Outdoor Wednesday and Mistletoe

It’s time for Outdoor Wednesday once again hosted by Susan @ A Southern Daydreamer who last week announced “Starting next week…. and going through the end of December…. I am going to include/encourage everyone to share their outdoor AND indoor Christmas decorations for Outdoor Wednesdays. Greenery in the form of trees, wreaths and garland are from outside…… and they are inside for the holidays… yes, I am stretching the definition of Outdoor Wednesday…. but I can!!!”

On Monday I mentioned our ancient apple tree now totally overwhelmed by mistletoe, which despite looking so pretty and being steeped in tradition, is a parasite,

Click here for another OW post that mentions mistletoe.

From my V&A Christmas list book today: A Christmas greetings card and decorating tips from (Victorian) Cassell’s Family Magazine and a verse from Sir Walter Scott.

The damsel donned her kirtle sheen
The hall was dressed with holly green
Forth to the wood did merry-men go,
To gather in the mistletoe.
Sir Walter Scott.

There are more interesting facts (!) about mistletoe here.

"From the centre of the ceiling of this kitchen, old Wardle had just suspended with his own hands a huge branch of mistletoe, and this same branch of mistletoe instantaneously gave rise to a scene of general and most delightful struggling and confusion; in the midst of which, Mr. Pickwick, with a gallantry that would have done honour to a descendant of Lady Tollimglower herself, took the old lady by the hand, led her beneath the mystic branch, and saluted her in all courtesy and decorum."
--The Pickwick Papers

'Tis the season to be jolly.........

‘Tis the season to be jolly.....................
and so I created two mosaics of some of my favourite ruby red Christmas tree baubles to share
with everyone at Mary's Ruby Tuesday @ Work of the Poet, Tam's 3 or more Tuesday @ The Gypsy's Corner and Susan's Deck the Halls Party which is beginning today @ Thoughts From Over The Rainbow.

For many years I have used a Christmas List Book, which I bought during a visit to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, to keep a record of cards and gifts; given and received, festive decorations; where & what, shopping lists and menu’s ; what worked, what didn’t!
The book contains many wonderful Victorian Christmas illustrations and verses and I shall be sharing them with you all during December.

The Victoria and Albert Tree
In 1846, the popular Royals, Queen Victoria and her German Prince, Albert, were illustrated in the Illustrated London News. They were standing with their children around a Christmas Tree. Unlike the previous Royal family, Victoria was very popular with her subjects, and what was done at Court immediately became fashionable - not only in Britain, but with fashion-conscious East Coast American Society. The English Christmas Tree had arrived!
Decorations were still of a 'home-made' variety. Young Ladies spent hours at Christmas Crafts, quilling snowflakes and stars, sewing little pouches for secret gifts and paper baskets with sugared almonds in them. Small bead decorations, fine drawn out silver tinsel came from Germany together with beautiful Angels to sit at the top of the tree. Candles were often placed into wooden hoops for safety.
Mid-Victorian Tree
In 1850's Lauscha began to produce fancy shaped glass bead garlands for the trees, and short garlands made from necklace 'bugles' and beads. These were readily available in Germany but not produced in sufficient quantities to export to Britain. The Rauschgoldengel was a common sight. Literally, 'Tingled-angel', bought from the Thuringian Christmas markets, and dressed in pure gilded tin.
The 1860's English Tree had become more innovative than the delicate trees of earlier decades. Small toys were popularly hung on the branches, but still most gifts were placed on the table under the tree.
Source: The Christmas Archives.

Oh! the weather outside is frightening...............

The weather here in our small corner of Normandy has been really strange these past few days.
Gales, lashing rain and cold with it, flooding in the fields and our garden ponds are overflowing. It's the sort of weather we expect... in January & February, not in November!!
On Friday we had to chauffeur (ORIGIN late 19th cent.(in the general sense [motorist] ): from French, literally ‘stoker’ (by association with steam engines), from chauffer ‘to heat.’—Oxford Dictionary ) Mr Ben to the "Salon de toilettage canin" for his 9.00 am appointment.

The weather turned very nasty as we left the house and soon we were driving through hail which quickly turned into a deluge of ice, very scary.

Don't be fooled by the greenery that you can see in the above mosaic, that's mistletoe which sadly has invaded our ancient apple tree. I'll be blogging more about that for Outdoor Wednesday.

By lunchtime the storm had blown away to be replaced by sunshine & blue skies.

My mosaics today are of trees in our back garden, now stripped of almost every last leaf due to the gales, I found the natural light to be quite amazing.

Please join me in visiting Mary @ The Little Red House for Mosaic Monday, I wonder how many Christmas Mosaics there'll be?

This one’s for Rhonda..........Hungarian Goulash

For last week’s Tablescape Thursday I shared our Sunday evening supper table, complete with hot steaming bowls of Hungarian Goulash.
My sister Rhonda who lives in New South Wales, Australia and is currently suffering temperatures over 40 degrees C, became quite nostalgic when she saw my TT.

I doubt she will ever experience weather cold enough to contemplate making goulash but she has asked me for the recipe and how could I refuse my baby blister?

Click here to see what got her all nostalgic.
The recipe came from “Slowcooker” by Sara Lewis and so I’m linking up today with Debbie's Crockpot Wednesday @Dining With Debbie. Do call around and say hi to Debbie and read all about the mouth watering recipes that you can make, so easily, with your slow cooker.

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This is the author’s description of Hungarian Goulash:
“Goulash is often considered a mild stew although a true Hungarian goulash can be quite fiery since the paprika available in Eastern Europe comes in four strengths. Combine paprika with chilli powder for a hotter dish. Serve with warmed sauerkraut or plain boiled potatoes.”

The recipe:
Serves 4
Preparation time: 25 minutes
Cooking time: 8 to 10 hours
Slow cooker size: standard.
1 tablespoon of sunflower oil
700g (1lb 6oz) pork, diced
1 large onion chopped
150g (5 oz) button mushrooms halved
2 tsp. Paprika, plus extra to garnish
¼tsp. ground cinnamon
¼ tsp. ground allspice
1 tsp caraway seeds
2 tablesp. plain flour
400g (13 oz) can chopped tomatoes
450ml (3/4 pint) hot chicken stock
salt & pepper
sour cream to serve

1) Preheat the slow cooker if necessary. Heat the oil in a frying pan then add the pork, a few pieces at a time, until it has all been added to the pan. Stir in the onion and cook for 5 minutes until lightly browned.
2) Add the mushrooms and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in the spices and the flour and cook for one minute. Mix in the canned tomatoes then bring the mixture to the boil.
3) Transfer the mixture to the slow cooker pot. Stir in the stock and season with salt and pepper, cover with the lid and cook on Low for 8 to 10 hours. (My slow cooker does not have a choice of settings, it’s on or it’s off! I switched mine on and set it for 6 hours after which I tasted the dish. I then cooked it for a further hour).
4) Spoon the goulash onto plates top with spoonfuls of sour cream and sprinkle with a little extra paprika.

Bon appétit

A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg

I'm joining Mary the T @ her Work of the Poet blog for my first Ruby Tuesday party because I want to tell you all about a great book, which I have read many times, and is perfect for getting you in the mood for Christmas.

Head on over to Mary's for more red gorgeousness.

By my favourite author, Fanny Flagg, this real feel good book is "A Redbird Christmas"

Buy it for a dear friend, mother, aunt, sister and an extra copy for yourself, you'll love it!

A village mosaic for Mary

Monday has rolled around again all too quickly, many of my friends will be celebrating Thanksgiving this week and Christmas is but a few short weeks away.
One good thing about Mondays is Mary's get together @the littleredhouse where like minded bloggers share their mosaics.
I'm sure there will be plenty of turkeys on display today but I don't have a single one!
Instead a delightful donkey who lives in my neighbour's garden and is a joy to visit when out on our daily walk around the village.

Thanks to Mary who generously shared her knowledge on how to make my mosaics bigger and for those friends who asked Ben last week what sort of camera the Mrs has now it is a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3 with a Leica lens.

à bien tôt
Maggie

Log fires, tea & books, oh my!

A lighthearted quiz I saw recently asked what do you do on a wet & rainy day?
My answer was, of course, curl up in front of a log fire with a good book and a cup of tea.

Well, that's the kind of weather we're experiencing here in Normandy this week and it will probably stay like this until Spring next year.
Books are on my mind a lot at present and a few days ago I shared with you some of my favourites from 2009.
The one keeping me in front of the fire this weekend is "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows and I'm enjoying reading it very much.

So, for Chari's 31st Sunday Favourites @Happy to Design I'm recycling a post from April this year. Chari is a sweet lady and graciously hosts this Sunday gathering so that we can enjoy blogs we may have missed in the past.

"A friend, Sarah from Texas, commented recently on a book which is sitting on my Shelfari Book Shelf at the side of this page, "The Constant Princess" by Phillipa Gregory, a novel about the life of Anne of Cleves.
I have read most of Phillipa Gregory's historical novels and have to agree with Sarah that this is one of her best.
Today I added two new titles to my book shelf, "Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil" by John Berendt and "More Than Mercer House: Savannah's Jim Williams & His Southern Houses".
I'm sure some of you will have heard about "the Savannah book" even if you haven't yet read it, and if you are considering attending the QCI meeting in 2010 then you must read this book!!
The book introduces us to a variety of Savannah "characters" the most interesting, in my view, being Jim Williams an antiques dealer who saved and restored over 50 houses in a career that began when he was 24 and which spanned 30 years.


He is however, best known as the only person in the state of Georgia ever to be tried four times for the same crime - the alleged murder on May 2, 1981 of his assistant, Danny Lewis Hansford, in Williams's home, Mercer House.
Jim Williams was finally acquitted of the charge and continued to live at Mercer House until his death on January 14, 1990.

Construction on Mercer House, situated on Monterey Square one of Savannah's prettiest, was begun in 1860 by General Hugh Weedon Mercer the great grandfather of the songwriter Johnny Mercer.
After the Civil War, circa 1868 the house was completed by it's new owner John Wilder.



Recently we were lucky to have been able to tour the Mercer Williams House, as it is now known, and it is an absolute jewel of a house.




On the cover of Berendt's book is a picture of "The Bird Girl" statue which once resided in Bonaventure Cemetery but can now be seen in the Owens-Thomas House, a part of the Telfair Museum of Art in Savannah. "

Since I wrote this blog we have been back to Savannah, with our co-hosts Nina & Tom, searching out the best places to show to the QCI members when we gather together there 24 - 27 th October for our Annual meeting next year.

Whilst in Savannah we bought copies of both of these books at E Shaver Booksellers and they were auctioned off at the QCI Farewell Dinner Auction in Dallas last month. I'm not sure who the high bidders were but they do have a treat in store when they open their books.

Bonne dimanche.