It’s the season

We’d become used to the chill.  I enjoyed wearing my new warm coat and wrapping up warm with my scarf and mittens, even if I hadn’t quite got my hat out yet.  So I was disappointed when the temperature rose to unseasonably high levels and found myself more in need of an umbrella than a pair of gloves.

I mean, is this the weather in which to go Christmas shopping?

Well, yes, if you are in a dry shopping mall and can get away with wearing a T shirt.  No, of course we didn’t – though I’d given it thought and left my coat at home, I was still uncomfortably warm and glad to be out in the fresh air again.

I rather liked the red, white and blue Christmas variation in John Lewis, by the way.

Clearly, I still had that colour palette in mind whilst passing the flowers in Marks and Spencer and chose this “Luxury Ilex” bunch.  It looked lovely when I put it in the vase but within hours the blue “thistly bits” had drooped and the following morning, I was emailing M&S for their comments.

(I had their reply today: “Thanks for getting in touch, Gillian. I'm so, so sorry to hear about the Autograph flowers you bought from us, especially as they never lasted as long as you, and we expect. I can certainly understand why you wanted to let us know, Gillian - I would too”  It was followed with notice that I will receive a gift voucher in the post for a full refund…

The main challenge of the weekend was to trim the tree, however.  By Sunday morning, the rain had passed through and the sun had put in an appearance.  Now, that made getting the lights arranged evenly a bit tricky!  By mid morning, we were both feeling a little over-heated though and for the first time I can remember, we spent the whole day with the garden room door wide open.

December weather?  Very strange.

By the time darkness fell, it was finished and the house is in holiday mode.  I really love finding all the old favourites and sat down for five minutes to read Lucy and Tom’s Christmas, one of the books we have around for small visitors to read.  The little bit about Tom being “excited and a little bit cross” in the afternoon, and going out for a walk with his Grandad is so touching.

Speaking of old favourites, there they all were with the tree looking pretty.  The bear in the velvet Christmas stocking,

the polar bear with the fish he caught

the little bear which used to hang on Grandma’s tree

and because our tree is not completely covered in bears, the little ice-skates we spotted and couldn’t resist in Boston Anthropologie some years ago.

It might not be cold outside, but those icy-white lights make me feel very chilly inside!  I still prefer the warm white lights we had a couple of years ago, but perhaps these lights are in keeping with our white and silver decorations.

At least, the polar bears are happy!