Thank heavens it's nearly the Solstice. I know I am not alone in not enjoying the long dark evenings of winter which start mid-afternoon and seem endless. Several friends who like me, live alone, have said the same thing recently - we get to about 7 p.m. and think, can we go to bed yet?!!! Admittedly one of these folk lives very basically (my neighbour who's doing up the cottage) and doesn't have a tv and I imagine you soon get fed up reading stuff on your mobile phone . . . I can remember one of the stories in All Creatures Great and Small and there has been an evening call out to a farm up in the Dales, run by a couple of brothers and a sister. James Herriot arrives and as he walks past the parlour window to the door, he sees by the light inside (this is 1930s so possibly pre-electricity and it is just lit by a Tilley Lamp) the three figures just SAT, not talking, no radio, nothing. Just satisfied (one assumes) with the labours of the day having ceased. It is so hard to imagine that now when we expect more from life.
The tree is all decked out in its finery now. I have to say, 10 days or so before Christmas is quite early enough to make the house Christmassy. I know some people can't wait to get the decorations out and the plastic tree up and Tam thinks I'm a spoilsport for taking it all down on New Year's Day (though she swears I do it on Boxing Day!!) but it works for me. I don't get time to get fed up with it.
This lovely throw has turned up on a Quilting Magazine feed on Facebook and I fell in love with it. I have worked out how it "works" - the central star is surrounded by half the same block either side. I'd love to do this and have some aqua/turquoise fat 1/4s which would be perfect to make this, and then I could hang it over the back of the oak settle in the kitchen.
Well, it is of course the middle of the bloomin' night again. Alfie woke me at 1 a.m. to be Let Out. As I'd gone to bed at nine, I'd had a good chunk of sleep and my brain got too busy for me to nod off again. I lay there till 1/4 to 3 before giving up and coming downstairs.
The embroidery I am doing (a gift for Tam) is coming on really well and I am enjoying doing it and watching Series 6 of Outlander. It is giving me a break from the endless hexies for the blue and red quilt I was working on.
After two years of totally ignoring the Christmas tree, Pippi has this year discovered it! I was sat there sewing and she did a gallop-by, swiped one of my little x-stitch decorations which flew in the air, and put that on repeat with a couple more low on the tree! Apparently Rosie has also discovered Tam's Christmas tree so has to be deterred from eating it! She has now learned to say "dada" and says it over and over. What a lovely Christmas present for Jon.
We had a windy start to the day again yesterday, but it was just that - windy - though apparently there were gusts of up to 60 mph in some places and there has been plenty of rain with it and flooding in certain areas of Wales. I am glad to be on a hill . . .
Right, I shall do Hexa Stack and make my brain tired, I hope.
I don't dislike the dark evenings as long as I'm cosy by the fire with a good book but otherwise I cannot wait for the longer days of summer. I know the scene you describe and cannot imagine sitting there not speaking to each other in the near dark.
ReplyDeleteYour tree is very pretty, traditional and I'm sure Rosie will love it! She will be mesmerised.
Until Keith died, I had never lived on my own for more than a couple of months so it hit hard. I am slowly getting used to it (keeping busy as always) but I do hate the dark nights. Glad I don't live in Scandinavia - almost complete darkness day and night would drive me crazy!
DeleteMorning BB, hope you got some more sleep after this. What is a hexa stack? It was dreadful here yesterday too, wind and rain but so mild at lunchtime when I went swimming I didn’t take a coat. Weird unsettling weather. The quilt looks to be composed of half square triangles. I made lots of these for a pinwheel quilt for a single sized bed quilt using up odds and ends of curtain lining for the plain or contrast colour. Your wreath could possibly do with a bit more ‘pudging’. I make little bunches of foliage - bay, Rosemary, hazel catkins, ivy, clematis and honesty seedheads this year - and firmly tie them with lengths of raffia which I use to tie securely onto the wreath overlapping the bunches as I go. My birch base isn’t large - there are lots of twiggy bits sticking out of the rough circle I made - but even so I made a baker’s dozen bunches of foliage but it looks natural and reflects the garden. We go to bed early. We had friends round for tea yesterday afternoon and they didn’t leave until almost six so I was on the back foot with getting our supper ready and we didn’t eat until 7.30 but even so I was up for my bath at nine and lights out at 10pm. I was tired having been on the go all day including an hour of swimming. My parents had no electricity when they first married and lived in a tiny cottage in Somerset and I know my mum was never idle after cycling to her job as a nurse in Yeovil hospital. I think compared even to our parents (mine were born in 1926 and 1930) we waste so much time. This is why I like to keep up the tradition of cooking properly every day, making my own clothes and household furnishings and growing food and marking the seasons in my own low key way. Two more days until the winter solstice although have you noticed it is already lighter in the evenings? I must find out how to watch Outlander. It’s not on Netflix and that’s the only paid for tv service we have apart from Sports of course. I had a recommendation for Black Doves on Netflix yesterday so we’ll give that a go and I am absolutely delighted to see The Box of Delights is on iplayer. I used to borrow the video from the library and watch it with the children when they finished school for Christmas and were so tired. I still have my Puffin paperback of TBOD which I remember my mum buying me as her childhood copy was falling to pieces from reading it over and over. I see the schedules are already filling up with Christmas ‘pudging’ - Lord save me from Mary, Nigella, Stacy et al showing me how they ‘do’ Christmas! Sunny here today and we thought we might go into Arundel for a look round the shops and galleries and buy some edible treats from the excellent food emporium. Hope you have a good day and can deter Pippi from your beautiful tree. Sarah x
ReplyDeleteHexa Stack is a strategy game on Facebook. I play that, and Solitaire, and a daily Word Puzzle and Bubble Shooter, to keep my brain sharpish . . . though it can be a real time waster! I ended up pulling the fir bits off the wreath and it looks much better (one had gotten blown off by the gale anyway). 10 pm is about as late as I go to bed most nights - sometimes it's 9 pm. Evenings are my rest and relax time - I work through the day, including quilt making etc. I view Outlander via Prime, and a temporary MGM (£4.99 a month) subscription. I don't have Netflix any more.
DeletePippi only murdering tree decorations when having a mad 5 minutes. Rosie is more problematical!!
Your greenwood wreath is lovely, but yes the droopy firs on the bottom would be better angled upwards and outwards from the bottom if you can find a bit of ivy to snip and add. Rosie is going to love your Christmas tree it's very pretty and traditional.
ReplyDeleteI've pulled them out now and it looks better. I was just glad to have actually made one. I have found plenty of trailing ivy for next year - on the end stable wall!
DeleteYour Christmas tree looks very festive between the long curtains (William Morris? )Wonderful to have the family with you at Christmas and many happy memories for Rosie. After years of having the biggest tree (brought home from the school hall) I now enjoy my tiny driftwood tree and unconventional decorations. I've just finished felting a small cat decoration supposed to look like Vytas and Sally's second cat as I can see that they hung all the past decorations I've made for them including their first cat.
ReplyDeleteNot William Morris fabric, but WM style, from Dunelm. With modifications by Lulu who was a rotter for shinning up them when tiny. My girls insist on a big fir tree for Christmas, as we always had one when they were growing up.
DeleteI bet the cat decoration will be well received.
Yes! Good description of early darkness. Usually I do Mo's long walk near sunset, then come in for a snack and tea/ wine in the summer. Dinner later. But w the early darkness [wind and cold] I want to just eat dinner and go to bed. Even if it is only 415.
ReplyDeleteI love your wreath, it's delightful. My mom always made our family wreath too. And beautiful Tree too.
Happy Holidays!
I see it's not just me who hates these early nights. Still, I find various things to entertain me on tv - many of them on Youtube - and sewing is very therapeautic too.
DeleteThat little quilt has the simplest possible block units--its all in the layout. I would have to create a diagram to follow as I don't readily 'see' block placements [until its too late and I've stitched all in place!]
ReplyDeleteI should think toddlers and cats could create similar havoc and choking issues with Christmas trees.
Lately, at 7 p.m. I have to remind myself that I can get in a good three hours of sewing before shutting down and retreating with a book!
I think I will get Alex to help me. This will be my "small quilt" project, riding alongside the Heritage Quilt which I intend to start on SOON. At long last. The little quilt just spoke to me, design-wise.
DeleteI yearn for the return of the longer days, not just because that it means my working day is far longer. The long nights of Winter do nothing to help with my depression and I miss the feeling of warmth the summer sun gives to my bones... well I would if we had any bloody sun that is!.....
ReplyDeletelove the crimbo tree by the way
Yes, we need daylight to reset us, I agree. I miss the warmth of the sun too and my garden says it desperately needs tending - especially my chippings yard which is turning into a moss lawn!
DeleteI like sitting by the woodburner with Netflix on for company. I read or do puzzles whilst watching. I don't mind winter as long as I am warm. I go to bed when I'm tired, I don't have a set time, I just respond to what my body tells me.
ReplyDeleteI listen to my body clock too, and only stay up past 11 if the girls are here and we are chatting and sharing a glass or two of vino! I have a couple of codeword puzzle books which I turn to when not sewing Christmas gifts, keeps my brain active.
DeleteAs long as the drapes are pulled before the sun goes down I am fine. Though I do find myself nodding off a bit earlier right now. I can only get through a chapter or two of my book before I turn off the light and go to sleep.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
I have an upstairs book and a downstairs book. Downstairs book currently a bit ignored because of stitching, and upstairs book IS set around Whittington Castle and very enjoyable.
DeleteThe one thing that I really dislike about winter is planning everything around the winter. The long evenings in don't really bother me for the most part...although I have to admit that I become lazy.
ReplyDeleteIs that quilt called a flying goose pattern, or am I showing my ignorance.
Flying Geese is a pyramid triangle w contrast sides. You can google it. The is a Twinkling Star variation, tho it could be a Goose Tracks, I ll look or maybe the pattern has the info?
DeleteI saw an interesting idea on 'somewhere' recently - no idea where! A Christmas tree made like a Teepee with Christmas offcuts forming the "tree". It looked great, would be easy to store, and decorating it would be simple. They had folded back the flaps and had a light inside and all the presents in there. We can't have a real tree due to allergy issues, so I might try that for next year. It would take me a year to make it!! Happy Christmas to you and the family. May 2025 be healthy and happy.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a good project, and useful as you can't have a real tree.
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