Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out wild bells and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right.
Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land
Ring in the Christ that is to be.


Alfred, Lord Tennyson   1850

The rest of the house is still in full fig for Christmas, but in the kitchen I just needed a breathing space....

Aaaah....yes.

Thank you so much for reading my blog. I will be back next year..

A bit late for this year perhaps, but here is a nice solution to the How to tell them about Santa question. (This is not my idea and I am sorry I cannot credit it, but I don't remember where I read it.)

When you sense the time is right you take your child to a coffee shop perhaps - somewhere 'grown up' and just with you, if you can. You say you have noticed how much they have grown up this past year, and you have often noticed how kind they can be, so  you think perhaps they are old enough now to learn how to become a Santa.

You describe Santa's job - surprising people with thoughtful gifts and making them happy - and you suggest they give it a trial this Christmas by choosing someone (perhaps a neighbour, or a younger sibling?) figuring out what they might want or need, and getting it to them for Christmas without them knowing who sent it.

The example given was a solitary woman who spoke to no-one and was seen lifting in her morning milk from her doorstep in bare feet. The child had to guess what size slippers etc etc and deliver them without being seen on Christmas Eve.  The writer descibed the look of delight on his child's face when seeing the woman come to her door wearing the slippers as 'unforgettable' and I can believe it.  Whether apocryphal or not, the story appeals as an approach to 'telling the truth' about Father Christmas that may have a lot of mileage in it. It could be seen as a kind of right of passage, which would surely encourage thoughtfulness and unselfishness...

It would certainly be nicer than my experience when my naughty cousin told me 'the truth' in bed on Christmas Eve!

There are quite a few posts about children's Christmas books under Simply Christmas. Here is one with further links within if by chance you have any time to browse!

Waiting for pianist Rudolf Buchbinder and a programme of Beethoven and Bruckner at the Berlin Philharmonic.

Breathtaking!

I've been given the gift of 12 months of the Berlin Phil live concerts available on my laptop - tonight Sir Simon Rattle conducting Wagner - extra exciting now that I have actually been there.  See their interesting website here to find out more.

Do you have a favourite musical experience? I do agree with Penny who said in yesterday's comments that music can transcend everything.

The Bach Christmas Oratorio in the Berliner Dom was thrilling.

A dusting of snow on the hills at home today...and here is a poem for the solstice.

I was staying with my artist friend Lynne Cameron who is living and working in Berlin and has an exhibition at Under The Mango Tree Gallery in the attractive Schoneberg district - good restaurants, stylish clothes shops, great coffee shops and a Saturday market with traditional German cakes, Turkish food and Polish specialities, Christmas foliage and amaryllis and masses of mistletoe.

See Lynne's work here and read what she says about the recent tragedy here at The Empathy Blog.

I got back from a wonderful few days in Berlin yesterday afternoon and am so dismayed at how the atmosphere - so friendly, civilized, festive and delightful when we visited this beautiful market on Friday - must have changed to one of horror since the violent attack on innocent people last night.

I am full of admiration for all those Berliners who made a point of attending the Christmas markets today.

A tea break, and a blog break.

Do help yourself to more biscuits.

On the tree on the porch, this year and every year.

Love these.

A snowy day in 2014

Waddeson Manor (2011)

..have snow? (we did in 2010)

A Simple Christmas and a quiet one.

I've been browsing my own Simply Christmas posts and getting tearful.

Someone (it may have been a child) said 'Tears let the sad out' and it's true.

I will post the simplest of posts this season - maybe just photographs - or little references to happy Christmases past like this one.

Some lovely things are planned, and I have friends and family to share them with, and I know you will understand if I go a bit quiet for a while....love to you all from my hearth to yours. Enjoy all the preparations, hug your loved ones and if you are grieving a loss too, I hope you also have the comfort of good friends and good memories.

I made the mistake of starting at 10.30pm and didn't get to bed till 1.30. But I slept well  (the sleep of the righteous?) and am pleased with a good job done before Christmas starts in earnest with a lunch for eight coming up soon..

.
I began by getting rid of everything past its sell by date, then putting like with like. I now know what I have got which is a good start, and can reach everything I need regularly.

When I once had a problem with my shoulder and was getting physiotherapy I deliberately put tea, coffee and all the things I used most often at a slight reach or bend....better than the gym! I still do this.

I have to confess to not doing very well on the cooking front. I'm needing to look afresh at Simply Eat soon....


How did your country do in the PISA tests?  I have always been interested in why the Finns do so well and this blog has an interesting and thoughtful explanation.

Another kind of reverse Advent calendar. You take out the drawer to find (this year) the jokes. When you put the drawer back you reverse it to create a picture of a Christmas tree.

The jokes are the kind that make the children laugh and the adults groan - you know -

Knock knock
Who's there?
Snow
Snow who?
Snow use! I've forgotten my name again!

(At least two shops in my nearest town are collecting for the other kind of reverse calendar.)

....or not.

This is worth a look (thanks Laura) Scroll down to How Private Is Your Personal Information?

And this?

Heeelp!

Have you heard of a reverse advent calendar?

Every day you put something in a box and on Christmas Eve you give it to a food bank or similar..

Nice idea for the children and not too late to start?

This outrageously over-the-top escapist gorgeousness is one of my favourite film clips.

What is yours?

I think the answer to many of life's big questions might be Sometimes.

Is the world a good place? Sometimes.

Am I happy? Sometimes.

Are people essentially good? Sometimes.

Are human beings warlike? Sometimes.

Six year old Scott answers many questions with Maybe or Perhaps or Probly and if you ask him to do something he doesn't want to do he says No thanks with  a simplicty and charm that  disarms you, and you find yourself saying Oh, ok then to his back as he walks off to do whatever it is he'd much rather be doing...

A book intruigingly called Happy. Why More Or Less Everything Is Absolutely Fine  by Derren Brown is on my Christmas wish list. In it is this quotation from Rainer Maria Rilke's Letter To A Young Poet

Things are not all as graspable and sayable
as on the whole we are led to believe.
Most events are unsayable,
occur in a space that no word has ever penetrated

Perhaps this is why we have painting and music, and dance and ritual.

Perhaps.

And why the candle placed in the garden by our daughter tonight on what would have been my husband's birthday says so much more than I can possibly say.