Hours later at tea-time they reach Granny.
`Here you are at last,’ she cries in fluting reproach, rushing out in her medium-heeled court shoes and wool dress, embracing gingerly as she inhales a waft of dried sick, trying not to wince, as older children tread mud all over the carpet. Read the rest of this entry »
And is it true? And is it true,
This most tremendous tale of all, Seen in a stained-glass window’s hue, A baby in an ox’s stall?
The Maker of the stars and sea Become a Child of earth for me?
One of the eternal debates for the noble army of churchgoers on Christmas Eve is whether to go to midnight mass, early service or matins on Christmas morning. However tired I am, I prefer the former, for the shaming reason that it gets church over with, and because, even more shamingly, if I opt for early service or matins the next day I never make it, and spend the rest of Christmas feeling guilty and somehow as though spiritually I’d gone to bed without cleaning my teeth and taking my make-up off. Read the rest of this entry »
Fennel is generally grown as an annual although in warm climates it is a perennial. The white bulb of the Florence variety can be grated raw into salads, or blanched and baked as a vegetable, while the leaves and seeds of common fennel are useful for their liquorice taste, adding a fresh flavour to fish and cheese. An infusion of fennel leaves is held to be a soothing lotion for bathing tired eyes and a toning skin tonic. Read the rest of this entry »
Knitted garments from the Channel Island of Guernsey, situated between the south coast of England and the north of France, have been popular gifts since the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. The fine quality stockings knitted on the island at that time were often given to the royalty.
The style of tubular knitting which was used to make a Guernsey jumper was developed from the traditional method of knitting stockings Read the rest of this entry »
Christmas generally results in a spate of drinks with the locals, in which you stand about, easing your chilblained feet out of high heels, asphyxiated by everyone’s toiletries, agreeing with grannies that you can’t think how their daughters do it, as little satsumaholics charge out of control through your legs.
No one ever gets off with anyone at Boxing Day drinks, because everyone’s wearing their new Christmas jerseys — in wildly unbecoming colours — so that Rich Great Aunt Phyllis who gave it them can see how thrilled they are with it. Read the rest of this entry »
Not a Beecher’s Brook at Christmas but definitely a rather hairy water-jump. Try and get thank-you letters written on Boxing Day or a dreadful paralysis sets in, and you get sliding- eyed teenagers home for half-term in February saying defensively, ‘Well I definitely wrote, but your writing in the telephone book’s so lousy that I may have read the address wrong.’ Read the rest of this entry »
The arrival of new baby has long been surrounded with traditions and customs. The day, date and time of the birth is said to influence the child’s future. Western cultures look to the zodiac signs for glimpses of what is to come, and in the Orient, Chinese horoscopes with animal symbols, including the cat, tiger, buffalo and monkey, are used. Each person is said to display the same characteristics of the particular animal in whose horoscope year they were born. Read the rest of this entry »
Although Easter and springtime are traditionally times of joy and celebration, Good Friday, the day on which hot cross buns are customarily eaten, is in‑tended to be a solemn occasion; a day of mourning for Christ’s crucifixion. However, the spiced bread from which hot cross buns derive was once an important part of Anglo-Saxon pagan spring festivals and was eaten in hope of a good year to follow. The Ancient Greeks also ate similar buns, each adorned with a horned symbol as an offering to their goddess Eostre, while the Romans ate Bonnor Bonus for the festival of Diana. These incorporated an X inside a circle as a symbol of the sun and four seasons. Read the rest of this entry »
Makes 30 buns
(Prepare a day in advance)
140ml(1/4pt) water
40g (1′/20z) mixed peel
15g (1/20z) cinnamon
15g (1/2oz) mixed spice
15g (1/2oz) ground ginger
50g (2oz) soft brown sugar
85g (3oz) currants
85g (3oz) sultanas Read the rest of this entry »
Easter eggs were traditionally carved from wood or gathered from domestic fowl and decorated. Chocolate eggs became popular in the Victorian era.
Eggs have been a symbols of the spring calendar since pagan times. Long before the egg became a sign of the Resurrection, it was the fertility token of birth and growth. Chocolate, now a popular ingredient for the making of Easter eggs, was also associated with fertility and held to be of great value for its curative powers, by the Aztecs of South America. It was the Aztecs who gave the sweet brown substance its name from their word xococatl — xococ meaning bitter and atl meaning water. Read the rest of this entry »
