Christmas Past

Preparing for my slightly ‘alternative’ Christmas in our new home, otherwise known as ‘the work in progress’ or ‘glorified shed’, has got me thinking about some of the very different Christmases that I’ve had over the years.

Christmas has certainly changed vastly from my childhood, when there weren’t endless high-tech gadgets to add to our lists and we certainly didn’t have anywhere near the amount of money spent on us that is lavished on some of the kids of today!

Presents of my childhood included a farm set, a tea set and a Tiny Tears doll, and relatives usually bought me colouring books, paints or a Knitting Nancy. When I was young I used to write my letter to Santa, then ‘send’ it by burning it on our coal fire. My wish list used to contain simple things such as a Twinkle Annual and accessories for my dolls. One year I did request an ‘In-A-Minute-Cakebake’ that had been advertised on TV. I longed to be able to whip up the cake mix and put it in the ‘magic’ oven, but sadly it never materialised. I was lucky to get a Potter’s Wheel, a Shaker Maker Set and a Perfume Factory over the years, however. We sometimes had a family present too, the best of these being a giant Spirograph set.

Christmas parties featured heavily in my childhood, with the emphasis on the celebration of the season as opposed to the presents. Our school parties used to begin after lunch, with the desks and chairs being pushed back in the classrooms to accommodate party games. When we would normally have been going home, we sat down to tea and then went to the hall for the chosen entertainment of the year – a group performing panto or a magician, for example. At the end of the day, we were sent home with an apple, an orange and a sugar mouse – I can still recall how they set my teeth on edge! Today, school parties often tend to be held during school hours, with kids expected to down party treats almost immediately after their lunch!

Generally Christmas was a long holiday, with shops closed for days and time spent seeing various family members over the festive period. Now Christmas tends to be too rushed – squeezed into one day, blink and you’ll miss it! This is meant to be the Season Of Goodwill, not eat to excess one day and shop ‘til you drop the next!

I loved the Christmases when my children were small – they became magical all over again. They showed wonder at the simplest of things and it was easy to get caught up in their excitement. When my eldest daughter was three, she seemed really content with the contents of her Christmas stocking – colouring pencils, Barbie underwear, chocolate etc – and when asked said she was quite happy with her presents, thank you. She didn’t realise that this was just a taster of things to come and was thoroughly surprised when she went downstairs to find a doll’s house waiting for her. She genuinely would have been happy with just the simple gifts.

 

In recent years it’s become the norm to entertain my mother and mother-in-law on Christmas Day, although one year we did ask other family members to ‘take a turn’ so that we could have just one Christmas away, following a very stressful year. We had a lovely time in a log cabin, walking in the forest and relaxing in a hot tub and it did us all good. Sadly, the other family members didn’t fulfil their role as promised, so we’ve hosted our ‘stay-at-home’ Christmas ever since.

Despite our current, ramshackle, make-do living conditions, we will be entertaining our mum’s as usual this year, along with our children and grandchild. It won’t be an overblown affair, just a few popular Christmas treats and some quality time spent together. After all, isn’t that the real spirit of Christmas? 

A Different Christmas

Like much of life over the past few months, Christmas is likely to be a rather a different, ‘alternative’ affair for us this year.

It’s true to say that over recent years I’ve re-evaluated Christmas anyway, having decided the whole season had been blown out of proportion, and this year brings further limitations.

A few years back I ‘culled’ my Christmas card list, deciding that although it was lovely to remember certain people at this time of year, it was pointless to continue sending greetings to those that I haven’t clapped eyes on since circa 1976! The present list also underwent cutbacks, with the ruthlessness of a struggling chancellor (make of that comment what you will), with only my nearest and dearest on the receiving end of my gifts.

Then there was the whole issue of how much time I wanted to spend in the kitchen. I love a bit of baking when I’m in the mood for it, but don’t want to spend the Christmas season closeted in the kitchen, wiping my fevered brow! This year I don’t even have a kitchen, just an old workbench with a tabletop oven and an old dresser that has to house all necessary crockery as well as basic food items. I will cook our turkey crown and small gammon joint on Christmas Eve leaving just some potatoes and veg to sort out on the big day, when I will make use of some of the great shop-bought desserts that are around.

We may be ‘glamping’ in our glorified shed, but we will still have some family round for the day, after all, Christmas should primarily be about people and not things. Ok we’ll all have to crowd round our meagre heaters to keep warm, but no doubt we’ll be helped along by the odd dram of Christmas spirits. The surroundings may be strange, but I’m sure the atmosphere will be as jolly as ever.

And of course, this will be our first country Christmas, making it easy to have a scenic stroll to combat any excesses, although I have to admit, I’ve cut back greatly on the food shopping too. Years ago I did sometimes get carried away with Christmas food shopping, but have modified this in recent times and even more so this year due to lack of storage space.

So as I prepare to celebrate Christmas in my new ‘almost home’, I’ll be looking forward to some family time, accompanied by a modest dinner and the odd glass of cherry brandy, absorbing my new surroundings and just enjoying the moment.

Five Months On

It’s been five months since we moved out of our conventional, suburban home and embarked on our adventure converting an old workshop into a rural, riverside bungalow.

Technically, we’ve only been living in the building for three of those months, as we spent the summer living in our static caravan on its site in East Anglia. We had planned to bring said caravan back down with us when we came, but a few calculations revealed that we couldn’t get it down the bendy lane leading to our home. So since September we’ve been sort of ‘glamping’ in our glorified shed, pretty well making things up as we go along, and trying to work and live in the same space simultaneously.

Up to now living in these conditions has been quite easy, but as winter starts to take hold, things may get a little less comfortable. It’s amazing how quickly living amongst a load of old workbenches, using a small corner of the building as a makeshift kitchen and visiting a relative for a shower has become the new ‘normal’. But dealing with chillier conditions is proving more of a challenge as some of my previous posts have revealed.

However, the landscape and the wildlife are proving as interesting and entertaining as ever – I can observe so much of nature from my window – with even the grey days offering delightful distractions.

Cormorants can often be seen on the riverbank opposite our home, but usually only in small groups of three or four. But one morning recently, we opened the blinds to be greeted by a line of at least 25 of them looking across at us (or so it seemed). Yes, despite the chills and grey days, the wildlife is prolific as ever, which is a cheering thought.

And now of course, we’re preparing for our first Christmas in our new location. Yes we will be entertaining the usual contingent of my mother, mother-in-law, daughter and grandson, in addition to my other daughter and son that still live with us, but arrangements are likely to be a bit ‘alternative’, shall we say.

Still more on that in a future post. I’m off to untie the shoelace that’s holding the washing machine outlet hose over the washbasin and hunt under the workbenches for something that I know I’ve stored in a safe place! Oh the joys of makeshift living!

The Coming Of Winter

December is only days away and the winter weather is already starting to bite. There have already been a few nights when temperatures have plummeted and an icy chill has crept into our ‘not-quite home’.

Living in a former, draughty workshop, whilst we slowly renovate it to create a new, well-equipped residence has already proved quite an experience. But with winter fast approaching, we are about to face even more of a challenge.

Don't want any of this yet thank you!

Progress is sadly quite slow – life just seems to take over, leaving limited time and resources to attack the project with much speed. However, we have organised our surroundings to incorporate the main features you’d expect to find in any home, just in a rather, shall we say, alternative way.

The windows here are single glazed, metal-framed affairs that have seen better days. Breath on them too hard, and you feel a pane of glass may just fall out. The walls are not particularly insulated – there is much to be done in that department – but at least the odd leak we noticed in the roof has been repaired. We realised early on that the key here is to endeavour to maintain a constant temperature by leaving a few well-placed oil-filled, plug-in radiators ticking away, but even so we definitely feel a nip in the air come night time.

In the evenings, we congregate around the electric, log-effect fire whilst dreaming of the log burner that we hope to install. We have piled extra duvets on the beds and have hot water bottles at the ready. Chilly as we may get, there is a definite order in which we have to perform renovation tasks, to end up with the home that we really want, and we are far from the stage of adding a new heating system.

My latest project has been to buy a scrapbook and fill it with pictures and ideas for colour schemes, fixtures and furnishings etc to give us something more tangible to aim for. Browsing it’s pages gives me a warm glow – which is obviously just what I need right now!

Developing A Twitch

From the moment that I arrived at my new riverside home, I was very aware of the huge amount of birdlife that surrounded me.

With our home offering such an expansive view over the river and surrounding countryside, there is certainly a wealth of wildlife to watch. Various gulls ride up and down the river on the tides and circle noisily overhead; swans glide gracefully past, sometimes pausing to rest on the opposite bank; cormorants sit drying their wings on the mudbanks; a lone heron can often been seen on sentry duty at the water’s edge, and was for a time, joined by a couple of egrets.

When all this is playing out right in front of your nose, it’s hard not to develop at least a passing interest in nature. I did wonder whether the novelty of watching the birds would soon wear off, but I’ve become keener than ever, to the extent (and surprise of my husband) that my Christmas list for this year includes a new pair of binoculars!

For me, I suppose this is actually a return to birdwatching – revisiting a pastime that I was encouraged in as a child. We spent many a family holiday, drifting round the Norfolk Broads with my Dad eagerly pointing out various feathered species. I just couldn’t ignore his enthusiasm. I soon learnt to identify the grebes, moorhens, dabchicks etc, and was given the ‘I-Spy Book Of Birds’, which became a holiday staple.

I’ve now progressed to a couple of slightly weightier bird-identification tomes, but remain quite childlike in my excitement when I see something that’s a little unusual. I’m now eagerly trying to identify birdsong, something that’s currently proving a slightly frustrating experience, but hopefully I’ll learn.

So compulsive twitcher I am not, but I do enjoy spending some happy interludes enjoying the constant comings and goings of the birds around my new home.

Adapting To Change

When we initially made the decision to move to a more rural location, I was a little concerned that I would feel somewhat ‘cut-off’ and struggle with the fact that it would take much more planning to go anywhere.

Not to say that I haven’t always loved the countryside to some extent. It’s always provided a perfect haven for family holidays, when I’ve embraced all that it has to offer.

Many years ago we had a lovely holiday in a quite remote, farmhouse location in rural Wales.  I had no problem adapting to the peace and tranquillity of our holiday setting, and felt sad when it was time to leave. What did come as a total shock was the fact that I just couldn’t seem to slot back in to my normal urban life when I returned home. It took me ages to feel any level of normality again.

In more recent years, we’ve made frequent visits to our static caravan in East Anglia, enjoying the countryside setting, returning to the suburban location to which we had then moved.

Despite all of this, however, I didn’t expect to settle in to country life quite so seamlessly, following our latest change of location. I don’t miss much at all about town life and have ventured out to the urban sprawl far less than I would have imagined, choosing instead to enjoy what the village and surrounding countryside have to offer.

I sometimes even feel relief to return here after a busy shopping trip to town, with all the noise and chaos that seems to entail – not that I ever really noticed it that much before!

What's more, my skin has certainly thanked me for the change. My evening cleansing routine yields far less grime than it did in my former life - although it comes as a bit of a shock as to what is revealed during the same regime carried out following a day I've ventured back into town!

Yes, I have certainly adapted very easily to change!

Being Entertained

There’s no doubt that moving to a property that sits on the riverbank has provided me with a stunning view and the opportunity to watch a large variety of wildlife on a daily basis.

However, the river has also been the provider of a much wider range of interest than I would have imagined. Depending on weather and tides, I often see boats of all shapes and sizes passing by, but on a couple of occasions they have provided a larger source of entertainment.

One Saturday morning, shortly after arriving here, we were sitting quietly in our new home (such as it is pre-renovation), when our peace was shattered by an almighty bang! I jumped off the sofa, and my son exclaimed, “We’re being shot at!”

The source of this startling interruption? A cannon. Not firing at us, but to herald the arrival of a kind of river carnival. A flotilla of assorted boats decked with flags, carrying a host of eager individuals frantically waving. Off course, we went outside and dutifully waved back, after all it was quite a novel sight (for us anyway).

More recently I wondered why I could suddenly here voices coming from the river on a Sunday morning. Not just voices having a conversation, but amplified voices. When I wandered out to the garden, I could see a number of rowing boats making their way along the river, some with a cox barking orders, not from a traditional megaphone, but via a kind of radio mic. 

In all, 28 boats congregated directly in front of us, then proceeded to start a race, back in the direction from which they’d come. The only problem was we didn’t get to see who won!

I can certainly view much more of life from my current home, than I ever could from my suburban dwelling that delivered nothing more than the sight of the odd pedestrian or car passing by and a few bedraggled starlings in the garden. The river itself is constantly changing with the tides and whilst their are some regular wildlife visitors, other creatures just seem to pass through.

And of course there are things going on in the village itself. There are two pubs which offer entertainment and the odd community event, and a recent sign in a nearby field heralded a forthcoming ploughing match!

The pace here is slower and we tend to stop and watch the more simple things in life, which give us as much (or more) pleasure than the bustle of town can often offer. It may not be ‘full-on’ entertainment, but for us it’s a great novelty!