Better than the real thing

My dear old Dad loved Christmas and did his very best to provide a magical morning of surprises under the tree. During the years when he was left alone with four girls under the age of 9,  his inner child often went shopping for the kind of presents that any small boy would adore. 

We girls got cowboy suits, holsters and dart guns. (This once led to me hitting my younger sister between the eyes with a dart and there ended the gunslinging.) There was always lego, which in those days was for making white buildings with little red doors and once there was a corduroy bean bag, very cool for an aspiring teenager's bedroom. 

When I turned about 12 he decided he was now in jewellery territory. I was never a jewellery kind of gal but I did love that Roman coin charm bracelet. It made me feel grown up and is probably the reason I still love a good bracelet.

At some point in later years he surrendered to the feminine mystique and was able to show great love and affection for each of us. Like a lot of Dads he continued to get it wrong on a regular basis, but as time went on we became softer and very forgiving!! 

It was always the fantasies of Christmas we enjoyed more than the real thing. Stories of Santa coming down our chimney; of North Pole elves making toys and snowy sleighs delivering them; of reindeer eating carrots on our roof in the middle of the night. We conjured the whole show. Made our own magic. Created a snowy wintery scene in our imagination. 

So happy conjuring my dear, dear friends. I hope you have a wonderful hibernation, celebration or whatever it is makes magic in your life at this time of year.




And there are a few more previous Christmasy posts here

A bleak mid-winter post

A frosty Christmas morning post

A Comeragh Mountain Christmas view

The welcoming light of Stockholm

It was stormy and grey on the streets of Stockholm where I was visiting family last week, so for a change I was photographing the glow of a Scandinavian Christmas, but indoors. 

Tastefully designed, as you would expect, Christmas here knocks the stuffing out of the predictable old tat that it often brings out in the rest of us! For Swedes there is a kind of reverence for the winter festival of light. You can understand why the further north you travel; long nights, harsh weather, deep hibernation.

Every window here is lit by a traditional candelabra. Along Hornsgaten where we soaked up the warmth of this vintage shop (Hornsgaten 64) there are wax candles and small paraffin lamps everywhere. The light of welcome, that this year has even deeper meaning.

While I was enjoying the warmth of my Swedish family and being mesmerised by my new Grandnephew, Syrian refugees continued their long march from the south to Stockholm. 

Under the Christmas market in Sergels Torget there are layers of lives being lived out and stories being told with every new arrival. In the Central station Red Cross workers are in tents waiting for the next train. They now think that approximately 200,000 refugees will have arrived here by the end of 2015. The system moves people on efficiently but there is talk of closing the Bridge to Denmark which allows Sweden to be so accessible. The Swedes are feeling overwhelmed. 

And you'd have to wonder how this dark cold December is affecting those Syrian children who have probably never seen snow or such dark days without a hint of sun? I hope their first Christmas in Sweden will be as beautiful and welcoming as I found it to be.......






Check out this link for more blogposts about Sweden 

Easing softly into the frosty morning

On days like this I open the curtains slowly so as not to startle the neighbours. Sure enough, when I do,  there are five rabbits frolicking in the early morning frost just a few steps away.  A good start to Christmas morning, when I often remember the giddy excitement of my childhood. Today the magic is in this moment, in the simple everyday goings on of two families. One outside the window sniffing out green shoots, one tucked up in their beds; growing, changing, transitioning.

It's the best part of the day, this early coffee and toast, a private photo opportunity over breakfast. And even though they are men now, it is always the same when they sleep in this house, I have the illusion that they are protected and safe from harm. And especially at Christmas that dreams will come true.

This year in the space before the expectations set in, we made a joint decision that dreams are not necessarily made of gifts wrapped in packages or by playing happy families. We let each other off the hook. The perfect Christmas, the perfect day would be best if kept to a day like any other. One with love, peace and understanding, full of pleasure and freedom, a day of winter warmth inside while it freezes and storms outside.

And so here I am, easing softly into this frosty Christmas morning. Happy in these moments of calm and eager to experience a post Christmas, adults only alternative.  

In the bleak mid-winter

I've been laid up with a resistant bacterial infection which has made me housebound beyond even what I can bear. So photographing the view from the window is limited by the lens capacity and the increasing greyness of winter.....

I've amused myself by seeing how far I can reach from indoors. The sheep huddling under the hawthorn tree four fields away, swans flying by in the distant sunny sky, seagulls dipping in the fresh lake water for their spa day out. But it's losing it's charm and windy, drizzly weather has started to set in as it typically does around Christmas time.

In December even the most beautiful view can seem empty and forlorn. This carol with words by Christina Rossetti (1872) is my current favourite for feeling deep, mid-winterish and quiet.

Sometimes darker is better.......sometimes nostalgia is a cure......

 In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,

     Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;

 Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,

            In the bleak midwinter, long ago.

Just a little bit of magic and a whole lot of hope........

Christmas is here!

I hope you find some solace in retreating a little from reality. Adventure stories and films, riding a one horse open sleigh across the snow, seeking out the magic in frosty dew drops.

I will escape into it as much as I can! (Already it is bringing out my Mother Hen side even more than usual!)

I wish you all a joyful Christmas, just a little bit of magic and a whole lot of hope for 2013. Thank you for all your support throughout the year and a special thanks to those patient customers who dived in and bought work from me this year! I hope you continue to enjoy Foxglove Lane, and celebrate the ordinary and the everyday with me again in 2013......


Catherine

Winter Solstice the longest night of the year

As the sun sets this evening, the sky both darkens and colours. Gradually an average grey day turns into a mysterious and magical evening. While our ancestors calculated fairly accurately that this, December 21st, would be the longest night, I imagine they that were overwhelmed by questions as to why, just as I am tonight.

After a dark winter event in my life I am wandering around in the end of nowhere, doing very little except observing this transformation. The sun is setting in the farthest corner of the southwest. From tomorrow everything will change again as the earth turns back towards the sun and the light will return little by little each day.

Everything is dripping wet for the first day of Advent

Last night as I was sleeping 
I dreamt -marvellous error-
that there was a fiery sun here in my heart
It was fiery because it gave warmth as if from a hearth, 
and it was sun because it gave light, 
and brought tears 
to my eyes.
      
-Antonio Machado

While the garden sleeps a soft winter is bringing buckets of rain. After one exciting frosty morning, now mild Atlantic weather systems have taken over and instead of winter wonderland we should 
have a wet and windy Christmas.

We need to keep a warm flame in our hearts at this time of the year, a memory of heat and light, 
to see us through until the spring. Time to get the 4 candles of Advent lighting and to retreat indoors.