Thursday 1 December 2011

Christmas cheer.


Let's have a change of mood eh? Christmas is coming and the turkey's getting fat - so today my daughter-in-law and I paid a visit to our local nursery so that I could buy my Christmas plants. I do like to fill the house with plants over the next month.

I bought a poinsettia, a bowl of hyacinths just peeping through their mossy bed and two beautiful cyclamen - a pink one and a white one, They are so beautiful and it is a joy to walk round the greenhouses just to look at the cyclamen en masse, so I have attached a photograph of one row of cyclamen - there were many rows like this; and I have just been into the sitting room to take a photograph of my poinsettia. In addition, they made me up a lovely holly wreath for my late husband's grave - they didn't have one but made it up while I waited. We are so lucky to have such a good nursery in the area.

The two nurserymen who run it have been on the go for years - I have been going there for twenty years at least and of course, they have grown older as the nursery has too. They are always cheerful and always have a joke. This morning my daughter in law asked one of them how he was as he passed us. His reply? 'Well I think I must be alright because I woke up this morning!'

Another Christmas cake has just come out of the oven (number four). One of my cakes sat awkwardly in the tin and came out of the over with a slope on it! I decided we could eat it early, cut it in half and gave half to Dominic last night. (he is a fruit cake addict). After I had given it to him he suggested I could have instead iced it as a ski slope and found a model skier to put on the top. Good idea but too late as the knife had already been wielded.

Now the house has plants all over and everywhere smells of Christmas cake - what could be better to welcome in December? Light snow is forecast for the weekend in the Pennines and we go out on Sunday for our first Christmas dinner. So, to finish the rhyme I started with...
Please put a penny in the old man's hat! (in other words let us all remember that it is a time for giving and there are so many charities that need our support). I try to choose a charity each Christmas and this year I have decided it will be the Motor Neurone charity - of all the blogs I read the one I consistently enjoy is that of John Gray - Going Gently - and it is a charity dear to his heart.

13 comments:

Elizabeth said...

Yes, I'm beginning to feel quite festive and merry too.
The idea about the ski-slope cake was very inventive and fun. My mother, a great maker of fruitcake with mixed results, would have roared with laughter!

rkbsnana said...

I remember going to the nursery with my mother. She loved it and could keep things alive forever. That's a good idea for a ski-sloped cake for the Christmas season.

Heather said...

You sound well ahead with your preparations for Christmas Pat.
How clever of Dominic not to have mentioned his ski slope idea until after you had cut your cake in half!!

BilboWaggins said...

How did it get to be December? I'm sure it was only May last time I looked ....

H said...

I'm not feeling even a little bit Christmassy yet, in spite of the fact that I have done most of my present shopping.

I do like the idea of the ski slope. That was quite a stroke of genius. What a shame it was too late to act on his suggestion.

H said...

I meant to add that a bit of personal service makes such a difference! Lovely to have such a good nursery nearby!

Elisabeth said...

You are clearly into Christmas already, Pat. I wish I could boast the same. I will need to sneak up on it.

Pondside said...

Such a lovely, Christmassy post, Pat. I'd love to smell some baking in my house, but I guess I'll have to get busy if I'm going to find any of that!

angryparsnip said...

Was the cake with the slope the tropical fruit one ? because if it was that would be so funny a ski slope on a tropical fruit cake !

I am try to finish up some work I need to get done that has been taking me way to long. Hope to put the Christmas lights outside this weekend.
I always have a tree, put out some favorite Christmas cards and a few Poinsettia and Christmas Cactus.

I too like fruit cake although most Americans don't. Lucky you that Dominic loves your fruitcake !

Lovely post !

cheers, parsnip

steven said...

i love december for christmas, the romance of the woods, the snow, and especially for the surfacing of goodness such as you mention here in supporting john's charity. lovely. steven

Cloudia said...

it does smell marvelous over here today!

and yes, waking means the party can continue - great


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Mrs Catch said...

Our Christmas in Australia is very different. No snow here! But similarly, it's a good excuse to get to the nursery. The poinsettia this year is so vivid. Must be the heat. I must get cracking with some Christmas cakes. My aunt always comes over and we make them together. Such a nice season, isn't it.

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