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.