E is for Evergreen.

Joining Jenny @ off on my tangent

for Alphabe-Thursday

where E is the letter of choice this week.

On The First Day Of Christmas.................

To coin a phrase it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here.
The Byers Choice Carolers are out and in fine voice and today, 6th December in honour of Old St Nick, the Santas arrived laden with sacks of toys and goodies to decorate the dining room mantlepiece.
More about them later in the week.

Like everyone else I have boxes and boxes of Christmas "stuff" in the attic, (not all of it is displayed every year) it's always a joy to unpack the boxes and take a nostalgic trip down memory lane as I decide what will be displayed where, whilst listening to Christmas music CD's.
Christmas Carols from Saint Georges Chapel at Windsor Castle is a particular favourite.

Each year I limit myself to buying just one new item to hang on the tree but when I saw the beautiful hand made, limited edition, 2011 Partridge Nest created by Vicki in her Sacred Yarn Room (ably assisted by her very good friend Mary) on her blog 2 Bags Full my heart did a little flip!

Then when I read that
 "The charitable portion of the proceeds from the sale of this nest will be donated to our local Ronald McDonald House. So many families can't be at home during the holidays because they have sick children in the hospital. These funds will be used to help make their Christmas a little brighter."

I wanted to buy one even more.

Sadly, all the nests that Vicki had created were already spoken for by the time I saw them and I resigned myself to waiting until Christmas 2012 for my Designer nest.
You can imagine how delighted I was when Vicki emailed me to say that one of the reserved nests had not been picked up and it was mine if I wanted it.
In keeping with the Pantomime season it felt like  "Cinders you shall go to the ball!"

The beautiful hand crafted Partridge Nest arrived today and I have spent a very pleasant afternoon fluffing my nest and finding the best place to display it, in all it's gorgeousness.
With the nest came a wonderful glazed pottery pear to sit in the centre of the nest and a partridge ornament to hang on the Christmas tree, these were both made by Susan Jenkins another talented friend of Vicki's.

Click here to find out more about Vicki's amazing hand made nests and perhaps get your name on the list for next year!
Now, if I could only get hold of those Williams Sonoma 12 Days Of Christmas plates...................

Linking this post to Bunny Jean's Wednesday Bunny Hop

Sunday Favourites with Chari.

You may have noticed that I recently changed my header image to reflect the season.
 I may tweak it again during the next few days
 but in case I decide to leave the Bavarian Santa in pride of place
 I thought I'd share with you once more this explanatory post from last year.

I hadn't planned on blogging today as I've been busy decorating the Christmas tree for the dining room and baking more mince pies.
However, a comment left on my last post by a confused Jenny @ Jenny's Bouquets needs addressing tout suite!

This is what Jenny had to say.................

"I want to come to your house for Christmas! But, I can't find the head on your Bavarian Santa in your header. I keep looking for it every day but can't see it. I may be blind. All is beautiful!
Love,

Jenny"

Well, Jenny I'm pleased to say that you aren't going blind.

I do wonder though if anyone else is thinking that I may be displaying a headless St Nick??

The dear old man with his long white beard 

is so beautifully bundled up in his ivory coloured, fur trimmed robe and hood

 that it's very hard to see his little face.

So, here's a closeup.

 He has the bluest, kindest eyes I've ever seen.

A back view and a peek into his sack.

Joining Chari @ Happy To Design

for

D is for ducks.

Picture the scene.................

The Senior Partner and I are walking our dogs, Ben and Fleur,

on the path close to the river bank.

We turned down a track and caught sight of a large pond,

in the middle of nowhere,

that we hadn't come across before.

The conversation went something like this:

Me: Look at all those ducks on that pond, and it's hunting season, too!

SP: They're decoys.

Me: Of course they're not, they're real.

SP: Why aren't they moving then?

Trusty Lumix in hand, I walked nearer to get a better look.

He wasn't wrong!

Can you see, on the right, the overhanging roof of the blind

 where the hunters lie in wait for the real wild ducks to land?

This is the entrance to the blind, on the land side.

 I tried to get inside to get a "birds eye view"(!) but it was locked up tight!

Handing in my D assignment to Mrs Matlock

 for Alphabe - Thursday

@ off on my tangent.

Hope it get's an "A"!

Poor Old Mr Ben!

My little dog - a hearbeat at my feet.

Edith Wharton.

Our sweet little cocker spaniel Ben has been under the weather recently.

A quick trip to the vet's last week resulted in
a 15 day course of antibiotics, for a undiagnosed infection of all four paws,
and a disinfectant foot wash for every other day;
 a five day course of medicine for an ear infection
(which made him ill between 2 o'clock and 4 o'clock every night for 5 nights!),
 sterilizing ear wash and ear drops;
plus his annual vaccination against rabies.

We also had his eyes tested and picked up another bottle of eye drops
to replace the tears his poor old eyes have ceased to produce.

Quite an expensive visit but he's so worth it!

As you can imagine with all of the above to deal with
 plus those 5 nights without much sleep
there hasn't been too much time left over for blogging.
So, I thought I'd let you know
 that my very good friend Sarah @ Hyacinths For The Soul
has written, today, about her visit to us here in Normandy.
Maybe you'd like to pop in and see us all there?
And
My November Book Reviews are on my other blog
just books
if you're looking for something to read during the holiday season.

Seasonal Sunday.

Tomorrow is the first Sunday in Advent 2011 and since I'm nowhere near ready to decorate or even bake Weihnachts Plaetzchen this year I've decided to repost my first Advent Sunday post from 2010.

As today is the First Sunday in Advent I'd like to share a little of my story with you, and introduce you to a wonderful friend of ours.
In 1984 Mr B's career took us to Bavaria, Germany.
We left all our family and friends behind in the UK to start a new life in a new country. Scary.
We threw ourselves wholeheartedly into our new surroundings, making many German friends in our neighbourhood and amongst his work collegues, but the most important friends we made were our landlords and next door neighbours Herr & Frau Wilde.
Over the years we shared many wonderful times with the Wildes, celebrating not only high days and holidays but also day to day life in Pöcking, a small town on the shores of Starnberger See.
Frau Wilde (never Traudl, never "du") sort of adopted me as the daughter she never had.
She taught me many things, like how to play bridge, she is a fanatical bridge player and to this day, if I ever get the chance to play, I always find myself bidding in German! (Vier pik!)
We spent many an afternoon sitting in her "winter garden" as she helped me improve my embroidery, knitting, and German conversation skills all the time enjoying her "kaffee und kuchen".

From top right: Our house
 a favourite woods where we walked our dogs,
Feldafinger Strasse.

The snow season in Bavaria starts around the beginning of December and during our first winter in Pöcking she taught me how to cross country ski on the local golf course in Feldafing.
Did I mention that the lady was born in 1918?

Frau W & me 1991

Perhaps the one thing that Frau Wilde taught me which touched me the deepest was how to celebrate Christmas the Bavarian way,
Her Weihnachts Plaetzchen (Christmas biscuits) such as Zimtsterne and Springerele were legendary.

And so on this First Sunday in Advent and in honour of a much loved lady, I'd like to invite you to "kaffe und kuchen" my way.

My Adventskranz 2010.

Sadly, fresh evergreen wreaths are not easily found here in rural Normandy and so once again this year, a "faux" wreath decorated with white poinsettia flowers and silver pine cones surrounds four classic white Church candles.

The china service is Rosenthal's "Classic Rose" in white, which with its silvery grey design and gold trim complements the Adventskranz beautifully.
Napkins: Spode Christmas tree. (was sonst?)

For you to enjoy during the Adventszeit

 old fashioned mincepies 

and lebkuchen, a very simple iced biscuit similar to gingerbread.

Joining the Tablescaper for Seasonal Sunday # 76

 with this nostalgic look at Christmas past.

Hampton Court Castle - revisited.

Yesterday, I received a surprise email from a member of The British Red Cross Spring Garden Event Committee, Debra Tritton is her name.
It seems that she had come across a post that I wrote back in May about the day the Senior Partner and I had attended the BRCSGE 2011, at Hampton Court Castle in Herefordshire.
Here's a link if you would like to see it: here.
If you google BRCSGE 2011, my post is #6 in the list, who knew?
In 2012 the event is to be held at Berrington Hall, Herefordshire and Ms Tritton very kindly invited me to get in touch with her should we decide to attend the event there.
The Senior Partner and I have already made plans for a vacation next May and it won't be the UK, so sadly we won't be able to go to Berrington and revisit that amazing National Trust property and enjoy one of their amazing cream teas.
I took another look at the May post and enjoyed the event all over again and realised that although I promised to show you the inside of Hampton Court Castle (click on the link to go to the HCC website)I never did write that post.

Well, better late than never!

So sit back, with a cup of your favourite beverage and enjoy a virtual tour of inside Hampton Court Castle.

Warning there are a lot of pix!

The first room that you enter is the Great Hall (pix 1-4)

There are long corridors filled with suits of armour,

 coats of arms, pikes, swords, guns and trophies.

The authentic mediaeval chapel is licensed for weddings.

One of the bedrooms and a large bathroom,

with monogrammed towels.

Another enormous bedroom.

The massive central stone staircase (next 3 pix)

 complete with stuffed lion!

How would you like to celebrate Thanksgiving around this magnificent table?

The Library.

I've added some links in the above text if you would like to learn more about Hampton Court Castle,

they tell the story much better than I can!

If you are ever in the area I can highly recommend a visit to this very quirky and original place.

Joining Bunny Jean for

Bunny Hop Wednesday #16

why not hop on over and meet some new bloggers?