Jottings 30th December - Christmas and after

 This last week/ten days has been another roller-coaster - busy in preparations, hectic over Christmas, followed by dull, empty days. 

The run-up to Christmas is always full of last minute things to be done - and this year, despite having had nothing else to do for months, seemed worse than ever; knitted presents to finish, potatoes to peel, house to clean (oops, yes, that is something that's been neglected while no one's been visiting).

Christmas itself wasn't how I would have liked it to be, but at the moment it's necessary to make the best of what we're 'allowed', and I think we did. All three sections of our family were in tier three, so it's theoretically possible to continue to meet outdoors, though not in gardens - unfortunately winter isn't the best time for that, so being able to get together inside for one day was brilliant. 

Unfortunately such fun left a big hole to be filled in the days after. The Twixtmas period is always odd, consisting mainly of eating all the chocolates and leftover cake, not ready to pick up everyday life, but it seemed duller, drearier, and much more boring than usual this year. Having moped around the house for a couple of days, the boredom was broken by snow. There wasn't much but I went out and made a tiny snowman!

The next day my elder daughter and grandson came over for a muddy walk to the wood. In part this was because nursery re-opens on Monday, but it was well timed as while we were out the news broke that we're all moving up a tier, so there'll not even be any outdoor meet-ups for a while.

Being at a lose end I'm taking part in the Wildlife Trusts' Twelve Days of Wild. Mainly this involves paying attention to the birds in the garden; breaking the ice on their bath, filling the feeders, listening to the magpies squabble and the pigeons cooing at each other, spotting goldfinches high in the trees, watching the visitors to birdbath and table - robins, blackbirds, great tits (I think), and of course the pigeons. 

One bright morning I cleared away some garden weeds to find snowdrops pushing through, and on our walk to the wood I found hazel catkins, so maybe spring will be here soon. 

Although I'm not throwing myself into plans for New Year quite yet, I'm lining up ideas of things to keep me occupied through the rest of winter, one of which is an attempt at Veganuary, eating no meat or dairy for the whole month - mainly to give me something to focus on, but also to make all the allotment vegetables the main feature of the menu, hopefully for longer than just  one month. It's time as well to give serious consideration to other New Year resolutions, something more definable that my usual vague wishful thinking, but more of those in January!

Jottings - 20th December - a sigh of relief

 I had an up and down week not long ago, but that was plain sailing in comparison to this last week. From day to day we haven't known whether our Christmas plans could go ahead or not.

It started with a minor thing. My elder daughter had been working from home for the last lockdown period, but early in the week her boss decided it was time everyone started going back to the office, and we weren't really happy about meeting up after she'd been mixing with other folks. Fortunately she persuaded them that it wasn't really necessary. Sigh of relief.

Then rumours started up that the government would change its mind about the relaxation of rules over Christmas, but after a couple more days of anxiety, it didn't. We're just to take extra care. Another sigh of relief.

There's always been a bit of a wild card in our plans - my grandson. Of all our three households, he's the one out and about most, at nursery everyday. And on Thursday, his class was sent home to self-isolate, as one of the children had tested positive for coronavirus. That child hadn't been in nursery for a couple of days, so the isolation period will end on Christmas Eve. It was cutting things fine, but all being well, and assuming grandson shows no symptoms, Christmas could go ahead. Another sigh of relief. 

So I started on the indoor decorations - put up the tree, tried to make my tent lights look like a real feature, added more ornaments to the outside tree, then began to think about my Christmas grocery shopping. We had a click and collect slot this week, so we're pretty much stocked on basics, but I'd just assumed I could get another slot for early next week - no such luck. No crisps. No extra chocolate. Luckily my husband decided to keep checking, and found some slots released for Monday. Another sigh of relief. 

Then ... a rapid turn-round from Boris nearly scuppered our Christmas plans completely. Being only allowed to meet on one day means a lot of travelling for my younger daughter, but she decided that, with a nap before she travels home, it's just about doable. We'd all put so many hopes on being able to meet that we'll settle for a few hours together, though as we'd be the same set of households meeting whether for one day or five, I can't understand why we couldn't have those extra days. Another sigh of relief though - but I can't imagine how gutted the folks in Tier 4 must feel.

For years my parents' ill health made Christmas a very hit and miss, messed up affair, but it was never this full of turmoil. When Boris announced another 'address to the nation' for Monday evening I feared more restrictions, but (sigh of relief) he was concerned about lorries backing up outside the closed ports. I'm now crossing my fingers and hoping nothing more can disrupt our plans.

Away from this mess, we've finished Schitt's Creek, rattled through Fleabag (I'm very late coming to this but loved it), and started Christmas movie watching. I'm always on the lookout for new slightly unusual films to add to my seasonal watch list, so I've been checking out ones I've seen recommended on social media - Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (not particularly festive but flashbacks to a Christmas party figure highly), The Bishop's Wife (very sentimental film from 1947 which I found really irritating), Ronin (despite choirs singing in the middle of a car chase, it's not really Christmassy, but it's a good film) - and an old favourite, In Bruges. 

 

Jottings - 13th December - busy doing nothing

 I'm not sure what it is I've been doing this week, but I seem to have been busy all the time while not actually having anything to show for it.

I haven't been out except for a click and collect grocery shop, and for my evening walks close to home.

 I made soup for lunch one day, watched the birds playing in the birdbath, dashed outside to snap photos of a rainbow one morning and several sunsets. It doesn't seem enough to fill seven days, does it? 

Although I'm starting to look forward to Christmas we've only made a token effort so far with Christmas decorations. I pulled last year's tree out of the corner of the garden it's been living in all year, and discovered one side looked almost dead. It's certainly not nice enough to bring inside but just by the patio doors with some sparkly lights on, and it doesn't look too bad. 

Much later than our neighbours, we put lights on the front of the house. They're old, some of the bulbs don't work, and look quite dreadful in comparison to others, but at least we had lights - then the cable got chopped in two by the garage door, and we didn't.

On Friday, as Facebook constantly reminded me, I should have been going out to an As December Falls gig in Nottingham. Obviously it had been cancelled. I wore my seasonally appropriate t-shirt anyway, and 'went along' to a zoom open mic at which my youngest daughter was playing. 

The garden is trying out some seasonal attire too, with both hellebore plants having buds peeping through, perhaps I'll have actual Christmas roses for Christmas.

Looking Forward - to Christmas

I said in my 'jottings' this week that I was starting, after this dreadful year, to look forward to things again. It's not that we're out of the whole coronavuris mess - more that I can see a light at the end of the tunnel and I'm eager to get reach it. Starting to, very cautiously,  plan ahead is lifting my spirits now, so I'm going to be sharing these things that I'm looking forward to. 

First up is Christmas.

I'm not usually much of a Christmas person. I'm not religious, and when I was growing up my family weren't, so it's a time of presents and parties. It's fun when you're small, then again when you have small people of your own - but with both daughters now grown up the excitement had gone. This year though is different.

Being allowed a lockdown window over Christmas has changed everything. After a year of hardly seeing each other, the whole family can be together again. We're fortunate in being a small family - and that none of us have other people we'd like to see. My Manchester-based daughter will be home for the whole period, and we'll be back and forth, visiting and being visited by my older daughter and family most days. Getting together after such a long time apart is more exciting than presents or over-eating.

For now there's planning to be done. Who will be where, and when? What shall we eat? What shall I wear? Can I persuade OH to put on a different Christmas jumper every day? Will there be beds, and chairs for everyone?

And shopping this year is really different. I'd normally buy quite a lot on line, but this year everything is being bought that way, and there are inevitable disappointments - items that were badly labelled and not suitable; spending days trying to decide what precisely to buy, then finding it suddenly out of stock; small businesses so busy that they're having to stop taking orders for a few days while they catch up and parcel things; and the new nightmare that is waiting for those parcels to arrive, because suddenly all deliveries are turning up earlier than expected! No doubt it will all come right in the end. I hope.

I still don't have decorations up! I know this is late by everyone else's standards but we normally have a real rooted tree, so don't decorate till a week or so before Christmas. Last year's tree, still in a pot, has dropped a lot of needles, so is relegated to the patio but with lights to make it look festive. The cable for lights at the front of the house got trapped in the garage door and cut in half, so I'm hoping OH and some tape can fix that. Meanwhile I'll start the 'big clean', making sure there are no unexpected cobwebs lurking in corners of the ceiling, waiting to be spotted once garlands are hung up, and maybe by next weekend the house will start to feel Christmassy.

Jottings 5th December - looking forward

 Last week was a bit of a rollercoaster. This week was definitely on the up.

It feels like suddenly there are things to look forward - a relatively normal family Christmas, a covid vaccine, and hopefully a normal summer next year. I hope it isn't too long before things settle back to their old routine, but even if it takes a while, I feel that now things are moving forward, rather than us just having to hide away.

I always start thinking about Christmas far later than most people seem to. All the neighbours have got their festive lights up (I haven't), and probably all their present-buying finished (I've hardly started!). 

To get the Christmas vibe going, we headed out to Chatsworth on Tuesday, the only really dry day. The House was due to open in its Christmas finery this week, but the local Tier 3 restrictions have called a halt to that. The gardens though are still open, with an illuminated trail leading around various Christmassy features.

Other than that day out, it seems to have been a quiet week with not much happening. Other areas, even parts of Derbyshire, have had snow but there was no such excitement here. Just a lot of cold, damp drizzle interspersed with rain.

Despite that I'm trying to keep up my evening walks, muffled up in scarves and heavy duffel coat, as I've come to appreciate this short time outside before settling down for the evening with my knitting.

In a brief dry spell at weekend I nipped into the garden and clipped some flowers and foliage. The winter jasmine is looking really good this year, with all of it seeming to flower at once rather than higgledy piggledy from now to February, but because of its position against the house walls it can't be seen from inside. It's lovely and cheery though and helps brighten up these dull months, plus remind me that, as Shelley wrote, "If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind".

Chatsworth Garden at Christmas

At this time of year I'd normally be trying to get into the festive mood by visiting the various local stately homes decorated for Christmas. Chatsworth House and Haddon Hall (both privately owned) always have wonderful displays, and the local National Trust properties - Kedleston Hall, Hardwick Hall, and Calke Abbey - all have something going on. Not this year though, or at least not yet. There's a possibility that some may open once Tier 3 restrictions end, but meanwhile there are illuminated gardens to explore.

So, on the one sunny day this week, we headed to Chatsworth, early enough to walk round the wider garden in daylight.

Careful planning and planting means that there are flowers and shrubs in blossom to be found even in December.

Then, as the sun set, we headed back nearer to the house, where rows of ground-level lights led from one illuminated feature to the next.

My photos aren't good but hopefully give an inkling of the atmosphere

The Emperor Fountain was transformed into a giant flame.

The Ring Pond's surrounding hedges completely covered in a net of lights, creating a magical luminous setting for the yews which encircle the pond like witches turned to stone, or tree in this case, for dancing on the Sabbath.

In the distance we'd heard carols being played, and a short tunnel lit with fairy lights led to its source - a grotto of Victorian silhouettes

This was my favourite display - a tree  decorated with huge baubles; simple but so beautiful. 

Because we'd approached the trail from inside the garden rather than outside, this fireplace scene in Flora's Temple was the last display for us rather than the first, but having left the grounds we thought it worth a walk down to see the gateway which  guard the entrance to the house. 

I may not get to see the decorated House this year (it will be the first time in many years) but the gardens were lovely.

Jottings 29th November - rollercoaster

 This last full week of lockdown seems to have been the most unsettled of them all, feeling up one day and down the next. I normally try to abide by the 'change what you can, accept what you can't' maxim, and I think it's got me through this year okay, but this last week it seems to have deserted me.

I've worried about things I can't fix, fretted about coronavirus updates and the government's attitude, and been generally tired and irritable.

To settle myself I've tried to keep occupied, revamping an old skirt during the decreasing daylight hours, playing Lego Lord of the Rings on the Wii once it's dropped dark (Lara Croft was proving too troublesome so I've opted for something easier), putting together lunch from allotment vegetables, going out for walks once rush hour traffic has settled and everyone else is inside, and knitting a cardigan at night while watching tv (Black Mirror and Schitt's Creek this week).

News about the virus has been varied. On the plus side, we'll be able to meet family at Christmas -  there are six of us, in three households, with no grandparents, siblings, or in-laws to consider; for once being a small tight family is a good thing - and a vaccine seems really likely, perhaps even as early as next week for the highest priority cases. On the down side, we're moving from lockdown immediately into Tier 3 - so no quick catch-ups with my daughters, as neither live in the same area, and it's really hit home how long 'normal' life has been disrupted by coronavirus. 

As always I've tried to find little things to cheer me up and help me through this 'down' phase - the Christmas cactus coming into flower, 

the glow of the back garden birch tree in sunshine,

 

the sparkle of morning frost on house and car roofs, 

the bright technicolor display of sunset. These aren't big things but they do help.

To match my mood most of the week was dull and dreary, but Friday, despite the forecast of black cloud, was a day of glorious sunshine. Unfortunately it was too late to organise going out but at sunset I headed up to the playing fields to watch the dramatic sunset. A few minutes of peace in a troublesome week.

To round the week off in a fitting sort of manner, I dyed my hair thinking it would improve the dull lifeless feel it's had of late, and then wasn't happy with the result. When I bought the dye I thought I'd try a different lighter shade, hoping for something not as strident as my usual dark brown. I've ended up with a reddish colour, not a natural-looking brown, not a vibrant red, but a somewhere in between, obviously dyed colour. A bit like the rest of this year, I can't wait to see it go.