We sing this lovely song, Solstice Carole, and the following one, words by the poet Lemm Sissay, which was sung this morning at Stone Henge for the solstice.
We have just returned from seeing a local theatre company performing a charming story about the Solstice.
All our eggs this week (from the supermarket not local as the chickens aren’t laying at the moment) are white and look pretty good in the old egg rack. They won’t taste as good……..
Early clouds over the Penryn River
There were 28 of these birds on the river as the tide went out. I think they may be Canada Geese
Sunset over Carn Brea
Yesterday marked the 20th anniversary of my Dad’s dying after 17 days in a most wonderful hospice. I thought about him yesterday, of course, and today feel his not being here more than usual. There’ve been so many times over the years when I’ve wanted to tell him something and a split second later, remember that I can’t.
This poem by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer just fits for today.
For the Heartbroken
December 8, 2024 by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
I don’t know if there are angels,
but if there are, do they weep for us?
With all the beauty they know could be,
do they weep for all the pain we sow,
weep each time we hurt the world?
I don’t know if there are angels,
but sometimes when my own tears come,
I imagine the angels gather me
in their great and tireless arms,
and their tears mix with mine as they whisper,
That’s right, dear, feel everything.
We feel it all, too. That is why we sing.
Here’s one of my glass angels, for Dad.
Not much sowing or planting going on at Community Roots at the moment so we finished off the Christmas cards that will go out with every veggie bag this week.
Today’s cake was a Christmas tree shaped Lemon Drizzle.
This evening we, The Suitcase Singers, have been singing at Cusgarne Manor. Because it was raining the event was moved into the stables which turned out to have wonderful acoustics. Another splendid evening with a wonderful enthusiastic and very generous audience. Tonight we were collecting for ShelterBox and Georgia’s Voice.
We’ve put lots of shiny baubles on our growing Christmas tree in the garden and love the effect. I popped one of my glass angels at the top.
Primroses are my favourite flowers and finding them in the garden this morning was a delight. This photo is for Nancy.
Hope you will be very happy in your new home. 🙂
After choir this afternoon, we went to a local pub for our annual carol sing. It was brilliant, the crowds loved it especially our rendition of Fairytale of New York. We collect for our charities at all our gigs.
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.
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. 
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!
I love that Daffodils in Cornwall start flowering before Christmas. We bought our first bunches today. I’ll show you them when they have fully opened. 
There was an enormous snow-globe on Lemon Quay today, reminding us of the ones we saw in Lucca in the rain last summer.
We have had such a treat this evening, first singing to entertain the incoming audience and then being the audience for the funniest Christmas show “Christmas. Time.” If you are in Cornwall and get the chance to see them, do go!
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