Just dug out the following, being an essay I wrote years ago about Christmas for a Czech audience. With great embarrassment and very little ado I publish the following noteworthy extracts :

"In Scotland, with the rise of Puritanism, John Knox put an end to Christmas in 1562. Even today, Christmas is celebrated on a lesser scale than in England, partly owing to the Scots inbred Puritanism and partly to our historical tendency to mistrust materialism (which has been misinterpreted by the English as meanness for centuries)."

"Advent sees the brewing of mulled wine (necessary to keep out the cold) and the making of mince pies (necessary to absorb the mulled wine) . Mince pies contain something confusingly called mincemeat."

"Santa Claus (otherwise known as Father Christmas) is of course the popular name for St. Nicholas, the fourth century Saint of children, mariners (and pawnbrokers). The reason Santa Claus wears a thick red coat is thanks to a Coca-Cola advertisement from the 1920s. Before that he was depicted wearing dark, brown furs. Better marketing in red, obviously."

And this about the Christmas dinner:

"The great meal begins. Typically, we spend about one and a half hours filling ourselves up with a mass of rich food without a care in the world for the poor and hungry, and then flop down in front of the telly to watch the James Bond film. Dad falls asleep, snoring, the children start to fight over which toy belongs to whom and Mum murmurs ominously, “That’s the LAST TIME!”. Towards the end of the afternoon, Dad wakes up and continues drinking, Mum does all the washing up and generally everyone gives thanks for yet another wonderful Christmas. Forgotten Aunts and Uncles ring up from obscure towns in the North and the children have to say, “thank you for the lovely present”, even though they have already lost the greetings card attached and can’t remember who sent what (in Britain you must write on the present who it’s from, so that you can be thanked later)."

An's Blog

Anezka (pictured here on the right with the Biggest Mushroom Ever) has enterprisingly started her own little Blog - draciohen - which, by the way, means Dragon's Fire... - however very pink and sweet. Have a look...

Phew. The end of term. No more Christmas parties, invoicing, last lesson goodbyes. Something of a relief. Now it's time to concentrate on home things.

Tomorrow it's y job to chop down this year's Christmas tree - there are several in the garden suitable for this purpose. There's a pretty 8ft silver spruce down near the fence which will still have to come down soon. It's days are counted but at least it will go out with a bang.

The picture shows our village this morning at about 8.30. Minus 8 and it's frost on the bushes, not snow.

At Camp in Autumn with Unknown Fellow Rogue.

The Man.

Elizabeth Claire

Who can make the sweetest harmony for this? I promise we'll play it at the next gig.