernels need replenishing because the blackbirds huddle around the terrace, on the branches of the fruit trees and along the hedges like a series of menacing full stops; "Feed us or we'll peck your eyes out."

http://www.caudwellsmill.co.uk/caudwells-shop.html

Helen Yemm describes her brother's Scottish recipe for a cheaper version of bird food - porridge oats drizzled in sunflower oil.  I know, it makes the most perfect sense, so read the whole article here.  Back off my sickbed, traipsing over to Cauldwell's Mill for jumbo oats then back to the kitchen to mix up a storm.  It's true, the birds enjoy the porridge oats and Helen Yemm needs to co-present Gardener's World when it returns in the spring. 

A German Sang Of Peace From No Man's Land

"1915 on Christmas Day, on the Western Front the guns all died away, and lying in the mud on bags of sand, we heard a German sing from no man's land.
"He had a tenor voice so pure and true, the words were strange but every note we knew, soaring o'er the living dead and damned, a German sang of peace from no mans' land."

Remember this?

Something perfect to think about and to be thankful for as across the UK as our schools break up for Christmas, our undergrads return home from universities and please God, NATO, Commonwealth and our forces' peacekeepers work to make our world that little bit safer.

Bread And Circuses

 "Students will have to pay £9,000 a year tuition fees?  Let them eat cake!"

Feast Of The Holy Family 2009

"The leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations." Revelations 12 v2

The Tree of Life, at the National Arboretum, was created in 1969 by the Housewives Fellowship, Blue Bell Hill, St Alban's, Rochester.

St Stephen's Day 2009

"There was a time when, a week or so before Christmas, I used to set about making gigantic game and pork terrines and chicken liver patés, huge supplies of vegetable soups, jar after jar of Cumberland sauce, bowl upon bowl of fruit salad...

"What one comes to realise after years of organising Christmas food supplies is that, the celebration meal apart, there are always members of the family who tend to make their meal off snacks and bits and pieces. They just don't want to sit down to formal meals, and while a varied supply of ready-cooked food is necessary to supplement the cold turkey or goose, patés and terrines are perhaps too rich and fat, and vegetable soups too thick and filling."

Elizabeth David's Christmas

Christmas Day 2009

Pope Bendict XVI

Tommie Smith

Peter Norman

John Carlos

You

Lombard Street To A China Orange: Christmas Eve 2009

"If I had my way - and I shan't - my Christmas Day eating and drinking would consist of an omelette and cold ham and a nice bottle of wine at lunchtime, and a smoked salmon sandwich with a glass of champagne on a tray in bed in the evening. This lovely selfish anti-gorging, un-Christmas dream of hospitality, either given or taken, must be shared by thousands of women who know it's all Lombard Street to a China orange that they'll spend both Christmas Eve and Christmas morning peeling, chopping, mixing, boiling, roasting, steaming."

Elizabeth David's Christmas

Ed Jill Norman

Yes please Santa.

Santa's On His Way

http://www.noradsanta.org/

Christmas Eve Lunch 2009

Pasta with cream and truffle sauce, and a glass of light Italian white wine. Sated, let's crack on with the Christmas baking as Carols from King's begins on Radio 4. Listen again here. Don't worry, it's repeated tomorrow too.