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Category Archives: Christmas decorations

Welcome, Hat and Jolabokaflod

We’ve put up the welcome wreath on the front door just in time.

Our neighbours came round for mince pies, both wearing delightful Christmas hats.

My book from the ShelterBox book club arrived in the post yesterday so I decided to keep it for today, it being Jolabokaflod today (“Jolabokaflod, translating to “Christmas Book Flood,” is a unique and cherished tradition in Iceland, celebrated on Christmas Eve. This tradition involves giving and receiving new books, but its essence lies in the joy of reading them together.)”. We’ve been doing this for the last few years and love it. A lovely Christmas card was included in the package.

The book is The Other Americans by Laila Lalami and I’m about to get stuck into it………

Happy Christmas to all my Dear Readers and especially to my cousins in Australia!

4 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on December 24, 2024 in Christmas, Christmas decorations, craft, friendship, Happiness, Postaday 2024

Wild Seas, Baubles and Christmas Trees

22 Dec

Our lovely Daughter No 1 has been with us today and we went down to the Blue Bar for lunch. Sadly, there was a power cut just after we arrived so after a wild blow for a few moments of watching the waves and the sea foam we came home.

Our neighbours have some crazy bell baubles in their tree that are keeping us amused as they are buffeted by the winds.

Last night at the Pavilions there was the annual Christmas tree display , all decorated by local schools and other groups.

2 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on December 22, 2024 in Christmas, Christmas decorations, community, Cornwall, environment, nature, Porthtowan, Postaday 2024, Uncategorized

Tags: Princess Pavilions

Tree, Lights and A Charity Telethon

15 Dec

Our silver birch tree is up and decorated . Each of the decorations comes with a memory – angels bought in Kennebunkport, St George, Santa Fe, Hawaii and Estes Park among others, angels that were my Mum’s and coppered leaf skeletons from the Grand Canyon.

In the dining room we have a twig with red baubles and starburst lights.

Yesterday, I had a delightful telephone conversation with Hannah Moore of The Guardian. We had rung up to make a contribution to the Guardian charity telethon which is raising money this Christmas for three charities, Médicins Sans Frontières and War Child both of which which we knew about and another, Parallel Histories, which was new to us. This one in particular prompted us to contribute. ‘Established by a history teacher, the charity is developing materials to help schools teach about sensitive and contested conflicts from Northern Ireland to Israel-Palestine.’
Hannah liked my email address and asked why ‘goldenboots’ so I explained and we went on to talk about our mutual love of Doc Marten Boots, that we both enjoy singing in community choirs, about singing sea shanties and I explained about the ones that our fabulous choir leader, Claire Ingleheart, has written about Cornish women.
It was really pleasing that the call wasn’t just get the money details and ring off but a real conversation with a real lovely human being.

Very happy that my blogging friend Ute still loves her glass angel.

4 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on December 15, 2024 in charity, Christmas decorations, Postaday 2024, Uncategorized

Tags: Claire Ingleheart, Hannah Moore, Médicins Sans Frontières, Michael Davies, Parallel Histories, The Guardian, War Child

Puppy, Present and Pruning

14 Dec

We were having coffee in our favourite coffee shop this morning when our favourite puppy, Tobi, went by with our friend N. In they came and just look at those eyes!

We arrived home to find a present on our doorstep. What a glorious Butternut Squash this is and it will make pints of delicious soup. Thank you so much S and M.

My lovely Mr S cut me a branch of our Twisted Hazel that had been waiting to be pruned and I have put all our beaded decorations on it. We bought many of them in Mapoch, the village where we volunteered in 2006, others in Eswatini ( used to be Swaziland ) when we drove through on a later trip.

8 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on December 14, 2024 in art, Christmas decorations, craft, friendship, Mapoch, Postaday 2024, South Africa, Uncategorized

Tags: African beading, Homeground Coffee Shop

Father Christmas, Daffodils and Libraries

12 Dec

It was so dark driving to choir this morning at 8.45 that the Christmas lights in a couple of the villages I go through were still lit up and so lovely to see. At one point I was in a long standstill queue and managed to get a quick photo of Father Christmas.

Our daffodils are opening.

I thought you, Dear Readers, might like to hear about Spellow Library.

Redruth Library Service will be leaving a light on in their window in solidarity with Spellow Library in Liverpool.

In the summer of 2024, Liverpool’s Spellow Library and Community Hub was set alight and destroyed during the race riots and a vital neighbourhood asset was temporarily lost. Tomorrow, Thursday 12 December 2024, Spellow Library will re-open to the public.

To commemorate this, libraries across the country will be lighting up their library ‘bringing back the light’. This will spotlight the essential role our libraries play in the cultural fabric of our towns, cities and villages and reinforce the importance of these sanctuaries of knowledge, sanctuaries which don’t discriminate when it comes to offering a sense of belonging.

After the fire, a young woman started a crowd funder to raise £250 to buy some replacement books. She raised £250,000! So many people were horrified at the thought of burning books and now it’s open again!

5 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on December 12, 2024 in Christmas decorations, Cornwall, Kindness, Postaday 2024, Uncategorized

Tags: Early Cornish daffodils, Spellow Library

Helpers, Signs and Decorations

10 Dec

I love it when the little ones come to Roots and get stuck in to various jobs. This youngster was helping to put compost into pots for the cuttings to be potted on. We also had canine assistance today!

I wrote the names of various winter salads on the paddles I painted last week and prepared another batch of paddles to be written on next week.

Our front inner door has two of our oldest and favourite decorations on it now, one on each side of the original etched glass.

Our Polish Christmas tree

Our American wreath of hearts

2 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on December 10, 2024 in Christmas decorations, community, Cornwall, craft, Postaday 2024

Tags: American decoration, community roots, Polish decoration

Sunset Sky and A Christmas Tree

08 Dec

We have come up to Derriford Hospital in Plymouth again for my lovely Mr S’s check-up after his spine op nine weeks ago. It’s an early appointment so we are staying at the wonderful Hearts Together hospital hotel overnight. There’s a lovely half moon high in the sky.

Sunset through a double glazed window

In the communal dining room

Tree, Angel and Life

05 Dec

I love our tree of lights that the lovely Mr S has put up today, our first Christmas decoration.

I bought this delightful little angel at last Saturday’s market loving that she is made from a local shell, sports the colours of the Suffragettes (purple, white and green) and also the colours of the Suffragists (white, red and green) who believed in non violent action.

A friend sent me today’s poem by Ellen Bass and it moved me to tears. Here it is for you:

To love life, to love it even

when you have no stomach for it

and everything you’ve held dear

crumbles like burnt paper in your hands,

your throat filled with the silt of it.

When grief sits with you, its tropical heat

thickening the air, heavy as water

more fit for gills than lungs;

when grief weights you like your own flesh

only more of it, an obesity of grief,

you think, How can a body withstand this?

Then you hold life like a face

between your palms, a plain face,

no charming smile, no violet eyes,

and you say, yes, I will take you

I will love you, again.

~Ellen Bass

(Book: Mules of Love)

6 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on December 5, 2024 in Christmas, Christmas decorations, poetry, Postaday 2024, Uncategorized

Tags: Ellen Bass, Mules of Love

Switch on of the Lights

30 Nov

A lantern parade, Christmas carols, another outing for our special Story-coat, crowds of jolly people and then the switch on – a splendid evening for Redruth.