This Starts a s a Rant but Calms Down and Gets almost Jolly.....

Everywhere you look Christmas trees and decorations are springing up - it started even in November!!! I think its a sign of the times, people are looking for some joy and colour in a world which feels very hard and austere at the moment... and its true - life for a lot of people is hard, and I worked for many years in a social welfare setting that often sent me home appreciative of what I had - especially at Christmas time. The television is still full of adverts for luxurious presents and supermarkets showing tables groaning with food - totally unrealistic even in a good year - but this year, while every bit of press scaremongers us into thinking the world is ending- we will all die of hypothermia or starvation - we are still encouraged to buy buy buy.. and celebrate this festive season with greed and gluttony - it feels obscene - yes this is a rant - and I am well aware that many - too many- people are in fuel poverty and food prices have escalated beyond commonly acceptable levels - and I want to go out there and riot but nothing changes.. I don't know what the answer is or what to do about it.

This video go kart is doing the rounds and its real - its a tear jerker, sad, but I know real families living like this and not just at Christmas - we are a fortunate family - we have each other and are canny - we are not too materialistic, but we still told the grandchildren that Santa was finding presents expensive this year and goodness me what must the heating bills be like at the north pole - and for that reason this video broke my heart... but well done Sam Teale for bringing a real side of Christmas on show. I'm pretty sure we all have people we wish could sit round the Christmas dinner table with us - worse still its hard to believe that in a first world country some people cant afford a Christmas dinner - let alone presents....

So, on a lighter note although I never start Christmas too early I have decided to be a bit less bah humbug and embrace a little bit of Christmas cheer - starting with a visit to the Neapolitan Nativity at Auckland Castle. It was a good start - even Dr Fred who is bah humbug all through Christmas without fail - was impressed. Displayed in the soon to be Faith Museum next to the castle this giant 4'5m x 2.5m tableau showcases the Adoration complete with trimmings, cherubs, animals, troubadours, inn keepers markets, and general life in 18 century Naples/ Bethlehem. It is absolutely fabulous. Made up of over 400 figures, animals and objects it depicts town and life scenes in incredible detail. Each piece is hand made from wire, hemp, straw, and clay - all hand painted beautifully.

From the toothless hag sat trying to warm herself, the children dancing in the inn to the chap hidden in the wine cellar its a glorious riot of colour and energy. There are fine ladies and gentlemen, musicians, hunters, street sellers - food, rocks, cacti, and much much more. In the middle of all of this explosion of life sits the heavenly family - Baby Jesus in a manger and mum and dad surrounded by the wise men and shepherds who visited this new born king.

You don't have to be a believer to enjoy this story and the fantastic art portraying it - it really is worth a visit. I have spent at least an hour just finding amazing details to look at. There are only a few such enormous Nativities in the world and we are lucky to have one right on our doorstep in Bishop Auckland.

Then we went to look a the 'O Little Town of Bishop Auckland' lots of local buildings cleverly made out of gingerbread on display in the Auckland Tower - a really nice idea put together in a interesting unusual way. We finished our visit with a ginger bread man and mulled apple juice and headed home to a cosy fire and some Christmas card writing - Christmas is on its way - a time I hope for joy and fun - laughter and friends - and while I know this will not be possible for everybody I'd like to think that most people will find a way to maybe leave the worst of the world behind for a few hours...

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...

Autumnal Garden Days

I love these (rare) warm sunny late summer days and there is all sorts of lovely things going on in my garden... I counted 12 red admiral butterflies whizzing around the over grown ivy which I had been about to hack down but then left until the flutterbies have finished with it... The late blooms add a dash of colour and the daisy strewn lawn is littered with autumnal leaves, debris from my brief half an hour of slash and burn and the stone wall is covered in glorious soft moss all shiny and tactile with a few late nasturtiums loitering. I've hacked out the brambles for this year, sadly I missed the fruit as we were away, ditto the strawberries, we never seem to get the fruit before the birds so I've made space and moved the plants that were getting swamped and so not performing to their potential - hopefully next year they will literally blossom now they have light and room to flourish.

Goodbye Dissertation!!!

The dissertation is finished... it took me ages to do all the detail stuff Harvard referencing ect... the simplest tasks were starting to drive me mad!! I cant believe how long it took me to work out how to number pages excluding the first two pages aagghhhh... I suppose I should be grateful that its not like the olden days where you had to get it typed and bound before hand in - this essay has been a hard slog, a subject which I felt was interesting - how the digital explosion is ruining traditional creative methods turned into a fairly unexciting - pretty boring unexceptional topic! there will never be a next time but my advice is think of something funky - does Danny Boyle like garden Gnomes - Racoon meets Lady Gaga - anything that might surprise you but not too grown up!! I have worked hard and will be rewarded with a mid grade because there is no passion in this essay - the hard slog is evident as is the lack of enthusiasm - C'est la vie you cant win them all....

Planet Ruby Starrs

Search This Blog