Friday 2 December 2016

Important day tomorrow.

It is market day in our little town and the fruit and  vegetable stalls have a large selection of different kinds of oranges, bags of nuts,holly wreaths - everything connected with Christmas.   It really does begin to feel like Christmas here, particularly as the town is also full of men getting ready for tomorrow's event - the lighting up of the tree and the arrival of Santa Claus.

All the shops have decorated their windows beautifully (I will put photographs on one day if I manage to get into town early enough to get  a view without a crowd of people.)

How different Christmas is today to when we were children.   The farmer talks with great affection of his childhood Christmases (he is one of six and was brought up in the days when spare money went on buying things for the farm).  They each had a stocking hanging above the mantelshelf and each stocking had sweets, nuts, an orange, perhaps a colouring book and some crayons and usually the boys (3) had one big present between them (he talks still of the year they got a large sledge - and it coincided with a very bad winter; what fun they had.)  The three girls would also get the same and one large present between them.   In those days any spare money was ploughed back into the farm.
(it is my theory that one reason there are so many elderly batchelor farmers around here is because they never had any money to spare for girl friends, or for modernising the house.   These days women will just not accept that like they did in the old days).

My friends and I will not be going into town in the morning - it will be busy with children enjoying themselves, the carparks will be full - and in any case it is the monthly church coffee morning in the village  - and a special Christmas one where, as well as the usual coffee and biscuits, K will be selling her delicious home-made mince pies complete with a large blob of brandy butter.   Who would miss that?   It is the farmer's shooting day so I shall hope to buy one for him so that he can sample her cooking when he comes in.

As regards the shooting day, the local Hunt came an hour ago to remind him that they will be hunting in this area tomorrow.   He told them that they would have to watch out, but it is my guess that any fox worth its salt has enough sense to keep well away from the sound of guns, so he will probably go the other way.   In any case,but don't let on to the farmer, I always hope that all game and also foxes escape to fight another day.

Aga working perfectly(touch wood) - so cake number two may be made tomorrow.

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20 comments:

Sharon said...

Sounds like a great Christmas-y market tomorrow. Not much like that here. I miss that. In America things are so far apart you have to drive everywhere. There doesn't seem to be the same hustle and bustle like there is when you go into the town centre and see everyone decorated. I am going to a Christmas Craft Fair tomorrow.

Christmas does seem different now. Maybe it's just because I'm getting older lol. I remember Christmas being a time when we got all those goodies we didn't have the rest of the year. Mum used to put out all sorts things on the sideboard - nuts, dates, figs, chocolates (we only had sweets on Fridays when I was little) and we had fizzy drinks. We didn't get toys the rest of the year so presents were thrilling - I loved colouring books, books, pens etc. Ah the good ol' days!

Have a great weekend

jinxxxygirl said...

Pat we lived in Germany for three years while my husband was in the Army and we loved every minute of it... especially this time of year...And we miss it... Of all the places we've lived.. Germany is the one place we all agree we would like to live...And honestly its just the feeling of the place... if you know what i mean...

Children get and expect waay too much these days... In my honest opinion... but then we have no one else to blame but ourselves... We start them on electronic games and such waay too early... again in my opinion... I guess i have some opinions on the subject...lol Kids today look at a coloring book and wonder what am i suppose to do with this? or blocks or some such thing..i find it very sad... deb

Derek Faulkner said...

Ah, the Hunt are out hunting tomorrow are they. If they're the same as the Hunts down here in Kent, that means that they have an enjoyable day out ignoring the Hunting Ban and killing a fox or two and then write lies in the press that the hunting ban is spoiling their traditional sport.

Terry and Linda said...

YAY! I'm glad everything is back again!

Linda

Heather said...

See a Meet of the local Hunt is always a great sight, but I'm with you about wishing the fox the best of luck.
A good market brings a real buzz to a town. We used to have a very good one until the council sold the site for development. Now we have about 8 or 10 stalls in a roped off bit of a car park. Sad. However, the Farmers' Market is more lively and interesting.
Enjoy your coffee morning, and I hope the farmer gets his mince pie.

Heather said...

That should, of course, have read 'seeing'!

donna baker said...

That all does sound fun except for the fox hunt. I got stockings stuffed with an orange and nuts and lifesavers book too. Not as many gifts as my children did. I spoiled them.

Rachel Phillips said...

Love will find a way. My brothers all married and were paid virtually nothing for working on the farm from when they left school. 2 married farmer's daughters so I guess that helped. May be there was just not enough girls to go around in the Dales.

Joanne Noragon said...

Yea for heat and for Christmas cakes. I think I would give up the cake to have the heat (which I do, now).

coffeeontheporchwithme said...

I'm glad you have heat again! Hunts around here, from what a horse riding friend of mine told me, don't even have a real fox anymore. I think they just use scent to entice the dogs. I fear we gave too much to our two children for Christmas, but then once you had set a precedent, it was hard to reign things in. -Jenn

Cro Magnon said...

Lady Magnon made her Mincemeat yesterday and I told her about orange juice in the pastry. I await the results with relish (but it won't be for another two weeks or so).

Librarian said...

My parents were children in the years after the war, when nobody had much, and they were happy about the smallest gifts which would have made me and my sister, just one generation later, be disappointed with Santa.
I don't have children, but from what I see in shops and in the families of my friends who do have children, Christmas really is much different for them even than it was for me growing up in the 1970s.

Like you, I hope all foxes and other animals survive the weekend - they have it hard enough this time of the year without people and dogs lusting after their blood.

The church coffee morning sounds so nice!

thelma said...

Children are so different these days, it is all electronic, no games on the table, I have a desk in which I collect things for 'people to do', doubt the grandchildren will do it though. ;) they are lost in the world texting their friends or watching films.

Rachel Phillips said...

The foxes will stand a better chance than the feral cats.

Yorkshire Pudding said...

"In those days any spare money was ploughed back into the farm..." So if I purchase a metal detector and visit your farm I should strike lucky.

Elizabeth said...

This all sounds so wonderful!
Yes, we are getting to feel Christmassy here too!

Jennyff said...

What a lovely nostalgic post. Reminded me of similar Christmas times on our farm and how excited and delighted we were with simple presents. Now I'm shocked by the gifts my great nieces 8 and 4 receive for birthdays and Christmas, it's almost obscene, they probably don't remember who gave them what and distorts their sense of value.

Gwil W said...

One year we stayed in a farmhouse in a remote valley in the Tirol. The farmer had wanted a wife and so he went on TV and said so and got himself one. She came all the way from Rumania, to take care of the B&B, drive the tractor, raise the kids, cut the grass with a sickle on the steep slopes, feed the dogs, milk the cows, do the shopping, take the kids to school, and many other things. One of her sons told me to stick my hands up and promptly squirted me with a water pistol. We had a great time. A very nice family.
Maybe Yorkshire farmers should try it too. The Rumanian ladies are not afraid to roll up their sleeves and get stuck in.

The Weaver of Grass said...

Gwil - same applied to me when I married the farmer. In spite of being 60 I fed the calves twice a day and did various other jobs around the farm. I can't do it now and I really miss it - but then so does the farmer.
Rachel - I think you are right about the number of girls. I asked the farmer and he said so too - also he said he was always working and never had time to go courting.
Thanks everyone.

Gwil W said...

You were lucky to find each other. Destiny, perhaps?