So here we are again, another Yule, another Yule Tarot Blog Hop. This time the theme has been given as “TURNING DARKNESS INTO LIGHT” with instruction to describe how we bring light to those around us and how we celebrate light with Yuletide traditions. You can follow the links below to navigate around the Blog Hop and read what everyone else has shared.
Whatever you’re having for your Christmas dinner, whether you’re sticking with the modern ‘tradition’ of turkey or going for a rather more Victorian traditional goose, or even duck, beef, salmon or some other combination or beast*, you can take the opportunity to go to town with the vegetables and try something different. The usual vegetables for Christmas dinner are roast potatoes, sprouts and maybe some peas, carrots and/or parsnips, but you could do so much more. There’s nothing wrong with having peas with your roast and we probably will because we like them. They’re a solid Medieval staple but a tad unimaginative if you have them with every Sunday roast, so here are some tips, alternatives and variations you might like to try this year to make your veggies more interesting.
Dear
You need to know that your adverts tend to leave me cold at best. Starting to market Christmas the second that Hallowe’en is over (and sometimes before) is guaranteed to piss people off and, quite frankly, spoil the whole holiday for us because we are so sick of it by the time it comes around. I realise that you have to start thinking about these things in July, but there really is no reason to inflict your pain on the rest of us. It’s getting so that I almost expect Hallowe’en outfits to include Santa suits. (No, don’t get any ideas!)
We’ve just got back from DD’s Christmas music concert. It was, as is increasingly the case, something of a giggle. Not intentionally, I might add…it’s just that I can’t help myself and once I start giggling, it really is difficult to stop. Once, it was necessary to be armed with a sheaf of tissues because 4-year-olds herded into performing Christmas plays are so unbearably cute it makes you weep. Now I need them to dab the tears of laughter from my eyes. Don’t look at me like that, there were plenty of shoulders shaking in that hall, I’ll have you know.
You know how when you hear a snatch of a tune that you know well, even if your attention is elsewhere, some bit of your brain recognises it and immediately sits up to take notice, as if you’d heard your name spoken? Well, I was pottering away on the computer with the TV on in the background, using my built in mental ad filter (the one that allows me to totally tune out all forms of advertising unless I choose to look/listen), when I suddenly caught just such a snippet. It was very subtle and possibly even being spoken over, (my filter was still on for that irrelevant bit, so I can’t be sure), but I caught enough to recognise it as Siouxsie and the Banshees. It amuses me hugely that the rebellious punk bands of my youth are now regarded as suitable soundtrack material for marketing. The funny thing is the often huge inappropriateness of the songs.
Every year on this day we celebrate Remembrance Day, except that “celebrate” really isn’t the right word. No, it is totally and emphatically the wrong word. I think the right word is “commemorate”. but perhaps it should be said that we “mourn” Remembrance Day. I certainly mourn that we have need of such a day, as well as mourning all those who needlessly died in the name of War.
Welcome to the Samhain edition of the Tarot Blog Hop. Our wrangler, Alison, has elected to depart from the usual themes associated with this time of year and opted for the topic of “Love”. Not for her the thinning of veils or pagan festivals and suchlike, but an entirely unrelated topic…or is it? Love in the time of curcubits. What’s not to love? 😀
A couple of weeks ago, I spent the weekend in the company of some old school friends (not to mention various chickens, ferrets and cats) at one of our number’s rather gorgeous and very spacious Georgian/Victorian house. Well, with 3 acres, it’s more of an estate really and all of the vegetables we ate for dinner we’d picked fresh from the kitchen garden. If that weren’t enough to elicit envy admiration, her kitchen is bigger than my living room. I wanted to move in! (My DH kindly offered to parcel up and send the dog and Ebay the children).
Amanita Muscaria
I love this time of year.* The summery weather has not entirely run its course (at least it hadn’t when I started writing this post a few weeks ago), the trees are still mostly in full, green leaf and there are still plenty of daylight hours in which to enjoy the mild and (hopefully) sunny weather, but it is also cooler than high summer. Why is this a good thing, you may ask. Well, it means that you can start doing all the things that it’s too hot for, like having the oven on for Sunday roasts, walking without wilting, and knitting**, not to mention to exciting prospect of the wide variety of forage and harvests in evidence.
*in truth, I love every time of year, just for different reasons.
** of course you can knit all year round but having a lump of warm woolly stuff in your lap when it’s 30C is not at all comfortable. (That Oxford comma is quite deliberate btw.)
They say that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree and I’m very proud to report that this is certainly the case with my DD:) Not only is she a good mathematician and a writer (with two NaNoWriMos under her belt), but she has joined in with my Medieval trading activities this summer by making rag dolls. Did I mention that she is only 10?
The dolls are 10.5″ tall and are all hand crafted by DD with only a little help from me – I cut out the fabric for her and assist with a couple of bits of finishing, but otherwise it’s all her work. I think they’re fab (though I admit to being a teensy bit biased :)).
|
© Ania M |
Powered by WordPress The Aesthete theme by vatuma.com |
