Rage Against Beige

 Last week's poem comes from the prompt word 'Bold'

As with every week. I am flummoxed at first and feel like this is the Week I will not manage to keep the momentum going on my creative writing endeavours but each time, a little perseverance and I end up with something.

It's actually dedicated to a lot of my lovely blog friends who feel as I do about the subject of this poem. So this is for you, particularly Vix, Sheila, Ann, Ang, Ivana, Ally, Anna...

Natural Disaster

 This week's prompt word for The Toy Press poem was 'Clumsy'.  It takes a few days for me to write my poem. I get an idea and start it and then I have to subconsciously think about it for a few days before I am ready to write or finish it. I am in awe of those who write and post it within a day of the prompt!

Hope you like this one!

Natural Disaster!

She’ll tread on your shoe,

She’ll trip on thin air,

She’ll stomp with two left feet

She’ll fall off her chair

 

She’ll stub her/your toe,

She’ll get in your way,

She’ll bump heads with you,

She’ll speak and spray.

 

She’ll knock your sandwich,

She’ll spill your drink,

She’ll confuse your chatter,

She’ll muddle your ‘think’.

 

She’ll snap your pencil,

She’ll break your toy,

She’ll rip your work,

She’ll always destroy!

 

She acts without malice,

It still drives me spare.

She’s just VERY CLUMSY,

Approach her with care!

The poem is dedicated to my childhood friend Leanne who used to play clarinet in Windband with me.  I really liked her but she was SO clumsy- she was always treading on me, knocking things over etc- I could almost foresee what she was going to do but was never able to stop it from happening!!!

A spell to cure the January blues

 Sorry for inflicting more poetry on you.  Sometimes, trying to create something is the lifeline I need when feeling stressed or anxious. The prompt for The Toy magazine's Word of the Week was 'Spell'.  I was feeling anxious and sad and after I'd prayed, I felt compelled to write this poem in the moment.  I needed the message of it at that moment. If you are feeling any blues of any sort, then this is for you also. What would be in your spell?

xxxx

A Poem that sleighs!

I started following a children's poetry magazine on Instagram called The Toy and they have been sharing a weekly prompt Word of the Week which you had to include in a poem.

Last week, I had a go at the prompt and this week I thought I'd have a go too.

 The Word of the was was Jingle!

From the archives: Unusual Christmas presents of 2013: An explanation!

In case you've missed all my blog posts for the last 5 days, I shared tales of my first Christmas of marriage- do go back and read them first!

An Explanation:

And so it endeth! I have had an extraordinary amount of fun thinking up these posts, writing, publishing and eliciting your reactions. Thank YOU all for being such lively participants, but especially, Louise, Greenthumb, Pink-haired Princess, Lisa, Fat Dormouse, M.K, Tracy, Katie and Nicole who have been with me virtually every day

When I originally wrote these posts in 2013, on day 6, I wrote an extra post. One stating that sadly, these posts were fiction, not a real reflection of what CBC actually bought me for Christmas. Originally, I wasn't going to reveal the fact that my accounts were an exercise in Creative writing till the end but everyone was so excited and effusive in the  few days, that I was worried they'd be really cross with me 'tricking' them that I revealed all in day 6 but asked for them to continue with me for the remaining journey. 

Here's the remainder of my final post of explanation.

I suppose that explanations are necessary. Well, actually, the whole thing does actually have a foundation in real-life events. For the first Christmas that CBC (did you notice I didn't refer to him as CBC throughout the whole process? This was part of the narrative spin to keep it in fiction) and I were going out, we spent Christmas with our respective families from around the 21st of December and sent each other a text message each day saying, "On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent to me..." and sent a fictional item that we thought the other would enjoy such as 4 owls a hooting. I believe that I started it off but CBC soon caught on and reciprocated, always each of us trying to be the first one to send it each day. It was ridiculously fun and I always held that in my mind as a fun way to mark the twelve days of Christmas.

 
The subsequent 3 Christmases of our 'courtship' were spent together so there was no need to send text messages though I did actually send CBC a card I had made the second year timed to arrive on the twelth day of Christmas in which I recycled all the robins from my Christmas cards that year and what serendipity that I should have twelve in total! I stuck them to the card and wrote an accompanying message stating, On the twelth day of Christmas, your true love sends to you: twelve jolly robins...


This year however, I reread John Julian Norwich's 'Twelve Days of Christmas' (available here from the Bookpeople) which I had bought for CBC the second Christmas. If you haven't read it, do! It's a delightful account, illustrated by Quentin Blake written in the form of letters in which Emily writes letters to her true-love who sends her the items in the original tale. She starts of delighted and gushing but by the end, has issued a restraining order and takes legal action as the presents start getting out of control. It has me laughing every time, especially with Quentin Blakes' witty illustrations.

As I read it this year, I thought to myself, how much fun it would be to create a modern day interpretation of the carol and how better to transmit it than via my blog, with a post each day. I pondered in which form to write it- letter, diary, 1st person or 3rd person, newspaper report, list and decided that it would be fun to imagine what my new husband MIGHT have bought for me had he decided to do this. What would suit his personality and likes, what would he buy for me, what would I like, what was in the realms of believability? In addition, I have been feeling recently, that I wanted a little more creativity in terms of my writing on this blog (particularly as CBC keeps saying I have too many outfits on here- which is true) and a serialised story would be a fun and motivational way for me to achieve this.

I put my idea to my Mum, reading her the 1st day of Christmas account that I had written. She cackled when I mentioned 'roast partridge in pear sauce' and said it was a good idea which made me certain that yes, I should write it like it was happening. To be honest with you, I did think that people would think it was too far-fetched a tale to believe, so I was confounded when I had such lovely reactions to the story upon publishing the first few days. Then I had a sudden attack of conscience worrying that a) lovely people who were commenting so kindly were going to hate me at the end of the process and may never return to my blog again, b) I would disappoint people and they might not trust my writing in the future (I do have frequent cases of paranoia it seems!) c) When commenters said they were telling their families, husbands etc, I genuinely didn't want to shatter the romantic illusions and then have said spouses say, "Seee, it's not true!" and d) in a sense, when you write an account based on real life, it can start to feel real and I was feeling the romance of it, like all of you and e) I wondered how bringing forward the denouement (if this word is appropriate in this case) would affect the dialogue we had going on here in the comments. Would people stop reading? Would their comments change? Would it bring in a new consciousness?

In writing the account, I had to choose which order I wanted to write the tale as there are many variations on the order, particularly in the latter stages of the accumulation. In the end, I decided to go with the latest edition which was Austin's 1909 publication in which the order was: A partridge in a pear tree.
2 turtle doves
3 french hens
4 Calling Birds
5 Gold Rings
6 Geese-a-Laying
7 Swans-a-Swimming
8 Maids-a-Milking
9 Ladies Dancing
10 Lords-a-Leaping
11 Pipers Piping
12 Drummers Drumming
EXCEPT that I had to swap the last two days round in order to fit with the 12 track CD and it would make more sense for a gig to happen on a Saturday, rather than a Sunday.

When researching the order, I was amused to discover that in some versions there are some little known variations such as bells a-ringing, hares a running, badgers a baiting, Colly birds (actually translates as Blackbirds which we know I love), squabs a swimming, cocks a crowing (can you think of a more unromantic present?!)*

The days I MOST enjoyed writing were obviously, maids a milking- this is definitely how it would have occured, had it happened- I am clumsy and appalling at following sets of instructions that are demonstrated in one go!
The 5 gold rings was genuinely based on someone's ring or wishlist in either November or December- I was SURE someone had a set of gold stacking rings in their post- so if that was you, please tell me, as it was your post I based that on.
The porcelain hens are based on my much-beloved Chicken mouth jug which I inherited from my deceased Grandmother/Mamgu. She loved hens and I have always had an affection for china hens!
I think that the Calling-birds would definitely make a good band name for a Andrews sister set up- anyone want to form it with me?
The 12 drummers drumming was based on the Swiss percussion player we saw on our honeymoon at the Lucerne festival and CBC IS keen that we go and see him should he ever come to Britain. His name is Martin Graubinger and his super ensemble is called 'Percussion Planet'.

I had most trouble OBVIOUSLY with '10 Lords a-leaping'- I mean- aside from a dance troupe or going to Parliament and getting myself arrested, what else could I have said? Any contributions gratefully received!
I was also dissatisfied with my 9 ladies dancing- yes we really do love contemporary dance and I found a genuine course offered at the place I wrote about (though only for 4 weeks and didn't specify ladies only) originally, but I felt that perhaps it was a little unbelievable and tenuous

On day 7, the day after the big confession, I actually HAD ordered the two swans jumper I described from ASOS. I saw it and decided I could own one true item from the tale! I still own that 2 swans jumper! 

Regardless of all this, I have had the most fun with my blog than I have had in a long time and wonder if perhaps I could do a little more creative writing! Speaking of which, did you notice that this was in my tags from the very beginning. I wondered if anyone eagle-eyed had noticed it?

Conclusion: SO CBC is not as romantic as we would all have liked to have believed, BUT when I was sharing with him,what I was doing, he said to me that he had contemplated doing the twelve days of Christmas with my presents but wasn't sure how he could keep it up. He then said that perhaps we could try it next year, buying each other twelve days worth of littler presents. I agreed, with alacrity, that this would be a marvellous idea So the narrative has had a romantic revelation AND an outcome. And next year, I can tell a truthful tale of the twelve days of Christmas which we can all share in!


I read the Wikipedia entry on the Twelve days of Christmas

Tomorrow, I will share what CBC, REALLY bought me!


Linking up with the lovely Claire Justine's Creative Mondays with my card and creative writing!

From the Archives: Unusual Christmas Presents 2013: 11 & 12

    Happy Betwixmas my lovelies!

In case you missed the previous three posts,  it's been 10 years since CBC and I got married and I wrote blog posts every day of Christmas from my first year of marriage!

I thought it would be fun to share them but I left it a bit late so I will share two each day until twelfth night!

However, if you weren't party to the original posts, there was a slight hitch in proceedings! Don't hate me!

The Eleventh Day of Christmas:

I'm writing this at almost midnight, so forgive me if I am incoherent! My dear love's surprise for me today was exhausting but truly wonderful.

On our honeymoon, we'd been to watch an amazing percussionist called Martin Graubinger and his drumming and percussion ensemble at a music festival in Lucerne. We absolutely loved himand his amazing latin rhythms!

My dear husband had only gone and managed to track down this Swiss-born musicians's one and only gig in the UK! It was an open-air performance and was jolly cold. Good thing I had on all the winter essentials! He and his ensemble of 10 other drummers performed a stream of different pieces ranging from chilled out vibraphone melodies to frenetic latin beats and a manic 11 drummer showdown!
Luckily, being outdoors, it didn't seem so loud but they really had the crowd going- whooping and cheering an enthusiastically clapping along to that awesome set! The cold was actually bearable when you're jumping, whooping, clapping and attempting to do Salsa hips! I'd better leave it there because I am literally dropping off to sleep but it's been a BRILLIANT evening!

The Twelfth Day of Christmas:

I confess to feeling the back to work, oh-dear-I-have-so-much-to-do feeling as I woke this morning but luckily, we were going over to visit my Dad's house, so I had little time to get too stressed. We had a really nice visit with my Dad, enjoying lots of food, presents and sharing of Christmas tales.

When we had returned home, however, the fear and shock of returning to work reared its ugly head. As my husband and I sat down at the table with heated bowls of Glorious Soup's 'West African chicken and peanut' soup, he slid across a thin rectangular package to me, which could only contain one thing. CD's are hard to disguise! Why is it that CDs are also SO hard to free from their cellophane prisons? The CD was entitled, Pipe Major Jim Drury's Highland Bagpipes and featured 12 tracks of Scottish piping favourites including The Flower of Scotland and Amazing Grace (can be bought here)

Excellent, now I can have a ceilidh in my own front room without having to play my People's Friend Christmas Ceilidh CD which my husband really dislikes! As I placed the CD player into the player and we whirled around the living room to the airs and reels in gay abandon in this last day of flashing Christmas lights (haven't you always wanted to write of doing something 'in gay abandon' or is that just me), reflected that my Christmas and ephiphany could not have ended on a more bright way and I could scarcely have believe that the return to work would finish so joyfully! So to summarise my Christmas treats: On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent to me: a partridge in a pear tree (or roast partridge in pear sauce)

On the second day of Christmas, my true love sent to me: two turtle doves (with a ribbon loop to hang on the Christmas tree)

On the third day of Christmas, my true love sent to me: three French hens (three rather cute porcelain hens bought on holiday)

On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me: 4 calling birds (A super singing act at a Swing-dance night, singing Andrews sisters classics)

On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me: five gold rings (a set of stacking rings in graduating shades of gold)

On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me: six geese a laying (knitted egg-cosy geese, 'laying' upon goose eggs)

On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love sent to me: seven swans a swimming (technically two- knitted onto a jumper, not swimming)

On the eigth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me: eight maids a milking (myself and 7 other ladies learning the traditional art of milking in a barn in Northumberland)

On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me: nine ladies dancing (well, nine weeks worth of contemporary dance lessons in Martha Graham techniques- ladies only!)

On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me: ten lords a-leaping (A guided tour of the house of Lords at 10am in which I was required to leap into every subsequent room visited)

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love sent to me: 11 drummers drumming (a Swiss percussionist and his 10[ -piece Percussion ensemble in a riotous open-air concert)
On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me: 12 pipers piping (well, 12 tracks of Pipe Major Jim Drury playing bagpipe classics!)

Oh how lucky I am!

From the Archives: Unusual Christmas presents 2013: 9&10

    Happy Betwixmas my lovelies!

In case you missed the previous four posts,  it's been 10 years since CBC and I got married and I wrote blog posts every day of Christmas from my first year of marriage!

I thought it would be fun to share them but I left it a bit late so I will share two each day until twelfth night!

However, if you weren't party to the original posts, there was a slight hitch in proceedings! Don't hate me!

The Ninth Day of Christmas:

Sadly, today we drove home from Northumberland which made both my husband and I feel miserable. We always miss our family up there when we leave them and keenly wish we had made more of the time up there with them. It seemed likely to me that I wouldn't encounter ladies dancing as we travelled down the M1 so I resigned myself to the parade of presents coming to an end. As we drove down past the Sheffield junction, my husband started asking me if I had any new year's resolutions at all? I expressed my usual things about being more organised, more swing dancing, being more disciplined and then said of course, I'd love to learn something new. He smiled at which point and said perhaps he could do something about that. I laughed and rejoined that perhaps he was going to send me to dance classes. "Just look in my coat pocket," he replied knowingly and crinkled his eyes at me before returning his gaze to the road ahead. I contorted myself, snake-like, to reach into the back of the car and grabbed his grey coat. In the pocket, I found a C5 envelope. "Oh, another envelope is it?" I queried, "Just what I need!" "Just open it Kezzie," he replied. I opened up the envelope and opened up the folded A4 page to reveal that my husband had booked me onto a 10 week course at the Language of Dance Centre in Contemporary dance (except that I could only do 9 weeks of it as we are away for Half term). The pair of us are interested in contemporary dance- me because of having studied it a bit during A'level performing arts, but never learning it properly, and him because, well- he's just always fancied modelling himself on Merce Cunningham! "Sadly, I won't be joining you as it's ladies only," he bemoaned, as I continued to read up on my Christmas treat. In the class, we would be learning the basic principles of breath control, building strength, shifting weight contracting and release. We'd begin with floor work which would then lead to exercises in standing and then use of space using Martha Graham techniques. It would be held every Wednesday in Oxford House in London. Well, that ticks all the boxes in terms of new year's resolutions as I can a) get fit, b) learn a new skill, c) meet new people, and once again, he gets 10 out of 10 for originality and surprising me! Did you expect that this is the form it would take?

The Tenth Day of Christmas:

I confess that as I woke up today, I wondered how on earth my true-loved husband would manage to fulfill today's Christmas gift. Not the foggiest or the slightest idea. He'd surprisingly set the alarm for 8am, a mystical time we have not managed to attain thus far this Christmas holiday. As I got out of bed, he told me to dress warmly and smartly but quickly. I obeyed of course.

45 minutes later, we were driving towards our local station and he was particularly harassed saying that we HAD to be somewhere at a certain time. As we rode the train to London and changed to the Circle line at Liverpool Street, I asked if I was allowed to know where we were going. He replied that I must wait and see so I buried my nose into my book and read quietly.

At Westminster station, he suddenly stood up and said we were getting off here. The doors opened and he sped out of the door and up the silvery coloured stairs to the station main concourse. As we exited the station, straight ahead, I saw Big Ben showing it was 9.40am. My husband hastened his pace and we made our way into the Cromwell Green visitor entrance to Parliament!!!! Aha, so now I knew what is game was- partially! Firstly, we had to submit to a security scan and bag search. Luckily, neither of us were smuggling, so we got out of that fairly quickly and went into Westminster Hall and climbed the stairs where we had to wait.

I asked my husband what was happening and he said that we were going to have a guided tour of the House of Lords. Apparently, since it was parliamentary recess, we were allowed to take a guided tour during a week day, whereas usually you are only allowed to go on a Saturday and what luck it was that we could go today of all days!

At 10, on the dot, the tour leader, who had been gathering his group of followers, began our tour. Just at this moment, my husband held me back and whispered in my ear that it was mandatory for each of us to leap into each new room we got to.
"What?" I replied, aghast.
"That's the condition!" he smirked back at me.
I understood why of course.

We began in the Queen’s Robing Room (apparently following the route she takes for the opening of parliament)into which my husband and I leaped. Since we were at the back, nobody noticed although a lady in grey did glance back curiously at the thump she heard. Our faces were all innocence . Soon after, we continued through the Royal Gallery and Prince’s Chamber, leaping each time and the lady in grey became more confuzzled as we did so.

Finally, we leaped into the impressive Lords Chamber and I am afraid to say that the lady in grey caught us! "Are you ok, dears? she whispered nervously as we went in. "Er- fine, sorry.." I mumbled looking at my toes ruefully.

The Lords chamber was amazing- so strange to see it in real life with its rows of red leather seats. I walked demurely up to the top of the stairs and leapt down 2 stairs at a time to sit down at the bottom in the first row, laughing! At this point, the tour-guide asked us if we wouldn't mind walking as he noticed my little energetic movement!

The decoration is truly amazing with The Throne, a golden place where the Queen sits at the opening of parliament, as a particularly impressive sight with a painting of Queen Victoria beside it. We looked up at the press gallery, where visitors can sit, learnt about the Crossbenches, where any peers who don't belong to a political party can sit (apparently, it's because of these that often you don't know how the House of Lords is going to vote)

We continued leaping through to the Central Lobby, Members’ Lobby and one of the voting lobbies (not my favourite parts, hence no information) before entering the Commons Chamber with its distinctive green seats which was sadly empty of its sparring politicians which might have proved entertaining!

The tour finally ended through the St Stephens hall in the Westminster hall which is 900 years old apparently! I think the most brilliant thing about this tour is getting up close to such historical and intricate architecture. The ceilings alone were extraordinary in terms of detail! I certainly recommend visiting here!

At the end, we leapt into the Jubilee cafe to drink Earl Grey tea and eat Victoria Sponge cake which was just what we needed after 75 minutes of talk and er-leaping!

My trip to the House of Lords had certainly been interesting, educational and definitely something I wouldn't have done otherwise. I can't believe how fortunate we were that it was open to the public for tours today!

Should you wish to, you can visit the House of Lords virtually here.

Unusual Christmas presents 2013: 7 & 8

    Happy Betwixmas my lovelies!

In case you missed the previous three posts,  it's been 10 years since CBC and I got married and I wrote blog posts every day of Christmas from my first year of marriage!

I thought it would be fun to share them but I left it a bit late so I will share two each day until twelfth night!

The seventh day of Christmas:

Slightly stunned. Never did I expect to receive an item of clothing from my husband this Christmas since he frequently tells me I have too many clothes and I don't need anymore. However, he decided to take pity on me in that respect today for which I am very grateful. I am always sad when Christmas doesn't include a new item of clothing.

He handed me a soft-thin package as I cleaned my teeth in my dressing-gown and leaned over and kissed my head whispering, "Something for you to wear today in line with a familiar theme." I was puzzled, since I wasn't obviously expecting anything! I opened the package to find a long-sleeved, intarsia-knitted jumper. Across the front were SWANS- white with black and yellow beaks. Alas, there were TWO swans, as opposed to the required 7, but then the odds of actually finding the correct number on a knitted jumper in the Metro centre in Newcastle in the space of an hour, yesterday afternoon, were obviously pretty slim. As I hugged him in grateful and stunned joy, I couldn't resist the opportunity to say surely, he could have commissioned an experienced knitter to make one perhaps, had he had a year to prepare? I must confess, I was OVERJOYED and couldn't wait to share this revelation with all of you after yesterday!!! I was giggling in utter joy!!!

I donned my new jumper with a short black skirt and new brown ankle boots and it really did look nice in this combination with my rabbit earrings. This would be a lovely warm outfit as we went to take a walk to Lambley Viaduct. He flatly refused to take a picture of my outfit as punishment for my blog dishonesty saying it would be a blog case of the boy that cried wolf and I would just have to wait till we travelled home to Essex and I'd charged my Canon battery to take a picture myself! How are you? X

The eighth day of Christmas:

Today is most definitely THE most unusual and unconventional way I have spent a day of my Christmas holidays. As I finished dressing this morning, my husband, who had been up for hours, came in and glanced at the circle dress, cardigan and tights I wore and said, "No, you need to dress warmly in old clothing!". Intrigued? So was I!

I put on alternative garments and he bustled me into the car.
"Where are we going?" I asked in query as we zoomed along the Roman Road.
"Let's just say that today's Christmas treat is going to be an experience!" he smirked which made me more than a little apprehensive.

Some twenty minutes later, we drew up in front of what looked like a farm- well in Northumerland lots of places look like farms to the untrained eye such as mine. We got out and a lady dressed in wellies and brown-waxed jacket came over to us and exclaimed, "Welcome to Allendale farm and welcome to your days-gone-by farm experience. If you'd like to follow me..."

She led us into a barn where I was greeted by the sight of seven other ladies and girls ranging from teen to late twenties. Oh, and eight cows!
She invited each of us to crowd round one of the cows and explained that we'd be learning the traditional style of milking a cow! Ok, so I am remarkably cack-handed at anything remotely practical of this kind and as I watched her demonstrating, I was reminded of being shown how to saddle a pony in the Wye valley, aged 12 and what a mess I made of that!
Suddenly aware that I'd been lost in thought throughout most of the demonstration, no doubt gawping absentmindedly into the distance, I shook myself and tried to catch the rest of the demonstration. Oh heck, I didn't have a clue! She invited each of us to take our place on a small stool under our cow which definitely didn't look big or stable enough for my own modest-sized derriere. The other seven of the girls walked confidently over to their bovine ladies, chatting and laughing. I walked slowly over to my own lady moo, who I am absolutely certain turned and fixed me with the evil eye as I came towards her. How do animals just KNOW when you fear them? Her name was Sunshine. I think not. I have not met a more grumpy animal. Wet weekend with hurricane and tornado whilst shivering in a tent would suit her better. As I sat on my stool and attempted to ring in the new year on her udders, she leaned suddenly against me, causing me to overbalance on my stool. Grumpy cow!

I won't bore you with the details of the whole sordid process but eventually, I managed to succeed in producing some milk which I was ecstatic about after a few more incidents with Sunshine.

I glanced around the room as the sweat on my brow accumulated and thought of how funny it was that eight of us girls were here milking cows on New Year's Day!

We thanked our hosts who effusively handed us leaflets listing the various short farming experiences they offered and we headed back home.

I had told my husband that I wanted to learn some new skills but I think I got slightly more than I bargained for!

From the Archives: Unusual Christmas Presents from 2013 5& 6

   Happy Betwixmas my lovelies!

In case you missed the previous two posts,  it's been 10 years since CBC and I got married and I wrote blog posts every day of Christmas from my first year of marriage!

I thought it would be fun to share them but I left it a bit late so I will share two each day until twelfth night!

The Fifth day of Christmas:

We woke really late after swing dancing so late and I confess I was in a complete grump. I had a headache after such a late night. Stomping around teh house, preparing to go round to a friend's, I was obviously not fun to be around so my husband called me to join him over by his computer where he was checking his e-mails.
"What?" I huffed, sitting down grumpily.
"I've got something to cheer you up," he smiled at me encouragingly, immediately makign me feel guilty for being so stroppy. "Oh?" I enquired, thawing a little. He handed me a tiny wrapped cube box which was remarkably hard to unwrap. "Use enough sellotape?" I muttered as my stubby fingernails scrabbled uselessly against the inpenetrable parcel.

Eventually, the target was breached and I opened a black velvet box to reveal a ring consisting of 5 very thin bands in varied shades of gold from silvery white gold through shades of yellow to rose gold. I was sure I'd seen it on a blog before in someone's wishlist, perhaps the Twobirds or Alex Oddsocks or perhaps just something on Etsy? It was very pretty and I worried it had cost a lot. "Look, it seperates into 5 tiny rings" he showed me, eagerly pulling apart the stacking rings. "You can wear just one or any combination!" he continued.
He doesn't usually buy me jewellery so it certainly was a surprise. And as I sat there playing wiht my gold rings, I suddenly noticed that my bad mood had dissipated. That did well once again. Five days in, I wondered if he'd manage to keep up the originality in his daily gifts.

The Sixth day of Christmas:

This morning, the family and I enjoyed a particularly fine breakfast, courtesy of my husband's Christmas creativity. I came down to breakfast first with my father-in-law and enjoyed a small bowl of porridge. Suddenly, my husband bounded in through the front door, slamming it carelessly as he did so. He handed me a rather large egg box, unwrapped.

I opened the box and inside, found 6 large goose eggs Atop each of these was a knitted egg-cosy made to resemble a goose! Admittedly, they did look a bit duck-like and were all white with white necks and little stubby wings with orange beaks and black pin-stitch eyes. As I carefully lifted one of these eggs dressed in its egg cosy, I laughed out loud as it did genuinely look like an enormous egg was coming out of the goose's bottom!

Once the entire family was down, we cooked up a large pan of scrambled eggs and a pile of buttered toast with a generous pot of tea and sat down to breakfast together. Such a luxury to sit down to a breakfast with those I love. I'm definitely trying to avoid thinking about the return to work when breakfast is a hasty 5-minute porridge-gobble.We all had a good laugh at those egg cosies and sat them atop the slightly more modest looking hen eggs that were sitting on the worktop. Hmmm, 6 hens a laying doesn't sound quite so funny.

From the Archives: Unusual Christmas Presents from 2013 3 & 4

  Happy Betwixmas my lovelies!

In case you missed the previous post,  it's been 10 years since CBC and I got married and I wrote blog posts every day of Christmas from my first year of marriage!

I thought it would be fun to share them but I left it a bit late so I will share two each day until twelfth night!

The Third day of Christmas:

By the time it had reached mid-morning and I had got out of bed and breakfasted, I thought at first that my darling husband had forgotten his promise of a gift a day but luckily he turned up with a rectangular box wrapped in red paper with white and blue polka dots on!
"Ooooh, what is it?" I exclaimed gleefull, grasping it and instantly shaking it.
"DON'T!" he cried, panicked and stilled my hands with his.
I set it down and unwrapped, noticing too late, the Fragile, handle with care label. Inside a cardboard box filled with shredded paper, I found 3 tiny porcelain models of hens- one pecking, one in a scratching-the-ground pose and a 3rd which was seated like it was laying eggs. "Oh!" I gasped in remembrance and joy, having spotted these figurines in an antique/second hand shop in Lotte-et-Gerond, France a year and a half ago when we holidayed there in a cottage. I'd reluctantly put them down, realising that ornaments gather dust and I was supposed to be getting rid of things, not buying them. How thoughtful of him to remember my hens!

My hen figurines will sit proudly on our fireplace! Ooh, I forgot to mention that the partridge was delicious! One to cook again, methinks!

The Fourth Day of Christmas:

Thank you for your recent comments. In the interests of fair game, I should point out the interesting absence of my camera at the moment ;-) In addition, my love of creative writing and books!!!!

We had a lovely day hitting the sales in town I bought a couple of items- a dress and some books - but not so much! I didn't receive my Christmas surprise until the evening and was curious as to know why.

It reached 6 o'clock and my husband suggested we go and have a bite to eat. As we finished our loaded jacket potatoes, he pulled out a red envelope and slid it over to me. Curiously, I opened it up to reveal 2 tickets to a swing-dance night with a new live band called 'The calling birds'- an Andrews sisters-style line-up with accompanying swing-band. This was their debut gig! I was overjoyed to be going swing-dancing and with an amazing live-band! At which point, I looked dismayedly at my trousers and rabbit jumper. But my love had thought of everything and pulled out a bag containing my red and white swing dress so I could dress up.

We headed off to a nice bar where the swing evening was being held. The Calling Birds were fantastic singing many of my favourite Andrews sisters classics. We danced and danced to their dulcet tones which I hope means that my husband won't be so reluctant to go swing dancing in the new year.

I write this on the train as I come home and I confess, I can hardly keep my eyes open! All in all, today was the best present so far!

From the Archives: Unusual Christmas Presents from 2013 1 & 2

 Happy Betwixmas my lovelies!

Thank you so the lovely response to my Christmas song- you are kind!

It's been 10 years since CBC and I got married and I wrote blog posts every day of Christmas from my first year of marriage!

I thought it would be fun to share them but I left it a bit late so I will share two each day until twelfth night!

Much love to you.

x

The first day of Christmas:

Happy Christmas to all you- far and wide! May you be blessed in all you do! So this morning on this Christmas day, my husband declared to me that he would be distributing my presents to me daily over the holidays so that I might feel special and loved in our first year of marriage and have something to look forward to each day, to avoid the end-of-Christmas gloom. "How thoughtful!" I thought to myself. Though I must confess that I hoped this wouldn't mean he was doling out a bag of chocolate coins piece-by-piece but that there wuld be some delightful treats sent my way. Still, mustn't be ungrateful. I appreciate the gesture.
He promised faithfully that these woud find their way to me even if he was out.


As we sat there in front of the Christmas tree, I waited with anticipation, the glittering lights reflecting in my gleeful eyes. My present was quite large- a box shape! I was very excited at what it might be and tore the metallic wrapping off in a flurry! My husband is very keen on cooking with fresh ingredients and good quality ones and trying new culinary delicacies, so I wasn't surprised when I opened the parcel to discover a hand-written recipe on a scroll of paper for Roast partridge in pear sauce - something that sounded most delightful! Moreover, he'd provided me with a miniature fruit tree from which I could pluck the ingredients myself in order to make the sauce and then enjoy in the garden once planted. Beside the tree in the box was a fresh organic joint of the meat. I hope he's kept it cold.

What a delightful and original present! One I can make myself! Good start my lovely!

The Second Day of Christmas:

This Boxing Day morning, I was all in a flutter wondering what my true-hearted dear husband would turn up with for my holiday Christmas present today? It's really lovely having something to look forward to. He bumbled into the bedroom at 7am where I was to be found drinking tea in bed, reading Georgette Heyer.

Handing me a smallish, flat parcel wrapped in grey tissue paper, he said, "Something for our tree." I haven't really mentioned that we have a pretty bare tree this year as it is our first Christmas together and we don't have a lot of money for decorations. We're actually using our landlord's old tree. Anyway, I digress. I pulled off the silver ribbon adn ripped the paper off to reveal 2 darling Christmas ornaments of 2 doves with their beaks touching- I'm not sure which species of dove they may bell: turtle or Collardoves maybe? I am hazy on my birds. They were grey with soft brown and black wings crafted from feathers, with a little stripe near their neck. They had kind eyes and a touch of glitter hanging from a loop of white ribbon. They were not at all tacky but sweet, delicate and well-crafted. I ran down to test my doves on the Christmas tree. Such a little present but oh so thoughtful! I may not be an ornithologist but I adore bird-themed items!

From the Archives: The Night Ambush

 I randomly click on my links on my blog sometimes to see what things are.

Had no recollection of this scary post and incident...perhaps we try to forget things...

The night ambush

After a long day at work, I found myself weary on the relentless trudge homewards. When the nights draw in and darkness comes, I find myself  somewhat nervous of the poorly-lit park route to my humble abode. Bracing myself, I left the main street of bright street lamps and a healthy flow of commuters moving in cars and on foot and find myself on the path of few lights, few people and a sense of isolation.

I walked amidst the avenue of trees, the comforting hubbub of traffic dimmed to a faint memory and left me as a solo passenger on this journey.   Heightened awareness of noises means my breath sounded loud and panicked and I wanted this ordeal to be over.  I increased my pace to a paranoid canter.

As I neared the gloomy, old pool building, with the memory of swimmers as a mere memory, I wished for some company, some sense that I was not alone.  Reaching the end of the building, my eyes darted left and right, left and right like a tortured cat seeking the elusive swinging toy.

It was then that I saw them.

Looming out of nowhere in the darkness, a mass of tall, lean, muscular individuals whose stony faces were a mystery to me in the complete lack of light  as they stood to my right.

Involuntarily I gasped in shock and braced myself for the threatening encounter that was surely to come with this ambush.  I'd always imagined this kind of horror in my imagination but didn't even consider it would come to fruition here in this place that I had come to love.
Words failed me, they died in my mouth as a kind of panic unique to rabbits in the middle of a road held as a statue.

A stentorian voice came out from behind me to my right- an unexpected extra individual.  "Right, I want 50 press ups! GO!"

As those anonymous individuals threw themselves down the grassy surface where their feet had been, I breathed a sigh of relief as I realised that the Boot-camp participants were back in winter training.


(This account is based on a number of times I have suddenly happened upon the Boot-camp members training by the side of my path home in the pitch black throughout winter.  I tried to imagine back to the first time I had seen them. It has always struck me as slightly sinister the way they are there with no pomp or circumstance just getting on with it in the dark. Bootcamp is an extreme form of exercising rather like the army, I believe)