Looking Back - The Annual Photo Review of the Year for 2025

 January 

The first of the library book photos for last year, I always put a photo on the blog of the books I collect on mobile library day and lots of people say they like to get ideas, so that will carry on next year.

February.

One of my favourite things found at a jumble sale for 50p. I love jumble sales, car boot sales and charity shops.

March

I had a sort out of old photos in March and put many into a proper storage box rather than the albums.

On my trike and in a pedal car

April

I used my English Heritage Membership before it ran out, to visit Orford Castle on the Suffolk Coast. Looking magnificent after it spent a year wrapped in scaffolding being cleaned and repaired.

May

A photo of a page from one of my umpteen books that get used for First of the Month - Country Folklore posts.

From 'The Illustrated Country Year' by Celia Lewis

June

Somehow I got an Art O Level without ever learning to paint or draw, I wish I really could but instead I go to all the local art exhibitions and admire what others can do.

July

Ringshall church. One of many Suffolk churches visited during 2025. I'm now up to 130 out of the 600+ that we have in Suffolk. Hope to get to  a few more in 2026

August

I didn't grow so much in the garden in 2025. In 2024 the neighbours cat and pigeons ruined so much I was quite off gardening, but the greenhouse was full. The plum tomatoes were used for Red Tomato Relish which was the only chutney made.

September

I had a few days away in a static caravan on the Suffolk Coast so that I could visit some places I'd not been to for many years without having to drive an hour each way. This was Southwold - it was incredibly windy that day.

October

A tea-light holder car-boot find to add to my Portmeirion Holly and Ivy ware. I enjoy my early morning walks around boot-sales from March to October. There's no knowing just what treasures will be discovered - usually things that will save me buying something new at a later date. 

November

In November I did an A-Z .....for the third time

B was for Blackthorn

December

I like to find out about local events happening, especially if it's something a bit different and went to the Nativity crib display church fundraiser in a nearby village. 

But of course the best thing about December was getting to see all the Grandchildren all at once- the sofa load of mischief! .

Thank you to everyone for reading the blog and all the comments through 2025. I'll keep writing through 2026 -  what adventures will a new year will bring?

Shopping Early For Christmas............. 2026!

I had a post earlier in the month about buying things from charity shops that would make good presents. So through December I looked to see what was in the charity shops and in the Home Start shop in Eye that I popped into on my way back from Diss, I found two things for next year.

First was this box that is holding a very lovely ceramic olive oil jug/pourer (£4.50). I know one of the local farm shops has unusual flavoured olive oils that I could add and then I spotted all sorts of flavoured olives in the Co-op. That's one present planned. 

And this box has a mini potting tray, trowel, gloves, twine etc and was also £4.50. Other gardening things could be added to this to make a gift.

And then another from  Stowmarket RSPCA charity shop - a Robin nesting-box shaped like a tea pot. The outer box is faded and dis-coloured but I can wrap the inner box, this was £4.

And then another............a tin of 10 lovely notelet cards by Whistlefish for £4. Coincidently in the cupboard I have another but different tin of cards that I found in a charity shop last year and thought would be a draw prize when it's my turn to take one to Over 60's group but then I took something else instead.

So now I have a tin for both sister and sister in law.

Add the hot water bottle found at the one-off Christmas car-boot sale and I'm doing well for next year already.

Then, when I was in Stowmarket for the Christmas trees in the Church, I found the new East Anglian Children's Hospice charity shop had reduced their Christmas cards already - a whole week before Christmas. 10 cards for £1.87 - half price.

 I've put these into next years accounts in my accounts book. So I can remember what I've spent when it gets round to Christmas shopping next year.

Back tomorrow with the annual photo Review of the Year

The Best Books of 2025

 I read a total of  108  books in 2025. Almost all were library books - what would I do without them!

 As usual mostly crime fiction written in the last 60 years  but also 14 older crime fiction written before that, 17 ordinary fiction and 12 non-fiction plus just 2 children's books.

Some of my favourites were .............

Kristin Hannah - The Nightingale. This is such a well written story about what it was like to be a woman in France during WWII.  Vianne and Isabelle Mauriac are two sisters, separated by years and experiences, each on their own path to survival through their occupied Nation......    The film of this book  will be released in this country in February....Hope it shows locally.

Evie Woods - The Story Collector. Fiction (Published 2024) In 1911 Ireland, Anna, a young farm girl, volunteers to help an intriguing American visitor translate the old stories of the fairy world for his university studies. In 2011 Sarah Harper boards a plane for the west coast of Ireland, she was supposed to be heading to her parents home in Boston - running away from sadness and a failed marriage.

Rory Clements - A Cold Wind From Moscow. Crime Fiction ( Published 2025) MI5 has a mole, who is it. The boss Freya Bentall can't trust anyone except Tom Wilde to find out. He was hoping to return to his quiet life as a Professor of History in Cambridge but when a man is murdered in his university rooms he is soon draw back to help find the person spreading the secrets of Atomic Bomb making to Russia. 8th in this series. 

PLUS Evil in High Places. Crime Fiction. (Published 2025). Second book about Chief of Police Seb Wolff  in pre-war Munich. This one is set during the winter Olympics of 1936. When a famous actress disappears Wolff is ordered to find her but she happens to be the mistress of Goebbels, Hitler's right-hand man. In a country full of corruption Wolff has to tread the line between justice and jeopardy, High Society and dark corners.

Robert Peston - The Whistle Blower. Crime Fiction/Thriller  (Published 2021) It is 1997 and a desperate government clings to power in the run-up to the General Election. The opposition are just as desperate to win and political journalist Gil Peck watches. He is a respected commentator on politics and thinks he knows all the rules. But when his estranged older sister dies in a hit in run  he begins to believe it was no accident because Clare knew some of the more sensitive secrets in government and one of them might have got her killed.

Tracy Chevalier- The Glass Maker. Fiction (Published 2024) Venice 1486, Across the lagoon lies Murano. Time flows differently here - like the glass the islands maestros spend their lives learning to handle. Women are not meant to work with glass, but Orsola Rosso flouts convention to save her family from ruin. She works in secret, knowing her creations must be perfect to be accepted by men. But perfection may take a lifetime. Skimming like a stone over water through the centuries, we follow Orsola as she hones her craft through war and plague, tragedy and triumph, love and loss. Very unusual book - difficult to explain as the people stay the same through 600 years - but it works beautifully.

Elif Shafak - There are Rivers in the Sky. Fiction (Published 2024) A magical story that brings together different times in history all linked by water. In ancient Ninevah hidden in the sand are fragments of a long lost poem. In Victorian London, an extraordinary child is born on the mud banks of the Thames. In Turkey in 2014 Narin, a Yazidi girl living by the Tigris and her grandmother travel through war torn lands to reach the sacred valley of their people. In London in 2018,  Zaleekhah, a hydrologist, moves to a houseboat on the Thames after the break up of her marriage.

Nevil Shute - The Far Country. Fiction. (Published 1952)  Out in Australia the Dorman family have had an excellent pay check for the years wool production. Jane Dorman had moved away from England several years previously when she met her Australian husband-to-be after the war. Jane writes regularly to her Aunt, the only person who had supported her move. When she realises her Aunt is very poor she sends money.   The money arrives too late to help, but Aunt Ethel gives the money to her granddaughter Jennifer . When Jennifer is left the money specifically to visit Australia she has the chance to leave drab post-war London. The comparisons between dull England and bright new Australia are so interesting to read about.

Susie Dent - Guilty by Definition. Crime Fiction (Published 2024) This is such a clever and well written story set in the offices of the Clarendon English Dictionary offices in Oxford, ( No doubt based on her work at the Oxford English Dictionary).In this story, her first novel, a cryptic anonymous coded letter arrives at the offices and seems to have a connection to Dictionary compiler Martha's sister Charlie who disappeared from Oxford 10 years earlier. Martha has just returned to Oxford after working in Berlin. More letters and postcards arrive sent to anyone who knew Charlie and even some who didn't. The team use their knowledge of the history of words to decipher the letters to find out exactly what happened.The book mentions all sorts of unusual and unknown words and their origins and makes for a really good story.

Christina Koning. - Murder at Bletchley Park. Crime Fiction (Published 2023). This is the 8th in a series about a man blinded in the Great War who goes on to help his police friend solve mysteries. He uses the other senses and a remarkable memory to spot what sighted  people don't notice.

PLUS all the other books in this series.

Evelyn Shillington - Eve's war. Non Fiction. (Published 2017) In 1935 Evelyn Shillington started a diary which she continued for the next 12 years. Eve was an army wife and with no children was able to accompany her husband Rex where ever he was posted. He was a career soldier working in army ordnance, and retiring eventually as a Brigadier. The diaries were left to a cousin, passed to the cousin's daughter and then ultimately bought at auction and recognised as worth publishing. They are a really good insight into army life in barracks, at home and abroad through the abdication crisis and right through the war and in Italy just after war ended.

Val McDermid - Out of Bounds. Crime Fiction. (Published 2016) A teenage joyrider crashes a car, killing his three companions. When his DNA test links to a twenty year old crime Karen Pirie and her team in the cold Case Unit think this will be an easy one to solve. But it's not so clear and then another death also links back to another unsolved crime  and soon she is stepping on the toes of another investigation.

PLUS others in the Karen Pirie series.

Everything I've read this year is on the Books Read 2025 page. 

I still have most of December's Mobile Library heap to read, the books I had for Christmas to browse or put on the shelf for reading whenever I run out of library books and the mobile is round again in less than two weeks time where there are already 10 available for pick-up. 

It really is a case of too many books, so little time!

Lovely Books For Christmas

 These are the books that I bought myself (as a gift from BiL- he gave me some money). I can't remember where I saw them mentioned but I liked the look of both .

I came across details of this soft cover, large size book below  when finding out about the Radio Times nostalgia for a blog post earlier this month. I looked on abebooks and amazon where it was a selling for crazy prices - over £20- but on the Radio Times Shop direct it was £9.99 - so that found it's way to me before Christmas. It's absolutely fascinating and a lovely addition to my WWII Home Front book collection.

And then I had even more books from my wish list from the children!

Might be needing a bit of a shelf sort out to make room for everything............. 

After 11 of us all together on Christmas Day, Yesterday- Boxing Day was quieter, just me and BiL. In the evening I 'forced' him to watch  the special festive  quizzes/panel games which started with 'Would I lie to You', then 'Richard Osman's House of Games' and 'Celebrity Mastermind' . By the time it got to 8.30 he said he couldn't cope with anymore quizzes! which made me laugh, so he went home to avoid 'Only Connect' and 'Christmas University Challenge'!

A Sofa Load of Mischief

 I don't share photos of the grandchildren very often. It doesn't seem like a good idea in the scary world we live in nowadays. 

Just once or twice a year when they are all together. This is Christmas Eve when  all three families descended on me to sort out what was happening on Christmas Day and who needed to take what to the holiday cottage where the Surrey family are staying.

Getting five to sit still, look at the camera and smile all at the same time is impossible!

What a lucky Nanna I am.

Thank you to everyone for Happy Christmas wishes yesterday.

Happy Christmas!

Sending Happy Christmas Wishes to everyone who pops in to read my ramblings.

A little bit of weather lore

If Christmas day on a Thursday be,

A windy winter you shall see;

Windy weather in each week,

And hard tempests, strong and thick;

The summer shall be good and dry,

Corn and beasts shall multiply..

A little bit of history

Christmas wasn't celebrated in the early church. It was the year 336 or 354AD (depending where you find the information) when the Nativity was officially celebrated in Rome on December 25th. The true date and the year of Christ's birth are not really known, but probably between 4 and 11 years earlier.

Christ was born 'in the days when Herod was king of Judaea' but  Herod died in 4BC. He was also born at a time when  'there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed'. Historians date this census at some point in the years 7-11BC.

But either way we've been celebrating the birth for a Very long time.

Hope you have a good celebration today wherever you are and whatever you are doing.

I have a feeling that by the end of the day celebrating with my family I'll be needing a quiet Boxing Day!

Christmas Eve

The Oxen

Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock.

'Now they are all on their knees,'

An elder said as we sat in a flock

By the embers in hearthside ease.

We pictured the meek mild creatures where

They dwelt in their strawy pen,

Nor did it occur to one of us there

To doubt they were kneeling then.

So fair a fancy few would weave

In these years! Yet I feel

If someone said on Christmas Eve, 

Come see the oxen kneel

'In the lonely barton by yonder coomb

Our childhood used to know,'

I should go with him in the gloom,

Hoping it might be so.

Thomas Hardy

Every year these appear on the green near the village hall  where we do our Keep Moving Group - and each year there are more.

Why did Father Christmas need so many umbrellas?

It was because of the rein deer!

Michael Bublé reads The Visit from St Nicholas - now often known as The Night Before Christmas

Yesterday the coffee in the advent  calendar was the Cinnamon - I gave it a sniff and decided not to try it - cinnamon is not one of my favourite spices. And I forgot to say there was an empty section one day last week which was why there were two sachets in one section the week before.

Had visitors all at once yesterday morning as I was cooking the ham and about to make cheese straws for EGS. Because he was so poorly as a baby before the first operation and then again later before his second he had several years when he was never hungry - so odd for a growing boy - but could always manage the cheese straws at Nanna's. Now I make some for each time they are in Suffolk. 

Sister in Law was here as I was putting the honey and mustard on the fat edge of  ham before finishing it off in the oven - she said she'd never seen that before - but it's what I've done for ever and I said my cheese straw recipe involves adding grated cheese to the rolled out dough, folding over and repeating before cutting and baking and she'd not heard of that before either. Funny how we all do different.

YD and EGD came over later on their way to staying with Eldest Daughter in the holiday cottage, it was a good thing I had the ham cooked so I had something to give them for lunch - this is why I have to have things in for all eventualities. All my children tend to organise themselves and their families and forget to tell me what they are doing!

Christmas Meat Part 2- Goose and Turkey

 After the Boars Head came all sorts of roast birds - including peacock in royal households but it was goose that became  the main  Christmas meat for 300 years. Tradition says Elizabeth I was dining on goose at Christmas 1588 when she was told that the remaining ships of the  Spanish Armada had been destroyed by storms around the Scottish and Irish coasts. She decreed that the Goose should be the bird served at Christmas. 

 Turkeys are native to Mexico so was the common bird used in early America and then brought back to this country. George II kept a flock of turkeys in Richmond Park to provide birds  for shooting for his guests.

Then in the 1800's improved farming meant turkeys became more available, cheaper for households to afford and once Queen Victoria had turkey for the royal Christmas then it became the staple.

We never raised turkeys on the smallholding but always good sized chickens from  day old or off-heat and if we sold all the biggest then I'd cook two smaller birds instead.

ED asked me to get the turkey for Christmas Day  as their car was going to be full of everything else needed for the 11 of us and for them for 5 days. It's been defrosting slowly in the fridge. My fridge runs quite cold so it's a good thing I got it out of the freezer in plenty of time.

*********************

Yesterday was nice and bright and I had to go and buy some cream for Christmas Day after finding the long life tub that was in the fridge was way out of date  - whoops.  Decided I'd like a bunch of flowers for Christmas too so after shopping I had a quick walk around the lake. It was very busy, with some sort of small-dog-group walk going on. 

Plenty of ducks

 

In the afternoon - I don't know if it had been on TV before - probably - as it dates from 2017- but it was new to me......... 'The Man Who Invented Christmas'. A very enjoyable watch for pre-Christmas.

Just editing in to say how sad to hear about the death of Chris Rea - only aged 74 - seems so apt that he died just as everyone is playing ' Driving Home For Christmas'. I have several of his CD's - Colin was a big fan too.

My post about this is HERE December 2023

                              

Christmas Meat Part 1 - The Boars Head

Now this is something you don't see dished up on the 25th December nowadays!

Although it would have been quite common in Medieval and Tudor England and the tradition carries on in some Oxford Colleges. 

The boars head in hand bring I

With garlands gay and rosemary

(These are the words from an original Boars Head Carol printed in 1521)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZ1N4Flm7Ko

and according to this youtube from a few years ago - in the US too.

                                        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InqbGmtNIUo

This dish was always served with mustard and is actually what we know now as brawn, something that I made a few times when we kept pigs. Although we always had the head cut in half before getting it back from the butcher as there is a surprising amount of meat on a pigs head, and I would put it to set in a bowl rather than putting it back in the cleaned pigs head skin!

Apologies as I'm sure someone has already mentioned this in their Blogmas posts and I copied some of it from one of my own posts from few years ago! Difficult to be original in December in Blogland!

**************************

I watched/ half watched the programmes  I'd planned yesterday and  the final part of  'The War Between Land and Sea' had a very clever ending.  

Wartime Christmas puddings were made and today there isn't much to do, I ought to get out for a bit of a walk as it looks like being a mostly sunny day.

St Thomas's Day and The Winter Solstice

 

A page from the lovely book by Sophie Jackson 'A Medieval Christmas'

St Thomas was also known as Didymous and Doubting Thomas - one of the first apostles. Details of his life after his appearance in the gospels are uncertain . He is thought to have gone as a missionary to India and to have been martyred at Madras. His special day now is usually marked on July 3rd

There are two old sayings for this day.

Look at the weathercock at noon on St Thomas's Day and whichever way the wind blows from it will stay that way for the next lunar quarter

St Thomas grey, St Thomas grey

Longest night and shortest day 

In the past St. Thomas's  Day was a excuse for 'gooding', which involved  begging for food in return for a small bunch of greenery. In some places this was called 'Doleing'. The dole given was usually some flour for making bread with the wheat donated by a wealthy farmer and ground without charge by the miller.

.

St Thomas by Rubens from around 1612

This is an old traditional saying about preparing for Christmas feasting

                                    On St Thomas the divine kill all turkeys, geese and swine.

The Winter Solstice for us today at 3.03pm. The word solstice means the day the sun stands still. 

After the Solstice the daylight hours are much the same for 3 days until at last they gradually begin to stretch towards spring.

************************

Day 19 and 20 of the Advent Coffee Calendar were both the same - Irish Cream Coffee. All the little sachets have had enough for two coffees which is good.

BiL had a spare hour yesterday afternoon and came over to use his big motor-mower on my grass and to cut down the huge buddleia a bit more than I can and to remove the flamingo tree that died over the summer. It made a good load in his trailer which would have taken me forever to fit into the garden waste bin.

The Strictly Come Dancing final yesterday evening was a lovely colourful watch although emotional with the last live appearance of Tess and Claudia. I think they will be glad to get their autumn and winter Saturdays back to themselves after all the years being out. 

I would have liked George to win but it didn't really matter.

The programme about the Great Winter Freeze of 1962/3 was good, I didn't realise about the smog in London being so bad right up to this date. 

Tonight there's a big circle in the RT around the final part of 'The War between Land and the Sea' - it's been a very clever drama.  Before that I'll probably watch the London International Horse Show and might re-watch - for the umpteenth time one of my favourite WWII films 'The Heroes of Telemark'. They don't make 'em like that anymore!

Christmas Trees in The Church

On Thursday I met my friend from Grammar School days in the Osier Cafe in St Marys church in Stowmarket for a coffee and a look around this years Christmas Tree festival, which was lovely and colourful as always. 

The theme was Christmas Carols and songs and some clever ideas from groups in Stowmarket and round about.

Several bloggers have already featured  church tree festivals on their blogs - but  I need to fill a blog post so here are a few more  and apologies too as the photos are not very good.

I'm not sure when they started doing this festival but I've certainly been to look almost every year since we moved back to Mid Suffolk.

******************************

Yesterday was sunny and bright all day which was lovely after a gloomy Thursday. I got the chocolate meringue gateau made and into the freezer ready to take on Christmas day along with chocolate brownies that are already in there. Decided that I'll make an apple crumble to take as a complete change from chocolate things for deserts. Next week I need to make cheese straws for EGS - and everyone else- but they are his favourite, the quick wartime Christmas pud for when BiL is here Boxing day and some speedy sausage rolls with ready rolled puff pastry and de-skinned chipolata sausages.

I've started perusing the RT for Christmas viewing. Tonight it's the final of Strictly of course and then there's a programme on 5 about the winter of 1962/3. I was 7 that winter and can remember some bits quite well - walking to school, which wasn't cancelled despite the 10 weeks of snow and freezing weather. The frozen school milk where the ice pushed the lid off; the big boys at school made long ice slides and going home from the Chapel Christmas party in one of the leaders cars we got stuck in a snow drift and had to bounce up and down in the back seat to get the car wheels to grip.

There was an interesting programme on Radio 4 yesterday about the weather too. In the Rare Earth science series - title Love of a Cold Climate. Here's a link for UK - don't think it works elsewhere - sorry.

Lovely to see that on TV next week there isn't just quizzy Monday on BBC 2 but quizzy Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday too and the same for the week after - lovely!

Vegetarian Christmas

 Aldi always have a few special vegetarian things in their freezers for Christmas. It's handy to have something a bit different for the main part of a meal that can be just popped in the oven. Individual  'bakes' - useful for people on their own. I wouldn't want to eat them everyday - too many strange ingredients, but useful now and again .

This is one of the packs  I bought. Sweet Potato and Butternut Squash Rostis.

I served up with a few Aldi ziggy chips and veg. The rosti was quite tasty with good flavour and plenty big enough. It looks burnt but that was just the 'basil melting centre'.

Then the opposite - a home-made nut roast. I had to search the blog for the recipe used earlier in the year,  as  I'd forgotten to add it to the recipe page and found it from back in February. HERE is the blog post. I had more nuts this time so upped everything else too and made a deeper loaf. Last year I cut into slices and froze in twos, which was a bit too much, this year as the loaf is deeper I've sliced, wrapped and frozen individually. The slices need to be defrosted before re-heating in the microwave. It made 7 good sized slices.

*****************************

The weather really was grim yesterday, it was still dark when I got up at quarter to eight, it was gloomy in the church in Stowmarket (tree festival photos another day) even though they had all the lights on. It started pouring at home just after midday and it was dark again long before 4pm.

I found a comment from few days ago that I'd not seen, it was from a reader from way up north in  the Faroe Islands! Wow! Included was a link to a collection of Christmas youtubes . I'll be having a look at some later - there are dozens!

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwykVSaCN9CRMr1C37wwT5gOcV0N6hCwa&si=AcAOVoJ4b1_zpuA2

Christmas Cards

I love receiving Christmas cards, I like finding Christmas cards from charity shops in the January Sales - just awfully bad at writing and sending them. I tried Sue's idea of 'getting to write cards' rather than 'Got to write cards' but it still took me days to get the job done and there are many less than the 40 I once wrote and sent.

I had several years when I made some - never all- of my cards. 2015 and 2017 using 3D decoupage sheets.

In 2019 I used photographs taken of  light-up picture decoration - a car-boot purchase- and put them into card blanks- in the days when all sorts of card blanks were available from Craft Creations - I do miss that company.

Since then all cards have been bought and I no longer have any Christmas card crafting bits and very few card blanks and now only have a dozen bought cards left for next year, so will need to find some in the sales.

I admire anyone who makes all the cards they send.

Very few cards have arrived via the postman/lady so far this Christmas. Instead a letter from HMRC  altering my tax code again - and not in a good way - from now until the new tax year. Oh bother!

After a very expensive December with too many bills, I'd better have a very frugal January and February. 

As I was deleting all the rubbish emails that had gathered in a day , I found this on the Next Door website posted by a Meryl in a village a few miles away. People post the most silly of things on this website which was supposed to be for recommendations for builders etc

I've received a Christmas card from a relative but she forgot to put the correct postage on so I'm being charged £1.50! Am I allowed to refuse the card? Cheers

There were 25 miserable comments all saying yes refuse it! I don't think I'd refuse - it might have a letter or a gift card inside! 

 

Ration Book Christmas Recipes from ............

...............youtube. These are 'veganised' and from several years ago.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRkD7wyxSJo

I won't be trying any of those ideas but will be making the wartime Christmas pudding that was a success last year.

One of the recipes from one of my Home Front Wartime books.............. 

WAR TIME CHRISTMAS PUDDING

This shouldn't be made until just a few days before needed - unlike traditional Xmas Puds and is how it is written in the Wartime Christmas book by Maria and Andrew Hubert.. When I made it in December 2024 I only had 2½ oz suet so adjusted everything down and it made 1 small pudding and another even smaller.

4oz Breadcrumbs                                                  2oz Prunes

4oz Flour                                                               ½ teaspoon salt

3oz Suet                                                                ½  teaspoon Bicarb

2oz Sugar                                                               1 Grated Carrot

1 Tablespoon of Treacle                                        1 Grated Apple

4oz Raisons                                                            Little Grated Nutmeg                                                4oz Sultanas                                                          1 Egg ( a reconstituted powdered egg in wartime)

Optional is a Tbsp of Brandy or Whisky.

No timings are given but I covered with greaseproof paper and foil and tied down with string and steamed over gently boiling water for a couple of hours for each pud. Reheated portions in the microwave for 30 seconds and another 30 seconds if needed.

Before covering and steaming

*******************************

I finished reading Silent Bones by Val McDermid - the latest in her Karen Pirie series. It was a really good read - several old cases for the Historic Cases Unit to unravel. I've reserved a couple of the earlier titles as I got in at the end of the series rather than the beginning.

Day 15 of the coffee advent was Holiday Blend again, the only one that hasn't appeared yet is Cinnamon - not sure I fancy that anyway.

We had our last Keep Moving exercise group meeting before Christmas, most people said they would be too busy next week. I've not got much left to do except write a 'for all eventualities ' shopping list and go shopping.

Went to see YGS in his school Christmas Nativity thing. He was the Donkey and remembered his lines. Only reception and year one do a play. The older classes have a carol service. One of the ladies at Keep Moving has children much the same age as my two eldest - same primary school in the 80's too- and we were trying to remember what they did at Christmas back then. My mind is a blank but surely we went to watch something? We moved away to the coast  before Youngest Daughter started primary school in 1992 and at her school they had the most brilliant teacher who wrote a play for every Christmas - not religious - as there were several children at the school who were Plymouth Brethren and JW - but usually about caring for the environment or something similar, the whole school took part and it was held in the village hall with room for everyone. I remember them well. I was much less stressed with YD than I had been with the two eldest who were only 17 months apart - the 80's is a blur!

The One-Off Christmas Car-Boot Sale

 It was very busy at the one-off Christmas car-boot sale on Saturday. Very chilly but that hadn't put people off. The rows of people selling was almost as big as the summer and the car park filling up - you can see cars filling the field below

I'd been looking forward to it and there are usually lots of Christmas bits for sale that the house clearance people have saved up.

But this year it seemed to be the same old junk, rubbish and tat that had been for sale all summer. There wasn't even anyone with charity Christmas cards.

 

The only thing I bought was this............

A brand new hot water bottle in a soft warm cover for just £2. This will be a Christmas present for next year as the three I've got already should see me out!

Then  home for breakfast.

 On Sunday I found I hadn't tried all the different flavour coffees in the coffee advent after all because the 14th was Amaretto and yesterday - the 15th- was called Holiday Blend  - there was no discernible flavour so that's a mystery!

Yesterday was a very grey day, half dark all day. The window cleaner came round again and I renewed my car insurance - that was the 5th big bill after the boiler repair, the car repair to the suspension, the dentist and the hygienist. The 6th -  the annual boiler service - has been put off until January as they are really busy.

I finished all the Christmas wrapping after BiL's present arrived - The amazon delivery people never ring the doorbell or knock on the door nowadays, they just leave things on the doorstep. Luckily I remembered to look! It's no wonder things go missing. When I put all the wrapping stuff away I had a sort out of the Christmas drawer and found some things - badges, labels etc. that had been in the drawer for ages, so they've gone into the charity shop bag. I also came across a Christmas Past Memorabilia Pack that I'd forgotten about  - I've no idea where and when I got it but the things in it hadn't even been unfolded. There was a facsimile of Christmas Day TV guide from 1973. We reminisce about TV back in the day but I'm glad I no longer have to watch two circuses - always hated them - specially the clowns and there were also the programmes with some famous person visiting a hospital and handing out gifts and (shudder) Danny La Rue in a pantomime!

The other things in the pack are copies of  older ephemera.

Now I've unpacked, unfolded and looked through all the bits, they might go off to the charity shop too.

A Child's Christmas in Wales

 I have a very small Christmas book on the shelf . I found it several years ago when I collected many  children's Christmas books for EGS and EGD when they were 3. I wrapped them up and they had enough for opening one each day through advent.

This one isn't really a book for children aged 3, which is why I kept it. It has illustrations by  Edward Ardizzone who was a writer and illustrator for so many children's books back in the 50's and 60's

Dylan Thomas published this in 1952 and it was recorded for radio. It started as a shorter piece for radio  'Memories of Christmas' in 1945. It looks back to the Christmas of his youth in Wales. He died in 1953 aged just 39.  

This was an adaptation for TV.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDEqeydrEgo

***********************************************************

I had a very quiet Sunday, it was quite chilly in the morning when I went for a speedy short walk up and down the lane to the trees in the header photo. Then I dived into the Val McDermid - Karen Pirie  library book and stayed in the warm. I'm wishing I'd started reading these before they were on TV and in the right order - but I've jumped in at the end. There are no plans yet for season 3 on TV yet so two more books have been reserved. 

Carols

The word carol comes from the Latin caraula  and the original carols weren't just for Christmas. Originally they were any celebratory song - with dancing. Choirs sang church music and everyone else sang carols.. There were carols for Easter, for Wassailing, for drinking, for midsummer and mayday - any folk song and very few were originally composed specifically for Christmas.

The Reformation and Puritanism put an  end to much of the singing and dancing but many carols managed to survive through oral tradition.

It was only much later into the 1800's that folk songs sang at Christmas were gathered together and moved into churches and chapels. Often music was specially written to go with the words.

There are many books about the origins of Christmas Carols with interesting stories - which often go back through the centuries. The old carols we've all sung for years are well known but here are two of my favourite joyous more recent Christmas Carols - aimed at children and both well known in Methodist Chapels. 

(Both youtubes below are from Frodsham Methodist Chapel in Cheshire)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp2QlKTYTZ8. Come and Join the Celebration by Valerie Collison in 1972.

The Calypso Carol - See Him Lying in a Bed of Straw written by Michael Perry in 1964

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_kwvn8G1wE

Yesterday's coffee for day 13 of advent  was chocolate/almond again. I guess I've now had all the different varieties.

The Strictly Semi Final last night wasn't as good as some other weeks I thought. Apparently there was all sorts of nastiness last week after Lewis Cope was voted off - it's taken so seriously by some people. I'm not bothered who wins - we'll have forgotten who won it in a few months anyway - or that might just be me!

Reading For Christmas - and into New Year

 This month I collected these, all books I'd reserved online. A good selection to see me through Christmas and into Just-Stay-In -January.

As usual mostly crime fiction but with a couple of non-fiction on the right - Unschooled by Caro Giles and Cacophony of Bones by Kerri ni Dochartaigh - which apparently I've borrowed before but didn't read. Plus one by Rachel Hore that I've not read.

There are  two more of Anne Perry's Christmas Novellas on the top - which, according to my book of books read, I've not read - but might find I have when I start. There's another British Library Crime Classic on top by Christianna Brand who is one of their good authors.

Among the crime is the most recent Val McDermid in her Karen Pirie series; two authors that are new to me and one of the Medieval Murders books - in which several authors take in turns to add to a story taking it through the years.

Last month it was this lot below and I read seven and gave up on five. My favourites were 'Midnight in Vienna' by Jane Thynne and Murder in Paris by Christina Koning

A bit about those I read is on the Books Read 2025 page - it will soon be time to start a 2026 page.

**********************

Yesterday, Day 12, there were two sachets of coffee squeezed into one space -the packing machine must have gone awry. They were hazelnut and Columbian . I wonder if I'm going to find an empty section sometime?

 Also yesterday was the only day of last week when I had nothing happening all day which was needed as I'd run out of focaccia bread. A chunk goes well with any tomato-y pasta sauce and with the leek and bacon pilaf I had for my dinner.

A gift came all the way to me from the Inner Hebrides - Thank you W - it's in the fridge as instructed. Hope my gift got there - they have had some very bad storms.

 My friends who visited the other day left me two little parcels so I will have something to open Christmas morning. Other pressies will be later in the day when we all get together and after much nagging BiL finally came up with an idea for something he needs - so that's sorted and everything else is now wrapped for everyone.

Radio Times Nostalgia

 It arrived safely on Wednesday - The double issue of Radio Times. All the TV and Radio listings for two weeks over Christmas and new year..........From my 10 issues for £10 subscription. 

 Another Wallace and Gromit cover -similar to last year .....

If only the covers were like The Good Old Days..................

Issue 13 from 1923 priced 6d = 2½p

 

They had lovely Christmas covers back in the early days, the one above is from 1936.  From 1965 below. Early Original covers are very collectable now.

 The history of the RT...........

Radio Times is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in September 1923 by John Reith, then general manager of the British Broadcasting Company, it was the world's first broadcast listings magazine.^[2] In September 2023 it became the first broadcast listings magazine to reach and then pass its centenary.

HERE' (or https://ukchristmastv.weebly.com/christmas-radio-times-covers-1936-1968.html)  is a website with many, many more covers pre 1969. Except for the war years they had full colour cover, even though there were only radio programmes listed and a long time before colour TV.

Then Here are covers from 1969 0nwards (or https://ukchristmastv.weebly.com/christmas-radio-times-covers-from-1969.html)

A Christmas tradition in many households even if never bought during the rest of the year.

**********************

Day 11 of the coffee advent calendar was Italian and more than enough for 1 cup again.