How to....start christmas too early

I know there is a rumour that if you start Christmas too early Elves strangle baby reindeers or angels wing drop off but hopefully that's all rubbish as sadly I think that Christmas may have just about started and it's only halfway through November!!! I am trying to get into the festive spirit and believe me I'm doing better then Dr Fred!!!

Today the glorious scent of Christmas filled the house as having soaked the dried fruit for a week in a lethal cocktail of rum, brandy, port and more... I made my Christmas cakes using the time tested and honoured Delia Creole cake recipe. I've tried various different fruit cake recipes over the years but nothing comes close to the Creole one. Its only drawback is as Delia states, is it's too rich to be iced and requires a glazed fruit and nut topping which personally I prefer but Dr Fred misses the marzipan and icing so I'll prob do Delias simpler ordinary cake as well.

But, what really made it feel like Christmas was imminent - as well as baking crimble cakes - was the annual Christmas lantern parade in Amble and as we have a friend visiting us from Australia what better entertainment could we offer!!!! (we really know how to look after our guests).

Wrapping up well we headed downtown - I have never seen so many people in Amble before - and stood amongst the crowds as the parade meandered down Queen Street. I thought it was fab. Four years ago we attended a similar event somewhere deep in the middle of nowhere in the Murray Valley, South Australia and it was a weird experience, snowmen, santa clauses, elves and reindeer against a backdrop of palm trees, blue skies and 35 degree heat! This year was very similar, except the palm trees, blue skies and temperature were not as evident - and somehow it felt a bit more real... the giant Puffin added a touch of surrealism and if it was anywhere but Amble it might have looked ridiculous (ha ha ) -

the christmas theme was Alice in Wonderland and the stilt walkers were dressed accordingly. I love the effort everyone had put into the different floats and costumes and there was a definite party atmosphere so I reckon like it or not Christmas is on us!

I really liked the lanterns, the big Alice ones were really good but I also liked the various little ones and will defo look at how to make one for my window this year.

Oh and we got our first lovely sparkly christmas card yesterday as well so that kinda seals the deal!

I don't usually start christmas until the week before the actual day as it does seem to be a tad over done. I'm not sure I can sustain a festive momentum for five weeks, but in these days of Brexit, Trumpton and controversial X factor contestants we need to enjoy comfort, solace, entertainment where we can so I may dig out the tinsel a little earlier than normal - although the cake still needs a month to mature!

Alesund

Our final destination stop was Alesund. This is a very pretty town in southern Norway built on a peninsula. All the houses are painted pretty colours and a lot of the architecture is all very Art Nouveau based. This is because the town itself was completely burnt to the ground In 1904 by a fire for which they never found the original cause. The whole town had to be rebuilt and this became a huge National Effort and a lot of prominent and up and coming architects flocked to the town to stick there 20 pence in. Consequently the town is very heavily Art Nouveau which was very fashionable at the time. There is this wonderful Museum just off the harbour which is a very beautiful Art Nouveau house. It has amazing panelling, doors, wallpaper, and it's all furnished with beautiful art Nouveau Furniture. It also house a collection of of enameled Art Nouveau Trinkets,boxes, spoons, jewellery, very very beautiful. There is an interesting collection of old books and paintings a...

Isle of Bute

Another Landmark Trust tick - this time Ascog House on the Isle of Bute - stunning as always... a very comfortable warm accommodation for the usual 8 suspects. This time we had a wee tower house for Dr Fred and myself - a lovely bedroom up the stairs with a big window and a bathroom al to ourselves - having said that all the other bedrooms in the big house were large and serviced by two bathrooms so there was no hardship for any visitors! The grounds of the house were very extensive with ponds and secret passages - hidden paths and we even spotted a deer late afternoon - there were lots of old features - ornate staircases and a lovely hidden door which I did a quick sketch of. Bute provided quite a lot of entertainment as well - the weather was kind and we did a a muddy wander down the south of the Island taking in St Blanes Monastery and Kilcannon Bay. The views were spectacular and it was fabulous to be out in the fresh (and it was fresh on the tops) air and we...

The Blue Dot

Excellent evening spent at the first Blue Dot festival held at Jodrell Bank. Clever use of the radio telescope as back drop for the main stage... there were some major teething issues which hopefully will addressed if this event happens again - mainly access and parking.. it was a nightmare approach to the festival and fortunately as we were only doing one night we decided to ditch the car and chose to walk the last mile and half into the site... what a relief as if we had queued we would most certainly missed Public Service Broadcasting which was one of the reasons we were going.. anyway we caught them and then enjoyed fantastic set by Underworld - danced much of the night away in the rain - my trusty solfest poncho almost kept me dry.. it was a splendid evening and the telescope looked brilliant when lit up when it got dark. There was a rather fab "installation" called a luminarium, lack of site information - another hiccup meant we were really lucky to catch it just ...

Planet Ruby Starrs

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