23rd December - Advent Photo

Another small book similar to the one I wrote about on Sunday and compiled by the same person a couple of years later in 1986. It's also a book that I've had for ages. 

 

 The editor had already used all the best bits of Christmas writing in the first book but there are a couple of enjoyable pieces in this one.

First an Ogden Nash poem -                  A Word About Winter

Now the frost is on the pane,

Rugs upon the floor again, 

Now the screens are in the cellar,

Now the student cons the speller, 

Lengthy summer noon is gone,

Twilight treads the heels of dawn

Round eyed sun is now a squinter,

Tiptoe breeze a panting sprinter,

Every cloud a blizzard hinter,

Squirrel on the snow a printer,

Rain spot sprouteth icy sprinter,

Willy-nilly this is winter

Summer swollen doorjambs settle,

Ponds and puddles turn to metal,

Skater whoops in frisky fettle,

Golf-club stingeth like a nettle,

radiator sings like kettle

Hearth is Popocatepetl.

Runneth nose and chappeth lip,

Draft evadeth winter strip,

Doctor wrestleth with grippe,

In never ending rivalship.

Rosebush droops in garden shoddy,

Blood is cold and thin in body,

Weary postman dreams of toddy.

Head before the hearth grows noddy.

 

On the hearth the embers gleam,

Glowing like a maidens dream,

Now the apple and the oak

Paint the sky with chimney smoke,

Husband now, without disgrace,

Dumps ash-trays in the fireplace. 

When I looked online on poetry websites to copy the poem onto the blog I couldn't find it anywhere at all which is a bit odd so had to type it all out word by word.........the things I do to fill a blog post!!

Below is a story which I hope is true, and also hope it's big enough for you to read. It's said to come from The Sunday Express in December 1984. The Queen loves her horses so perhaps she would ask a choir to sing to them.

Yesterday I made some cheese straws and today I shall pop to Debenham for the fruit and veg shop where I know they will have a stalk of Brussels sprouts, carrots and grapes. That's my shopping done.

 

Back Tomorrow

Sue