Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Happy Christmas everyone (now with added Den!)

Christmas morning started well with us watching the animated version of Father Christmas, released in 1991 with music by someone very special - my husband, Mike Hewer!  Now I'm off out for a run before the day gets into full swing (wearing red and white stripey tights and a sparkly Santa hat to keep up my tradition of looking very silly at this time of year).

Our Christmas tree 2012
Here's our Christmas tree bedecked with an eclectic mix of some of our favourite ornaments collected over many years.  Lots of them are handmade by me and or mum.  All of them have memories attached.  Although I put up the majority of the decorations around the house by myself, it's always been a tradition that Mike and I dress the tree together which makes it extra special.

This year we had to buy a new stand as the old one had rusted away.  It has a large reservoir for water to keep the tree fresh for longer.  It didn't take Tinker long to suss it out as a new drinking bowl!

Tinky drinkies!

The weather may not be very festive (ie blowing a gale and raining) but I managed to dodge the showers when we first got up to take a few photos of plants and shrubs in flower so here they are:

This little Parahebe has been flowering for months
Bergenia (aka Elephant's ears)
Primula vulgaris
Helleborus foetidus
Vinca major 
Viburnum grandiflorum (smells divine!)
Last but by no means least we have the beautiful Helleborus niger, aka the Christmas Rose partly because of the time it comes into flower and partly because of a folk story.  The legend was that a young girl had no gift to give baby Jesus and when her tears hit the snow, the flowers sprouted where they fell.  It isn't actually a member of the rose family and belongs to Ranunculaceae so is related to the buttercup!

The pure white flowers are so uplifting on dark days.


A very Happy Christmas to everyone who reads my blog and extra big hugs to those of you who find this time of year challenging for whatever reason. 

I'll leave you with this photo of Den sporting her new hat/scarf.

A festive Everton supporter

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