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Using what's in season

Things have been pretty quiet on the writing front recently and then, like buses, three things came along at once. I had a letter published in a writing magazine on a subject which had already been the theme for an article elsewhere. Then I learned that a contribution had been accepted for the Writelink Christmas Magazine which was very gratifying. Finally I received the latest Best of British magazine and discovered a couple of the items I had submitted at their request for their Christmas Collation had been included. Again, one of the pieces was based on an earlier piece of work.   The rest of the memory pieces won’t go to waste as my OH and I are putting together anecdotes from our childhood for our children and grandchildren. Both of us wish our own parents had written down some of the stories they shared orally with us as the memory plays tricks over time and fact and fiction become confused. The Chinese whispers syndrome kicks in and, when you start investigating, you discover all sorts of anomalies.   It was September when Best of British first asked for Christmas memories and October when the call went out for contributions for the Writelink Magazine but this is really quite late to be considering sending Christmas material to publications. I knew that fiction with a Christmas theme should generally sent before June but was surprised last year when sending a Christmas tip to a magazine to be told to resubmit the idea in August of this year for consideration. (I did – they turned it down!) So this year I will be taking photos of anything I can think of that may illustrate items on the Festive Season and try writing up the ideas during the winter months. Then I will be ready to send things off and be first in the queue.

All that glitters

It’s been a busy couple of weeks.  I had been asked to write a couple of Christmas pieces. I submitted them Monday and received an immediate request for photos for illustration. Trouble was I hadn’t actually taken any so spent another afternoon surrounded by Christmas decorations until I finally put together a number for consideration.   I was contacted through my website with a request to use some photos for a book. The pictures are basically there to show I have illustrations to add to articles but it is true they draw more attention than any writing references judging by the site stats. Indeed, people have been in touch telling me the location of more examples to photograph for many of the topics.   No sooner had I sent those off than David posted a request for Christmas material for the Writelinkers Christmas Magazine. Once again I am trying to get into the festive mood. I had planned to write some articles based on our recent break and that is fast fading into the background under a shower of glitter. In desperation to get some of the many ideas turning around in my head out of the way I submitted a couple of filler items today. Now maybe I can settle to a gentler, steadier pace once more. It would be nice to return to the tranquility of this evening scene.

Snapping Christmas

As the last minute panic kicks in I thought I'd take a break to offer the compliments of the season to all Writelinkers and all the best for 2012. It looks like being a bumper year for writing opportunities with the Diamond Jubilee and Olympics in the summer but for those of us wrong-footed by David's request for items for the Christmas Writelinkers mag now is the time to take the photos.   Unless you want N&D to suffer turkey at midsummer or be asked to create fake snow as TV productions need to do as they film in August, taking photos now will be a great aide memoir and maybe even be used to illustrate your work. Actually, if you leave writing about Christmas until August you are probably too late for 2012 and will have to look to the following year. Most magazines work well ahead for such events and I was once asked to resubmit a Christmas tip to a magazine in the following June as they had already planned their Christmas edition. This was in September. A tip, that is, not an article or story, so they really do plan well ahead. In fact, David's request in October was easier to respond to as at least there was some evidence around in the retail and events sectors to help create the mood.   So along with all those embarrassing family photos don't forget to record the tree, the decorations (in the home and out and about if possible) and anything else you think may act as a prompt or illustration. I started this year taking photos of making the cake and the pudding and I have tried to have the camera with me whenever out and about in case I come across anything. Last year I was really annoyed I had left the camera behind when we visited a town that had lovely ice sculptures of a snowman and a penguin. (Although used as part of the light's switch on the night before they were still looking good next day due to the extreme weather we had at the time.) I've even got the rest of the family on the look-out for suitable pics. A trip to the zoo earlier this week by a family member bagged a great shot of a reindeer!

At the last fence...

I really thought this year we had taken the Christmas preparations at a nice steady pace. Gifts were bought, cards and letters dispatched and the house even decorated early with our grandchildren visiting the week before. The cake and pudding were made and I had even put the marzipan on the cake so just the icing remained.   I found I was out of icing sugar when I was baking for last weekend but forgot it again until yesterday. Our supermarket only had 3Kg bags of ordinary icing sugar or packets of royal icing mix just needing the water adding so I chose the latter. Despite our combined efforts beating it for half an hour in relays it was still quite runny. I put it on the top of the cake and let it find its own level - in a heap around the base of the cake. By constantly retrieving it and putting it back on top it has finally consented to stay on the cake and we will be having a snow scene this year as there is no way I am going to pipe any of it. Thankfully I had saved a bit of the marzipan so can make some holly leaves and berries to go round the edge and put the greetings plaque in the centre. However hard I try I can never quite achieve that pristine smooth topping to the cake with crisp piped patterns that my father always managed. Maybe I'll learn the trick one day. However, it will all taste just as good whatever it looks like - or so the family try to reassure me.   Whatever, you are doing, whoever you are sharing it with, have a Happy Christmas.

Stir Up Sunday

Are you ready for Stir Up Sunday? The Sunday before Advent, traditionally the day for making your Christmas pudding, is 28th November. An event with this name was held yesterday at Blenheim Palace and the very name brought back memories of a school where I once taught. The Deputy Head was renowned for recycling his assembly topics and the children regularly reported the appearance of his Stir Up Sunday offering.   The name has nothing to do with the making of Christmas pudding although it acts as a timely reminder that these puddings improve with age and need to be made in advance. The name derives from the Book of Common Prayer which includes a Collect for each week, the Collect for the Sunday before Advent being   "Stir-up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen”   It is not difficult to see how the words might be applied to making a Christmas pudding.   Yesterday we were to see how the Victorians made their pudding and learn the tradition behind it. The pudding derived from frumenty, a medieval dish of meat.  Around Christmas it was varied, first with the addition of spices – probably to mask the bad meat – and later prunes or plums. Gradually the fruit and spices took over from the meat element although suet was still used as the fat in the dish. Thirteen ingredients made up the recipe representing Christ and his disciples and the pudding should be stirred from east to west representing the journey of the magi to see the baby Jesus. Coins were added ensuring good fortune to the finder (providing one assumes they did not break their teeth on them first.)   The preliminaries over the pudding was created. All the ingredients had been weighed out into dishes. They were added to the bowl, one by one, as they were ticked off the list. Then the children were given the job of stirring it altogether and having a wish, a privilege also available to adults who wished to take part. How much the Victorians would have recognised I’m not sure. The suet was shredded suet and bore little resemblance to the “fat from the loin area of beef and lamb” we were told were used. The basin was topped off with parchment paper and then a sheet of aluminium foil. Whatever happened to pudding cloths? This was then tied down and a string handle created to ease removal from the pan of boiling water. (The single strand used would have been more of a hazard but one doubts it was actually going to be used anyway.)   The pudding was taken off to the kitchens for its six hours boiling and we were given recipes sheets for the pudding and a slice of Christmas cake to eat. Checking the ingredients I counted fourteen – but that did include the pinch of salt which is really how this should have been taken as a demonstration of Victorian cookery.

More Christmas Delights

In the lead up to Christmas we try to visit several of the special events put on by local attractions. We have already visited Blenheim Palace where the usual displays are augmented by artefacts used in filming Gulliver’s Travels where Blenheim doubles as the palace of Lilliput. The dining table is headed by a giant chair with enormous cutlery and “gold” plates provided for example.   Such events at Blenheim are relatively recent. Waddesdon Manor (NT) in Buckinghamshire has opened a section of the house decorated for Christmas for a number of years. The Manor was built at the end of the Nineteenth Century by one of the five Rothschild brothers and is in the style of a French Chateau. Each year a theme is chosen and numerous Christmas trees adorn the rooms of the Batchelor’s wing. Music, played softly, is keyed to the theme and the decorations include a mixture of traditional tinsel and baubles, natural materials and objects related to the theme.   This year they are celebrating the achievement of the second of the Rothschild brothers to make his fortune. As he did so in France there is a French feel to everything. In the formal rooms there are references to Marie Antoinette including costumes from films made about her. One of the trees is decorated in red, white and blue baubles with miniature silk slippers representing her love of fashion. The corridor and staircase always have something for the children. Scenes from Barbar the Elephant and an enormous soft toy of the hero meet this brief and at the end of the tour the story of Cinderella, a French tale originally, is told in tableau form in the bedrooms and even the bathroom. The Can-Can is celebrated in the Billiard room with feather boas taking the place of tinsel on the trees. It is always the same suite of rooms that are decorated and obviously the furniture and fittings remain unaltered but the decorations make the rooms quite magical.   This year they have added a Reindeer Trail through the woodland where the play area is situated. Even in mid afternoon the lighted lanterns and trails of light along the path edges stand out and the reindeer, created by a local artist from willow and other wood grown on the estate, are lit, too.

Christmas events

We don’t seem to be fitting in so many trips to local seasonal events this year but we have made it to the Christmas event at Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire. This National trust property decorates one wing, known as the Batchelor’s Wing, using a different theme each year. For the past couple of years this has featured one of the five European countries where the founding sons of the Rothschild dynasty made their fortunes. Waddesdon was built by one of these sons but this year the theme is Italy for his brother Carl.   Huge trees are set up in the various rooms and amongst the usual baubles are items related to the theme. Decorations included carnival masks in the Venetian themed room and miniature picture frames and paint brushes in the room dedicated to great Italian artists. The film The Italian Job was marked by a tree garlanded with miniature “gold” bars with models of Minis and a coach suspended fro the branches. The formal dining room decorations were inspired by the citrus groves with towering displays of fruit and swags of olive branches whilst the smaller dining room was dedicated to Leonardo as an engineer and mathematician with protractors, rulers and set squares marking the place settings.   For children, the staircase display told the story of Befana who brings toys to Italian children on the Eve of Epiphany and scenes from Pinocchio’s adventures were spread through the ground floor rooms including a particularly amusing “whale” bursting through the bathroom window and disgorging Pinocchio and Giuseppe into the waves.   Carl Rothschild was based in Naples, an area noted for creating wonderful crib scenes. An example was set up in the Billiard room and in a nearby room a tree had been decorated all in red to represent Vesuvius.   The rooms and setting remain the same each year but the variations in decorations and hidden details make it well worth making a return visit, helping to instil the Christmas spirit.   Photography is not allowed within the house but the grounds are open and lighted trees are dotted around. The birds can still be viewed in the aviary and indeed they seemed more vociferous and visible than on summer visits. A reindeer trail leads down through the children’s play area to the Stable block with shop and café. In the early years of this event the house stayed open until 6 so the full effect of this could be enjoyed but now 4 is the closing time. Visiting at this time of year gives quite a different perspective on both house and grounds and certainly sets us up for the festive season.

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