Friday Five and Life in General

Today I'm combining Five on Friday with happenings in the last two weeks.   Our eldest grandson and  family visited us on Sunday.  He had driven up to see the other grandmother in North Yorkshire. We  had lunch together before they went back to their home in Cambridgeshire.  Our local daughter joined us, but it's now getting harder to meet up as the working family members potentially come into contact with cases of  the virus.  They've been testing for covid daily and thankfully have had negative results, but naturally they want us to stay safe and well.  Our Berkshire daughter is coming to stay over Christmas, and she'll also be doing tests before she comes. I've been busy preparing for her visit.  Once again we're thankful for a warm house and not having to go out unnecessarily.  

This morning I was greeted by the activity of the birds in the garden.  This one was singing sweetly in the hawthorn tree.

There was a slight frost overnight.  

Thank goodness for the covered yard's shelter for the plants and trees. 

The chrysanthemums seem to be happy there.

Mr P got the artificial Christmas tree down from the loft and slowly it got decorated with special ornaments and vintage baubles (top photos daytime and lit up). Daughters D and M sent photos of their decorated trees.  Jasper kitty looks as if he's happy on his bean bag bed. 

Some favourite ornaments.  Jack Frost in the sleigh was made by me when I was a child. The horse was part of the set I had of Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation Coach drawn by horses ridden by the Queen's coachmen.  The horse is all that's left. 😔

There are some new traditions as on the shelves there's a collection of handmade cards made by daughter M and granddaughter A and a cotton reel figurine with crocheted bobble hat and legs.  

I hope your days are going well and you have a good weekend.   Thank you once more for your visit.  

2020 Our Garden in November and Bakewell, Derbyshire

Looking back on 2020 I'm sure we all agree that it has been a challenging year and we look forward with hope in our hearts to better times in the new year. 

Here is a roundup of photos that will give you some idea of life in our household during 2020. There's so much to be thankful for - Mr P's recovery from his replacement hip operation last January, just in time before we entered into the first national lockdown. I had a good result from my annual health checkup at the local hospital in June.  My operations in 2016 seem in the distant past now, although I continue with checkups and treatment, for which I'm grateful. 

As you can imagine, the garden and the covered yard have been appreciated not just for growing and enjoying produce and flowers, but also areas that family have been able to sit in when small groups were allowed to visit. I've also spent a lot of time looking out of the back bedroom window. I particularly enjoyed the sun rising on another day of life and the changing scenery each season.

The new greenhouse will be a useful addition next year.

I'm looking forward to seeing all those Spring bulbs that were planted in pots and in flower beds a month or two ago.  Some of them are coming through the earth already.

Local walks were appreciated as well as Mr P driving us further afield in the Summer when we managed to spend a few hours with our son and family as well as enjoying a socially distanced meeting with extended family from Berkshire who were staying in a self-contained holiday home near Chatsworth Estate.  However, it was sad not to see the grandchildren who live at a distance.  We appreciated the effort one grandson made to come and visit for a few hours when travelling was allowed.  Since the Summer months the government has tightened up all the rules because of the rise in numbers of infections.  We are in Tier Zones and we are in the High Alert Tier 3. Most regions are in Tier 4, but that might change again and things could get even stricter as pressure mounts in the medical, social caring and teaching sectors.  Those in retail, hospitality, arts and culture, charitable organisations are also experiencing hard times.

Bakewell, Derbyshire in the Summer.

Our local area is about as far as we will go for a drive at the moment when the weather is suitable.

Most of the time, especially in the cold weather we're experiencing now we're staying indoors watching some recorded television programmes and nurturing the indoor plants. I'm doing some reading, crafting, and we're enjoying the food treats that have been gifted to us and sharing the cooking activities for lunches and evening meals.

(photo taken in May 2019 by our nephew who visited from Italy)

Well, that's all for today and indeed this year.  I nearly gave up blogging when New Blogger gave me some technical challenges I did not need.  I'm thankful to all of you, my readers, for keeping in touch and for your encouraging advice when I felt like giving up on blogging. I wish you all the very best as we journey into the new year.  Happy New Year!  Buon anno nuovo!

Friday Bliss # 13

Our daughter had bought a reindeer decoration which had been made with wood and logs. It was made locally for a national charity called Bliss which supports premature and sick babies. Money raised will go to a hospital in our region and our daughter has arranged to get one for us too.

In our house the Nativity scene has been put out, the Advent calendar hung up and the first candle lit for the first Sunday of Advent.  Behind each window of the Advent calendar there's a scripture verse telling the Nativity story.

I get most of my reading material on loan from the local library or buy them from charity shops, but I did order a book from Persephone Books, a publisher that specialises in reprints of neglected mid-twentieth fiction and non-fiction.  The Persephone Biannual Magazine is also sent out to regular customers and is always full of interesting articles and reviews. The book came in the post last week together with the Persephone magazine so I've had plenty to read for the times when I've been resting.

The Country Life Cookery Book was written by Ambrose Heath, the pseudonym of Francis Gerald Miller (1891-1969) who lived with his wife and daughter in Surrey. He had gone into journalism before he was 20 and he became a well-known cookery journalist and broadcaster. He wrote many cookbooks and The Country Life Cookery Book was first published in 1937. For each section of the book there are headings 'The Kitchen Garden in January' and so on with recipes using seasonal ingredients with advice on growing produce. There's a chapter on herbs, information about fish and a calendar regarding when to grow vegetables throughout the year. What also interests me about the book is the fact that the illustrations are by Eric Ravilious especially since reading more about his life and visiting an exhibition of his work during November 2017, Ravilious & Co.,  at the Millennium Art Gallery in Sheffield.  Eric Ravilious was born in Eastbourne in 1903 and went to the art school there and to the Royal College of Art.  In 1930 he married the artist Tirzah Garwood.  His work included murals, engravings, designs for china and water colour paintings.  He became a war artist in 1939 and sadly was killed in an aeroplane crash in 1942.

A library book I've been browsing through is Jacob's Room is Full of Books - A Year of Reading written by Susan Hill, an author I've enjoyed in the past.  It's another book that follows the months of the year and in this volume, a follow-up to Howard's End is on the Landing, the author writes about a year of her life through the books she has read, re-read or returned to the shelf.  I started reading the chapter for November, continued on into December and have found the every day, small observations regarding the place on the east coast of England where she lives just as interesting as her reflections on her reading and writing experiences.

She writes in December...
'Heron all over the mudflats.  I counted seven, which is most unusual as they tend to be solitary birds, still as statues, waiting patiently, ever watchful.  But these were pottering about.  Were they herons?
It was very cold.
Came home to light the wood burner and read Hugh Aldersey-Williams's biography of the eighteenth-century scientist Sir Thomas Browne.'

'I just went outside.  It smells of cold and the grass is crisp.  Wish I could find the poem I read many years ago, about opening the door at night and just standing, taking in what it is like out there...'

There's a list of books mentioned in this memoir. There are many authors in the list that I've not read. However, I've enjoyed my own reading this year and thankful that I've access to many interesting and entertaining books, whether regular volumes or audio books.

  joining Riitta for the Friday Bliss # 13 linkup