Spring Is Getting Nearer

It's only January but it feels like spring is aproaching. Yesterday the sun was shining and I could feel it warming my back when I was outdoors. And the broom is blooming in next door's garden. It looks very jolly and yellow through the bare hedge.

On Saturday my sisters, Lindsey and Stephanie, joined me to sing Carmina Burana in a day with my choir, St. George's Singers. Part of the text is:

Rerum tanta novitas
In solemni veri
et veris auctoritas
iubet nos gaudere.

Glorious spring renews
all nature’s might
and spring our heart imbues
with joyous light.

It would have been a great weekend to spend some time on the allotment, but Saturday was out because of the singing day. Sunday was also impossible because it was my daughter Eleanor's 7th birthday party. Her friends arrived dressed in pyjamas and dressing gowns and slippers. They baked cakes, told spooky stories, played party games and ate pizza and ice-cream whilst watching a Disney movie.

I had a lovely time both days, doing fun things with people I love. But it doesn't get the couch grass out of the allotment. I'm going to have to step up a gear this week.

Happy New Year

I'll be celebrating New Year's Eve by singing Italian opera music at the Bridgewater Hall with my choir, St George's Singers. The last piece we're singing is the finale from Leonard Bernstein's opera, Candide. The words are:

We're neither pure, nor wise, nor good.
We'll do the best we know.
We'll build our house and chop our wood,
And make our garden grow.

A fitting way to round off 2006. See you in 2007.

Carol Singing

Last night some of my choir, St George's Singers, went carol singing at the hunting lodge of Adlington Hall, a Medieval and Tudor stately home about five miles away from our house. We do this every year, singing for guests in the dining hall. We sing "The Twelve Days Of Christmas", "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" and other well-known carols, and the diners sing along. The choir gets a fee from the hall, and we take a collection for charity at the end. The hall also provides drinks and mince pies for us after we've sung.

It's become a traditional part of Christmas, and I'd feel sorry if I ever had to miss it.

What does this have to do with self-sufficiency? Part of my philosophy on life is to relish the simple things that give me pleasure. Something like singing beautiful music with friends in a gorgeous setting, and then eating mince pies and talking and laughing afterwards, can give me a feeling of fulfilment and well-being that can last for days. I love Christmas, and these are the things I love about it, the things I've been posting about for a week now. Not spending lots of money. Not receiving expensive gifts. Not haring round the shops or sitting in traffic and becoming very stressed. But spending time with friends and family, making things, sharing food, music and appreciating the many blessings I have been given. That is part of self-sufficiency, not only in food, energy or water, but self-sufficiency in happiness and satisfaction.

Christmas Decorating

The Martha Stewart of Tyne and Wear has been at it again. Today my sister, Steph, has helped me:

• Take up my new jeans
• Make Christmas decorations out of candles and greenery from the garden
• Ice the Christmas cake
• Make cheesey sausage rolls
• Make a cheesey suet roly-poly for Ed's vegetarian Christmas lunch
• Buy a tree and decorate it
• Make soup for lunch
• Decorate the house
• Put up fairy lights around the hen house
• Make mince pies
• Make mulled wine
• Tidy up the house, and prepare a buffet for this evening (our other sister, Lindsey is coming with her husband for carols around the piano)

All this with five children between the ages of two and eight running round the house in an excited state. I'm exhausted, but I'm really looking forward to this evening. I'm thoroughly in the Christmas mood now.

Who knows where the time goes

Cropredy 2006 was a good 'un. The weather was unusually cold, and we left our tent poles at home which didn't make for a great start to the festival. But the music was great. Steeleye Span with Maddy Prior, Dave Swarbrick and Flook were highlights. The food was also good - Leon's has been the best food on site for many years now, but I also enjoyed Molly Moon's Vegetarian Pies - new this year, hope they'll be back. The beer flowed freely. The shopping, as always was great. I picked up a couple of pairs of hippy baggy pants and some groovy tops, and the kids enjoyed hunting for bargains at the car boot sale.

But of course the bext thing about Cropredy was catching up with old friends. My sisters, Stephanie and Lindsey are pictured. Also there in 2006 were TJ, Andrew, Shona, a trio of Steves, Leila, Thomas, and Cropredy virgins Elaine and Amy. Absent friends this year included Jim and Catrin amongst many others.

It all seemed to be over far too soon but the dampness in my Doc Martens and the lingering smell of patchouli will keep the Cropredy spirit alive for a little while yet.

It all comes round again

We're off to the Cropredy Festival for a few days. It's a big 3-day folk/rock music festival and we've gone every year for the last 15 years. We camp out, meet up with old friends, listen to great music, shop at hippy ethnic stalls and just generally have the best time we have all year.

A neighbour will be chicken-sitting for us. The allotment can manage without any attention for a few days.

We'll be back on Sunday with lots of photos, suntans, lovebeads and muddy shoes. Hope you have a good weekend too.

Sacred Day

Tom made his First Holy Communion on Saturday, which was why Stephanie visited (she's his Godmother). I was trying to get him excited about it all by promising that there would be a party and he'd get presents. He just looked at me and asked "Will they be good presents, or holy presents?" He was super all day and made me very proud. He looked so smart in his black trousers and white shirt, although he flatly refused to wear a tie and I didn't press the matter. In the church he was marvellously well behaved and read his bidding prayer beautifully.

Afterwards there was a party at school, but I had to leave early to get to Manchester Cathedral http://manchestercathedral.org/. My choir http://www.st-georges-singers.org.uk/ were performing the Duke Ellington Sacred Concert with soloist Jacqui Dankworth http://www.jacquidankworth.com/ and the Big Buzzard Boogie Band http://www.bigbuzzard.co.uk/. It was a fabulous gig and I got home high as a kite. On Sunday I was far too shattered to do any digging so I haven't visited the allotment all weekend.