It's a strange time of year. This time when Autumn merges into Winter, when trees fling their newly russet coats to the ground, just a few determined leaves clinging on before giving up and allowing their branches to take on that bare, dark, skeletal outline that looks so glorious against the golden sunsets of early evening.
I feel like one of those leaves clinging firmly on to one season before allowing myself to enter the next. I don't even think about the festive season ahead, except perhaps buying a few cards, until Halloween, Bonfire Night and Armistice Day are all behind us.
I like the gentle calmness of the lingering days, the onset of misty or frosty mornings, the tramping through fallen leaves, the smell of woodsmoke in the air, the geese and starlings flying overhead, the early closing of the day when you can draw the blinds against the gathering gloom outside.
It's like the calm before the storm but when the time comes I will enjoy the inevitable rush and clamour of it all.
Already festive lights have been lit, Christmas Markets have appeared and the shops are full of attractive goods. After the first day of December I will look for presents, buy postage stamps, dig out the address book, write letters, admire the Christmas lights and treat myself to the first mince pie of the festive season, always welcome with a mug of hot chocolate after a winter's walk through the woods, along the canal or by the lake. I hope to seek out a Christmas tree festival in a local church, visit Little Moreton Hall for Piva's Christmas Music concert and certainly visit friends and family and welcome them here too. So many little things to look forward to.
But for now I'm biding my time, taking stock, raking leaves, watching the garden birds, taking gentle walks and in the evenings reading and relaxing.
How do you approach the festive season?
But for now I'm biding my time, taking stock, raking leaves, watching the garden birds, taking gentle walks and in the evenings reading and relaxing.
How do you approach the festive season?
The autumn has so beautiful colours that we don't have in Brazil. They are gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteSandra xXx
Thank you Sandra, the colours have been lovely this year:)
DeleteA lovely post Rosie - I always enjoy the autumn and like you do not really think about Christmas until the 1st of December. For me it loses its magic if I start celebrating and preparing too early. I get so annoyed with shops and supermarkets when Christmas stuff starts to appear months in advance - Sainsburys have had a Christmas Tree up for more than a week :(
ReplyDeleteI too hope to go to a Christmas or Craft Fayre or two and I always enjoy Christmas Tree Festivals in local churches. Last year I went to a Christmas Music Concert at Middleton Hall which was lovely. Sometimes we go to the Solihull Pantomime, or the Christmas play at Birmingham Rep and on two magical occasions I watched the Nutcracker ballet at the Hippodrome (when my son used to get free tickets!!!!). I also try and pop to one of the local NT properties to see the houses decorated for Christmas. Christmas itself is always a quiet time with just the immediate family and we have our own little customs and traditions.
Having said all that - I may just make the Christmas cake this weekend to give it a few weeks to mature!!! So some things I do do in November!
So many lovely things to look forward to. I really don't like things to start too early either because it does lose the magic. I think we will go to an NT property too, other than Little Moreton, or perhaps Haddon Hall. I always think The Nutcracker is lovely to see near Christmas,I remember seeing it many years ago at the Theatre Royal when I worked in Nottingham. I've decided not to make a Christmas Cake this year as there is only the two of us, I may make a Dundee cake instead:)
DeleteGood idea about the Dundee cake. My son isn't overkeen on rich Christmas cake and he made Dundee one year for New Year and it was lovely :)
DeleteI love Christmas because it means our daughter comes from Japan to be with us. So I'm cleaning her room, wrapping presents, writing cards and next week going to look for a tree.
ReplyDeleteYour daughter visiting is something special to look forward too and prepare for. I hope you get a lovely tree:)
DeleteYou are still in this in between time. And it sounds lovely.
ReplyDeleteHere, we have snow and ice. Plus frigid temps. So winter is fully upon us! And we have no choice but to embrace it. Ready or not! ,-)
I have. And we had our (way too late) Thanksgiving, yesterday. So now, for me, I am happily slipping into the coming Festive Yule/Christmas Season. But gently slipping in...
Since our gift giving is little and easy, I don't face the Gift Getting Frenzy, of so many years past. Nor do I send cards. I like it, pared down to the parts, I really like. Without the Buy, Buy, Buy Siren Song. And without the "Duty" to "Make It Wonderful" for all. :-)
One of the perks of age, say I. :-)))))
✨🎄✨
Oh, yes I like the gently slipping into winter and the festive season as it is a long time after Christmas until we see signs of Spring. I guess we will have snow before too long. Gift giving is easy for us too, just three of gifts to think of. Still send cards but as we age there are fewer each year as a lot of friends and relatives are our age and older:)
DeleteThe past few years we have been going away either in December or for Christmas so a lot of preparations start earlier particularly when I craft cards and gifts. I do enjoy the build up and traditions of a family Christmas.
ReplyDeleteI think if you craft and make a lot of presents and have young ones to think of then you do have to start earlier to make sure everything is ready for delivery well before the day. I love to see the things you have made already on your blog:)
DeleteRosie, I especially appreciate the measured pace of this time in your year because I am so focused on the extra busyness of the sale of our house and the process of purchasing another dwelling. All seems to be falling into place and I am very grateful. Yesterday we celebrated our USA Thanksgiving and today the radio station I am listening to has started playing Christmas music :) I have just had fleeting thoughts of gift giving and card sending!
ReplyDeleteThank you Gracie, I hope the sale of your home goes smoothly and that you have found your new home. It is a very stressful time. I suppose focussing on cards and ifts will help take your mind of all the packing and preparing for a move:)
DeleteI like your description of this transition time as Autumn merges into Winter in nature. I think the colder, murkier weather right now in our area of the UK has helped us prepare for a new season! I try to ignore the early commercialism surrounding Christmas, but look forward to some of the seasonal events you mention that I hope to go to in December. There are the few cards that need to be mailed to relatives abroad. As members of the family confirm the days when they'll visit over the Christmas holiday period that's something to look forward to as the family grows due to grandchildren having long-term friendships.
ReplyDeleteIt was quite a still but grey day here today, murky is the word for it although it was sort of bland and colourless to. Harsher weather is on the way I think, we have tried to avoid the 'glitter' up until now but it's hard to ignore the music in shops so we avoid those as much as possible:)
DeleteI think you have a lovely approach to the festive season. I have been buying a few presents as and when people have told me what they would like. Other than that I haven't really done any planning ahead. I prefer to get 'into it' from December 1st. This year I may watch/ listen to some Christmas music on YouTube as I wrap the presents and I am tempted to read A Christmas Carol as I have only ever watched the films. Have a great weekend Rosie. x
ReplyDeleteIf you know what people want it is best to get it whilst you can as things disappear so quickly from the shops. I have seen several versions of A Christmas Carol and the Muppets version is one of my Christmas favourites. I can't remember reading the book either, perhaps I should. Hope you have had a lovely weekend:)
DeleteA lovely post Rosie mirroring my feelings entirely. I try to keep the festive season to December although these days that has become very hard. I’m dressed up as a Victorian next week helping to delive a Victorian Christmas to over 300 year two children. In November harrumph! B x
ReplyDeleteI think it's lovely that you dress up as it helps the children understand past times. 300 children seems a lot,I hope they visit your kitchen in small groups:) I do worry that the early start and huge commercialism takens the magic out of Christmas for some children it certainly does for me:)
DeleteLovely shot!
ReplyDeleteOffice buildings and malls here hold off with Christmas decorating until after Remembrance Day. Then they seem to go all out.
Thanks William, we've had Christmas lights 'switch ons' in all the local towns this week and a few house decorations have gone up now as well:)
DeleteI can't believe it's nearly Christmas, I'm not at all prepared yet. It will be a mammoth dash about starting next week. Look at the trees, where have all the leaves gone! 😊
ReplyDeleteI think if you basically know what you want the dashing about can add to the fun as long as it isn't stressful. The leaves disappeared so quickly this year:)
DeleteI've spent the morning today wrestling with wrapping paper and sellotape as we have family coming over next weekend to pressie exchange. I've also marzipaned the cake today too.
ReplyDeleteSlow and steady... that's the pace here.
I suppose if you have an early pressie swap you have to be prepared, it sounds as if you have it all under control, slow and steady is good:)
DeleteI'm with you, Rosie, I don't like to think about Christmas until after Remembrance Sunday, there will be no decorations or mince pies here before 1st December and no tree until the day of the winter solstice. I like to enjoy the calm before the storm, too, I like to enjoy the things I like about autumn without wishing it away too quickly. Beautiful words as well as pictures in this post. x
ReplyDeleteThank you Mrs T, I'm glad you feel the same way, I thought that perhaps you would. This calm before the storm adds to the bustle and magic of it all doesn't it? We put our tree up a few days before Christmas too - when I was a child it was always done on Christmas Eve which was very exciting:)
DeleteI start my Christmas shopping early, sometimes in the summer buying little bits and pieces! I can't leave it till December, i'd never get it done! Once December arrives I love to visit all the Christmas markets and go into the nearby cities to see them all decorated :)
ReplyDeleteWe are lucky not to have many presents to buy but it is a good idea to start early if you have lots to buy for and look for offers and discounts through the year. The good thing about having all done early is that you can wander around the shops and just enjoy looking without the stress of having to buy:)
DeleteSuch a lovely post, Rosie, and I am very similar to you in that I enjoy the peace of the natural world around me as it enters a quiet, low-light time of year, before I start to get into the spirit of the festive season with shopping for gifts and goodies to eat. A favourite festive foible of mine is to look out for the arrival of Cherry Bs, the little bottles of cherry wine, which start coming into the stores around now. The rich, ruby taste sums up Christmas for me.
ReplyDelete.
Thank you, Jacqui. I remember CherryBs now you mention them as well as Babysham. I'd no idea they were still made. We've been for a long walk this morning and places are begining to look festive with a slight buzz in the air. It will soon be time to take on that festive spirit:)
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