It was time to bring those time capsules down from the loft. The boxes which contain our Christmas decorations tell as much a story as the things they contain. After all, who remembers buying a computer from Evesham Micros? And that Daewoo box was from a TV with a VCR, so that goes back a year or two.
Opening up the first box, we find some old favourites. Teddy Bear Postman is there, along with Lucy and Tom and of course, Postman Pat. I couldn’t resist having a quick look through them all.
Getting out the decorations is a bit of a memory trip too, because although we don’t consciously collect them during our travels, we occasionally spot something which we like, such as the sweet little windmill and other small things from the Erzgebirge, the blue St Nicholas from Yalta and that cute Swedish Tomte figure. There’s also a few things which remind us of sweet friends, like the Pohutukawa flower from New Zealand and the newest addition, a little cup from the friendliest Starbucks we’ve ever been to.
So, you’ll understand why putting our Christmas tree up takes a while and why, yesterday afternoon we sat down for a short time with a cup of tea and called it a day. My hero had an errand to run however, so off he went and I worked on my journal a little.
Until the lights went out, that is. Unfortunately, just across the way in a neighbour’s garden, the overhead wires were brought down by the trees which had grown into them. Thankfully, there was just enough daylight left to gather a few essentials and finish off the half-cooked late lunch/early supper (choir rehearsal on a Thursday, see?) on the camping stove.
I cooked by fairy light and that of an upturned torch, carefully balanced on the glass extractor screen above the hob and all was fine.
As I stood at the window to take this photograph for my journal, I noticed the bright light in the sky. We’d seen it on our way home from the Christmas Concert in Cheltenham the evening before last and with patchy reception, I’d used the Starwalk app on my iphone to identify it as Venus. When I looked out a couple of minutes later, the moon was up too and the perfect crescent shape was beautifully placed alongside the planet.
Magical. So many memories, as well.
It was a long evening though. We had plenty of candles about so there were no worries about that; I had my ipad and could read and reply to emails on my phone, too.
Of course, I’ll always remember hearing about Nelson Mandela’s death too, whilst listening to the crackly radio when “In Our Time” was interrupted by a newsflash.
Thankfully, power was restored just after midnight and this morning, all is well. The trees in the lane around the corner look a bit hacked about but here on St Nicholas day the bears are suitably dressed and perhaps a few coins can be found in a slipper or two?
Let the fun begin!
