December 18th

 My good intentions of visiting the decorated  Christmas Trees displayed in Stowmarket church for todays post was a fail.

It was too blinkin' cold and I'd run out of energy after  just 10 minutes in town! 

Back to the settee and my books and the TV. Plenty of time for thinking...............

This will be my 5th Christmas since Colin died - it gets no easier. 

There was a funeral and burial over the road in the cemetery last week - the mourners looked frozen, the vicar looked to have at least 10 layers on under his surplice. Everyone followed the hearse down the road from the church to the graveyard gate. Next time I was in the kitchen at the front of the house just an hour or so later the gravedigger was back-filling the grave . All over so quickly.

Remembering a past Christmas.......... Me and Eldest daughter both down with horrible colds just before Christmas  and sitting at the dining room table making Christmas Crackers - feeling so rough I don't know how we got finished.

I used to make everything......... crackers, a wreath for the door, napkin rings, 2 or 3 deserts, you name it and Christmas was homemade. We always had Col's Mum and Dad and Brother around for the day, it was a good family day.

Listening to the radio in the early hours of a broken night about the people freezing in Ukraine and Russia continually bombing power stations and the reactions of defiance by the Ukrainian people reminded me of Aesops fable of the North Wind and the Sun. ........you know the one I mean I'm sure..........

The North Wind and the Sun had a quarrel about which of them was the stronger. While they were disputing with much heat and bluster, a Traveler passed along the road wrapped in a cloak.

“Let us agree,” said the Sun, “that he is the stronger who can strip that Traveler of his cloak.”

“Very well,” growled the North Wind, and at once sent a cold, howling blast against the Traveler.

With the first gust of wind the ends of the cloak whipped about the Traveler’s body. But he immediately wrapped it closely around him, and the harder the Wind blew, the tighter he held it to him. The North Wind tore angrily at the cloak, but all his efforts were in vain.

Then the Sun began to shine. At first his beams were gentle, and in the pleasant warmth after the bitter cold of the North Wind, the Traveler unfastened his cloak and let it hang loosely from his shoulders. The Sun’s rays grew warmer and warmer. The man took off his cap and mopped his brow. At last he became so heated that he pulled off his cloak, and, to escape the blazing sunshine, threw himself down in the welcome shade of a tree by the roadside.

And we all know the moral of that story

Here is another photo of a page from the Wartime Christmas book

No more to be said really.

Back Tomorrow

Sue