Down Nostalgia Lane

I've been reading on a few of your blogs that for one reason or another quite a few of you, like me, are finding it difficult to keep up with all that has to be done at this time of year.  Today we have finally posted the last of the cards and over the weekend managed to buy a few presents but it is very slow going.  I've been thinking about food for Christmas Day - we nearly always cook a Rose Elliott recipe Red Wine and Chestnut Puree En Croute from her 'Vegetarian Christmas' book but I've been looking at a few other recipes as well.  This got me thinking about childhood Christmases and of all the things I remember most vividly about Christmas Day  preparing the table for dinner is high on the list.  Putting out the place mats and cutlery, laying a cracker and twinkling wine glass beside each place and setting and lighting the candles on the table centre piece which was always angel chimes.

We had this delightful, golden and tinkling ornament for years and years and it was always on the Christmas table even when I was grown up, married and travelling miles to come back home for Christmas Day.  I never knew what happened to the chimes when our old family home was finally cleared but I wanted to re-live that memory.   So I 'googled' Angel Chimes and found them straight away, still being made - one site with a forum of other people's memories of their childhood and the magic of angel chimes.   I found some for sale on Amazon and ordered them on Saturday plus a box of candles.   Today the postman knocked at the door and there was my parcel of nostalgia.

This evening I was able to experience the magic and charm of Angel Chimes.  So now I know of at least one thing that will definitely be on the dinner table on Christmas Day.

White Time

We've had some lovely Spring weather over the last weekend which ended only with this morning's thunder storms. After it was all over I went into the garden to check on the plants fearing that some of the more delicate ones may have been dashed by the heavy rain and hail.

At this time of year the garden turns from its early Spring yellows and oranges to green and white - the daffodils are fast disappearing now as are the mahonia flowers - just the orange of the Berberis flowers glow in the milky morning light. Later the garden will turn to pink, lilac and blue with the aquilegias, hardy geraniums, rhododendrons, buddleias and lavenders but for now it has that crisp freshness of late spring.

The plum tree is full of blossom, the white heather has spread considerably in the last year, the bridal wreath is perfect at the moment.

Over the Easter break we spent a lot of time edging the lawns and splitting and moving plants around.

I'm not a natural gardener although I love gardens and visting them I find I still make lots of mistakes in our garden and we are both guilty of planting things in the wrong place so we have been busy rescuing smaller plants that have been hidden by larger ones - one day I'll get it right!

The lawn still needs lots of attention but at least it has had its first cut of the season. Well, I call it a lawn but really lawns should be lush, green, well shaped and striped - so really it is just grass with daisies, dandelions and moss thrown in for good measure.

The tomatoes, beetroot and lettuce are growing in the greenhouse and cauliflowers and brussels sprouts have been planted in the raised beds.

Still on a white theme I was interested to read that 'A Whiter Shade of Pale' by Procol Harum has been declared the most played record of the last 75 years. I still have my copy! Although it hasn't been played for years. I decided I had to find it and got out all my old records and went on a nostalgia trip.

So there it is, the bottom orange Deram records cover, nestling alongside, 'This Wheel's on Fire' by Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger and the Trinity, 'Where do you go to (my lovely)' by Peter Sarstedt, 'Go Now' by The Moody Blues, 'Waterloo Sunset' by The Kinks and many others that remind me of the 60s, school discos, the youth club, the amateur dramatic society, Ready Steady Go on TV, films staring Terence Stamp, Julie Christie, Glenda Jackson and David Hemmings, Petticoat magazine, boutiques and minis - both skirts and cars and longing to look like Francoise Hardy. I've put some of them on my playlist in amongst the Bach, U2 and etc so you can listen if you want.

Edit 18/4/09 - I've changed the plum blossom photo to one I took this evening - whilst trying to photograph the bee.