Tuesday 23rd November - Slow Down for Advent - HaHaHaNo

 What has gotten into me? I won't keep it up! And I don't really care if I do or if I don't.

So usually I re-read Stephen Cottrell's 'Do nothing, Christmas is Coming', but this year I think I will give it a miss.

I have already joined the usual facebook Advent group and bought the book;

which a random group of people join to read and comment on together.

And then a friend pointed me in the direction of this book;

who could resist a book where a duplo pig lands up in an Advent scene, and I'm dying to know where the buderigar comes in...

There's a knit-a-long which looks interesting - about 10 lines of pattern are released every day in Advent, I have already got enough wool and the needles for the projects - why not join in? I've already tried the tutorial pattern, to teach 'twisted stitches' - in fact I'm on my third version. I'm not Completely Insane; I haven't started going in for miniature knitted jumpers for doll's houses. I shall knit the adult version to make a cowl.

The tutorial is for a little Christmas ornament with a raised Christmas Tree pattern. The one on the left uses Shetland wool and twisted stitches, which do look better; I made the one on the right with a different yarn and ordinary knit and purl. I just wanted to check whether twisting the stitches was worth the effort. It is. I shall stuff them it with a lavender bag as a Christmas presents for someone. 

Finally, (no, probably not finally!)

I am trying to re-motivate a piano student who has gone completely off the boil by challenging her to match my own practices. Well - that's put me on the spot - I can't remember the last time I managed a regular piano practice regime. Anyway, here's my 'star chart' with this morning all filled in and star awarded.

She and I are both committed to scales, sight-reading (from a Grade 6 tutor called 'Right@Sight, harder than I expected!), a piece to study properly and a piece to fiddle with every day. I have emailed her my chart, and also what I did in today's study to show her how I mark up the music, dividing it into sections and then going through the chunk for today. 

 And here's today's 'fiddling about' piece; The plan is to play through this book, one piece each day, just for playing experience and repertoire. If I like the piece I migt put a bit more effort in...

She has got a similar set of things to go through; the Grade 4 Right@Sight, scales, a piece from the Burgmuller studies, a Kabalevsky 'Fairy Story' to learn, and any of the Grade 6 pieces from her exam book 'for fun'. 

Here's hoping that this will get both of us back on track. Actually, I am feeling pretty pleased with myself after this morning's practice session!

It's dress day 81. Still unwashed. The dress, that is, not me!

Tuesday 23rd November - Stir up Tuesday - Christmas Cakes

 Yes, I know, should have been 'Stir up Sunday'.

I could have made the Christmas Cake then, but my eggs weren't perfectly fresh. The are fine for ordinary cooking, but not for Christmas Cake!

I used them for an experimental cake on the Saturday. This is all that is left;

It is so good that I am going full steam ahead with the real version now that I have obtained fresh eggs from the milkman.

The original recipe comes from BBC Good Food, and is called the 'Simmer and Stir Christmas Cake'.                          

As usual I have NOT followed the recipe exactly! For a start, I want to make a 5" square version in our Air Fryer, for the sake of convenience, time, and energy-saving. However the cake turned out so well that I would be confident to work to the original version if I wanted an 8" cake.

From somewhere else - I think from the Nigella website - I discovered that to reduce the ingredients from 8" to 6" round cake you want to use 40% of the original quantities. That was a useful bit of information to start with.

So, for a 5" square cake, this is what I did;

Weigh into a suitable pan 

• 60g butter chopped into pieces
• 70g dark muscovado sugar
• 250g luxury mixed fruit including mixed peel and cherries 
• juice and zest of either an orange or a lemon
• 20 ml whisky (Laphroig!)

and bring to the boil, stir and simmer gently for 10 minutes. Allow to cool. First time around I did this on the hob, second time in the microwave.

Meanwhile, prepare the cake tin, lightly beat an egg, weigh out 30g flaked almonds, and sift together

• 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder
• 80g plain flour
• generous teaspoon of mixed spice

Once the fruit and sugar mix is cool enough that it won't cook the egg, stir in the egg and the almonds and mix, then add flour little by little and mix well, but gently, until there is no visible flour.

I didn't have to pre-heat the air fryer, so I put the cake in for 50 minutes at 115C, and then 77 minutes at 110C. I have a feeling that maybe I should have take it out at about 70 minutes, but the first cake was a little under baked so I didn't want to risk it. (For the Airfryer, we've worked out that lowering the temperature by around 10C and the time by a guesswork amount seems to be about right.)

When I took the cake out at the end, I stabbed the top all over with a skewer and pour a tablespoon of whisky over the surface. That should deal with any dryness!

It's looking (and smelling!) very promising.  

 

The Great 'O' Antiphons

 If you search for 'Antiphon' on this blog you will find several references to these Advent antiphons in years go by. 

It looks as though I first came across them in 2011, thanks to the ibenedictines.org blog post here  where Sister Catherine Wybourne explains what they are and where they fit into the Advent liturgy.

You can also find the texts in Latin and English, and links to the music at www.themathesontrust.org website here. This site also gives the scripture passages from the Old Testatement book of Isaiah from which the antiphons come.

As I posted earlier, I am a member of a group - two groups now (!) -  which meet on zoom to listen to the antiphons, read the text and the Isaiah verses, and spend time thinking about them to see what comes to mind. I am finding these weekly sessions illuminating, and also restful, and calming, and a time to feel more and more expectant about the coming of Advent. 

We have been taking one antiphon per week, and will finish jst before the fourth Sunday in Advent. The usual liturgical practice is to sing one every evening in the seven days before Christmas Eve.

I'll finish with an extract from ibenedictines;

At present, there are seven O antiphons in use. Each addresses Christ using a Messianic title drawn from the prophecies of the Old Testament. Read backwards, the initials of each title in Latin form the words Cras ero or ‘Tomorrow I shall be (with you)’.

Sapientia (Wisdom)
Adonai (Holy Lord)
Radix Jesse (Root of Jesse)
Clavis David (Key of David)
Oriens (Dayspring or Morning Star)
Rex Gentium (King of the Nations)

Emmanuel (God-with-us)  

Pause in Advent is coming up

 

The 'Pause in Advent' series is usually hosted over at Tracing Rainbows , but this year Ang has going to have a busy time in December, so I am hosting it here.

What is it?

A series of reflection on aspects of  this Advent/Christmas season, posted on each of the Sundays in Advent by some of the bloggers who follow Ang's blog. The idea is that one just takes a moment out of all the busy preparations and concerns coming in from all directions and has time to be still, and take a breath, and have a little think.

Search on this blog, or over at Tracing Rainbows, for 'pause' to find posts from earlier years if you want to see more. 

If you would like to join with posting reflection on your blog, please leave a comment below with a link to your blog and I will somehow create a sidebar to hold all the links.  

Oh, and last Sunday was the last Sunday before Advent, often called 'Stir up Sunday', but now celebrated at 'Christ the King'. Whatever you call it, Advent starts this coming Sunday, 28th November (but the chocolates will have to wait until the Wednesday after that!)

Friday 19th November - Celebrating Early

 Well, so much for blogging every day in November. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday have slid by...

It has been a good week, though, in spite of the fairly cold and dreary days. Tuesday was a sunny morning - we had intended to take bags and bags and boxes and boxes full of stuff to the charity shop in the morning, but I derailed the plan by inviting friends round for coffee and croissants. 

We had a very pleasant, if slightly chilly time sitting well wrapped up under the apple tree in the pale weak sunshine, not as warm as it looked, but ok for an hour or so.

Yesterday I tidied up the Christmas stash, and also created more mess, by getting out the Christmas cards and the wooden Advent calendars from the chest. After a bit of a disaster one year when we put the tree up before we remembered where all the Christmas cards, thriftily bought in the January sales had been stored, I have been better at remembering.

For some reason I am feeling all anticipatory about Advent. I can't remember if I have already mentioned the Advent tea lights. So simple - you just put a strip of Christmas Washi tape around each one. These are the fifth and sixth sets I have made this year... using 3 bags of 50 tea lights! It is always so satisfactory when you find a box that they will go into. 

 The pink box is an empty 'graze' box from my son; we met up with son and daughter this morning at a cafe halfway between where they live and where we live. The weather was far less favourable, but not exactly raining, although wearing waterproof jackets turned out to be a good idea. After hot chocolate and waffles with maple syrup (mmmm, sugar overload.....) we exchanged gifts; I handed over their chocolate Advent calendars, sets of tea lights and their Christmas stockings, and they handed over early birthday presents. The graze box contained super silly google-eye rings;

and a selection of Christmas teas; daughter gave me a Roger de Borde Advent calendar which I spotted last year and put on my 'wantables' page; you assemble it throughout December. It is with great restraint that I have left it in the packet until at least my birthday at the end of next week.

Also the Mary Oliver poetry book 'A Thousand Mornings' which I have had my eye on. I shall endeavour to read this slowly, highlighting ideas using the little mini highlighters included in the package.

So! My birthday has started - and will last all week as I savour these presents - drinking the tea and reading the poems.

As for the Christmas stash I tidied; a good deal of it went into the Christmas Stockings. (We are unlikely to be all staying together or meeting up over Christmas while covid is still quite so endemic which is why I have handed them over so early!)

And I have already filled all the little drawers in Himself's Advent calendar...

 'It's beginning to feel a lot light Christmas....'

Meanwhile, the charity bags sit waiting patiently on the hearth rug...

Tomorrow is another day....

Saturday 13th November - Why? Why? Warum?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYjy-pjHxnI

Why did I dream that He cut down the old apple tree at the bottom of the garden and then park our car underneath it?

Why did I dream that we decided to take a short cut across Wimbledon Common in our car, only to find the track disappeared into a muddy footpath with a stream of children walking home from school along it in the deepening twilight? 

Why did I dream that I walked over a deserted moorland track to take a bag of something or other to some people we had met, and when I got there, the entire front garden was covered in big dozy bluebottles and the friends who had seemed so nice were now rather scary and alarming? 

I stopped drinking ginger tea in the evenings because I was getting wild and slightly threatening dreams, surely peppermint tea can't be the cause?  

From Fantasiestucke by Robert Schumann

Just now, I have narrowly avoided pouring milk into the tea pot and not the mug, and sprinkling loose tea all over the meatballs and pasta dish waiting to be reheated in the oven for our lunch. By an extreme effort of will I have succeeded in putting the grated cheese on top for the past, the milk in the mug, and the tea, followed by boiling water in the tea pot.