The month of December

Started with a visit to the where I used to live in London, in fact walking past the end of my old road, to visit a friend who is involved in an open studio there. It was a lovely chance to eat mince pies and more importantly catch up with her.
A wonderful crisp walk across Blackheath and Greenwich park and knowing that now it's December we can really feel Christmassy.
Eating too many delicious Ecchelfechan
Up and out early to try and finish our Christmas shopping, a successful trip we were back home having bought what was needed by midday.
Wrapping up and sending my Olive Dragonfly Secret Santa gift.
A mismatched week whilst the front room was being decorated - but my it was worth it. Sitting here all decorated and with our Christmas tree is December bliss.
Off to great friends' wedding. Delicious lunch in a local pub, a wonderful service, with the occasional bauble rolling off the Christmas tree, then the reception. Catching up with old friends, some whom I haven't seen for a few years. A lovely way to truly feel festive.
Finally the last week of term. End of term concerts, Reception class nativity complete with arguing Wise Men, class Christmas parties and finally the staff pantomime, Cinderella.
Discovering that what I thought was a book shop very near our home is the most delightful one with it's own reading room and complimentary tea. Ink and Folly I look forward to being a frequent customer.
Meeting dear friends for an annual Christmas meal at Loch Fyne and more importantly catch up.
Most thankful for the above book shop. We managed to find the book we needed for a Blessing in there so no need to go anywhere else.
A quiet day due to end of term exhaustion, sad to miss a dear friends Champagne and Shepherd's Pie party.
A lazy Sunday wrapping presents, Granny Warmth coming up and going out for a local lunch. Then Mama and Papa Warmth coming round for mince pies.
Christmas Eve spent listening to Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King's whilst baking sweets for Christmas day. Peppermint Bark a huge success, discovered from Papermash originally from here. Orange and Cranberry biscotti and Chocolate Kisses.
Christmas Eve supper of M&S turkey, bread sauce, red cabbage, roast potatoes, parsnips as an early Christmas gift to Warmth, we were having beef on Christmas day.
A wet drive down to Twin and the Blessings. Mother was already there. Opening of presents, a short walk in the few moments of dry weather, a delicious lunch, Skype call to Pops who was in Jerusalem, having been in Bethlehem for Christmas Eve and the service there. We sang to Pops and apparently the whole of the hotel lobby heard us. Boxing Day walk followed by delicious leftover lunch and then time for us to pack up and say our festive goodbyes.
Getting ready for hosting Warmth's family for our Christmas celebrations. We ate well and I continued my tradition of making a Chocolate Yule Log.
Having so much food left over that when dear friends came for supper the next day we ate leftovers and still have some leftover. As we hadn't had to cook supper breakfast was baked croque monsieur.
Loving reading Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons, the perfect December read, even though most of the stories aren't about Christmas. Alys, always by Harriet Lane. Instead of a book by Diana Athill - a present for Christmas last year. Devouring Jerusalem by Ottolonghi, a happily received Christmas gift. Now to plan what to cook.

And for today we're going to see A Christmas Carol, then on for cocktails and home to snuggle up and welcome in 2013.

These are the hands

As the bride stood with her father waiting to walk down the aisle on Saturday's wedding this was read.

These are the hands of your best friend, young and strong full of love for you, that are holding yours on your wedding day, as you promise to love each other today, tomorrow, and forever.

These are the hands that will work alongside yours, as together you build your future.

These are the hands that will passionately love you and cherish you through the years, and with the slightest touch, will comfort you like no other.

These are the hands that will hold you when fear or grief fills your mind.

These are the hands that will countless times wipe the tears from your eyes; tears of sorrow, and tears of joy.

These are the hands that will tenderly hold your children.

These are the hands that will help you to hold your family as one.

These are the hands that will give you strength when you need it.

And lastly, these are the hands that even wrinkled and aged, will still be reaching for yours, still giving you the same unspoken tenderness with just a touch.

Traditional Celtic Handfasting Ceremony

hands

The June Roses

We've come back from holiday to find the roses resplendent, not just in our garden but in neighbours as we along the pavements.


"The June roses over the porch were awake bright and early on that morning, rejoicing with all their hearts in the cloudless sunshine, and like friendly little neighbours, as they were. Quite flushed with excitement were their ruddy faces as they swung in the wind, whispering to one another what they had seen; for some peeped in at the dining-room windows, where the feast was spread, some climbed up to nod and smile at the sisters, as they dressed the bride, others waved a welcome to those who came and went on various errands in garden, porch and hall, and all, from the rosiest full-blown flower to the palest baby-bud, offered their tribute of beauty and fragrance to the gentle mistress who had loved and tended them so long." Louisa May Alcott Good Wives

Carry her over the water

We haven't had a gratuitous wedding post recently. How about a spring Friday wedding? Let's take the day off work and celebrate amongst dear friends and family.

Carry Her Over the water

Carry her over the water,

And set her down under the tree,

Where the culvers white all day and all night,

And the winds from every quarter

Sing agreeably, agreeably, agreeably of love.

Put a gold ring on her finger,

And press her close to your heart,

While the fish in the lake their snapshots take,

And the frog, that sanguine singer,

Sing agreeably, agreeably of love.

The streets shall all flock to your marriage,

The houses turn round to look,

The table and chairs say suitable prayers,

And the horses drawing your carriage

Sing agreeably, agreeably of love.

W.H. Auden

The bride

smile

We'll be offered these drinks.

 drink


Hmm now what shall I wear?

How about this dress with a swish of red lips and the glimmer of a red sole?
What will you wear?

Her pearls, her satin train

It took me a long time to read The Ladies of Lyndon finally I finished it. There's alot about marriage in it and as it's the anniversary of our first date and engagement I thought we'd have these passages.

The silence in which she drove with her father to the church was comforting and lovely.

John, handsome and competent as ever, waited for her at the chancel steps, and at the sight of his cheerful self-possession she became more collected. While the clergyman was haranguing them about those carnal lusts of which the bride is supposed to know nothing, she reflected composedly that John ought really to be married as often as possible, he did it so well.

waiting

As she returned down the aisle Mendelson's triumph seemed to epitomise her own satisfaction in her beautiful behaviour. She had quitted the maiden state becomingly.

flowers

They had drawn up before the Cocks's door, triumphant with its gala awning and crimson carpet. It was flung wide by beaming maidservants and John handed Agatha and her lilies, her pearls, her satin train and lace veil, out of the car.

She was already rather tired of hearing her new name.

bride

John twitched her train into becoming folds round her feet and assumed the posture of happy groom at her side.

happy

"I've not crushed your flowers," he murmured in her ear as a bevvy of bridesmaids flocked into the room. "Isn't that exemplary in a bridegroom?" Margaret Kennedy The Ladies of Lyndon

crushed

White Blossom

Elizabeth and her German Garden begins on the 7th May and within this day we have this quote. No wonder I have so many quotes from this book.

'There are so many bird-cherries round me, great trees with branches sweeping the grass, and they are so wreathed just now with white blossoms the tenderest green that the garden looks like a wedding.' Elizabeth von Arnim Elizabeth and her German Garden

And then I found these beautiful wedding images on Once Wed

Complete, Invincible, Perfect

My dear dear friend marries today.

'Together we shall be complete, invincible, perfect,'

DE Stevenson Miss Buncle's Book

I think the bride will be wearing these beauties....

Christian Louboutin

Mothering Sunday

'Mrs Sedley, you may be sure, clasped her daughter to her heart with all maternal eagerness and affection, running out of the door...to welcome the weeping, trembling young bride... How the floodgates were opened, and mother and daughter wept, when they were together embracing each other...may be readily imagined by every reader who posesses the least sentimental turn. When don't ladies weep? At what occasion of joy, sorrow, or other business of life? and, after such an event as a marriage, mother and daughter were surely at a liberty to give way to sensibility which is as tender as it is refreshing...Good mothers are married over again at their daughters' weddings: and as for subsequent events, who does not know how ultra-maternal grandmothers are? ... Let us respect Amelia and her mama whispering and whimpering and laughing and crying in the parlour and the twilight. 'William Makepeace Thackeray Vanity Fair. pretty little flower

For all our mothers and grandmothers x

A place, a room

My parents have lived in our home for thirty years. I have always loved home yet since the wedding preparations I think of it even more warmly. Those weekends of preparations, arriving the week before the wedding, those final days of preparation, sleeping there the night before, waking in the morning,

leaving the house with Pops...

With these memories I treasure even more the time spent there, part of looking forward to Christmas was being home. How perfect that I read this sentence in the book I was reading over Christmas.

'Is it rational to have a sentiment about a place? A place, a room is just a space enclosed, volume sequestered by concrete and glass.' Simon Mawer The Glass Room

dream home
My answer to this question is a loud resounding YES. What's your answer?

The Month of December

It started with snow... and lots of it...Which meant
I missed going to The Vintage Wedding Dress shop with a dear friend.
We missed going to see my parents... which meant we did lots of Christmas shopping instead.
Winter cocktails with the Best Girls at Skylon - The Winter Warmer kicked quite a punch.
Wanting to be a snowflake having marvelled at The Nutcracker with mother, Twin and Blessing.
Lunch with university girls at Browns.
Festive drinks and pizza with dear friends at Rocket.

Making Cranberry mincemeat for mince pies...
It snowed again which meant...
Walking through the snow to meet up with dear old book club friends, drink mulled wine and eating mince pies and Nigella's Christmas morning muffins.
Buying The Christmas Tree. Then decorating it. And then admiring it.
More mulled wine and mince pies this time at Beas.
Christmas events at school. Our class Nativity tableau, Christmas Parties, Staff Panto.
Morning coffee in Forest Hill.

As part of trying to be productive this Christmas holiday I went along to Somerset House to see the Rene Grau exhibition on Dior illustrations. It was lovely to walk past the ice skating.

Diorama 1955

Books read - The Glass Room by Simon Mawer, Miss Buncle's Book by DE Stevenson (my Persephone secret santa).
Films watched Joyeaux Noel and Elf on Christmas Eve in front of the sparkling Christmas tree. United 93, The Reader. A most enjoyable time watching Upstairs Downstairs on BBCiplayer whilst Warmth was at work.

Shopping - bought not one but two pairs of boots - quite different ones and there was 25% off them both - so I saved money. However with the snow it took along time to wear one pair. Thankfully neither of them are in the sales - phew right decision. Good sale shopping at SpaceNK too.

Christmas Day in Kent with my family, The Blessings were on good Christmas form, Boxing Day over eating - family friends for lunch and then a drive up to London to see Granny Warmth. Huge Boxing Day tea there including Mama Warmth retelling The Story On Top of the Christmas Cake. (There's a whole post in this but basically each year there are topical (both family and news worthy) events illustrated on top. This year an errupting volcano, the Chilean miners, a 'No to university fees' protesting Father Christmas, and then when the cricket really did go well a cricketer appeared!)

Christmas cooking on the 26th for Family Warmth.
Parsnip and Stilton Soup, Turkey, Ham and Cranberry pie, Aubergine Involtini, green salads (on my insistence), potato salad and pasta salad. Christmas Pavlova, a disastrous caramalised clementine pudding, delicious Neal's Yard cheeses and then devouring a large box of Quality Street.

New Year's Eve tapas with dear friends and then back to our own homes for fizz and welcoming in 2011

What is a Marriage?

"What is a marriage? Words. A commitment. We pledge ourselves to someone else. It is probably the most significant commitment any of us can make, and it depends on our moral determination to honour it. A declaration of marriage does not mean: 'We are man and wife so long as we find each other attractive or compatible; so long as we feel passion for each other; so long as we don;t meet someone more attractive.' It means 'I will be woth you whatever faith brings. I will stay loyal to you. When you need me, I'll be there. When things are tough, I won't walk away.' A marriage can begin in attraction, shared interests or common destiny, but by moralizing the bond it lifts it to an altogether different plane. A personal commitment is stronger than passion, emotion or attraction. It is a pledge to spend a life together, come what may." Chief Rabbi Jonathon Sacks Celebrating Life

Alternative Wedding Flower Love

peony love
stem vase love

floral tin can love

Hope you've enjoyed this week.

A ring glimmers on your hand

No I'll not take the half...

No, I'll not take the half of anything!

Give me the whole sky! The far-flung earth!

Seas and rivers and mountain avalanches -

All these are mine! I'll accept no less!

No, life, you cannot woo me with a part.

Let it be all or nothing! I can shoulder that!

I don't want happiness by halves.

Nor is half of sorrow what I want.

Yet there's a pillow I would dhare,

Where gently pressed against a cheek,

Like a helpless star, a falling star,

A ring glimmers on your hand.

Yevgeny Yevtushenko

Oh to have had abundant candles and fairy lights....

(Alas being a 14th cemtury tithe barn there were no candles allowed anywhere vaguely in the vicinity.)

candles

dancing by fairy light

candles


lights

I do not love you...

I do not love you...

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,

or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.

I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,

in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms

but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;

thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,

risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.

I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;

so I love you because I know no other way

that this: where I does not exist, nor you,

so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,

so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

Pablo Neruda

Oh to have had balloons... Hanging from the trees outside The Barn.

balloons
romantic balloons

balloons

mailto:b@lloons

Touched by an Angel

Touched by an Angel

We, unaccustomed to courage

exiles from delight

live coiled in shells of loneliness

until love leaves its high holy temple

and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.

Love arrives

and in its train comes ecstasies

old memories of pleasure

ancient histories of pain.

Yet if we are bold,

love strikes away the chains of fear

from our souls.

We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love's light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see

that love costs all we are

and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.

Maya Angelou

I was never going to wear a veil. But oh how I would have loved to wear a birdcage frou frou head piece. Why didn't I? Warmth wouldn't have appreciated, or like it, and this was our wedding, not my wedding.

So here are some day dreams...

etsy

Wallis Simpson

A while ago we had a week of not used wedding passages. I decided on a winter week as we had a summer wedding - but oh how lovely to have a winter wedding. We had a country wedding yet we live in London - but oh how lovely to have experienced marrying in a city.

So the theme of this week is my imagination and planning a second wedding same man daydream.

The Confirmation

Yes, yours, my love, is the right human face.

I in my mind had waited this long,

Seeing the false and searching for the true,

Then found you as a traveller finds a place

Of welcome suddenly amid the wrong

Valleys and rocks and twisting roads. But you,

What shall I call you? A fountain in a waste,

A well of water in a country dry,

Or anything that's honest and good, an eye

That makes the whole world bright. Your open heart,

Simple with giving, gives the primal deed,

The first good world, the blossom, the blowing seed,

The hearth, the steadfast land, the wandering sea.

Not beautiful or rare in every part.

But like yourself, as they were meant to be.

Edwin Muir

An alternative dress, Wallis Simpson - no idea if it would suit me but I love it.

David Fielden

Julie Kim

And a real bride wearing it.

After the wedding

'After the wedding, they had left London. There they had learned one another. They had learned every inch of their bodies; they had learned every look, every tone, every inflection of the voice; they had learned one another's tastes, thoughts, responses.' Penelope Lively Consequences @
One year on from our wedding we've moved, from West London to South East London. This flat is where we have learned about each other. I have learned about me, I have learned about us.

Sorry slipped back into memory land wth this post, but I do love this quote, and Penelope Lively too.

He Wishes for...

To end this wedding feast memory lane...

I have always loved this poem and Warmth went on about not really understanding it, what was it all about. Still we had it on one of the tables. And then... he read it to me as part of his speech....

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
W.B. Yeats

Thank you for indulging me.

22nd August 2009

And so it continues today...

Jose Saramago - Warmth's favourite author
The man and woman over there...you can see that they like each other, that they're fond of each other, that they love each other, you can see that they're happy, look they just smiled.' Jose Saramago Seeing

I Love sleeping...
'At night they slept curled together like two cashews' Anne Tyler Digging to America

We'd watched Life is Beautiful and both loved it. Warmth wrote this in my valentine's card that year.
'Last night, I dreamt about you all night' Life is Beautiful

Old Possoms book of practical cats we both have strong childhood memories of this and it connects to our London life.
The cottagers of Rotherhithe knew something of his fame;
At Hammersmith and Putney people shuddered at his name.
They would fortify the hen-house, lock up the silly goose,
When the rumour ran along the shore:
GROWLTIGER'S ON THE LOOSE!
T.S. Eliot Growltiger's Last Stand

Charles Dickens - my favourite author
'A heart well worth winning, and well won. A heart that, once won, goes through fire and water for the winner, and never changes, and is never daunted.' Charles Dickens Our Mutual Friend

Anna Karenina - Warmth's Valentines day gift to me after we'd been dating a few weeks - I knew he liked me when I received this.
'In their conversationeverything had been said; it had been said that she loved him, and that she would tell her father and mother that he would come tomorrow morning.'

'There were no other eyes like those in the world. There was only one creature in the world who would concentrate for him all the brightness and meaning of life. It was she.'
Leo Tolstoy Anna Karenina

Our first dance
'And when you smile the world is brighter
You touch my hand and I'm a king
Your kiss to me is worth a fortune
Your love for me is everything
Elvis Presley The wonder of You

Madness It Must Be Love for old school friends of Warmth.
As soon as I wake up
Every night, every day
I know that it's you I need
To take the blues away

It must be love, love love...

I read Adam Bede for this passage. It was nearly going to be in our service.

'What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined together to strengthen each other in all sorrow, to share with each other in al gladness, to be one with each other in the silent unspoken memories.' George Eliot Adam Bede

22nd August 2009

Another day of indulgence. As you know Warmth and I both share a love of reading. We wanted to reflect this shared interest in some way. So, on the back of each menu we would write a quote which had meaning for us, and may have meaning for the guests on our table. This will take two days - there were 17 tables...

A favourite book for both of us and a quote to acknowledge that it's not always simple.
'A realisation that the founding principle of exiatence is what we call love, which works itself out sometimes not clearly, not cleanly, not immediately, nonetheless ineleuctably.' Yann Martel The life of Pi

'The Owl and the Pusst-cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea green boat.'
Edward Lear

There had to be Shakespeare. Warmth sent me this play as a 'save the date' for a date at The Globe.
'You see me,... where I stand,
Such as I am. Though for myself alone
I would not be ambitious in my wish
To wish myself much better, yet for you
I would be trebled twenty times myself,
A thousand times more fair, ten thousand times
More rich, that only to stand in your account
I might in virtues, beauties, livings, friends,
Exceed account.'
Shakespeare The Merchant of Venice


The Warmth Family love this musical, and I'm a great musical fan.
'On this night of a thousand stars
Let me take you to heaven's door
Where the music of love's guitars
Plays for evermore.'
Evita

We loved Rapture and she'd become Poet Laureate in 2009.
'as I open the bedroom door. The curtains stir. There you are
on the bed, like a gift, like a touchable dream.'
Carol Ann Duffy - Rapture

Part of our Russian literature reading - Gogol
'Countless as the sands of the sea are human passions.' Gogol

22nd August 2009

Please indulge me as I re-live the memories from this time last year. Photographs a mixture of professional and friends.

Today favourite words from our service.

Thou wilt show me the path of life;
In thy presence is stillness and joy.

Psalm 16:11

'Glorious in His faithfulness'

Praise my soul the king of heaven - Henry Francis Lyte

'My beloved speaks and says to me:

'Arise, my love, my fair one,

and come away;

for now the winter is past,

the rain is over and gone.

The flowers appear on the earth;

the time of singing has come...'

Set me as a seal upon your heart,

as a seal on your arm;

Song of Songs 2:10-13;6,7

'And now, my friends, all that is true, all that is noble, all that is just and pure, all that is lovable and gracious, whatever is excellent and admirable - fill your thoughts with these things.

Philippians 4: 4-9

'Be thou my best thought in the day and the night,

both waking and sleeping, thy presence my light.

Be Thou my Vision Irish Traditional

'Tell out, my soul, the glories of His word:

Firm is His promise, and His mercy sure

Tell out, my soul, the greatness of the Lord

To children's children and for evermore.'

Bishop Timothy Dudley-Smith

The Lord Bless you and keep you,
The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you.
The Lord lift up the light of His countenance upon you,
and give you peace. Amen
John Rutter