Pause In Advent 2015 #3

We are following the themes of peace, joy, hope & love during Advent at UCF this year – and last week we looked at Love. When I replaced the bag in my kitchen bin, I saw the new refills had a slogan printed on them. It certainly gave me pause for thought – it said

What does that mean? We use love in many different ways – and maybe some of those uses refer to quite trivial affection, and it would seem quite reasonable to another person that this is some issue on which it is foolish to waste one’s love. For instance

• I love watching “I’m a Celebrity, Get me out of here”
• I love eating Blue Stilton and drinking Port
• I love listening to the Manic Street Preachers
• I love watching any film starring Brad Pitt
• I love surfing the waves in Cornwall in the winter
• I love reading War and Peace [in the original Russian]

I would not say any of the above phrases, I hasten to add – and find it hard to understand how people ‘love’ those things, but they do. I might feel they are wasting time and energy – but are they ‘wasting love’?  Surely real love is about relationships – the Good Book tells us to love the Lord our God, and to love our neighbour. Is love for other people something that is wasted?  I love my family, and know that they love me – it is reciprocated. But what about unconditional love that apparently receives nothing in return?

• the Street Pastors who walk out on cold, dark nights and help drunken girls as they stumble out of nightclubs and vomit in doorways
• the Salvation Army lass who works every evening at the soup kitchen, freely giving away warm food to homeless people
• the Ebola nurses who risks their own lives, tending people too sick to speak, or to show any response.
• the volunteers who spend Sunday afternoons clearing litter, and dog-mess and condoms and needles from the  playground, and scrubbing away the obscene graffiti, so that the children on the sink estate have somewhere more pleasant to play – and then go back the following Sunday and do it all over again.

Are these people wasting their love? Are they being foolish? I’ve always thought it a shame that we speak of “The parable of Prodigal Son” – and use the word prodigal in such a pejorative way. As if “giving or spending freely” is always a negative, wasteful thing. There were, after all, two sons, and the story is really about the Prodigal Father

Many would say he wasted his money on his boy – because the lad went out and wasted it on ‘riotous living’. But in the end, the boy came to his senses and return to his father [as we see in Rembrandt’s painting]

I showed Bob the bin bag, and asked him what he thought. Wisely he said he felt they’d missed out the punctuation. Put a comma in, and it alters the whole meaning of the slogan, inviting us to change our behaviour.

Don’t waste, love

Love never gives up; and its faith, hope, and patience never fail.

It's Beginning...

…to look a lot like Christmas

The corner of the lounge where we sit was a bit untidy – a box of spare Christmas cards, half a zip and my sewing stuff, a bag of knitting and the pattern book, Bob’s tie, his new Terry Pratchett book, an empty crisp packet, a bucket of pens and miscellanea and some fabric. That was yesterday morning. 

I tidied up, hung bunting along the curtain rail, and now the Christmas tree is up and decorated. It is a new tree this year – the ancient one [from 1989 I think] was shedding far too many plastic needles and looking sad. This one is taller and slimmer [and was half price from B&Q]. The old lights have been replaced with LED warm white ones from Wilko.

But the decorations are the usual eclectic mix of handmade, and holiday memories and special gifts from friends. It took me forever to decorate, because I kept finding things and stopping to remember their origin. It is also interesting decorating a different house, after so many Christmases in Kirby. My staircase garland which looked like this in previous years…

…now has battery operated red lights and I have added in a few decorations which used to hang on the tree. I have taken down my Hebrew Blessings sign, and replaced it with a hanging which I stitched about 20 years ago

I haven’t started on the Dining Room yet – but I like the fact that it is beginning to feel properly Christmassy!

Blogger Bother

I wrote a post in Live Writer and it is refusing to publish. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible, I hope.

Down The Rabbit Hole!

This year marks the 150th Anniversary of the publication of Alice in Wonderland. Macmillan have a fabulous celebration website here. There have been events going on all over the UK [and quite a lot in the USA too, where they seem quite obsessed with AIW]

I should like to get to the exhibition at the British Library – it opened on November 20th and runs through till April 17th 2016. It is FREE!

I was really pleased this week to pick up the book “Everything Alice” from our local library. By Hannah Read-Baldrey and Christine Leech [who developed the Hobbycraft magazine] this book has more than 50 projects related to the book – clothes, toys, teaparty accessories, recipes, gifts – using lots of different crafts and skills.

For the most part the instructions are very clear, the templates at the back are useful, and there are wonderfully intricate papercut illustrations on the pages between the projects. An altogether delightful and inspiring read.

I think the projects I would most like to make from the book are the sugar and spice comfits, the Red King’s Slippers, and the Cheshire Cat Handwarmers.

My own copy of Alice is over 80 years old- it was won by my father just after his 9th birthday, in 1933, as a prize for getting 98% in a Sunday School Scripture exam, as it says on the flyleaf…

It is published by Ward Lock, rather than Macmillan – and the illustrations are not by Tenniel, but by that other great children’s artist, Margaret W Tarrant. I love its heavy pages and pictures.

Just twenty miles from here, in Lyndhurst, you can find the grave of Alice Liddell – the girl for whom Carroll wrote the story. I remember taking our girls to see it, more than 20 years ago, when we had a holiday in the New Forest. The grave has been restored during this  anniversary year. I must get back and have another look.

I made costumes for two school productions of Alice – it remains one of my favourite children’s books [along with Through The Looking Glass] I enjoy the word-play, and the arcane mathematical puzzles – it is so much more than a book for 9 year olds. Here are the stamps the Royal Mail brought out last January to mark the anniversary.

Did you read Alice as a child? Did you enjoy it?

Throwing In The Towel

This morning Bob declared that the towel in the bathroom really ought to go – it had begun to rip as he was using it after his shower.

“But that’s my towel!” I protested “Honor Yaxley gave me that when I went to University in 1973. That towel has been a presence in my life longer than you have!” I reluctantly had to admit that it is probably past its best. Bob tried to get me to discard it about 15 years ago, when the hems were all frayed- but I just cut them off and overlocked the edges. That stitching is still in place, but the fabric round it is disintegrating.

“Most people do not expect their bath towels to last forty years” said Bob. I muttered that I am not ‘most people’. But he is right – it really is beyond the point where it is ‘fit for purpose’. I would point out that it has lasted a lot longer than a number of the towels I have acquired since then. The last lot of M&S ones I had as a gift have gone very thin in a very short time, which is frustrating. This one may turn into rags, or dusters, or if there are a few decent patches, into facecloths [more overlocking]. I am very fond of the retro orange and brown 70’s pattern.

On a brighter note, I suddenly realised that our shower curtain contains pink and blue stripes not a million shades different from Pantones Colours of 2016. There we are, I am ahead of the trend [I got the curtain from IKEA in 2008 – who knew it would come back into fashion again?]

UPDATE – I just read PomPom’s latest post, and seen her sunrise picture. I have decided that GOD does blue and pink far better than Pantone any day. Thanks PP!

 

Don’t Try This At Home!

This is the time of the year when people seem to be rushing to share their ‘top tips’. Some of them I have not heard before – others seem to come round every year. Here’s a few I have picked up recently – but I doubt I shall be using many of them.

This appears regularly – if you have  large piece of salmon to cook, wrap it carefully in tinfoil, and bake it in the dishwasher. Why? the oven is quicker, and you can check the fish as it cooks. This one seems definitely dodgy to me

If you have green coffee beans, you can roast them in your popcorn maker.

I have no idea where to source unroasted beans, and they are probably more expensive than the ones I get in Sainsburys [and possibly not Fairtrade either] However, Bob thinks one is worth trying out sometime!

Deal with under-eye wrinkles before the Christmas Party by applying haemorrhoid ointment. [to the eye area, that is] Eeww!

Milk of Magnesia is a much cheaper alternative to ‘primer’ before you apply make-up. Apparently “This can smooth your skin and make it ready for the application of makeup. This has oil-blotting properties that can reduce oil production.It will cure oily skin issues. Milk of Magnesia is also applied to the bride’s skin to keep the makeup looking fresh all day, looking flawless in photos without the need for touch-ups.”  It also makes you look deathly white, as if coated in calamine lotion.

Slightly more useful – if you are shaving [presumably this is for ladies’ legs, not mens’ beards] then you can use up hair conditioner or out-of-date sunscreen as a preshave moisturiser. I never seem to use up the whole bottle of sunscreen, this one makes sense.

Still finding things in the bathroom cabinet – how about repurposing dental floss, as an excellent way of stringing popcorn garlands to festoon the Christmas tree. Do remember to take the coffee beans out of the popcorn maker first though! Dental floss is also useful for restringing necklaces.

This was on Chris Evans’ programme on Monday – use your ironing board as a workstation when wrapping presents. Adjust the height and it helps prevent backache. I have done this for years – this is definitely a good one!

What is the best tip you have picked up this season?

And what is the silliest?

Order And Peace

Pantone has just released its Colour of the Year for 2016 – but for the first time ever, is offering TWO shades – Rose Quartz, and Serenity – [pink and blue]

As consumers seek mindfulness and well-being as an antidote to modern day stresses, welcoming colours that psychologically fulfil our yearning for reassurance and security are becoming more prominent.

“The soft pink and pale blue hues were chosen for their tranquil and welcoming qualities—just what many of us are searching for in our modern, stress-filled lives” says Leatrice Eiseman

“Inducing feelings of stability, constancy, comfort and relaxation, the seamless union of Rose Quartz and Serenity creates balance in a chaotic world by providing the perfect counterpoint to the fast-paced, fractured and hurried lives we live”

I am not sure I would be able to relax with a cup of coffee in a Pantone mug which costs £25, whatever colour it was. I suspect there may be pastel colours around here next year when the new baby arrives – but personally I don’t really go in for soft pink as a furnishing colour. The blue is just a little darker than the walls in our lounge and dining room. I do find that a calming shade, I admit.

In case you have forgotten, in 2014 they chose Radiant Orchid [purple] and in 2015, Marsala [reddish brown]

Are you feeling a little blue? or are you ‘in the pink’?

 

Fantastic Festival

Bob and I popped over to West Moors to look at the Tree Festival. It was fairly quiet when we arrived – but teeming with visitors when we left! The church chairs were stacked down the middle, with the all trees round the edge [and tea and coffee in the adjoining room]

So many trees, from lots of different groups – no two alike

Peace was a popular theme, and many trees had decorations on which people could write their Christmas Hopes and Dreams.

Others were covered with decorations hand made by the children [the Scouts were marking their boxing Day Duck Race]

I love the handprint reindeer with goggle eyes, pompom nose and pipecleaner antlers – and the angels with their paper doyley wings.

This Christmas Pudding under the Bowls Club Tree is a decorated bowling ball.

How hard everyone has worked. I suspect this may become an annual event. [and I shall have to start looking for ideas for next year’s UCF arboreal contribution]

Our own tree will go up at home this week I hope…

Pause In Advent 2015 #2

There’s a building site just round the corner. Soon after we moved in, they knocked down the used car dealership, and now they are building an M&S Food place. Watching the demolition, and the digging of the foundations is fascinating. And it is good to see that they take safety very seriously

But what struck me this week was the name of the company who are doing the building – it is on their Hi-Viz vests, and on their vehicles

“Hope and Clay” – it is a family firm, and the boss is, genuinely, called Bob Hope – I don’t know about the Clay part. But what a fabulous name for a construction company – building out of clay, with great hope! I go past this site every time I travel to the church premises, and it struck me that building God’s Kingdom is all about Hope and Clay too.

Christians are just ordinary human beings – not superheroes – but we do have Jesus’ power and love within us – like treasure in clay jars. And He has given us that amazing Hope to share with others. Wow!

Santa Napkin Tutorial

We are doing make-and-take craft tables at the Fayre, so I am going to teach people to make Santa Napkins. An old idea, but dead easy [and if you can’t sew, then you can always stick them together with PVA glue] The instruction sheet is below.

You need white fleece, and red napkins [I got these cheaply from IKEA] some Hama beads, pink felt, and some leaves, [mine are foil sequins, you could use green felt holly leaves, or even mini cake decorations]

The pink felt should be cut into a rectangle 3cm x 6cm. Attach the top circle with loose stitches so it can be removed before the napkin is unfolded and put to use. I found I got the best result sewing the red nose flat, but standing the black eyes on end before I sewed them down. If you are doing this with children and using glue not thread, then goggle eyes work well instead.

A pack of half a dozen of these would make a good gift for someone – or you might sell some at your own Christmas Fayres . They’re a good activity to keep the children busy once term ends.

This is a view of the back, showing how the strips fold down at an angle, in order to give the sloping sides to Santa’s beard.

Do have a go at this one – it is surprisingly effective and not difficult to do!