I tidied away the presents and thought I first take a photo of the sum of mine for the P365 album - alas, looking at it now I realise I forgot to put in a gift card for WHSmith which I got from my boss (!!!) and which was actually the biggest surprise... And instead I put in a bundle of seed packs which were one of Sean's presents and not mine - oh well... The 2nd photo, not for P365 but just to share with you, was taken on Boxing Day and it was the funniest present we had this year (Sean's, obviously). Apart from that and the seeds all he got was boxes of biscuits and sweets and more biscuits - what does that tell you???
And on Monday we started transposing some hymns from the hymn book, and also Auld Lang Syne, into bell ringing format as we hope to keep the handbell ringers group motivated to go on practising throughout the year and get better at it, rather than just botching together some carols for Christmas... Let's see if we are successul!
The days between Boxing Day and New Year are usually very quiet over here and a lot of people stay home with family if they can. Sean was home, too, and I started a dreadful cold so didn't feel like doing anything. We spent most of Sunday watching TV on iBBC, most of it the Christmas programmes which are often kid's stuff (in the photo is "Heidi", quite famous but ironically I'd never seen it before!).
On Boxing Day we had the usual family-get-together at FIL's house. A few people were ill so there were "only" 25 of us, plus 5 dogs. Every year after the unwrapping of the presents we all have a "paper fight" - you can see the paper balls laying about in the photo and Zoe has just thrown one.
Christmas Day - my sister-in-law Fiona invited us to have a roast turkey lunch with her family. Bob (my father-in-law) and Jean were also invited so there were eight of us which was quite jolly, especially afterwards when we played a game of Balderdash (Sean and I made a team and we won by half a board which I thought was hilarious! (In the photo: Fiona and her husband Graham.)
Christmas Eve Special... We rang the bell for Midnight Mass but when we got there at 11pm we couldn't open the door to the tower staircase (to go up and let down the ropes) because something had fallen down inside and blocked the door. There is no other way in than the one door - or the bell hatch in the ceiling which is about two storeys up. (The hatch is the round thing you can make out at the upper edge of the photo.) Consequently, it was Sean who had to climb up the extended roof ladder freestanding against the edge of that hatch, to crawl in and then come down the tower staircase inside to remove the obstacle. I could have kicked my own bumm that I'd forgotten the camera that night (I almost always take it these days), so all I could do was take a photo of the hatch the next day, to document the event. Argh. The second photo shows the door below the stained glass window, just to give an impression of how high up that ceiling is...
Me and my friend Debs of the church choir, after carol singing.
This is the "big Christmas card" in church. Every year one of the crafty people in our church makes a big card - this one is actually three cork pinboard hinged together - and that gets put up with lots of gift tags with self-adhesive backs, and some pens. Then, instead of lots of people in church spending loads of money on cards for each other, we write these tags with greetings for everybody and stick them to the "big card", and give a donation instead which always goes to Crisis at Christmas, a big nationawide charity to help the homeless through the winter season.
Today I spent a good time wrapping Christmas presents - we don't give as many as we used to, only the close family now, but it still takes time. I put them under the Christmas branches awaiting our family get-togethers...
Our group of handbell ringers were part of a carol afternoon in one of the old people's homes here in Chertsey. It was a good and not so scary practice for playing in the service at church on Christmas Day!
The funniest shop window display in Chertsey: the carpet shop, obviously. These guys really made me smile!
My friend Eve's "annual bounty" in the boot of my car. You probably remember that she's a primary school teacher and yesterday was the last day of term when all the kids bring cards and presents for their teacher. The presents seem to get bigger each year - I told her next year I'll have to bring the van because they only just fit into the small car!
This year's party of the Scottish Dancing group for the old ladies was at Elise's house, very prettily decorated and with her gorgeous little pussycat entertaining us all. Monica and I were the only younger people there but it was still great fun catching up with them all, as many don't come to the dancing often these days. We had this little bring and share buffet - most informal parties here in the UK are bring and share nowadays which is so much better than one person having to sweat through it all...
I couldn't believe it: the first snow of this winter. We had so many snowless winters here - since I came in 1996 I think it snowed only three times: quite a lot this year in February and in January 2003 (both times a few days, enough to make snowmen etc) and once I think in 2001 a dusting one night. Never so early...so, here's DREAMING OF A WHITE CHRISTMAS...
My photo for the day is back to Christmas cards - not writing but preparing for selling: this is the last batch that has come in from my charity crafters.
We had the first carol service tonight in our church, run in conjunction with Chertsey Museum. They do that every year, and the services are usually nice, with some old articles from the local paper or other reminiscences being read in between the Bible readings and carols, and then everybody walks over for mulled wine and mince pies at the Museum which is just a few houses away from the church. I didn't go this year - I'm just fed up with having to explain all the time why I won't have any wine or sweets at the moment... Well, so this is the big lighted star that's hanging up in the chancel arch every year for Christmas; and actually, every year there is a debate whether it's a star or a cross!. I suppose it's both, and isn't that a wonderful analogy for the life of Jesus: from the star under which he was born to the cross where he set us free!
Another uninspired photo, or rather not thought through. This is the basket of Christmas cards which I finished off today, but the photo was an afterthought just as I was about to take them out, put on stamps and drop them in the mailbox on the way to church for carol practise. I wished I'd put at least the stamps on first, and arranged them a bit more interestingly, as it looks really so boring - but by then I was in a hurry...
Today's photo is a bit uninspired because for a change nothing was happening, and I wasn't in the mood to MAKE anything happen either... So this is just bags of leaves - the council has them cleared away from the roads and pavements before they all get mucky, slippery and fill up the drains... The RBC on the sacks stands for Runnymede Borough Council. If anybody is interested in more of our local history, here is a link to what the National Trust has to say about Runnymede (our county is named after that famous piece of land in it where the Magna Carta was signed).
And here is Sean ringing the Curfew which involves ringing up the 4th bell in the ring, ringing 50 times, ringing it down and then chiming the number of strokes for the day of the month (there's a page of our church website if you are interested in the tradition of curfew ringing). Sean is not normally on the curfew ringing team but somebody dropped out of the rota short notice and nobody else seemed to be able to fill in... As you can see, he's having fun with it - this is a very well behaved bell, and for him not even heavy!
Yesterday we had the Chapter Quiet Day and as part of my job I attended it. Our quiet days all tend to take place at this great house called The Abbey. It's a wonderful place but it's not a monastery - just the name of this house which belongs to a member of our church, incidentally. The name refers to the great Chertsey Abbey which used to stand in its place until after the dissolution under HenryVIII it was slowly dismantled.
The Christmas Party after the Songs of Praise service, our monthly service for the elderly. People get brought in from various residential homes as well as privately for this service and there's always coffee/tea and cakes afterwards, but in December there's also decorations, a cute Christmas cake, crakers, cards and presents, and all the usual ado...
I had an afternoon out with my friend Monica and we went to a huge farm shop, about 1/2 hour away from where she lives. We do that about twice a year because they have such wonderful cheeses, chutneys, breads and other yummie stuff (of course I can't eat any of it but bought a few things for Sean and for Christmas presents). And always before Christmas they add this big marquee onto the farm shop to cash in on the Christmas trade - we didn't buy anything from there but had our picture taken with the reindeer...
This is an iBBC screen shot of my computer playing "Shaun the Sheep" - one of my favourite animation shows. They are just little 7 minute spots and obviously part of the pre-Christmas kids' programmes. I never knew Shaun the Sheep before I came to England - but of course being married to Sean - the connection is obvious: so I learnt to know and love this little sheep!
The lighting ceremony at Chertsey - a crowd meeting outside our church where the Scouts had a marquee up to sell mulled wine and mince pies (never missing from any Advent activity here in England!) and Santa on his Rudolph sleigh was directing the action and entertaining the kids afterwards. The occasion was the first lighting of the big angels on the church as well as light chains in the trees outside, sponsored by the local Rotary Club.
This was at the annual dinner of the handbell section of the churchbell ringers' guild (i.e. all these people do the handbells as an "also run" activity while mainly ringing church bells - as opposed to the real handbell ringers who are much better at it). This funny picture was a side activity called "representing church bells and walking change ringing". I was the missing number 1 and the numbers we had around our necks were the numbers of the bells we represented. It was a total laugh - you wouldn't believe how hard it was to do although we only walked Plain Hunt which is the easiest of the methods...
Tonight was the Scout groups' Christingle service - we went there for bellringing again and stayed for the service which was quite good fun. I took lots of photos but I especially like this one, taken before the service, of all the Christingles sitting there waiting...
Back in the pub where they are doing the fundraising this week - this is one of the waitresses in her cute Santa outfit.
Wednesday night's is bellringing practice - I have a few bellringing-related pictures in my 365-album but none actually one of practice, and this week's was quite special because there was a rather "adventurous little accident": we have a beginner ringing with us currently and normally our Tower Captain takes care of her, but he wasn't there on Wednesday and his sub didn't make a good job of it, so she lost the plot at one point and let go of the rope which then proceeded to whip through the tower wildly, like a live wire, until the bell had rung itself down. A bit dangerous, actually - it could easily take an eye out if it hits you... the situation should never have happened, but well. It was something to watch! Shame I couldn't get to my camera then - so this ordinary photo will have to do to mark the "occasion".
Today was the first Tuesday of the month again, and therefore the Bookcrossers' Meeting (remember the girls hiding behind their books last month???). Well, tonight there happened to be a fundraising event in the pub (actually all week long) with all the waitresses in Santa costumes selling Santa hats for the Great Ormond Street childrens' hospital. Needless to say we bought a Santa's hat each, and this is Monica and me wearing ours...
November 30 is St Andrew's Day, the saint of the Scots, which is always celebrated by the Scottish societies here with a social evening. These are some heather table decorations made by my dancing friend Monica.
Today was the first advent Sunday - where has time gone??? I went to sing advent evensong at the neighbouring village's church because I like their traditional "carols and lessons" style of it. When I drove up to the church the sun was going down and the colours were quite stunning. It's a lovely little old village church.
I went to see the performance of our local amateur play group - my brother-in-law and one of their daughters were in this play, called The Crucible. A very tragic story, based on true happenings around the Witch Trials in Salem - here is some info about the real happening and halfway down the page a link to the story. The photo is of the board by the theatre entrance (in the foyer) with the placard as well as scene photos and you can see my Graham in the middle photo - as the pastor, and the girl on the sickbed is our niece Eleanor.
This is a photo of the digital page swap at Club Scrap - the inspiration was page my friend Cathy made with my QP and posted in the November thread. So this is my blank QP bottom right, as well as two of Cathy's blanks, and Cathy's LO, all on my computer screen, to represent our monthly swaps which I'm greatly enjoying.
Nothing exciting happened so Sean helped me out for a photo by deciding that one of today's popcorns looked like a dog and set it barking at one of the evil corns that didn't want to pop... Don't I just love him??? (And yes, we deserve each other - we aren't really fit for the world...!)
And then there was the delivery from the organic veg company - I'd chosen several different squashes to try out what they are like and if any of these might be worth trying to grow in our garden. When they came and sat there together I thought they looked pretty and worth a photo!
Here I had to resort to a news article again: when I went to the chiropractor on Tuesday there was police all over the carpark, and the receptionist was quite upset - apparently, there had been an armed robbery in the jeweller's next doors and they had all been questioned at length by the police. I could see the forensic team and the smashed shop windows, but didn't have the guts to go and take a photo of it. Still, I decided I want it in my 365 album, so the article must do...
This was a bit of a shock: this is a mushroom in our BATHROOM! I couldn't believe my eyes! Okay, I admit it's a bit damp in there and nothing we can do about; but not really very much so, not compared to some other bathrooms I know. We sometimes get a bit of mildew in corners which I can get rid of with vinegar - but we never had a mushroom before!!! This one sits at the back of the toilet stem and I suppose I should really remove it... Not to sure how to tackle it... It's the Year of the Mushrooms, it seems - first they were all over the garden like never before, and now this!
Today we had a bit of a shock - there has been rather heavy rain here in the UK - more in the North of the country where there was terrible flooding, and also quite a lot in the West. But when I looked at the BBC headlines on the Internet today there was another flood-related headline which said "Canoeist Died in Swollen River" - and when I checked it out I found that a) it was somebody we knew, not closely but close enough for him to be a Facebook friend of Sean's and b) it was on a stretch of river that Sean paddles regularly in winter and I have paddled, too, although in easier conditions. Chris, the dead canoeist, was an experienced paddler, too, and of Sean's age. It is scary to think that it could have been Sean...and sad in any case. Such news is always so much harder if it is somebody you know...
Sean enjoying his popcorn. He has totally taken to making himself a bowl of popcorn every day as a snack at some point - just plain, so I suppose it's the healthiest snack he ever had! One day I complained that he always did it when I wasn't around and didn't share, so yesterday he came upstairs with his bowl in hand and let me have some! So sweet!!!
This is the crossing by the station here in Chertsey, about 3 minutes walk from where I live, on the way into town. I usually walk into town (it's only 10 minutes) so it wasn't a problem for me, but this lot of drainage tanks had the place well bunged up and cars reversing away from it on all sides! They were clearing out the gutters and drains which are always getting blocked with fallen leaves at this time of the year.
Chestnuts from a big tree in FIL's garden. Sean and I both love chestnuts, and they are so much nicer fresh from the tree. These are probably the last for this year, so I thought I'd better take a photo because I'll need one for one of this month's BOM challenge LOs, too - watch the space on my digi blog!
When we got to bellringing practise, Malcolm our Tower Captain announced a "solemn occasion" - and presented me with my certificate of membership to the the Diocesan Guild of Church Ringers (Guildford). I've been ringing with them for two years, but since it is a Guild it must all go through the proper channels. The certificate is dated in March but was given to Malcolm at the recent AGM.
Totally uninspired photo: these are the seed beans I left to grow for next year's planting - harvested this weekend and finally shelled and set out to dry... These beans (a French bean variety) are called Cherokee Trail of Tears and the story is that the Cherokees liked them so much that they took seeds of these beans with them on the trail.
This photo (although in my album for today) was taken at the same time as the tree - remember the photo of the wreaths laid at the War Memorial? Well, this is Malclom (our Tower Captain) and Sean after ringing at church, trying to rearrange and retie the wreaths that had been dislodged (and some of them tattered) by the wind. It was a real sisyphus job: while they worked on one end the wind whipped up the other side again. In the end I had to go and help, too, holding the front row in place while Malcolm and Sean tied up both sides simultaneously...
The high winds continued. The photo doesn't really express how bad it was blowing. It blew all kinds of bits in our garden and driveway over, amongst them the window that Sean meant to use for the cold frame (which still hasn't progressed). Of course all the glass went to smithereens - that's what you get for procrastinating! We spent at least 1/2 hour picking up shards and trying to brush together the tiny bits so that Chiefie won't tread them into her paws...
There was a wedding in our church today (who wants to get married in November in England???) and we were ringing for it. I managed to sneak this picture just after we stopped. The bridesmaids had these lovely stunning red dresses! But how some of the women could bear to sit there with bare arms I don't know - I was wearing three layers, and with the exercise of ringing!
This is a tree down the road from our house which is still looking very pretty. However, I think it will soon be gone because today the weather turned horribly rainy and windy, and is forecast to get worse!
You may not recognise what is shown in this photo - this is one of the big church bells up in the tower, and the clapper is half-muffled. We ring on Remembrance Day and on Armistice Day (one was on Sunday, the other on Wednesday when the wreaths were laid) but with half-muffled bells, so you hear one sound clear as normal but the other dull. So this was the "day after", when the guys went up to "un-muffle" the bells - I asked Sean to take this photo for me as it's the only way to document this special ringing...
I tidied away the presents and thought I first take a photo of the sum of mine for the P365 album - alas, looking at it now I realise I forgot to put in a gift card for WHSmith which I got from my boss (!!!) and which was actually the biggest surprise... And instead I put in a bundle of seed packs which were one of Sean's presents and not mine - oh well... The 2nd photo, not for P365 but just to share with you, was taken on Boxing Day and it was the funniest present we had this year (Sean's, obviously). Apart from that and the seeds all he got was boxes of biscuits and sweets and more biscuits - what does that tell you???
