Wednesday December 2nd - Advent Calendar 2

Today's treat from the Advent Calendar Drawers is a sachet of Afternoon Tea. In the turmoil of my life at the moment, a "special" cup of tea is very comforting. Very British. I will be comforted!
(Now I can hear "Comfort ye, comfoooort ye, my people" from Messiah singing in my head).

I remember that the first time I read the book of Isaiah in the Bible it seemed to me that he had cribbed it all from Handel's "Messiah".

Two more Advent Calendars appeared by the time I got back from work; a Jacquie Lawson calendar which is now installed on my laptop, and a large village scene. Today's picture on the village scene is this;

 

 



 a very traditional Christmas Candle. (My internal soundtrack has changed to "The people that have walked in darkness have seen a great light" - do you remember how the bass voice "walks" up and down and around in that aria?)

I've abandoned the tiny calendar. It took me far too long to identify what is probably today's window (in the end by elimination; I couldn't read the number on the door, and I couldn't find a "2" anywhere else). When I prised it open, the picture inside was illegible. I have a feeling I gave up on it last year too.

Weirdly, all the flowering cherry trees in the street outside are in full bloom, as though covered in snow. I've no photograph as I am not going to stand in the middle of the road in my dressing gown just to take a picture of a tree. However, here's the first flower on my Christmas Cactus;

It's kind of doing an Advent calendar thing on its own, producing buds and flowers all through December. This flower will last a few days, and then the next bud will be ready to open.  ("There is no rose as sweet, as is the rose that Mary bore" - A Ceremony of Carols, Benjamin Britten, I think. Might not have got the words exactly right.).

Right. Time to finish that cup of coffee, get dressed, plan what I am going to teach the two classes this afternoon, and brace myself for what could be an up-and-down sort of day. First things first, pack my Advent tea safely in my handbag.