25.December.2015

I am writing to wish you a wonderful day – a day full of wonder and light, and to thank you so much for being there. I absolutely love my blog, and blogging and sharing things with all you lovely blog readers. Without you it would no fun at all! You are great! You are fabulous and I love you all!!!

(Wide sweeping arm gestures! Ha!)

❤

I really do you know!

((((((((X))))))))

This is a different kind of friendship, one that spans the globe, and one that feels really very special, full of positivity and support. A place where we can share and discuss creative stuff, and play around with ideas together – I don’t get that in my everyday life, so to have found a place where this can happen …..   is ….. well …….. MAGIC!

And for any of you who are not having a lovely day for whatever reason, know that I am also with you. In my current reality I am truly blessed and my life is full of family and love and joy, but I have known dark times and there were 3 consecutive Christmases (back in the 1980s) when I spent hours on the phone to the Samaritans not knowing how I could get through the next few hours, let alone weeks, months or  years.

They helped me through, they helped me live. I am so very grateful.

Christmas is not a happy time for everybody. It is not a happy time for many. Even if all seems well on the surface and we are putting on a brave face – deep inside, for some of us, at times – it’s crap!

I can never totally shake off those dark times, I still find Christmas difficult, so part of me is right there with you if you are finding it tough. Let’s draw the curtains, put on favourite DVD, get under the duvet with a bottle of something delicious and have a good cry, then a good laugh at some deeply irreverent joke – black humour is the only way forward!

After more good sobbing, let’s eat chocolates, crunch crisps, pig out and have a good old wallow together.

If you are feeling rubbish today and it would help to write it down, go to the  ‘Contact Me’ page and send an email – I don’t know when I will be able to respond but be sure I will read your message and I will answer as soon as I can.

If you are having a wonderful day

HURRAY!!!!!!!!!

That’s just FABULOUS!!!!!! you can tell me about that TOO!!!

LOVE and LIGHT

to all of us

❤

Vase on Monday: red, white and green

Cotoneaster berries and parsley in the Vase this Monday.

Houseplant of the week – white cyclamen grown from seed. It is my houseplant of the week because it is flowering away even though it is stuck on a north-facing bathroom windowsill and reaching up for light.

Joining in with Cathy’s merry band of gardeners at Rambling in the Garden where you can see many beautiful vases from around the world and her charming touch of MAGIC!

I hope you will forgive the poor quality of my photo but the days are so dark here at the moment! and I did not have time to play around and perfect it. Better a poor photo than no photo I thought. I do so love joining in with this meme, I didn’t want to miss it.

The Father Christmas wooden doll has been our family for about 30 years now, given to my daughter by the man himself in her Xmas stocking.

This is about as festive as it is going to get around here, over many years I’ve gradually become almost phobic about the wasteful excesses of Christmas.

CJ At Above the River puts it so much better than I could: 

I’m finding the constant media urgings to get more stuff for Christmas combined with news from the climate change conference an indigestible mixture. I never like the wilder excesses of the festive season. Mountains of packaging, wrapping, plastic that will be in landfill before we know it, rubbishy stuff imported from thousands of miles away. I honestly hate it. I try very hard not to contribute to that bit of the festive season, but I know I’m part of the problem. In my kitchen there is packaging that I didn’t want, didn’t ask for. Gifts that aren’t made in this country. Christmas cards with their toxic inks and wasteful production processes. The planet can’t support it all.

I’m trying very hard to be smaller about everything this year though. More ethically sourced gifts. Food with less packaging. Locally produced things. I don’t mean to cast a shadow over it all, just to think aloud a bit. Over-consumption is nauseating, the shops are making me feel anxious and claustrophobic at the moment. I wish I had a big badge that said, “I’m opting out”. Just some simple gifts for the children, a nice meal, some food with friends. A bit of greenery from the back lane, vegetables from the allotment or a local farm. 

CJ writes so beautifully, her posts as so full of warmth and humour, many have responded to her post with their thoughts and I must say it gives me hope for the planet that there seems to be so many of like-mind … in blogland anyway!

I do hope you are all having a happy, healthy stress-free December.