Merry Christmas to all and to all a Merry Christmas!

Well here we are, a few days before Christmas.
In fact it is Christmas Eve Eve.
AGA and I are out in the wilds of Burgundy for our Christmas holidays and we are loving it.

We were expecting snow but no snow has come.  In fact it has been somewhat mild.
No hats and mittens.
No woolly coats.

It gets cold at night but the days are quite pleasant (mind you, a friend tells me that in New York the other day it was 20C!)

We are eating well:

And doing a spot of sightseeing:

It just remains for me to wish you all a merry Christmas and we will see each other again in early January.
Bye for now
Kirk

Advent - Week 3

Here it is the third week of Advent already!  Only one more week of work to go and then two and a bit weeks holidays.
And all is back on track at our bijou apartment.
A marzipan coat now adorns the cake:

Colds and flu have been banished.
The Christmas tree has been installed.

Mince pies and spekulatius biscuits are leading the Christmas fare charge:

. . . and all is right with the world.

And so here I sit, the evenings beginning to draw in, and fortified by a mince pie (or two) and a glass of cointreau, I begin to mull things over. . . things such as: What are my favourite Christmas Carols?

I love Christmas carols.  By this I mean real Christmas carols; not 'winter songs'.  

I like winter songs too - my favorite being 'Sleigh Ride' by Leroy Anderson - but that is not what I mean.  I mean Christmas carols: Songs that are specifically meant to be sung in the Christmas season. 

As I understand it, a "carol" was a medieval dance tune which gradually changed in meaning until we know it as a song to be sung in honour of some aspect of Christmas.  I see that carols can also be about winter and there are some for Easter although they are not generally thought of in that sense. To my mind, (and I expect yours too), when the word 'carol' is mentioned we either think of someone's name, or a song to be sung at Christmas.

Anyway, I have been thinking to myself: What are my favourite Christmas carols? I decided for the purpose of this post to choose eight.  Eight Christmas carols that cheer my heart...

It was hard to choose just eight because there are many that I like.  The list started out at six but there were two more that I just couldn't leave out!

. . . and so here they are; in no particular order (and I have included a link at the end of each carol so you can listen to them.  They may not be the best of recordings but they are the best I could find on Youtube):

GOOD KING WENCESLAS

This carol has received a fairly bad press over the years although I don't know why.  I like it a lot.   Written in the Victorian era, it uses as its base a medieval dance tune (an original carol) and joins it with words written to show the value of charity.

The author was John Mason Neale, a very High Church Anglican priest and hymn-writer who at one time was suspected of being an agent of the Pope.  His sister Elizabeth knew my great-grandmother's family and a so-many great aunt joined her in becoming an Anglican nun.

Good King Wenceslas

IN DULCI JUBILO
Some people say that it was composed by the great German early composer, Michael Praetorius but I am not sure if this is correct.  I like the gently lilting music, which are a perfect accompaniment to the Latin words.

In Dulci Jubilo

MINUIT CHRETIENS
This was written by Adolphe Adam (composer of the ballet Giselle) and often translated as 'Oh Holy Night'.  A beautiful carol.  Dignity and purity seem to exude from this work.  I find it very moving.

Oh Holy Night

AWAY IN A MANGER

I thought that this carol was written by an American but I must be mixing it up with another work.  This is the first carol I learnt as a child and for that reason it is special for me.

Away in a Manger

ADESTE FIDELIS

Another carol for which the authorship is in some dispute.  Known in English as Oh Come All Ye Faithful' it is said to have been composed by John Francis Wade, an English Catholic hymn writer who fled to France in the wake of the Jacobite rebellion. I always find this to be a rousing piece.  

Adeste Fidelis

TU SCENDI DALLE STELLE
This one might be my all time favourite.  Written by St Alphonsus Liguori in about 1732 it translates into English as 'You Came a Star from Heaven'.   The lilting tune, the lovely words: what is there not to like in this wonderful piece.

Tu Scendi dalle Stelle

ANGELS WE HAVE HEARD ON HIGH
This is French carol of unknown origin, known as 'Les Anges dans nos campagnes'.  It was translated into English by Bishop Chadwick of Hexham in the Victorian era.  Like Adeste Fideles, I find it to be a rousing carol that gets everyone singing.

Angels We Have Heard On High

MASTERS IN THE HALL

I was surprised to learn that this was written by our old friend William Morris: Our very own Arts and Crafts Christmas carol!  He wrote the 'medieval' lyrics to accompany a much older piece of music, composed by the Baroque composer Marin Marais.  Like many carols this was in fact a dance tune but I guess that such tunes give a pastoral, countryside air to such works, in keeping with the subject matter.  I like this because I think that it does indeed make one think of 'Olde England'.

Masters in the Hall

And finally

SUSSEX CAROL
A carol rescued by Ralph Vaughan Williams.  A song of hope and of joy.  I often find my self singing this while cooking!

Sussex Carol

Now tell me: Do you have some favourite Christmas Carols?
What are they?

Advent: Week 2 and a half

When Robert Burns wrote:

          'The best laid schemes o' mice an' men

          Gang oft agley…'

He might have been writing about me!

Last Friday AGA and I were invited out to dinner with some American friends of ours and as the night drew to a close I began to feel unwell. It felt as though I was coming down with some sort of sniffy cold.

The next day I could barely get out of bed!  Gone were the plans for visiting the Christmas markets, doing a spot of Christmas shopping, and making a few preliminary mince pies…

I felt dreadful: Head pounding, nose blocked, legs weak - the usual thing.

So I stayed in bed.

I thought perhaps that it might be one of 'those 24 hour things': Irritating while they are present but soon gone.

Alas no.  

It remained well entrenched on Sunday; and on Monday I dutifully trotted down to the place I dislike going to the most: "The Doctor's Surgery".  

I went early (7:30 in the morning actually) but whether one is in London, in Melbourne, in Ludlow or in Kaiserswerth, those places are all the same.  Feeling just about ready to ask for the Last Rites, One arrives to find a waiting room seemingly filled to the brim with healthy looking people who give the occasional cough.  

I cast a bleary eye over the happy throng: 

Malingerers!  

Hypochondriacs each and every one of them!!

(With the possible exception of him with the broken arm and that woman over there with the hacking cough) 

I chose a spot in the corner, settled and prepared for the long wait.

There are three doctors in the practice I go to, but the one I usually see is a very nice chap named Herr Rassmann.  He speaks English (which is a bonus) and is a very nice man as well.

Fore-warned is fore-armed and while I don't attend the Doctors' on a regular basis, I do know what it would be like in the waiting room.  That is why I arrived armed with 'The Magic Pudding' by Norman Lindsay: my favourite book to read when feeling unwell.

The one hour I waited until it was my 'turn' to see the Doctor, soon slipped by.

The diagnosis was a viral infection coupled with a bacterial infection, and for good measure an inner ear infection.  No wonder I felt so awful.

And so here it is Wednesday and I am just starting to feel better.  That's what a box of thin torpedo-like pills, coloured a rather nice shade of racing-green does for you, when combined with a box of regulation-white headache tablets, and copious cups of tea.

And as a result, my planned Blog post is somewhat late and somewhat abbreviated.

* * * * * *

These last few days have seen AGA rushing about like a mad thing; combining work and nursing duties.  He is a champ.

But my schemes (like those of Burns' mouse) have gone 'agley':
The Christmas tree is not 'up'
I have not sent Christmas cards to relatives in England.

There are no mince pies yet, and the cake has not been 'marzipanned'.

(Bad colds that occur at Christmas time, are even more of a bother than those that arrive at normal times!)

Anyway, the extremely stormy weather we have had in recent weeks blew away all the cobwebs, and all the leaves too!

I do like the trees when all you can see is there trunks, branches and twigs,  They are asleep for the Winter and there is something magical about the way they look, their branchy splendour revealed for all to gaze upon and wonder!

And the second stage of our Christmas Nativity being in place, I made a special walk down to the Basilica today; not only to see it, but to take a photograph or two for you.  We have moved forward in time to the Annunciation:

The prophet has moved to one side.  Our Lady and the Archangel Gabriel are taking centre stage:

And so to bed. . .

I hope that you enjoyed this little post!

Advent: Week One.

I was extremely busy last week: organising and overseeing the school book fair.  I always think that those two days are going to be easy but they never are.  Even though I am not involved in the buying and selling I seem to spend my entire day in advising book buyers, having chats about books with parents and children, and generally hobnobbing.

Time is passing:


The leaves are almost gone from the trees and suddenly we are in to the first week of Advent.  It is also, officially, the first week of Winter which seems like a good reason to have some non seasonal roses on display in our sitting-room:

I spent part of Saturday preparing our Advent Wreath:

This year I decided to use pine cones (instead of pine branches), autumn leaves, some gilt vine leaves and other bits and bobs to make my arrangement.  I placed it all in an antique brass tray which I think have given it a very nice look.
Here it is (the night before) with the first candle lit:

Over the next week or two I will gradually decorate the apartment for Christmas.  At this stage I decided to bring out our Candle Houses.  We have four here with us. They are made in Germany and while there are many types that can be bought, a major manufacturer is the firm 'Leyk'.  Here is one of their pieces:

And here are two more:

The fourth one that we have kept here in Germany is a different make.  It is modeled on a house in the medieval town of Quedlinburg, which we have visited a few times:

And here it is when lit with a candle:

One side of each house always contains a large opening in to which the tea light candle can be inserted. Candle houses always look so cosy and inviting...

* * * * *

Today I was fortunate to have a day off from school.  I decided to go for a short walk around the town and take some photographs for you.  Not all trees have lost their autumn splendour:

Although these ones in the old town square are completely bare now:

St Suitbertus' Basilica has recently had it's Christmas Tree installed. It was lit when I went to Mass the other night but it was also raining so no photos:

Here is an 'after' and 'before' photo of the basilica interior:

It was a lot more decorated before being hit by a stray bomb during WWII.  I like the way it looked back then, but I also like the way it looks now.

And here is the Advent Wreath, suspended above the Crossing:

They have also begun to set up the Nativity scene:

This represents the Old Testament Prophets who foresaw the Birth of Jesus.  

As the weeks of Advent progress, the Nativity scene will become more and more decorated and developed, continuing right up to Christmas and then beyond that, until the Feast of Epiphany in early February.

I hope you enjoyed this post about my first week of Advent.